The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (also known as simply Dobie Gillis or Max Shulmans Dobie Gillis in later seasons and in syndication) is an American sitcom starring Dwayne Hickman that aired on CBS from September 29, 1959, to June 5, 1963. The series was adapted from the Dobie Gillis short stories written by Max Shulman since 1945 and first collected in 1951 under the same title as the subsequent TV series, which drew directly on the stories in some scripts. Shulman also wrote a feature-film adaptation of his Dobie Gillis stories for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1953, titled The Affairs of Dobie Gillis, which featured Bobby Van in the title role.

Hickman in Dobie Gillis was among the first leads to play a teenager on an American television program. Dobie Gillis broke ground by depicting elements of the contemporaneous counterculture, particularly the Beat Generation, primarily embodied in a stereotypical version of the "beatnik", mainly in the character of Maynard G. Krebs, portrayed by actor Bob Denver. Hickman wrote in 1994 that Dobie represented "the end of innocence of the 1950s before the oncoming 1960s revolution".

Overview

Dobie Gillis and Maynard G. Krebs

thumb|left|200px|Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman, left), [[Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver, right), and one of Dobie's "many loves", Yvette LeBlanc (Danielle De Metz), in a still from the Dobie Gillis episode "Parlez-Vous English", originally aired December 27, 1960]]

The series revolved around teenager Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman), who aspired to have popularity, money, and the attention of beautiful and unattainable girls. Weld departed the series after the first season, later returning to make two guest appearances, as a somewhat chastened Thalia, once in season three and once in season four.

  • Warren Beatty as Milton Armitage (season one) is a rich jock at Dobie's high school and a rival of Dobie's for Thalia's affections. Beatty quit the series midway through the first season.
  • Sheila James as Zelda Gilroy is the smartest girl in Dobie's high school and college. Zelda is in love with the uninterested Dobie and schemes ways to get him to date and marry her.
  • Steve Franken as Chatsworth Osborne, Jr., is a spoiled rich boy and a classmate of Dobie's in high school and college. Chatsworth assumed the role left vacant by the departure of Milton from the series. Like Dobie, Chatsworth also briefly joins the Army in season two between his high-school graduation and enrollment in college.
  • William Schallert as Professor Leander Pomfritt is a dry-wit English and science teacher at Dobie's high school and later one of Dobie's college professors at S. Peter Pryor Junior College (seasons one-three). Herbert Anderson plays Mr. Pomfritt in the pilot episode.
  • Jean Byron as Mrs. Ruth Adams is Dobie's math teacher in high school (season one), and as Dr. Imogene Burkhart, is one of Dobie's professors at S. Peter Pryor Junior College. (seasons three and four). One of the series' inside jokes was that Jean Byron's birth name was Imogene Audette Burkhart.
  • Doris Packer as Mrs. Clarice Armitage is Milton's mother, a rich and eccentric socialite. She shifted to Mrs. Clarissa Osborne (Chatsworth Osborne, Jr.'s mother) when Franken replaced Beatty midway through season one. She has disdain for anyone outside her social class and considers all boys, including her own son, as "nasty".

Notable recurring roles

  • Darryl Hickman as Davey Gillis (season one) is Dobie's older brother, a college student no more responsible and no less girl-crazy than Dobie. Davey was written out of the series after season one and Dobie is regarded as an only child thereafter.
  • Michael J. Pollard as Jerome Krebs (season one) is Maynard's cousin, also a beatnik. Jerome was intended as a replacement for Maynard when Bob Denver was drafted in mid-1959, and was written out of the show after Denver failed his Army physical and returned to the series.
  • Marjorie Bennett as Blossom Kenney (seasons one and two) is a frequent and persnickety customer of the Gillises' grocery store.
  • Tommy Farrell as Riff Ryan (seasons one and two) is a beatnik record-store and coffee-house proprietor who serves as something of a reluctant mentor for Maynard.
  • Lynn Loring as Edwina "Eddie" Kegel (season three) is Chatsworth Osborne, Jr.'s beatnik cousin.
  • Raymond Bailey as Dean McGruder (seasons three and four) is the head of S. Peter Pryor Junior College.

Episodes

Production

thumb|right|upright|[[Auguste Rodin's statue of The Thinker]]

Max Shulman's first Dobie Gillis short stories were printed in 1945, and a short-story compilation, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, was published in 1951. Aside from Dobie and his parents, Zelda Gilroy was the only other character from the books directly adapted to the series as a regular or recurring character. Shulman agreed to the change after negotiating employment for himself on the series as show runner. Subsequent seasons used a standard laugh track provided by technician Charles Douglass.

Creator Max Shulman served as the show runner for and an uncredited producer of Dobie Gillis. He contributed scripts for episodes of the show during all four seasons, with several stories – including "Love is a Science" (season one, episode three), "Love is a Fallacy" (season one, episode 22), and "Parlez-Vous English" (season two, episode 11) – directly adapted by Shulman from his original Dobie Gillis short stories.

Series regular casting notes

Dwayne Hickman, at the time the breakout star on The Bob Cummings Show (also known as Love That Bob) as nephew Chuck MacDonald, gained the part of Dobie Gillis over several other candidates, including Michael Landon. By the second season, however, Hickman was permitted to return to his natural hair color, after he had complained to the producers that the constant bleaching required to keep his low crew cut hairstyle blond was causing his scalp to break out.

Bob Denver, a 23-year-old grade-school teacher and postal worker with no previous professional acting experience, won the part of 18-year-old Maynard G. Krebs after his sister, a casting director's secretary, added his name to a list of candidates auditioning for the role.

Before Pollard had completed his first episode, "The Sweet Singer of Central High", however, Denver returned and announced that he had been designated "4F" – unfit for service – during his physical because of a neck injury he had sustained some years earlier.

Initially only a supporting character, Denver's Maynard had graduated to co-lead by season two, as the character's "beatnik" mannerisms and eccentricities made him a hit with the viewing audience.

Her work in Dobie Gillis and the feature film The Five Pennies made Weld a star, leading to substantial publicity. She departed the series after the first year to star in features, although she was persuaded by Max Shulman to return for two guest appearances, "Birth of a Salesman" (season three, episode 21) and "What's a Little Murder Between Friends?" (season four, episode two).

Herbert Anderson was cast as Mr. Pomfritt, Dobie and Maynard's English teacher at school. Anderson appeared in a lead role in the pilot for Dennis the Menace; when that show was picked up (also by CBS), he chose to stay with that cast, and actor William Schallert appeared in the recurring role of Mr. Pomfritt through the end of season three.

Warren Beatty was cast as Milton Armitage, a recurring rival of Dobie's at his high school, during the first half of season one.

Former child actress Sheila James, who, playing daughter "Jackie" on The Stu Erwin Show, had worked with Dwayne Hickman on that series and The Bob Cummings Show, was cast without an audition as Zelda Gilroy, the tomboyish brainy girl who was in love with Dobie. However, CBS president James Aubrey lingered over moving forward with the Zelda series for a long time before firmly rejecting the series, with Amateau telling James in private that Aubrey had found Zelda (and by extension James, then a closeted lesbian) "too butch".

DC Comics published a Many Loves of Dobie Gillis comic book that ran for 26 issues from 1960 to 1964, featuring artwork by Bob Oksner. Stories from this comic-book series were later reprinted, with updates to the artwork and lettering to remove any references to Dobie Gillis, by DC as a short-lived series titled Windy and Willy in 1969.

Sequel films

The program spawned two 20th Century Fox-produced sequels, the pilot Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis? (1977) and the TV movie Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis (1988). Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis? was an unsuccessful pilot for a new weekly sitcom series, which was produced, directed, and developed by James Komack after creator Max Shulman was fired from the production.

Depressed over turning 40 and not living the life he had dreamed of as a teenager, Dobie goes to his beloved Thinker statue and attempts to destroy it, landing in jail. was directed and co-written by Stanley Z. Cherry after Dwayne Hickman, who was the film's producer, was forced by the network to fire Max Shulman and Rod Amateau, with whom he had originally conceived the film. The set included all 147 episodes of the series, plus the original prenetwork version of the pilot and appearances by Dwayne Hickman and Bob Denver on other television programs of the time. Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis? and Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis were not included, the latter due to music clearances, and the former because the master copy could not be located. season two on January 14, 2014, season three on May 6, 2014 and the fourth and final season on December 16, 2014.

In addition to the physical releases, all episodes of Dobie Gillis are also available on the streaming services Shout! Factory TV, Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, and Vudu.

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!DVD name

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| Season one

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| September 13, 2013

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| Season two

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| January 14, 2014

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| Season three

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| May 6, 2014

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| Season four

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| December 16, 2014

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| Complete series

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| July 2, 2013

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The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis was a major influence on the characters for another successful CBS program, the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, which ran on the network from 1969 to 1970 followed by several spin-offs. As confirmed by series creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears

Garry Marshall said that he drew inspiration from Dobie Gillis when he created the ABC sitcom Happy Days.

Singer-songwriter Dobie Gray's stage name served as a reference to the Dobie Gillis character.

References

Further reading

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