I was up late last night. That’s my normal M.O.
Pickings get slim on the weekend. Websites update less frequently, if at all. By 3:00 AM I was channel surfing, looking for something… anything… to watch.
I ended up with WZME, Bridgeport. It’s cable channel 95 for me. The call letters are new, but the station has a colorful past pre-WZME!
I know even more. Good stuff. Can’t talk about it. Sworn to secrecy.
WZME is affiliated with MeTV, a ‘network’ showing old TV shows and infomercials. At the hour I watched nearly all the ads were aimed at people older than me!
In the past rediscovering old shows has been disappointing. Things I remembered as good were anything but. Last night was an exception. I caught two episodes of Dobie Gillis and they were great.
The writing and acting were excellent. The pacing was much faster and tighter than other sitcoms of that era.
The regulars, Dwayne Hickman, Bob Denver, William Schallert, Sheila James, Frank Faylen and Florida Friebus were all more-than-equal to the task.
The opening and closing credits ran in an interesting way. At the punchline or payoff of the very first scene and very last scene an animated graphic came on-the-screen. The actors, with their mics now off, continued action beneath the graphic. I can’t think of any other show that did it or does it this way.
Dobie Gillis was produced in the early sixties. It portrays a very different America. There were Caucasians, no others. People ran short of money, but never suffered consequences. Good always prevailed over evil.
Dobie talked necking. There was sexual tension, no sex.
Dobie lived in a more respectful time. Adolescents on TV today are portrayed as smarter-than-parents wise asses.
No one’s rushing to remake Dobie Gillis. That’s a shame. You really should watch the original next time you get the chance.