John J. Hoare
@dirtyfeed.org
Links to vaguely pop, vaguely culture articles over on Dirty Feed. www.dirtyfeed.org ISSN 2754-2807
Brand new on Dirty Feed: what happens when The Dick Van Dyke Show starts questioning its own worth.
Spoiler: it decides it’s pretty good, actually.
www.dirtyfeed.org/2025/11/i-do...
Spoiler: it decides it’s pretty good, actually.
www.dirtyfeed.org/2025/11/i-do...
November 29, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Brand new on Dirty Feed: what happens when The Dick Van Dyke Show starts questioning its own worth.
Spoiler: it decides it’s pretty good, actually.
www.dirtyfeed.org/2025/11/i-do...
Spoiler: it decides it’s pretty good, actually.
www.dirtyfeed.org/2025/11/i-do...
This footnote from Michael Barrier’s Hollywood Cartoons (1999, OUP) always makes my blood run cold.
November 28, 2025 at 10:51 AM
This footnote from Michael Barrier’s Hollywood Cartoons (1999, OUP) always makes my blood run cold.
Working on an article about The Dick Van Dyke Show today, and never forget that the point of footnotes is to have arguments with people you disagree with online, but from a safe distance.
November 27, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Working on an article about The Dick Van Dyke Show today, and never forget that the point of footnotes is to have arguments with people you disagree with online, but from a safe distance.
Ooof, just had my first AI-written spam comment on Dirty Feed.
Not too difficult to spot, and it never came close to being approved and going live, but slightly annoying it came only three days after publication of the article. Hope this isn't the start of a flood.
Not too difficult to spot, and it never came close to being approved and going live, but slightly annoying it came only three days after publication of the article. Hope this isn't the start of a flood.
November 27, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Ooof, just had my first AI-written spam comment on Dirty Feed.
Not too difficult to spot, and it never came close to being approved and going live, but slightly annoying it came only three days after publication of the article. Hope this isn't the start of a flood.
Not too difficult to spot, and it never came close to being approved and going live, but slightly annoying it came only three days after publication of the article. Hope this isn't the start of a flood.
"The Star-Ledger" review of that first Dick Van Dyke Show episode. And as usual for writing about TV across the decades, it's absolutely useless.
This review seems to think it's weird even portraying a family in a sitcom. It would be an infinitely worse show if it just included the work side!
This review seems to think it's weird even portraying a family in a sitcom. It would be an infinitely worse show if it just included the work side!
November 25, 2025 at 4:09 PM
"The Star-Ledger" review of that first Dick Van Dyke Show episode. And as usual for writing about TV across the decades, it's absolutely useless.
This review seems to think it's weird even portraying a family in a sitcom. It would be an infinitely worse show if it just included the work side!
This review seems to think it's weird even portraying a family in a sitcom. It would be an infinitely worse show if it just included the work side!
Here's the advert for The Dick Van Dyke Show which featured in the Los Angeles Times on the 3rd October 1961, the day it premiered.
Not sure that picture does the show any favours, Of course Dick has aspects of Stan Laurel, but you don't want the show looking like a rip-off, especially as it isn't.
Not sure that picture does the show any favours, Of course Dick has aspects of Stan Laurel, but you don't want the show looking like a rip-off, especially as it isn't.
November 25, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Here's the advert for The Dick Van Dyke Show which featured in the Los Angeles Times on the 3rd October 1961, the day it premiered.
Not sure that picture does the show any favours, Of course Dick has aspects of Stan Laurel, but you don't want the show looking like a rip-off, especially as it isn't.
Not sure that picture does the show any favours, Of course Dick has aspects of Stan Laurel, but you don't want the show looking like a rip-off, especially as it isn't.
“You’ll be visited by three spirits”
The three spirits:
The three spirits:
November 24, 2025 at 8:12 PM
“You’ll be visited by three spirits”
The three spirits:
The three spirits:
Brand new on Dirty Feed: just how reliable are Bob Monkhouse's memories of The Golden Shot?
www.dirtyfeed.org/2025/11/poor...
www.dirtyfeed.org/2025/11/poor...
November 24, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Brand new on Dirty Feed: just how reliable are Bob Monkhouse's memories of The Golden Shot?
www.dirtyfeed.org/2025/11/poor...
www.dirtyfeed.org/2025/11/poor...
Love this stage direction too, for Mary preparing to see her ex-boyfriend Bill. "THE THIRD BUTTON FROM THE TOP IS THE BIG QUESTION."
November 23, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Love this stage direction too, for Mary preparing to see her ex-boyfriend Bill. "THE THIRD BUTTON FROM THE TOP IS THE BIG QUESTION."
Reading the script for the first episode of The Wonder Years. Note the four words of voiceover they dropped from the final episode in order not to screw over future storytelling opportunities!
November 23, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reading the script for the first episode of The Wonder Years. Note the four words of voiceover they dropped from the final episode in order not to screw over future storytelling opportunities!
Because they’d done 168 episodes you FUCKING WEIRDOS
November 22, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Because they’d done 168 episodes you FUCKING WEIRDOS
Rhoda, "Somebody Has to Say They're Sorry" (CBS TX: 23/1/77).
Rhoda's accidental arrest for soliciting is just horrible. They could have done the comedy version of it. Instead, Harper plays it straight. The result is one of the most threatening scenes in sitcom history. You feel her violation.
Rhoda's accidental arrest for soliciting is just horrible. They could have done the comedy version of it. Instead, Harper plays it straight. The result is one of the most threatening scenes in sitcom history. You feel her violation.
November 21, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Rhoda, "Somebody Has to Say They're Sorry" (CBS TX: 23/1/77).
Rhoda's accidental arrest for soliciting is just horrible. They could have done the comedy version of it. Instead, Harper plays it straight. The result is one of the most threatening scenes in sitcom history. You feel her violation.
Rhoda's accidental arrest for soliciting is just horrible. They could have done the comedy version of it. Instead, Harper plays it straight. The result is one of the most threatening scenes in sitcom history. You feel her violation.
The Daily Record, 12th September 1967.
November 20, 2025 at 12:45 AM
The Daily Record, 12th September 1967.
See also, the Sunday Sun, 29th October. Although the last letter reads as a recommendation to me.
November 19, 2025 at 6:38 PM
See also, the Sunday Sun, 29th October. Although the last letter reads as a recommendation to me.
Bob Monkhouse in his 'Over the Limit' diaries, making a decades-early bid for how people complain about Strictly these days.
November 18, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Bob Monkhouse in his 'Over the Limit' diaries, making a decades-early bid for how people complain about Strictly these days.
I do get that this is a story about paid stuff, but it’s still not how I would phrase it, given that one blog in my RSS reader has just finished a 25-part series covering virtually every baseball cartoon ever made.
November 18, 2025 at 10:09 AM
I do get that this is a story about paid stuff, but it’s still not how I would phrase it, given that one blog in my RSS reader has just finished a 25-part series covering virtually every baseball cartoon ever made.
Replies like this to my post about my driving theory test are why I mostly limit interactions here to people who follow me now.
It genuinely confuses me, though. It’s not a nasty post, I’d understand that. Are they just a bot? What is the point of it all?
It genuinely confuses me, though. It’s not a nasty post, I’d understand that. Are they just a bot? What is the point of it all?
November 18, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Replies like this to my post about my driving theory test are why I mostly limit interactions here to people who follow me now.
It genuinely confuses me, though. It’s not a nasty post, I’d understand that. Are they just a bot? What is the point of it all?
It genuinely confuses me, though. It’s not a nasty post, I’d understand that. Are they just a bot? What is the point of it all?
Here's something not many people have talked about. The Golden Shot started on the 8th July 1967.
But on the 1st July 1967, they had a mini 10-minute show, in order to get the applicants for the main show the following week.
But on the 1st July 1967, they had a mini 10-minute show, in order to get the applicants for the main show the following week.
November 15, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Here's something not many people have talked about. The Golden Shot started on the 8th July 1967.
But on the 1st July 1967, they had a mini 10-minute show, in order to get the applicants for the main show the following week.
But on the 1st July 1967, they had a mini 10-minute show, in order to get the applicants for the main show the following week.
For the record, this was published in the Clydebank Post on the 10th March 1994.
I shall simply point out that 1994 is after 1993.
I shall simply point out that 1994 is after 1993.
November 14, 2025 at 3:11 PM
For the record, this was published in the Clydebank Post on the 10th March 1994.
I shall simply point out that 1994 is after 1993.
I shall simply point out that 1994 is after 1993.
To go back on what I said at the start of this thread, the earliest telling of this anecdote I can find is in Bob Monkhouse’s 1993 autobiography, telling it as something that actually happened to him on the show.
(He tells the same anecdote in varying forms in later years on chat shows, etc.)
(He tells the same anecdote in varying forms in later years on chat shows, etc.)
November 14, 2025 at 3:05 PM
To go back on what I said at the start of this thread, the earliest telling of this anecdote I can find is in Bob Monkhouse’s 1993 autobiography, telling it as something that actually happened to him on the show.
(He tells the same anecdote in varying forms in later years on chat shows, etc.)
(He tells the same anecdote in varying forms in later years on chat shows, etc.)
