Gidget's (Sally Field) friend Shirley Marshall (Beverly Washburn) frantically calls for Gidget to come over to be in on her big surprise. Gidget hurriedly puts her coat over her pajamas and runs to Beverly's house a few blocks away in the night. Beverly's father Herman Marshall (the incomparable comedian Paul Lynde) has decided to buy her a car, and go shopping for it in the night. The three take off to see a little old lady in Pasadena (cue Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys) along with Beverly's mother Hannah (film noir actress Jeff Donnell). Gidget is reluctant to go without checking in with her father (Don Porter) who has the phone off the hook cleaning it, but Mr. Marshall impatiently gets everyone on the road. He comically avoids driving in the valley after getting lost there once in 1959, and instead takes a longer route through downtown. Mr. Marshall: "To me a valley gets one chance. If it doesn't shape up, it's through." They spend a long time searching for a drugstore or gas station with a phone for Gidget to call and tell her father. Once they finally find one, Gidget doesn't want to leave the car since she is in her pajamas. Being in pajamas comically upsets Mr. Marshall, who has to be the one to phone Gidget's father. The phone is busy. Now Mr. Marshall can't find the freeway to Pasadena and they run out of gas near the same gas station they had left.
As you would expect, Paul Lynde steals the show. Any time he guests in an episode, you know you have something special. I've been watching this series in chronological order and to this point, it is certainly the funniest. My favorite.