Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis?

A sad comeback for a funny series. I saw it thirty years ago, and can remember very little of it except that Frank Faylen recreated his role as Herbert T. Gillis, though he was frail and rather hoarse yelling, "Dobie!"

I think, but am not sure, that Sheila James was in it as Zelda, but Florida Friebus (as Winnie, Dobie's mom) was noticeably absent. Maynard G. Krebs showed up late in the show, no longer a workaphobic beatnik, but now a zen-calmed hippie guru, which was about as funny as it sounds.

The follow-up TV-movie, "Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis", came along 11 years later and was a bit more successful at reviving the feel of the series, along with bringing back other TV cast members like Steve Franken and William Schallert.

At some point in time in the mid 1970's, the powers-that-be at CBS decided that a sequel to "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" would be a good idea. The original creator, Max Shulman, was brought in and wrote a script that executives liked. Series stars Dwayne Hickman (Dobie), Bob Denver (Maynard), Shield James-Kuehl (Zelda), TV dad Frank Faylen, and Steve Franken (Chatsworth) were recast in their roles. Unfortunately, Hickman's TV mom Florida Friebus was working on "The Bob Newhart Show" and was probably unavailable at the time.

A man named James Komack was put in charge of production and direction. Komack had several hit shows to his credit, including "Welcome Back Kotter" and "Chico and the Man." What he didn't have was any clue about the original show, and he admittedly had never watched it.

With that in mind, creator Max Shulman was fired within a week. Komack told Shulman that he (Shulman), who had created the character of Dobie Gillis in the 1950's and been involved in almost every episode of the original series' four-year run, didn't understand what Dobie Gillis was about, while Komack, who had never seen a minute of the original show, knew what was best for it. The next thing Komack did was can the old script and get some writers from "Kotter" and "Chico" to write a new one. Also, some Kotter-like young actors were hired, one of whom played Dobie's son. The whole pilot went from being about Dobie Gillis to being a thinly-disguised new version of "Welcome Back Kotter." To make matters worse, the script was changed nearly every day, and by the time filming began, nobody had much of a clue what they were supposed to do, and most of the jokes fell flat. I can't imagine what went through the minds of the original cast as they were forced to film this monstrosity, but those thoughts probably can't be printed.

Other problems were also evident. Other original series characters weren't recast, notably Mr. Pomfritt (William Schallert was busy with two other TV Series) and Thalia Menninger (likely a mutual decision by Tuesday Weld and Dwayne Hickman). Frank Faylen appeared to be in frail health (and in fact this was one of the last times he was on TV or in movies), and he didn't appear to be able to withstand the rigors of a weekly series.

The result was a show that didn't appeal to fans of the original series, and which was probably unappealing to modern viewers. With all of this going against the pilot, it was no surprise that CBS wasn't interested in picking up the series, and as far as I know, the pilot never re-aired on TV after its initial showing. I can't imagine it getting many favorable reviews, either at the time or now.

You can find the pilot on some video sites and possibly on YouTube. Fans of the original may find it boring and/or painful to watch.