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Gidget
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Gidget is an American sitcom first broadcast on ABC from September 15, 1965 through April 21, 1966. The series is a Screen Gems production about a surfing, boy-crazy fifteen-year-old southern California girl and her widowed father, an English professor at UCLA. Sally Field starred as Frances "Gidget" Lawrence with Don Porter playing her father Russell Lawrence. Gidget was among the first regularly-scheduled color programs on ABC, but did poorly in the Neilsen ratings and was cancelled at the end of its first season. The show gained some popularity in reruns and was released to DVD in 2006.
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Ratings never hit the top 25', 'Gidget was based on the 1959 movie of the same name and starred Sandra Dee in the role as Gidget. The sitcom was first seen in September of 1965 and centered around Francine Lawrence. Francine was her real first name but everyone called her Gidget. She lived with her father, Professor Russ Lawrence, who was a widower in Southern California. Stories revolved around Gidget and her life as a...');">Full Summary [+]
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Gidget had a hard time attracting an audience. For the first 17 episodes, it was up against "The Beverly Hillbillies" which was very popular with teens. For the final 15 episodes, it had to compete with "Gilligan's Island" and the same effect kept Gidget's audience small. When the episodes ran in reruns... the audience really grew! Gidget had been cancelled. The popularity of the show in reruns may have had something to do with Sally Field getting her another series the very next year though.
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The thirty-two episodes that make up Gidget: The Complete Series are divided onto four discs. The discs are housed in two slim, clear keepcases, each of which holds two discs. The front covers each feature a different publicity photo of the show's stars: Field on the first case and Porter on the second. The back covers include episode titles and plot synopses. The double-sided coversheets show through to the inside of the cases and feature a blue-tinted photo of Field and Nader in a skiff. The actual discs feature the publicity stills of Field.
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Gidget became her father’s muse, recounting tales of “bitchin’ surf,” giant “combers” that rolled in from Japan, and escapes from a “boneyard” when caught between breaking waves. Frederic, fascinated, paid careful attention to his daughter’s language. (English was her first language; his was German.) With her permission, he even listened in on her telephone conversations. A man possessed, he wrote the novel in six weeks, weaving Gidget’s accounts and conversation into a charming novel, published in 1957. It reflected the preoccupations of the era, from the bomb to Fats Domino. Yet one theme resounds above all others — Gidget’s passion for wave-riding.
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Besides being disturbingly incestuous when shown with photos of Gidget's father, the theme song was written by someone who didn't value rock and roll. Through the series there is a faint feeling of patronizing tolerance of young people. Gidget is sort of a kitten character, cute and harmless with adorable little claws she thinks will protect her. This was 1965-66. Her sister and brother-in-law were presented as ridiculously concerned about her welfare but how many parents would want their pretty daughter spending every spare minute unsupervised on the beach with her friends? In a few years even sitcoms couldn't pretend life was that fluffy and pink.
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Gidget