Audiences cared about the castaways, the Brady's and even the hillbillies in a very bad TV movie. They had basically forgotten about Dobie Gillis that outside of a 1953 MGM musical didn't get much air play on syndicated local TV stations. Certainly it's a good try, basically a ripoff of the recent not so successful "Back to the Beach" that reunited Frankie and Annette, but only the most devoted of early 60's TV viewers would care about Dobie, Zelda, Maynard and to a much lesser extent Thalia.
It's a weak parody as many have mentioned of the play and much later musical "The Visit" where the now wealthy Thalia (Connie Stevens) shows up like Donna Mills promising to rescue the town if Dobie leaves the sensible Zelda to be with her. The fact that Dwayne Hickman's Dobie ended up married to Sheila Kuehl's Zelda is comic in itself, and there's even a scene of confrontation between Stevens and Kuehl seems to be preparing for a Joan Collins/Linda Evans type catfight that never happens.
The four leads are not very good, and Kuehl in particular seems awkward with her line delivery. Stevens, taking over for Tuesday Weld (a regular in season one only) is truly dreadful, her character with no heart and little brain, just an overdressed shrew. Veteran character actors William Schallert, Dody Goodman and Kathleen Freeman fare much better. The storyline for the younger characters is a real waste of time filled with amateurish musical numbers surrounding a high school production of "Romeo and Juliet" that features a happy ending. This is closer to "the eye roll" than "the head of".
It's a weak parody as many have mentioned of the play and much later musical "The Visit" where the now wealthy Thalia (Connie Stevens) shows up like Donna Mills promising to rescue the town if Dobie leaves the sensible Zelda to be with her. The fact that Dwayne Hickman's Dobie ended up married to Sheila Kuehl's Zelda is comic in itself, and there's even a scene of confrontation between Stevens and Kuehl seems to be preparing for a Joan Collins/Linda Evans type catfight that never happens.
The four leads are not very good, and Kuehl in particular seems awkward with her line delivery. Stevens, taking over for Tuesday Weld (a regular in season one only) is truly dreadful, her character with no heart and little brain, just an overdressed shrew. Veteran character actors William Schallert, Dody Goodman and Kathleen Freeman fare much better. The storyline for the younger characters is a real waste of time filled with amateurish musical numbers surrounding a high school production of "Romeo and Juliet" that features a happy ending. This is closer to "the eye roll" than "the head of".