THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS: The Complete Seasons

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is a situation comedy that ran on CBS in the USA from 1959-1963. The television series and some episode scripts were adapted from a 1951 collection of short stories of the same name, written by Max Shulman, that also inspired the 1953 film The Affairs of Dobie Gillis with Debbie Reynolds, Bob Fosse, and Bobby Van as Dobie Gillis. A follow-up novel, I Was a Teen-Age Dwarf, appeared in 1959. This program was from Martin Manulis Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television; creator Shulman also wrote the theme song.

The TV series revolved around teenager Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman), who aspired to have popularity, money, and the attention of beautiful and unattainable girls. He didn't have any of these qualities in abundance, and the tiny crises surrounding Dobie's lack of success made the story in each weekly episode. His partner-in-crime was American television's first beatnik, Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver). Maynard was convinced life is for enjoying and Dobie's father, Herbert T. Gillis (Frank Faylen), who owned a grocery store, was only happy when Dobie was behind a broom. Dobie's father was often caught up in various elaborate get-rich-quick schemes, or situational bail-outs ala Ralph Cramden, with Dobie getting ensared along with him; by the end both came around grudgingly to Maynard's point of view.

As a high school student, Dobie lived at home with his parents in the show's early years, and his interaction with his parents was a source of much of the humor. His mother Winnie (Florida Friebus) was very caring and perhaps tended to baby her son a little too much; his father Herbert was a very proud, hard-working child of the Great Depression and World War II, who was often heard to declare "I've gotta kill that boy; I've just gotta!" but deep down a good and decent man.