''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 suitabl ...

, boy-crazy teenager called "

Gidget Gidget () is a fictional character created by author Frederick Kohner (based on his teenaged daughter, Kathy) in his 1957 novel, ''Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas''. The novel follows the adventures of a teenaged girl and her surfing frie ...

" and her

widowed A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can so ...

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 F ...

stars as Gidget with

Don Porter Donald Cecil Porter (September 24, 1912 – February 11, 1997) was an American stage, film and television actor. On television, he played Peter Sands, the boss of Ann Sothern's character on ''Private Secretary'', and Russell Lawrence, the wi ...

as father Russell Lawrence. The series was first broadcast on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

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 from ...

'' 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 In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...

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 ingénue ...

James Darren James William Ercolani (born June 8, 1936) known by his stage name James Darren, is an American television and film actor, television director, and singer. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had notable starring and supporting roles in fi ...

and

Cliff Robertson Clifford Parker Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor whose career in film and television spanned over six decades. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film '' PT 109'', and won the 196 ...

. 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 "

" Lawrence (

) - The prototypical southern California beach bunny. * Russell Lawrence (

) - 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 St ...

. * Anne Cooper (Betty Conner) - Gidget's older, married sister. * John Cooper (

Pete Duel Peter Ellstrom Deuel (February 24, 1940 – December 31, 1971), known professionally as Pete Duel, was an American stage, television, and film actor, best known for his starring role as outlaw Hannibal Heyes (alias Joshua Smith) in the tel ...

) - Anne's husband, a psychology student. *

Larue Wilson Larue Wilson is a fictional character introduced in the Frederick Kohner novel ''Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas'' (1957). She also appears in much of the television work involving Gidget. The Novel Larue is first mentioned as described ...

(Lynette Winter) - Gidget's best friend. * Jeff "

Moondoggie Moondoggie is a fictional character created by Frederick Kohner in his 1957 novel '' Gidget, The Little Girl with Big Ideas''.''Gidget'' (2001) by Frederick Kohner, Berkley Publishing Group, New York, NY (first edition 1957) He appears as a pri ...

" Matthews (Stephen Mines) - Gidget's boyfriend who is away at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. * 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'' fr ...

) - 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 ''Kahuna'' is a Hawaiian language, Hawaiian word that refers to an expert in any field. Historically, it has been used to refer to doctors, surgeons and dentists, as well as priests, ministers, and sorcerers. Background A ''kahuna'' may be ver ...

(

Martin Milner Martin Sam Milner (December 28, 1931 – September 6, 2015) was an American actor and radio host. He is best known for his performances on two television series: ''Route 66'', which aired on CBS from 1960 to 1964, and ''Adam-12'', which ai ...

) - "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 Bob Random (born January 29, 1945) is a Canadian character actor who appeared in both movies and television from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s. Television and film roles Random's television work tended to be in dramatic roles, in venerable pr ...

) - "Chivalry Isn't Dead", "Gidget's Foreign Policy" * Bret (Randy Kirby) - "The War Between Men, Women and Gidget" * Tom Brighton (

Daniel J. Travanti Daniel J. Travanti (born Danielo Giovanni Travanti; March 7, 1940) is an American actor. He is best known for playing police captain List of Hill Street Blues characters#Main characters, Frank Furillo in the television drama series ''Hill Stree ...

) - "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 T ...

) - "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.

had portrayed Gidget's father, Russell Lawrence, two years prior in the film ''

Gidget Goes to Rome ''Gidget Goes to Rome'' is a 1963 Columbia Pictures Eastmancolor feature film starring Cindy Carol as the archetypal high school teen surfer girl originally portrayed by Sandra Dee in the 1959 film ''Gidget''. The film is the third of three Gidg ...

'' 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 Howard Greenfield (March 15, 1936 – March 4, 1986) was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building. He is best known for his successful songwriting collaborations, including o ...

, with music by Jack Keller. The song was performed in the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

The Four Freshmen The Four Freshmen is an American male vocal quartet that blends open-harmonic jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires, The Pied Pipers, and The Mel-Tones, founded in the barbershop tradition. The singers accom ...

, 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 lib ...

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 CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

) and '' The Virginian'' (

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

), 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 thr ...

'', 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 Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

''. 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 ''The Flying Nun'' is an American sitcom about a community of nuns which included one who could fly when the wind caught her cornette. It was produced by Screen Gems for ABC based on the 1965 book ''The Fifteenth Pelican,'' written by Tere Rio ...

'' (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 Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

for several years, one of the few single-season programs to attain this status. Two

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

films followed after its demise: ''

Gidget Grows Up ''Gidget Grows Up'' is a 1969 American made-for-television comedy film directed by James Sheldon with stars Karen Valentine, Edward Mulhare and Paul Petersen as well as alphabetically listed special guest stars Warner Anderson, Bob Cummings, Nina ...

'' (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 ''

''). Another television movie, ''

Gidget's Summer Reunion ''Gidget's Summer Reunion'' is a 1985 American made-for-television adventure comedy-drama film produced by Columbia Pictures Television that aired in syndication on June 1, 1985. It was written by Robert Blees and George Zateslo, directed by Br ...

'', 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 ''The New Gidget'' is an American sitcom sequel to the original 1965–66 sitcom ''Gidget''. It aired in syndication from September 15, 1986, to May 12, 1988. The series was produced by original ''Gidget'' series producer Harry Ackerman and was la ...

'', with Richman reprising her role. None of the original cast members appeared on the new series, though original series producer

Harry Ackerman Harry Stephen Ackerman (November 17, 1912 – February 3, 1991) was an American television producer, credited with creating or co-creating twenty-one series, seven of which were at one time being broadcast simultaneously. Some of the sitcoms in ...

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 mul ...

, 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 serie ...

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 Antenna TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Antenna TV's programming and advertising operati ...

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 nati ...

'', 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