Character

Richard Rosebud 'Ritchie' Petrie

Richard Rosebud 'Ritchie' Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961), played by Larry Mathews.

Ritchie Petrie is Rob and Laura's young son, growing up in the Petrie household in New Rochelle. He's a normal, curious kid navigating school, friends, and family life, mostly on the sidelines of his parents' adventures but occasionally at the center of a lesson learned or a scheme gone sideways.

The show wisely keeps Ritchie a real child rather than a sitcom prop with precocious one-liners. Larry Mathews plays him with an unforced, natural ease that grounds the Petrie household in domestic believability, giving Rob and Laura someone ordinary to be parents to amid all the office comedy.

Played by

Appears in

The Dick Van Dyke Show1961