Save your money for something good and enjoyable

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

I was a teenager and saw "...Dobie Gillis" when it first came out, at a time when I was a teenager myself! Others have commented how this was ahead of its time. If silly, mindless, fantasy (not reality)-based comedy is your cup of tea, then please help yourself. The characters are over-the-top (as are most so-called "sit-coms"). The circumstances are ridiculous. The characters are not developed. "Family Affair" is one of the worst ever. I also saw "Private Secretary," "My Little Margie," "Topper," and others when they were first broadcast. How about "December Bride"? The others were not great, but at least they were not so mindless. Ahead of its time? Yes, today's sitcoms are silly and shallow, too... so in that respect it was. "I Love Lucy" was zany but the characters had some depth and they interacted with one another in a logical way. "All in the Family" has to be one of the best-written, best-acted, most thoughtful series of all time. Dobie Gills and sit-coms in general are mindless entertainment. I do recall that, as someone commented elsewhere here, that "...Dobie Gillis" was edited in a "snappy" way.

based on Max Shulman's collection of short stories, this youth-oriented series was witty and irreverent with sharp writing and a peerlessly eclectic cast (Warren Beatty and Tuesday Weld, in particular shine) in addition to the leads Hickman and Denver. Hickman is the sensitive youth who aspires to be a poet under a hard-nosed father and doting mother. The father, played by Frank Faylen is outstanding as the hard-working store owner who fails to understand his impractical son's fancies and who frequently intones "I just gotta kill that boy, I gotta." Denver is particularly fun to watch, his comic style which would occasionally suffocate Gilligan's Island is tuned to the right intensity as Hickman's beatnik sidekick.What particularly makes Dobie successful, particularly in the early seasons, is the almost surreal and self-contained world created by the writers. Just the names of the characters Thalia Menninger, Milton Armitage, Chatsworth Osborne Jr., Maynard G Krebs and Aphrodite Millican gives an idea of the tone of the series. Dobie begins every episode before Rodin's Thinker, speaking directly to the viewer with a pithy observation, which by the framing end sequence has been demonstrated or refuted. Unlike Father Knows Best and other family shows of its era, the Gillis family is dysfunctional, and the differences between Dobie and his father are not of a dramatic Rebel Without a Cause sort, but a gentler divergence of life views of a depression-era father and a postwar teenager.The later seasons, much less inspired, take Dobie and Maynard out of high school into college and other adventures.I hope at least the first season comes out as a season box set. It's an important part of our pop history.

Now all you Wodehouse fans don't have a cow...Dobie is not a copy of Bertie. Bertie comes from money, Dobie's parent run a Mom-an-Pop grocery store. Bertie has a continental charm, Dobie has a corn-fed earnestness. Bertie spends all of his time running from women, Dobie spends all of his time chasing girls. Bertie has Jeeves, Dobie has Maynard G. Krebs, and I think that says it all.Though I enjoyed the series when I saw it as a kid (first run), I didn't really get much of the sweet heartache of the show until I was in high school and trying to catch the attention of my own Thalia.Thing that I loved: Episodes opening with Rodin's "The Thinker" and Dobie trying to think his way out of his current situation...Dobie addressing the camera...Maynard's reaction to the word, "Work!"Let me encourage anyone who can to get the short story collection by Max Schulman. It is a complete delight and gave me a real appreciation for how well the TV show adapted the tone and snap of the book.Shulman also wrote "Rally Round the Flag, Boys" and "The Tender Trap" both made into enjoyable movies.

Dobie Gillis may not be groundbreaking, but it is a well-crafted comic gem of a TV series. Direction is crisp, acting is excellent and the comic characters are perfection: Maynard, the clueless but lovable loser (who has been widely copied but never surpassed), Thalia, the sexy, cute gold-digger, who is smarter than anyone expects, Milton, the insufferable preppie, Zelda, the nerd, etc. And here sits Dobie--ridiculously average, being tossed between them all like a beachball, and trying to make sense of it all. Character actors Wm. Schallert and Frank Faylen shine; Beatty gives an eerily prescient glimpse into his future roles; and Dobie is the personification of the likeable schlemiel.Enchanting!