YMMV / The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

• Accidental Innuendo: Dobie wants a girl who's creamy? Okay...
• Adaptation Displacement: The show is far better remembered than the original Max Shulman stories it's based on, or the movie The Affairs of Dobie Gillis.
• Expy: It's easy to read the main characters as Expies of the main cast of Archie Comics, which predate the series by eighteen years and the original books by four years. Dobie = Archie, Maynard = Jughead, Zelda = a more Adorkable Betty, Thalia = Veronica, and Milton = Reggie.
• Hollywood Homely:
  • Zelda. She was far more Adorkable.
  • To a lesser extent, Dobie himself. He's a nice, funny, and good looking guy but can't land himself a girlfriend.
• Ho Yay: Dobie and Maynard, given how close, dedicated and protective they are of each other. Some episodes would end with Maynard insisting that Dobie doesn't need a girlfriend as long as he's got Maynard.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Kids born after 1970 will wonder why Gilligan is such a stoner. Bob Denver was famous for being Maynard G. Krebs before landing his infamous role.
  • Not to mention Warren Beatty and Tuesday Weld as Milton and Thalia.
• Seasonal Rot: There is a noticeable drop in quality during the second half of season 2 when Dobie and Maynard enlist in the army. Seasons 3 and 4 are also thought to be inferior to seasons 1 and 2, although praise is usually given to the episodes that feature Zelda or Chatsworth.

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