In many ways, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis was a teenage version of the Bob Cummings Show. After playing Bob's nephew, Chuck as a college student for a few years, Dwayne Hickman appeared as Dobie as a high school student with many of the mannerisms of Bob Cummings as Bob Collins. Just one of those mannerisms was the "takes" that he would do whenever sidekick Maynard G. Krebs would murder the English language. The Bob Cummings Show had French Colette DuBois played by Lisa Gaye who when pondering the idea of dating Chuck, said, "Wouldn't that be like you Americans say, 'stealing the baby bed'?" To which Bob did his double take and then reacting, "You mean 'robbing the cradle'?"
Like in the Cummings show, Dobie was surrounded by attractive girls, usually with some comic fiasco of an ending with the given girl of each episode. Whereas Bob Collins had his loyal secretary Schultzy always pining for him, Dobie had Zelda. Whereas Bob Collins was forever thwarted by Lola Albright as Kay Michaels, Dobie was forever thwarted by Tuesday Weld as Thalia Menninger.
Review of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
(1959–1963)
A teenage version of the Bob Cummings Show
24 September 2023