Tal Flood

I was born during the show’s run so I was only dimly aware of its existence throughout my childhood and beyond. On a lark I looked it up and saw it was playing on Tubi, so I started watching. I have a pretty good sense of what television was like during different periods, and I could tell right away that Dobie Gillis would have been in the upper echelon of quality for its time. The plots are mainly throwaway concepts, but the scripts and performances are pretty good for its era. The feel to the things they say and the way they deliver their lines seems more modern (by which I mean more like late 60s than late 50s). It’s definitely not at the level of Dick Van Dyke, but it is in the second tier for sure. In fact, in terms of quality, Dick and Dobie might have been 1-2 during their concurrent runs. Don’t misunderstand: it is not quality 2024-style. As with every show, and practically all entertainment, of the period and, frankly, for time immemorial before, there’s a forced and sometimes stiff quality to dialogue and delivery. The characters are broadly-drawn in current terms, but if you’ve had a good deal of exposure to ‘50s and early 60s sitcoms, you can tell this is really a cut above that. so, if you can put yourself in the frame of mind of the time period, you can enjoy its relatively innovative moments. Dwayne Hickman must have immersed himself in Jack Benny shows as a kid, because his character is as close to a carbon copy of Benny in terms of timing and mannerisms as possible. Also, weirdly, Hickman bore an evocative resemblance to Dave Foley, so imagine Kids in the Hall Dave Foley doing Jack Benny, and you get a good sense of what Dwayne Hickman comes off as portraying Dobie Gillis. Bob Denver’s turn as Maynard G. Krebs is a far superior comic character than Gillian, although they are very close characters in spirit. It’s a real mind bender seeing young Warren Beatty playing the snooty rich kid for the first half of the first season, and Tuesday Weld, who at age 15 actually played older, was really a pretty good comic actor so young. Surprising, I think, she didn’t pursue comedy as a career because she was good at it, but she also had an interesting and … uh … advanced lifestyle for her age, and that may have distracted her focus from honing her craft. I am halfway into Season 2 and, frankly, the quality has taken a big dive from Season 1. Almost certainly had different show runner and/or writers. Either that or they took a lot a lot of network notes. All in all, I give it four stars. It’s worth checking it out especially if you enjoy contemplating time in a bottle.