Gidget (TV series)

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Gidget

Genre	Sitcom
Creator(s)	Frederick Kohner (novel)
Starring	Sally Field Don Porter Betty Conner Pete Duel Lynette Winter Michael Nader Steven Miles
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	32
Production
Running time	0:25 (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 1, 1965 – September 6, 1966
Links
IMDb profile

Gidget was a 1965 U.S. television sitcom starring Sally Field in the lead role of Francine Lawrence, a teenage character adapted for film and television from a novel by Frederick Kohner. Gidget is the nickname her surfing friends give her. The sitcom series was written as a sequel to the three Gidget films.

Based on the book by Frederick Kohner about his surfer daughter Kathy, "Gidget" (a nickname for a "girl-midget") first became popular in a 1959 film version that starred Sandra Dee as the surf-and-boy-loving Francine "Gidget" Lawrence. The movie led to two sequels, and in 1965, Columbia Pictures' television arm Screen Gems decided to turn Gidget into a half-hour comedy. Fresh-faced 18-year-old Sally Field, who had graduated from a Columbia acting workshop, was tapped to play the title role; she beat 75 other teenage girls for the part. Field's freshness and effervescent personality dominated the show, along with sage advice from her father, Professor Russell Lawrence (Don Porter), who was a widower in Southern California.

Stories revolved around Gidget and her life as a teenager growing up on the Pacific coast.

Recurring characters included Gidget's worry-wart sister Anne (Betty Conner), who tended to take the role of mother and was often overprotective of Gidget. John (Pete Duel) was Anne's husband, a psychology student who often read much too much into situations. Larue (Lynette Winter) was Gidget's best friend, while Jeff (Steven Miles) was Gidget's boyfriend who was away at Princeton University.

For a show aimed at teenagers, Gidget was well-written, with the usual weekly moral at the end of each episode, but the show never talked down to its audience, in part because Gidget and her dad treated each other more as equals than as father-daughter. It was also among the first regularly-scheduled color programs for the then third-ranked ABC.

Despite its plusses, Gidget found itself chewed up in the ratings during the regular season against CBS' formidable rural comedy The Beverly Hillbillies. As a result, ABC pulled the plug on the series in the spring of 1966. But during the summer rerun period, something unusual happened. The show's ratings went up, and had a last-minute burst of popularity. Unlike today, cancelled sitcoms that found their audience during the summer rerun period were not resurrected. Still, ABC and Screen Gems made sure Sally Field starred in another comedy, and signed the perky actress as the lead in 1967's The Flying Nun. Unlike the prematurely nixed Gidget, The Flying Nun would last three full seasons.

The 32 episodes of Gidget remained in syndication for years, boosting the series' popularity. As a result, two telemovie sequels were produced: Gidget Grows Up (1969) and Gidget Gets Married (1972).

Gidget received heavy airtime again in the early 1980s, renewing its popularity once again. This time, another telemovie was produced, Gidget's Summer Reunion (1985), followed in 1986 by the syndicated sitcom, The New Gidget. The New Gidget ran for two seasons, and though popular, neither the TV movies nor the new series gained the cult following of the original 1965-1966 classic.

The complete orginial series was released on DVD in 2006, featuring a brief documentary with the now-59-year-old Sally Field discussing her involvement with the short-lived series. [1].

For the original character and other adaptations, see Gidget.