Dobie Gillis

Ancient TV series, say around 1960, full name "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", in which Dobie (played by Dwayne Hickman) chased girls. His best friend was a beatnik called Maynard G. Krebs (played by Bob Denver, later to be Gilligan).

It's an awfully long time since I saw it, but certain lovely quotes stand out. In one episode the coolly intellectual Zelda spoke Spanish. When Dobie expressed his amazement, "You speak Spanish?", she replied, "Pure Castilian, poopsie, none of your regional dialects". Oh yes, she called him poopsie.

Dobie's father was a grocer. He was given to saying, with quiet resignation, after Dobie had done something egregiously provoking, "I gotta kill that boy, I just gotta". Maynard addressed him with nonce-titles such as Your Grocership.

The fabulously rich preppie was called Chatsworth Osborne Junior; he was played by... by the chap who also played the increasingly drunken waiter in The Party (with Peter Sellers and Claudine Longet).

Zelda was played by Sheila James Kuehl, who went on to graduate Harvard Law School, teach law at Loyola, UCLA, and USC, and become the first openly gay person elected to the California Legislature. She is a respected politician, and in November of 2000, became the first lesbian member of California's Senate, taking about 70% of the vote in her race.

Chatsworth Osborne Jr. was played by Steven Franken, but that character did not appear in the first few episodes. The first spoiled rich kid was Milton Armitage, played by none other than Warren Beatty. Beatty has denied ever being in a TV series, but he's lying.

When Bob Denver got drafted, another future Bonnie and Clyde actor, Michael J. Pollard, was brought in to play the beatnik. He was not well-received in the role, and when Denver flunked the army physical, Maynard was quickly reinstated.