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Issue #7
Unusual things began happening with the covers of the Dick Van Dyke Show comic book as of its seventh issue. By now, Walter Zwart was totally in charge of their design and he came up with this specimen which looks perfectly normal. The problem comes if you read the cover blurb: "Laura's friendship with Millie comes to an end over a recipe for fudge." This sounds like a great story (I was certainly looking forward to reading it) but nowhere in the issue is there any mention of fudge or recipes or even friendship. For that matter, Millie Helper only appears in two panels of the back-up story and not at all in the lead tale, even though her husband Jerry does...an omission which must have puzzled a great many readers. It certainly puzzled me at the time. I recall buying this issue off the rack at Parnin's Pharmacy, which was then located on Westwood Boulevard, just north of Olympic, in West Los Angeles. I read the comic walking home and was puzzled, and I wondered if somehow the wrong cover had gotten on my copy. "I guess the fudge story will be in the next issue," I thought, but as you'll see, it was nowhere to be found in #8 or any other issues. Those books, as we shall see, had their own problems with getting covers that reflected the interiors. What really appeared in #7 was a story called, "Paratrooper Petrie." Rob's old army buddy Sam visits and talks about how, serving in the reserves, he just made his first parachute jump. He makes it sound exciting and like a great affirmation of one's manhood. Goaded on by Jerry Helper, Rob decides his life is too dull and that maybe it's time to take some chances. Laura forbids it, reminding Rob that he's so uncoordinated that he keeps tripping over their ottoman, and Rob assures he's only fantasizing. He assures her he would never do anything like that. That night, he has a dream (which takes up three pages of this issue) in which he and Jerry make a parachute jump. In the fantasy, Jerry is a trembling mass of gelatin but Rob is not only a rock of courage, but he saves his neighbor's life when Jerry's chute fails. The next day, in reality, he discovers that Sam took him seriously and has arranged a real jump. Feeling challenged by everyone's expectations that he will chicken out, Rob goes ahead with it. But when he gets up in the plane with Sam, Rob has a sudden dash of sanity and/or terror and backs out. He's going to sit down when he trips over a box about the size of an ottoman and falls out of the plane. Fortunately, he has his chute on and despite great panic, manages to pull the ripcord and drift down to the ground where Laura, Ritchie, Sally, Buddy and Jerry are waiting for him. All express admiration for his courage and Sam blurts out, "Boy, I wish I had the guts to make a jump like that." Everyone is shocked, and Sam has to admit that he was lying; that he really didn't jump out of a plane. He tripped over a box about the size of an ottoman and fell out, he confesses. Rob admits the same thing happened to him, and everyone respects him more for having the courage to own up to it. I guess it reads better in the comic than it sounds from my summary, so don't go by me. Pick up a copy and read it for yourself. The most interesting thing about this story is the presence of Rob's old army buddy, who in the first season of the TV series was Sol Pomeroy, played by Marty Ingels. From the second season on, Rob's army buddy was a character played by Allan Melvin, who in the first year had played Harrison B. Harding, a different member of Rob's old platoon. Both halves of the army buddy's name also changed, and continued to change. In "Will You Two Be My Wife?", he was identified as Sam and in the third season episode, "Honeymoons Are For the Lucky," his name was given as Sam Pomeroy. The character was unseen in the fourth season, though Melvin did play a prison guard in one fourth year episode. Then in the fifth season, the army buddy played by Melvin was Sam Pomerantz in "No Rice at my Wedding" and, just a few weeks later, Sol Pomerantz in "Body and Sol." Then he was just plain Sol in "Remember the Alimony," which was his last appearance. To further complicate matters, there was a second season episode entitled, "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals" in which Henry Calvin played Rob's old army buddy, Sam Pomerantz, and the two of them re-created their old Laurel and Hardy impression. In his one comic book appearance, the buddy is Sam (no last name) and he doesn't resemble Ingels, Melvin or Calvin. The back-up story, "Buddy's Birthday," is somewhat entertaining. Buddy has been hounding everyone, reminding them that his birthday is coming up, and posting signs that say things like, "Only 3 more shopping days 'til Buddy Sorrell's birthday." He confides in Rob that he's never had a surprise party and convinces him to organize one. "Don't tell anyone I know about it," he tells him. "I'll act surprised." Reluctantly, Rob goes along with the scheme and goes nuts with the arrangement, booking a banquet room, ordering a cake, sending out invitations, etc. Rob is so busy that, as planned, he's completely distracted from the fact that it's actually his birthday. When everyone yells "surprise," not to Buddy but to Rob, the joke's on Petrie. For the most part, this was a good issue, even if there was no mention of fudge. |
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© 2007 Mark Evanier Hosted by Dreamhost |
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