Gidget 

Frances "Gidget" Lawrence lives with her widowed college-professor father in Southern California. Anne is her older sister who is married to John Cooper, an obtuse but lovable psychology ... See full summary »

Creator:

Frederick Kohner

Stars:

Sally Field, Don Porter, Lynette Winter

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Sally Field	...	Gidget 32 episodes, 1965-1966
Don Porter	...	Professor Russell Lawrence 32 episodes, 1965-1966
Lynette Winter	...	Larue 26 episodes, 1965-1966
Pete Duel	...	John Cooper 22 episodes, 1965-1966
Betty Conner	...	Anne Cooper / ... 22 episodes, 1965-1966

Storyline

Frances "Gidget" Lawrence lives with her widowed college-professor father in Southern California. Anne is her older sister who is married to John Cooper, an obtuse but lovable psychology student. Gidget spends most of her free time hanging out with friends and surfing at the beach. She also has a knack for getting in and out of trouble. Gidget speaks to the audience during her journey to adulthood, letting them know exactly what's on her mind and what she's discovered about life. She also receives moral instruction from her father and gains wisdom from her experiences.

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Plot Keywords:

character name as series title | forename as series title | gidget character | nickname as series title | one word series title | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

TV-G

Did You Know?

Trivia

Gidget's friends and classmates were often played by actors who appeared in the "Beach Party (1963)" movie series, like 'Beverly Adams' and 'Mike Nader', and other movies featuring teens. Joy Harmon and Robert Random co-starred in "Village of the Giants (1965)," while Bonnie Franklin had a brief role in "A Summer Place (1959)."

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Quotes

Frances "Gidget" Lawrence: Laugh and the world laughs with you; cry, and your mascara runs.

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Connections

Referenced in Roseanne: Be My Baby (1993)

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Soundtracks

Wait 'Til You See My Gidget
Music by Jack Keller
Lyrics by Howard Greenfield
Performed by Johnny Tillotson
Copyright 1965--Screen Gems Music Co.

User Reviews

Sparkling 1960s Sitcom

By the time ABC filmed the 1965-1966 television version of "Gidget," Frederick Kohner's 1957 novel of that name (based on the adventures of his daughter Kathy) had already provided the basis for three motion pictures. Unlike the Gidget films, however, the television series does not focus on Gidget's romantic involvements. We rarely see her boyfriend Jeff, who is a student at Princeton; and her romantic interests are primarily limited to ill-advised infatuations that do not last beyond a single episode. The television series devotes most of its attention to Gidget's relations with her family, her peers, and her teachers. As with the movies, surfing is an underlying theme, but much of the action takes place away from the beach, and deals with such mundane subjects as school work, dating, getting a job, and learning to drive, as well as more unusual ones such as escaping from a "haunted" house, or evading a witch's "curse." In coping with life, Frances Lawrence, whose diminutive stature earned her the nickname "Gidget" (a contraction of "Girl" and "Midget"), gets advice, sought and unsought, from her father Russ (Don Porter), a UCLA English professor, her sister Anne (Betty Conner), her brother-in-law John (Pete Duel), and her best friend Larue (Lynette Winter). "Gidget" captures the different dynamic that exists in a one-parent, one-child, family--Gidget and her father are especially close. Anne is a somewhat conventional meddling older sister who is trying to make Gidget into a lady. John is an aspiring psychologist who attributes nearly everything to subliminal motives. Gidget customarily ignores their suggestions. Larue is a rather eccentric figure, who visits the beach clad in clothing that conceals everything but her face (and sometimes that as well) because she is allergic to sunlight. Gidget often gets together with Larue to consume exotic sandwiches and discuss whatever problem she is facing. Despite her eccentricities, Larue's judgment is often better than Gidget's, but she sometimes gets drawn into Gidget's misadventures against her will.

Sally Field landed the role of Gidget through a summer workshop screen test. She had participated in secondary school dramatic productions, but she had had no on-screen experience apart from being a supernumerary in the forgettable 1962 film, "Moon Pilot." Although 19 when the program was filmed, Field is entirely credible as the 15-year-old Gidget. And, in mastering this role, she gave early evidence of the acting talent that was to win her many parts (from the Flying Nun to Mary Todd Lincoln) and awards. Her attitude toward the filming of "Gidget" was "absolute total glee," and her performances reflect this. Don Porter served as her mentor; and there was good chemistry between them, both on and off camera. Similarly, Field described Lynette Winter as her "best friend" in real life as well as in the show. Winter brought to her role a veritable arsenal of facial expressions, and a talent for physical comedy perhaps even greater than Field's. It is hard to imagine "Gidget" without these three. Conner and Duel successfully portray an annoying sister and brother-in-law; and Duel displays surprising aptitude for slapstick when he accidentally disconnects the water supply hose to the washing machine, drenching Anne, Gidget, and himself (we are left to wonder what the soaked cat, watching from a corner, thought of this human folly).

"Gidget" is a conglomeration of 1960s artifacts--cars, clothes, hair styles, dances, record players, dial telephones, VHF/UHF television sets, and manual typewriters. In terms of its cast, subject matter and attitudes, it is also a product of its times. Occasionally, there are explicit, if not emphatic, references to sex, and to Gidget's physique. And the cast includes African-Americans playing minor, but respectable, characters. But the women are definitely not liberated. One of Gidget's male acquaintances commands her, "Go fetch food, woman!" Her father tells one of her male classmates what to do "when a woman clamors for complete equality with men," and implies that women really do not want such equality. Gidget receives a spanking in one episode, as does a visiting Swedish female student in another. (No male characters suffer this indignity.) As Gidget concludes in one postscript, "I'd set back women's rights a hundred years--exactly where they belonged." Today, some of this may grate on the nerves, even of those not sensitized to gender issues. On the other hand, in several episodes, Gidget attempts to improve the behavior of her male associates, and, more generally, her participation in surfing involved breaking into what had been a male preserve.

An episode of "Gidget" typically ends with sage advice from Russ, or--better--a humorous epigram from Gidget herself, such as: "You're only young once; but if you work it right, once is enough." Or: "It's too bad you can't be born with maturity, then lose it when you don't need it anymore."

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 September 1965 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gidget

Filming Locations:

Stage 11, Sony Pictures Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Screen Gems Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min 30 min (32 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1