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Product Description ------------------- Based on the novels created by Max Shulman, this television classic starred Dwayne Hickman as Dobie, a middle-class 17-year-old whose main goal in life was to find the girl of his dreams, Bob Denver (Gilligan's Island) co-stars as Dobie's beatnik friend Maynard G. Krebs, whose passion was to avoid work at any cost, and Frank Faylen and Florida Friebus as Dobie's parents, who were never too far away to worry about Dobie's future. Throughout its 147 episodes, the series ran the gamut from the hilarious (Dobie and Maynard sharing a tuxedo in order to attend a society party together), to the ridiculous (Maynard drinking a student chemist's formula and turning into a monster) to the touching (Dobie convincing a poor but brilliant student to stay in school). Guest stars include Rose Marie, Bill Bixby, Sally Kellerman, Ronny Howard, Sherry Jackson, Michele Lee, John Banner, Norman Fell, Howard McNear, Charles Lane, and a host of others. A ground-breaking series that has often been said to be far ahead of its time, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis premiered on CBS in the fall of 1959 and was a counter-culture hit through all four years of its network run. Bonus Content: - Interview with Dwayne Hickman - Rare script pages from the Max Shulman vaults - "Love That Bob!" Bonus Episodes - Bonus episode of "The Stu Erwin Show" - Original Pilot .com ---- Long before television comedies like Freaks and Geeks, Awkward, and Boy Meets World mined the major embarrassments and minor triumphs of teenage life for comic material, the cult series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis addressed the subject in smart, sardonic, and frequently hilarious ways over the course of a four-season run (1959-1963) that is compiled in its entirety in this impressive 21-disc set. Created by humorist Max Shulman, Dobie Gillis starred Dwayne Hickman as the titular hero, who flew against the accepted Hollywood portrayal of American teens (honest, upstanding young citizens) by virtue of his chief interests: girls, cars, and money, and nothing else. As a result, Dobie was largely written off by the show's adults, including his perpetually aggravated her, ert (Frank Faylen--"I've gotta kill that boy!"), which allowed him more time to concoct ill-considered schemes with his beatnik best friend, Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver). Said schemes, which were often directed to the audience in fourth-wall-breaking monologues, frequently revolved around Dobie's pursuit of various girls (hence the "many loves"), including Tuesday Weld's lovely but vain Thalia Menninger in the show's first season and guest stars like Ellen Burstyn (billed as Ellen McRae), Marlo Thomas, Barbara Bain, and Yvonne (Batgirl) Craig. However, the one constant female presence in Dobie's life was the unflappable Zelda Gilroy (Sheila James), whose unwavering belief in their inevitable romance frequently left him sputtering in Jack Benny-esque fits of apoplexy. On paper, Dobie Gillis reads like any other period sitcom, but the series distinguished itself--and ultimately earned its enduring cult following--through its breezy pace and terrific performances by a talented cast--which included recurring turns by Warren Beatty as Thalia's male counterpart, Milton Armitage, Steve Franken as his absurdly tony cousin, Chatsworth Osbourne Jr., as well as veteran character actors like Faylen, Florida Friebus (as Dobie's mom), William Schallert, and Raymond (The Beverly Hillbillies) Bailey--and dialogue that bristled with charm, wit, and a y dose of disregard for the formality of both the adult world and mainstream TV tropes. And it's that antiestablishment streak, which informed everything from free-thinking Maynard to Zelda's forthright honesty and determination, that not only informed generations of subsequent TV series (from the aforementioned programs to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?) but also endeared the series to young audiences (including one of the 20th century's great iconoclasts, Frank Zappa, who was reportedly a fan) who, in turn, preserved its cult status for decades. Shout Factory's presentation of Dobie Gillis includes all 147 episodes on 20 (!) discs--longtime fans should know that the episodes are presented uncut and without the trimmed running times for syndicated slots, though the infamous "Almost a her" episode, in which Dobie is mistakenly believed to have a child out of wedlock, is available only in its edited form as "Rock-a-Bye Dobie." A bonus disc features a wealth of extras, including the original CBS pilot, "Caper at the Bijou," which features Hickman and the cast plugging for sponsors at the end of the episode. Early turns by Hickman and James are featured in three unrestored episodes of the Robert Cummings sitcom Love That Bob and the largely forgotten Stu Erwin Show, while Maynard's growing popularity--which led to him taking the lead in several fourth-season episodes--is showcased in a clip from the 1960 Coke Time Special which pairs him with Pat Boone and another supporting player turned star, Edd Byrnes's Kookie from 77 Sunset Strip. A new interview with Hickman--still looking youthful and a touch mischievous--is also included, but the real goldmine for Dobie devotees is a collection of written work by Shulman in PDF format, including the script for a proposed spinoff series for Zelda and an amusing "interview" about juvenile delinquency that echoes the wry, absurd humor of Dobie's best episodes. --Paul Gaita