Here’s What Happened to Rob and Laura 40 Years After ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ Ended

Sitcom reunions in the form of made-for-TV movies are tried-and-true ratings grabbers, but few were as ambitious and strange as 2004’s The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited. It’s a special that combined actors playing beloved characters, actors playing themselves and actors dancing with their animated doppelgangers, all capped off by Ray Romano getting busy with Mary Tyler Moore. What more could you ask for?

The special grew out of a Carl Reiner quip delivered during a Dick Van Dyke Show reunion on TV Land. “We could do a show with these people,” Reiner joked, and it didn’t take long for someone to sign off on the suggestion. “The next day I got a call from CBS,” Reiner told the Los Angeles Times. “It was an offhand remark, but offhand remarks are sometimes the best remarks you make.”

Here’s the show’s plot: Alan Brady (Reiner) loved Rob Petrie’s (Van Dyke) eulogies for deceased Alan Brady Show staffers Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) and Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon). Brady offers big bucks to Rob and Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) for a reunion at which they can write their old boss’ eulogy while he’s still around to approve it. (The writers eventually reject the idea as too creepy.)

The reunion reveals what happened to the Dick Van Dyke Show characters in the 40 years since we last saw them: 

Rob and Laura: America’s favorite sitcom couple sold their New Rochelle home and moved to New York City, where Laura now runs her own dance studio. Rob has given up writing for a career in computer 3D animation, a real-life hobby of Dick Van Dyke’s.

Ritchie Petrie: Rob and Laura’s son (Larry Mathews) is moving from Portland back to New Rochelle — in fact, he just bought his parents’ old home. What does he do? All we know is he works for “a company” that transferred him back to New York.

Sally Rogers: Woohoo — Sally finally convinced long-time beau Herman Glimscher (Bill Idelson) to marry her. She now lives in suburban bliss, with Herman cooking up a storm when he isn’t slapping her on the behind. 

Millie Helper: The Petries’ old neighbor (Ann Morgan Guilbert) was a widow after losing her husband, Jerry, but she’s dating again. Weirdly, her new boyfriend is Rob’s brother, Stacey Petrie (Dick’s brother, Jerry Van Dyke).

While most of The Dick Van Dyke Show Returns takes place in character, its final segment features Van Dyke and Moore as themselves, dressed in formal attire. They marvel over how much has changed — their house is now in color, and a king-sized bed has replaced the two twins that network censors required in the 1960s. They watch a few more clips from the old show before breaking into dance, a routine that culminates with Moore spinning out of Van Dyke’s arms, out the front door and toppling an unseen Romano (then the king of CBS sitcoms). 

Van Dyke first apologizes, then reprimands the off-screen Romano. “Hey, Ray, get off of her!”

“Mind your business!” shouts Romano. “I've been dreaming of this since I was 8.”

The show ends with Moore’s pleasured cry: “Oh, Ray!”