CBS 1959-1963
THE MANY LIVES OF DOPEY GILLIS
Sick #14, August 1962
w: Joe Simon
a: Bob Powell
Between the n-word a few days ago in the Mandingo parody and word “retard” in this, people tuning in just now might think this blog is one big hatefest. Oh well, that's the price we pay by posting things from the past.
Based on the short stories of Max Shulman, this sitcom focused on the adventures of girl-crazy teenager Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman) and his beatnik friend Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver). Tuesday Weld played a character named Thalia Meninger in some of the earlier episodes.
Before this, Dwayne Hickman had been a regular in the series Love That Bob, or as it was known when it was first run, The Bob Cummings Show.
On page 2, Thalia makes a crack about Newton Minow. Minow was then chairman of the FCC, famous for having condemned television as "a vast wasteland".
ReplyDeleteThe woman at the end of the spoof is Gertrude Berg, creator and star of the long-running radio and TV sitcom, The Goldbergs. (The current show of that name isn't related.) The spoof is referring to her final project, a show from that year called Mrs. G Goes To College. She was in her 60s at the time. She wasn't actually playing Molly Goldberg in it, but the character was similar. It only lasted one season.