Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday! This week, we’re winding down the “1950s takeover” in celebration of the release of my first book, Great American Sitcoms of the 1950s, which you can purchase here (or on Amazon here), with the last in my series of “rerun” posts on previously covered fifties sitcoms. As usual, I’m providing a link to a piece that I first published many seasons ago and then offering a bit of updated commentary, previewing my book.
Today, let’s revisit… The Ten Best THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS Episodes of Season One: https://jacksonupperco.com/2020/06/02/the-ten-best-the-many-loves-of-dobie-gillis-episodes-of-season-one/
The last chapter in my new book covers the 1959-1960 television season for sitcoms, after the genre had reached its first nadir in 1958-1959, going from nearly 40 original sitcoms on air in the middle of the decade to under 20 — the lowest number since before the 1952 “sitcom boom” inspired by I Love Lucy. Because of this decline in one of the medium’s most lucrative programming templates, the three broadcast networks spent the next few years after 1958-1959 trying to rehabilitate the genre — and indeed, their efforts ultimately proved triumphant: Andy Griffith premiered in 1960, Dick Van Dyke in 1961, and The Beverly Hillbillies in 1962, just to name a few. But 1959-1960 was the start of this years-long campaign to restore the sitcom, with at least one success story, qualitatively, to show for it: The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis, which I charge as being the finest sitcom on air in this final TV season of the 1950s. In brief, it’s a show about teen characters that writes them comedically and, in certain respects, convincingly (within creator Max Shulman’s wacky personal ethos), but also offers an appeal to adults as well, with earned comic tension as a result of generational clashes. Shulman’s scripts are humorous and thoughtful, in his trademark style, and every character is well-defined, with clear pursuits in story and strong relational dynamics that can inspire both laughs and plot; Maynard, Zelda, Thalia, and Dobie himself are all crystal clear. Accordingly, you’ll note that a few Dobie Gillis episodes make my “Top 50” list in the book — a testament to just how strong this series was in its first season, its only season from the 1950s itself (which formally ends with the conclusion of the 1959-1960 season). In the 1960s, this series would go on to lose too many of its premised attributes — Dobie’s carnal interest in girls as a driving narrative engine, and the tension between him and his father for demographic and thematic cohesion — while also broadening out too much into cartoonish antics divorced from the main situation. But as far as the fifties is concerned, Dobie Gillis is its last great sitcom — and the start of the genre’s sixties resurrection.
Come back next week as we return to the 2000s for a look at 30 Rock!