Dwayne Hickman, TV's Lovelorn Dobie Gillis, Is Dead at 87

[douglas9]

Dwayne Hickman, the affable, apple-cheeked actor whose starring role in the revered sitcom “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” would dog him for more than half a century, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 87.

The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, a spokesman for his family said.

Broadcast on CBS from 1959 to 1963, “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” was an essential ingredient of adolescence for the postwar generation and remained popular in syndication for years. Mr. Hickman became one of TV’s first teenage idols for his portrayal of its lovelorn hero, and he remained indelibly identified with the character ever after, a fate he bore with genial resignation.

“Dobie Gillis” followed the fortunes of its hero, his friends and family in Central City, a community whose precise location was never specified but that in all its wholesomeness seemed eminently Midwestern.



https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/09/obituaries/dwayne-hickman-dead.html

[Emile]

1. I loved that TV show when I was kid. My favorite was Maynard the beatnik

sidekick who didn't like the word work.

[Achilleaze]

2. "Bummer, good buddy." - Maynard G. Krebs

* The G is for Gilligan

[Tanuki]

20. Actually, a joke on the show was that the "G" stood for "Walter"!

Very much in keeping with Maynard's zany persona.

https://bobdenver.com/dobie-gillis-%26-maynard

[twodogsbarking]

3. Beatniks.

And pioneers.

[Celerity]

4. What a bunch of white privileged/white elevation bullshit

in all its wholesomeness seemed eminently Midwestern

Same as calling the rural rural Midwest 'The Heartland'. As if it is the only 'true' America.

Some of the nastiest, most racist, sexist, homophobic, batshit cray fundie xian fuckers come out of the lily white Midwest backwaters.

Wholesome my arse.

[JanMichael]

10. The crazies are all over the US.

https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map

But the documented crazies are mostly in the South and along the Eastern coast. A lot of that has to do with population density but it is what it is. Then add the CSA nuts.

Low population density is boring. I would equate boring with the midwest more than anything and I spent a good part of my childhood there. Even the accents are boring and flat.

As to religiosity the south has everyone beat but the whole country is pretty well nuts when it comes to skythings:

https://vividmaps.com/christianity-us-counties/

If one equates boring with wholesome (which I think is a bonkers word in general) and tack on Betty White dying a week ago whose decades of positivity (with a wicked sense of humor) are related to the upper midwest I can see how a writer can say what they said about Dobie Gillis.

But I guess I see your point about the elevation thing too. That said for a number of DU'ers (not me) no need to shit on their remembering a person/show from childhood.

[Celerity]

12. oh, for sure the deep South is worse, as are viscous pockets on the East coast (NYC has some, for

instance)

I just took issue with the labelling as wholesome by nature for an area that we all know is basically (especially back in the 1950's and 1960's) extremely white and deffo not cosmopolitan in outlook.

Normally I am pretty chill on this, but something just rubbed me, as a PoC, the wrong way and I admittedly snapped.

[JanMichael]

14. That's understandable. I appreciate the reasoning. nt

[JHB]

15. I bring that up whenever I hear the "coastal elites look down on us" line

"You guys look down on us, too. You're the hallowed 'Heartland', whereas we're not real Americans, just some sort of unruly guests that have overstayed our welcome. How is that not 'elitist'?"

[Celerity]

18. that 'Heartland' shite always gets me all argy bargy, as it clearly doesn't refer to geography alone

The Jeffersonian vision of a nation of rural agrarian gentleman-philosophers was not only a pipe dream at the end of the day, but reeked of racism, classism, and sexism as well.

[Aristus]

26. Not to mention the fact that not everyone gets to be a gentleman-philosopher.

Someone has to do the work. And the "gentleman-philosopher's" solution: enslaving people to do the work.

[jrthin]

23. +1000 nt

[alphafemale]

5. Many more people know him as Gilligan

Just saying.

[GoCubsGo]

6. No, his co-star went on to play Gilligan.

Bob Denver played Maynard G. Krebs, not Dobie Gillis.

[alphafemale]

8. That pic really looks like Gilligan

OK

[GoCubsGo]

9. That's because it's a picture of Bob Denver, not Dwayne Hickman.

Dwayne Hickman/Dobie Gillis is the one on the left:

[alphafemale]

11. Yikes. I think I would have gone to the dance with goofy looking Gilligan

Over that albino looking dude.

[GoCubsGo]

13. He actually wasn't a natural blonde.

That was during a period where the blonde "surfer" look was popular. I noticed it on the old black-and-white episodes of "My Three Sons," as well. The kid who played "Chip" had really, really light-colored hair for several episodes. And, like Dwayne Hickman, he looked really goofy with the bleached hair. Thankfully, both went back to their natural, darker color. Dwayne was actually a pretty handsome guy, IMHO--when he was not a bleach-blonde.

[alphafemale]

19. Yeah. Even nearly white blonde kids

Hair turns much darker by the time they adults...usually.

[alphafemale]

22. I have always preferred nerds and clowns

Over jocks

[calimary]

17. I wouldn't have gone to the dance with either of them.

Neither of them would have asked me.

School dances tended to be rather wretched evenings for me.

[alphafemale]

21. And that was the fault of absolutely everyone else at that school.

Right?

[calimary]

24. Well, agreed - but only some of the time.

[GoCubsGo]

7. Aw,geez. Not Dobie Gillis, too.

I always thought that show was a bit ahead of its time. I loved the way he'd just stop and talk to the audience in the middle of a scene.

[winagawaukee]

16. I watched it for Tuesday Weld

She was the love pursuit of Dobie

[Emile]

25. Couldn't blame him!

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