Gidget (TV series): Difference between revisions

Gidget
Original title screen
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Frederick Kohner (novel)
Starring	Sally Field Don Porter Betty Conner Pete Duel Lynette Winter
Theme music composer	Howard Greenfield Jack Keller
Opening theme	"(Wait 'Til You See) My Gidget", performed by Johnny Tillotson
Composers	Dave Grusin Stu Phillips Charles Albertine
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	32 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Harry Ackerman
Producers	Bob Claver (pilot episode) William Sackheim
Running time	25 minutes (per episode)
Production company	Screen Gems
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 15, 1965 (1965-09-015) – April 21, 1966 (1966-04-21)
Related
The New Gidget

Gidget is an American sitcom about a surfing, boy-crazy teenager called "Gidget" and her widowed father Russ Lawrence, a UCLA professor. Sally Field stars as Gidget with Don Porter as father Russell Lawrence. The series was first broadcast on ABC from September 15, 1965 to April 21, 1966.

Gidget was among the first regularly scheduled color programs on ABC, but did poorly in the Nielsen ratings and was cancelled at the end of its first season.

The television series was based upon concepts and characters created by Frederick Kohner in his 1957 novel Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas,^[1] which Kohner based upon the adventures of his teenage daughter Kathy. The novel was adapted into a 1959 movie starring Sandra Dee, James Darren and Cliff Robertson. The 1965 weekly, half-hour television series is seen by some as a sequel to the 1959 film, despite numerous discontinuities in plot, time frame and other details. It can also be seen as an independent incarnation, related to but distinct from either the novels or the films. Kohner served as a script consultant on the show.

The series reintroduced Gidget's friend Larue and married sister Anne Cooper, both of whom appear in Kohner's original novel, but are absent from the motion picture series. Gidget's brother-in-law, who appears in the novels as the intelligent but condescending child psychiatrist Larry Cooper is reinvented in the television series as John Cooper, an obtuse but lovable psychology student.

• Sally Field - Frances Elizabeth "Gidget" Lawrence, the prototypical southern California beach bunny
• Don Porter - Russell Lawrence, Gidget's widowed father and English professor at UCLA
• Betty Conner - Anne Cooper, Gidget's older, married, sister
• Pete Duel - John Cooper, Anne's husband, a psychology student
• Lynette Winter - Larue Wilson, Gidget's best friend
• Stephen Mines - Jeff "Moondoggie" Matthews, Gidget's boyfriend.
• Michael Nader, Rickie Sorensen, and Bob Beach as Gidget's schoolmates Siddo, Randy, and Toby, respectively.

Gidget is about the father-daughter relationship between Frances "Gidget" Lawrence and her widowed father Russell Lawrence. Episodes follow Gidget's adventures in school, at home, and at nearby beaches. Russell Lawrence guides his daughter through her fifteenth year, while married sister Anne and husband John offer often unsolicited child-rearing tips. Gidget's friend Larue sometimes takes part in her escapades. Episodes typically end with Gidget receiving moral instruction from her father and gaining wisdom from her experiences. On occasion, Gidget breaks the Fourth wall and directly addresses her audience, usually reflecting on what she has learned from the evening's story, sometimes ending with "Toodles!" (an expression Field improvised during production).^[2]

Gidget was filmed at the Columbia/Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank, California, with the exterior and kitchen set borrowed from the Hazel series, which was filming its final season at the time. The house situated next door to the Lawrence residence is the principal residence on Bewitched series, which was in production simultaneously.

The show launched the career of 18-year-old Sally Field, who defeated 75 other teenage girls for the title role.^[2] Field exaggerated her surfing experience to the show's casting directors during her audition (she had none); she later took lessons from Phil Sauers just to be able to pretend to surf for the cameras. Sauers served as the series' "Surfing Technical Consultant" and provided the surfboards used during filming of the series.

While the Gidget of the novel and the original film are both blondes, the Gidget of the television series is a brunette.

The lyrics of the Gidget theme song were written by Howard Greenfield, with music by Jack Keller. The song was sung in the pilot by The Four Freshmen, and in the series by Johnny Tillotson.

Gidget faced stiff competition during its initial run. The show originally aired on Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m., opposite The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS) and The Virginian (NBC), two established shows with strong ratings. The series was moved to Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. starting with Episode 18 ("Like Voodoo") where it performed equally poorly opposite CBS's Gilligan's Island, ^[3] despite airing after the Top 5-rated Batman.

ABC canceled Gidget in spring of 1966 — just as the show began to find its audience. Summer reruns launched the show into the Top 10 as viewers looked for shows they had not seen during their original fall/winter broadcasts. ABC had a belated hit on their hands, but refused to renew the show because they would have to admit they made a mistake in cancelling it. In addition, industry practice at the time rarely allowed for cancelled shows to be resurrected.^[3]

Rather than squander its newly found audience (ABC ranked third in overall ratings at the time), the network scrambled to find a new starring vehicle for Field. The result was The Flying Nun (1967–70), where Field portrayed Sister Bertrille for three seasons.^[4] Field later commented that she has great affection for her young persona and was proud of her work on Gidget but was embarrassed with The Flying Nun.^[2]

Gidget remained in syndication for several years, resulted in two made-for-television sequels: Gidget Grows Up and Gidget Gets Married.

The series gained a new wave of popularity starting in 1983 when reruns began airing on a regular basis (along with The Flying Nun). Another television movie was produced (Gidget's Summer Reunion) starring Caryn Richman in the title role. The movie was successful enough to warrant a syndicated reboot as The New Gidget, with Richman reprising her role. None of the original cast members appeared on the new series, though original series producer Harry Ackerman was present.

Episodes of Gidget can be purchased on iTunes, as well as streamed for free through minisodes in the U.S. on Hulu and Crackle.

Antenna TV began airing the show in summer 2011 on weekends, paired with The Flying Nun. The entire series was broadcast during an Independence Day marathon in July 2012.

Milton Bradley Company manufactured a "Gidget Fortune Teller" game which used Field's image on the box, the playing board and several game cards.^[5]

On March 21, 2006, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released Gidget: The Complete Series featuring all 32 episodes of the series, on DVD in Region 1. The release included the original pilot episode and a short interview with Field.

• Surf culture
• Psycho Beach Party, a film by Charles Busch parodying the teen beach party movies of the sixties

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gidget (TV series).

• Gidget at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• The Real Gidget, essay by Deanne Stillman about Kathy Kohner Zuckerman
• In Malibu, Gidget's Up Interview with Zuckerman, Washington Post, September 16, 2005