''Gidget'' is an American sitcom by

Screen Gems Screen Gems is an American brand name used by Sony Pictures' Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. It has served several different purposes for its parent ...

about a

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitable ...

, boy-crazy teenager called " Gidget" and her widowed father Russ Lawrence, a UCLA professor.

Sally Field Sally Margaret Field (born November 6, 1946) is an American actress. She has received many awards and nominations, including two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Fe ...

stars as Gidget with Don Porter as father Russell Lawrence. The series was first broadcast on ABC from September 15, 1965 to April 21, 1966. Reruns were aired until September 1, 1966. ''Gidget'' was among the first regularly scheduled color programs on ABC. With a Wednesday night time slot that put it in direct competition with ''

The Beverly Hillbillies ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family f ...

'' and '' The Virginian'', it did poorly in the

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

and was canceled at the end of its first season.

Background

The television series was based upon concepts and characters created by

Frederick Kohner Friedrich Kohner (September 25, 1905 – July 7, 1986), credited professionally as Frederick Kohner, was an Austrian-born novelist and screenwriter, both in Germany and the U.S.. He is best known for having created the "Gidget" novels, which ins ...

in his 1957 novel ''Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas'',''Gidget'' by Frederick Kohne

(2001) Berkley Publishing Group. which Kohner based upon the adventures of Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman, his teenage daughter Kathy. The novel was adapted into a 1959 movie starring

Sandra Dee Sandra Dee (born Alexandra Zuck; April 23, 1942 – February 20, 2005) was an American actress. Dee began her career as a child model, working first in commercials, and then film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingén ...

, James Darren and Cliff Robertson. The 1965 weekly half-hour television series is seen by some as a sequel to the 1959 film, despite numerous discontinuities in plot, time frame and other details. It can also be seen as an independent incarnation, related to but distinct from either the novels or the films. Kohner served as a script consultant on the show. The series reintroduced Gidget's friend Larue and married sister Anne Cooper, both of whom appear in Kohner's original novel but are absent from the motion picture series. Gidget's brother-in-law, who appears in the novels as the intelligent but condescending child psychiatrist Larry Cooper, is reinvented in the television series as John Cooper, an obtuse but lovable psychology student.

Plot

''Gidget'' centers on the father-daughter relationship between Frances "Gidget" Lawrence and her widowed father Russell Lawrence. Episodes follow Gidget's adventures in school, at home, and at nearby beaches. Russell Lawrence guides his fifteen-year-old daughter, while married sister Anne and husband John offer often unsolicited child-rearing tips. Gidget's friend Larue sometimes takes part in her escapades. More often than not, Gidget receives moral instruction from her father and gains wisdom from her experiences. Each episode is narrated by Gidget; on occasion, she breaks the "

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

" and directly addresses her audience, usually reflecting on what she has learned from the evening's story, sometimes ending with "Toodles!" (an expression Field improvised during production). It was explained in the pilot that her boyfriend called her Gidget because of her demure, petite build and short stature: girl midget, gidget !

Characters

Sally Field Don Porter Betty Conner Gidget 1965

* Frances Elizabeth " Gidget" Lawrence (

) - The prototypical southern California beach bunny. * Russell Lawrence ( Don Porter) - Gidget's widowed father and English professor at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. * Anne Cooper (Betty Conner) - Gidget's older, married sister. * John Cooper ( Pete Duel) - Anne's husband, a psychology student. * Larue Wilson (Lynette Winter) - Gidget's best friend. * Jeff " Moondoggie" Matthews (Stephen Mines) - Gidget's boyfriend who is away at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. * Siddo (

Michael Nader Michael Nader (February 19, 1945 – August 23, 2021) was an American actor, known for his roles as Dex Dexter on the ABC primetime soap opera ''Dynasty'' from 1983 to 1989, and Dimitri Marick on the ABC daytime soap opera ''All My Children'' f ...

) - Gidget's schoolmate. * Randy (

Rickie Sorensen Rickie John Sorensen (August 26, 1946 – August 24, 1994) was an American child actor. Biography He was born in Los Angeles on August 26, 1946, the son of Mr. and Mrs. John M. Sorensen. His acting career began in 1956 when he was 10 years ...

) - Gidget's schoolmate. While Jeff was Gidget's true love (she regularly wore his high school ring around her neck), she regularly dated — or more accurately, pursued — other boys while he was away at college. * Kahuna ( Martin Milner) - "The Great Kahuna" * Jack Collins (James Davidson) - "A Hearse, a Hearse, My Kingdom for a Hearse" * Roger Haimes (James M. Crawford) - "Image Scrimmage" * Mark ( Robert Random) - "Chivalry Isn't Dead", "Gidget's Foreign Policy" * Bret (Randy Kirby) - "The War Between Men, Women and Gidget" * Tom Brighton ( Daniel J. Travanti) - "Now There's a Face" * Corky Cook (Peter Brooks), Tate Cook (Larry Merrill) - "Too Many Cooks" * Baxter Stevenson (Tom Gilleran) - "I Love You, I Love You, I Love You, I Think" * Durf the Drag (

Richard Dreyfuss Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (; born Dreyfus; October 29, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for starring in popular films during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including '' American Graffiti'' (1973), ''Jaws'' (1975), '' Close Encounters of the ...

) - "Ego-a-Go-Go" * Scott (Carl Reindel), Richie Ryan (David Macklin) - "Love and the Single Gidget" * Toby (Robert Beach) - "I Have This Friend Who..."

Production

The show launched the career of 18-year-old Sally Field, who defeated 75 other teenage girls for the title role. Field exaggerated her surfing experience to the show's casting directors during her audition (she had none); she later took lessons from Phil Sauers just to be able to pretend to surf for the cameras. Sauers served as the series' "Surfing Technical Consultant" and provided the surfboards used during filming of the series. Don Porter had portrayed Gidget's father, Russell Lawrence, two years prior in the film '' Gidget Goes to Rome'' and was asked to reprise the role for the series. While the Gidget of the novel and the original film are both blondes, the Gidget of the television series is a brunette. The lyrics of the theme song ""(Wait 'Til You See) My Gidget" were written by Howard Greenfield, with music by Jack Keller. The song was performed in the pilot by The Four Freshmen, and in the series by

Johnny Tillotson Johnny Tillotson (born April 20, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored nine top-ten hits on the pop, country, and adult contemporary ''Billboard'' charts, including " Poetry ...

. In the credits for the pilot episode, John Cooper is listed as "Larry". The show ranked 68th out of 108 shows airing that season with a 26.8 percent audience share.

Episodes

Home media

On March 21, 2006,

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (abbreviated as SPHE) is the home video distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. Background SPHE is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures l ...

released ''Gidget: The Complete Series'' featuring all 32 episodes of the series, on DVD in Region 1. The release included the original pilot episode and a short interview with Field. On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including ''Gidget''. They subsequently re-released the complete series on DVD on May 20, 2014.

Reception

''Gidget'' faced stiff competition during its initial run. The show originally aired on Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m., opposite ''

'' ( CBS) and '' The Virginian'' ( NBC), two established shows with strong ratings. The series was moved to Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. starting with Episode 18 ("Like Voodoo") where it performed poorly opposite CBS's ''

Gilligan's Island ''Gilligan's Island'' is an American sitcom created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz. The show's ensemble cast features Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Tina Louise, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells. It aired for th ...

'', despite airing after the Top 5-rated ''

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...

''. ABC canceled ''Gidget'' in April 1966 — just as the show began to find a large teen audience. Summer reruns launched the show into the Top 10 as viewers looked for programs they had not seen during their original fall/winter broadcasts. ABC had a belated hit on their hands, but refused to renew the show because they would have to admit they were premature in its cancellation. In addition, industry practice at the time rarely allowed for cancelled shows to be resurrected. Rather than squander their newly found audience which ABC was hurting for at the time, the network scrambled to find a new starring vehicle for Field. The result was '' The Flying Nun'' (1967–70), where Field reluctantly portrayed Sister Bertrille for three seasons. Field later commented that she has great affection for her young persona and was proud of her work on ''Gidget'' but was embarrassed with ''The Flying Nun''.

Legacy

''Gidget'' remained in regular syndication for several years, one of the few single-season programs to attain this status. Two made-for-television films followed after its demise: '' Gidget Grows Up'' (1969) and ''

Gidget Gets Married ''Gidget Gets Married'' is a 1972 American made-for television comedy film produced by Screen Gems for ABC. It was written by John McGreevey, directed by E.W. Swackhamer and starred Monie Ellis as Gidget. Plot Now that Jeff has completed his ...

'' (1972). The series gained a new wave of popularity starting in 1983 when reruns began airing on a regular basis (along with '' The Flying Nun''). Another television movie, '' Gidget's Summer Reunion'', was produced in 1985 starring

Caryn Richman Caryn Richman is an American actress and singer who is best known for her role as Gidget in the TV series, ''The New Gidget'', which evolved out of her lead role in the 1985 television movie ''Gidget's Summer Reunion''. She played Elena Dekker ...

in the title role. The movie was successful enough to warrant a syndicated sequel series, '' The New Gidget'', with Richman reprising her role. None of the original cast members appeared on the new series, though original series producer Harry Ackerman was present. Episodes of ''Gidget'' are available for purchase on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

, and streaming for free through

The Minisode Network The Minisode Network (later known as Crackle Minisodes) was a Sony Pictures Television internet television network launched in June 2007. The term ''minisode'' is a portmanteau of "mini" and "episode". Unlike webisodes, which are initially broadc ...

in the U.S. on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series ...

and

Crackle Crackle or crackling may refer to: Foods * Cracklings, the tissue remaining after lard and tallow have been extracted from animal fats ** Pork rinds in American English, pork scratchings in British English when served in small pieces as a snac ...

. Antenna TV began airing the show in summer 2011 on weekends, paired with ''The Flying Nun''. The entire series was broadcast during an Independence Day marathon in 2012 and 2013, and a Memorial Day marathon in 2016 and 2017. As of August 2018, the series was available on Amazon Prime video.

Merchandise

Milton Bradley Company Milton Bradley Company or simply Milton Bradley (MB) was an American board game manufacturer established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the ...

manufactured a "Gidget Fortune Teller" game which used Field's image on the box, the playing board and several game cards.Board Games of the 50s, 60s, and 70s: With Prices by David Dilley (October 1994) L-W Promotions

References

External links

* *
The Real Gidget
essay by Deanne Stillman about Kathy Kohner Zuckerman

Interview with Zuckerman, ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'', September 16, 2005 {{Gidget, state=collapsed 1965 American television series debuts 1966 American television series endings 1960s American sitcoms American Broadcasting Company original programming American teen sitcoms English-language television shows Gidget Television series about teenagers Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television shows set in Santa Monica, California Television shows based on American novels Television series by Screen Gems