Actor Dwayne Hickman, who played the title character in the sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, passed away Sunday at age 87. The show that made Hickman a household name ran from 1959 to 1963. The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis was the first sitcom that focused on high school students (who later went to college). The Dobie Gillis character was their everyman, who suffered constant romantic setbacks just like the Baby Boomers who watched the show. Besides Dobie, the characters included his best friend Maynard Krebs (Bob Denver) who was a beatnik, the wealthy and popular Milton (Warren Beatty), the pretty but unobtainable Thalia (Tuesday Weld), and Zelda, the brainy short girl that Dobie should have paid more attention to (Sheila James).
Do those high school types remind you of anyone? In 1969, Hanna-Barbara gave us a quartet of teenagers named Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy -plus Shaggy's dog named Scooby-Doo- in the show Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! The stereotypes are all there, although Fred was more of a straight man than a relatable loser like Dobie. While Scooby-Doo was aimed at Gen X, their Baby Boomer parents saw the resemblance, which began the rumor that Scooby-Doo was an animated remake of Dobie Gillis with mysteries and a dog thrown in.
You know what? That rumor was very true. Read the story of how the creators of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! came to resurrect the characters of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis at CBR. -via Metafilter