...but the final, beloved cast was what gave the eventual series its spark, and they're all absent here (save Carl Reiner himself, miscast in the pilot as Rob). The pilot fails to differentiate itself from the Father-Knows-Best school of fifties family sitcoms, and plods along as if only weakly propelled by the laughtrack. The final version took Rob Petrie beyond merely the "head of the family..." his relationships with coworkers and friends/neighbors were just as prominent, and the intersections of those relationships provided plenty of fodder for storylines--such as when Laura tried to set up her shy, bookish cousin with ultra-extroverted Sally. Credit Reiner for knowing when to step out of the way of his own success and take a supporting role (and an infrequent one, at that) in his own show, instead of the lead.

for the creepiest child to ever be on Television. Re-tooling the show was genius, though I ALWAYS love Carl Renier on Screen, he's possibly America's greatest comic mind!

Also, not being able to post TWO of the eventual star's names in this post is ridiculous. "D.V.D." is a great entertainer and should not be censored!

A bit more upbeat and lil more to the show,definitely larger cast.Quite good compared to todays shows without subtleties,it seemed staged like a theatrical production and not a film production. Supporting cast were just supporting not an actual element of it.Thought it cute tho.

Maybe I am just used to MTM and DVD but I thought the casting for this was rather poor and Richie was just plan weird. It would have bombed like this.