#7 gave us 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," was 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.

The tale of "Rob Hood," as featured in the eighth issue, begins with Rob Petrie coming home to his New Rochelle home after a tiring day of fighting with his boss over new cuts to the show's budget in a mercenary attempt to maximize the show's profits. "Alan Brady is the greediest man in the world," Rob says, then announces he's so exhausted he's going straight to bed. But Ritchie reminds his father of something, "You promised to read me another chapter of Robin Hood this evening." Rob can't get out of it so he plops down on the sofa and between yawns, reads to Ritchie. He gets about twenty words in before he dozes off and we find ourselves in a dream sequence with Rob clad all in green as the dashing medieval hero, Rob Hood.

For the love of the fair Maid Laura, Rob Hood will liberate the kingdom from the tyranny of the greediest man in the world, King Alan. Maid Laura, of course, looks like Laura (her chief handmaiden looks like Millie) and Alan Brady is King Alan, with Mel filling the role of Sheriff of Cooleydom. From then on, it gets a little confusing. Buddy seems to be filling the role of Littlejohn (Rob Hood calls him "Little Buddy") and Jerry Helper is Friar Tuck, who has given up being a friar to become a dentist. In a nice touch, Sally Rogers is also one of Rob's "Merry Men" but she keeps reminding everyone that she's not a man and lamenting how hard it is to find a husband when they all go prancing about the forest in green tights. For the most part, it's the story of Robin Hood with Rob robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, except that instead of money, he's robbing jokes. The idea of dream sequences was a good one, and they did several very funny ones on the TV show. But the cast of Robin Hood just didn't correspond closely enough to the cast of The Dick Van Dyke Show to make this one really work.

Far better was the back-up story, "Late for Work," in which Rob wakes up one morning to find his alarm clock didn't go off and he's late for work. In a panic, he sets a world's record for showering and dressing, and sprints out of the house so fast Laura can't say two words to him. His train is late so he hitchhikes and gets picked up by what seems to be a nice guy. But the nice guy turns out to be a wanted bank robber and when police spot his car, Rob finds himself the passenger in a high-speed chase. Other problems occur but Rob somehow manages to get to work at 8:59 — one minute early — only to find the janitor in his office doing a major clean-up. The janitor tells him, "We always clean the place on Saturday when no one is here, Mr. Petrie." Oops!