The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963. The series and several episode scripts were adapted from a 1951 collection of short stories of the same name, written by Max Shulman, who had also written a feature film adaptation of his short stories for MGM in 1953, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis. The series revolved around the life of teenager/young adult Dobie Gillis, who, along with his best friend, beatnik Maynard G. Krebs, struggles against the forces of his life - high school, the military, college, and his parents - as he aspires to attain both wealth and dates with girls. The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis was produced by Martin Manulis Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television. Creator Shulman also wrote the theme song in collaboration with Lionel Newman.
Seasons
1. Caper at the Bijou
Air Date: 1959-09-29
Dobie and Maynard conspire to rig the raffle at the local movie theatre so that Dobie can win enough money to take Thalia to the prom.
2. The Best Dressed Man
Air Date: 1959-10-06
Dobie competes with Milton Armitage to see whose wardrobe can impress Thalia the most.
3. Love is a Science
Air Date: 1959-10-13
Thalia urges Dobie to become a doctor, but he meets Zelda Gilroy and learns about the scientific concept of propinquity, the psychological tendency for people to form relationships with those whom they encounter often.
4. The Right Triangle
Air Date: 1959-10-20
Dobie's older brother Davey convinces him to invent an affair with a married woman to impress a new girl in school.
5. Maynard's Farewell to the Troops
Air Date: 1959-11-03
Maynard gets drafted.
6. The Sweet Singer of Central High
Air Date: 1959-11-10
After a throat operation, Dobie can sing better than Milton, thus attracting Thalia.
7. Greater Love Hath No Man
Air Date: 1959-11-17
Dobie tries to earn $6 to take Thalia to the Junior Prom.
8. The Old Goat
Air Date: 1959-11-24
Before the big football game, Dobie hatches a scheme for winning by stealing the opposing mascot.
9. Dobie Gillis: Boy Actor
Air Date: 1959-12-01
Dobie is up against Milton to be leading man in a school play.
10. It Takes Two
Air Date: 1959-12-08
Dobie falls for Poppy Herming but has to win her father's approval too.
11. Dobie's Birthday Party
Air Date: 1959-12-15
Dobie thinks everyone has forgotten his birthday.
12. Deck the Halls
Air Date: 1959-12-22
Mr. Gillis is driven crazy by all the Christian celebrations, and almost spends the holidays in jail.
13. Couchville, USA
Air Date: 1959-12-29
Herbert seeks free advice from a child psychiologist.
14. The Gaucho
Air Date: 1960-01-05
Mr. and Mrs. Gillis take in a young and handsome border from South America.
15. The Smoke-Filled Room
Air Date: 1960-01-12
Dobie runs against Milton for junior class president. Thalia is Dobie's campaign manager.
16. The Fist Fighter
Air Date: 1960-01-19
Dobie becomes Top Fist by knocking out the legendary Moose. Milton tries to gain the title and Thaila's affections by challenging Dobie.
17. The Hunger Strike
Air Date: 1960-01-26
Dobie goes on a hunger strike until Thalia agrees to be his.
18. The Flying Millicans
Air Date: 1960-02-02
Dobie falls for trapeze artist Aphrodite Millican,.
19. Room at the Bottom
Air Date: 1960-02-09
Thalia talks Dobie's parents into sending him to Willoughby prep school.
20. The Power of Positive Thinking
Air Date: 1960-02-16
In order to win Thaila from Chatsworth, Dobie reads a book on mental power so he can be the dominating man Thalia wants.
21. Dobie Spreads a Rumor
Air Date: 1960-02-23
Dobie and Maynard are puzzled when a rumor they spread about Zelda inheriting a fortune seems to become reality.
22. Love is a Fallacy
Air Date: 1960-03-01
Thalia tries to educate Dobie in logical thinking.
23. The Chicken from Outer Space
Air Date: 1960-03-08
Maynard gives a chicken an overdose of growth hormones as a biology class project .
24. Dobie's Navy Blues
Air Date: 1960-03-15
Dobie and a girl friend take a baby-sitting job. However, the Gillies suspect Dobie is secretly a father.
25. Taken to the Cleaners
Air Date: 1960-03-29
Dobie, Maynard, and Thalia capture a crooked dry-cleaner who had almost conned them before.
26. That's Show Biz
Air Date: 1960-04-05
Dobie and most of his friends reluctantly participate in a talent show.
27. The Prettiest Collateral in Town
Air Date: 1960-04-12
Doblie's dad wants him to romance a banker's daughter so he can get a loan.
28. Live Alone and I Like It
Air Date: 1960-04-19
Dobie wants to prove he's grownup, so he moves into a small apartment with Maynard.
29. The Big Sandwich
Air Date: 1960-04-26
Thalia hatches a scheme for Dobie to sell sandwiches at the school picnic.
30. Soup and Fish
Air Date: 1960-05-03
Dobie, Maynard, and Chatsworth must all share the same tuxedo to get in to a black-tie party at the Armitage mansion.
31. Where There's a Will
Air Date: 1960-05-10
Herbert worries about what will happen to the store after he's gone.
32. Put Your Feet in Our Hands
Air Date: 1960-05-17
Dobie and Chatsworth complete for the attention of a shoe store owner's daughter in order to get a job at the store.
33. Competition is the Life of Trade
Air Date: 1960-05-24
Dobie's newest girlfriend's father happens to be opening a new grocery store. Mr. Gillis tries to spy under the name Fred C. Dobbs.
34. The French, They Are a Funny Race
Air Date: 1960-05-31
Maynard falls for a French girl and shaves off his goatee.
35. The Unregistered Nurse
Air Date: 1960-06-07
Dobie falls for an older nurse and feigns a disease so he can be near her.
36. The Long Arm of the Law
Air Date: 1960-06-14
Dobie's new date's father turns out to be a cop with whom he had a disagreement about picking flowers in the park.
37. Here Come the Groom
Air Date: 1960-06-21
A discouraged Dobie finally gives up on finding his dream girl and agrees to marry Zelda.
38. A Taste of Lobster
Air Date: 1960-06-28
Dobie finds a girl who doesn't care about money, until her younger sister starts going on finance dates with a richer boy.
39. Rock-a-Bye Dobie
Air Date: 1960-07-05
Dobie lies about joining the navy to impress a girl's sea-mined father.
1. Who Needs Elvis?
Air Date: 1960-09-27
Dobie joins the school band solely to be close to piccolo player Esme Lauterbach, who is interested in Maynard.
2. You Ain't Nothin' But a Houn' Dog
Air Date: 1960-10-04
Maynard enters Dobie's old school essay My Dog in a newspaper Father's Day contest, but changes it to My Dad.
3. Baby Talk
Air Date: 1960-10-18
Maynard finds an abandoned baby in the park.
4. Dobie Goes Beatnik
Air Date: 1960-10-25
Thelonius Monk comes to town and invites Maynard to sit in on bongos. But Herbert needs a favor which will require Dobie and Maynard to switch identities.
5. The Mystic Powers of Maynard G. Krebs
Air Date: 1960-11-01
Maynard has temporary ESP, which will allow him to predict the winner of the Kennedy-Nixon presidential election.
6. The Face That Stopped the Clock
Air Date: 1960-11-15
Maynard takes a job selling clock-statues at an army surplus store.
7. Maynard G. Krebs: Boy Millionaire
Air Date: 1960-11-22
Maynard finds a purse full of cash.
8. Around My Room in 80 Days
Air Date: 1960-11-29
Dobie and Maynard help a classmate to not drop out of school.
9. Drag Strip Dobie
Air Date: 1960-12-06
Zelda helps Dobie build a hot rod so that he can impress a girl by beating Chatsworth in a car race.
10. Jangle Bells
Air Date: 1960-12-20
Dobie choses going to a huge Christmas party with Chatsworth rather than a small one with Maynard and feels guilty enough to have a Scrooge-like dream.
11. Parlez-Vous English
Air Date: 1960-12-27
Dobie meets a pretty fatalistically morose French girl who savors the negative things in life. She thinks Dobie is an oaf and Dobie hates her bleak attitude. Yet, she keeps coming around.
12. The Day the Teachers Disappeared
Air Date: 1961-01-03
All the teachers come down with the flu and parents have to take over the classes.
13. What's My Lion?
Air Date: 1961-01-10
A lion escapes from a zoo and becomes attached to Maynard.
14. The Big Question
Air Date: 1961-01-24
In order to graduate, Dobie and Maynard must write an essay on the subject of Whither Are We Drifting?
15. Have You Stopped Beating Your Wife?
Air Date: 1961-01-31
Dobie tries to get his father to spend more time with Mrs. Gillis.
16. The Bitter Feud of Dobie and Maynard
Air Date: 1961-02-07
Maynard is convinced that he is dragging Dobie down in life so he tries to antagonize Dobie into ending their friendship.
17. Zelda, Get Off My Back
Air Date: 1961-02-14
Zelda decides she's tired of being rejected by Dobie and turns her attentions to Chatsworth.
18. I Was a High School Scrooge
Air Date: 1961-02-21
Dobie, Maynard and Zelda think an old Central High star athlete is a bum, while he is actually a big executive.
19. Will Success Spoil Dobie's Mother?
Air Date: 1961-02-28
Winnie wins a date with Hollywood starlet Merilee Maribou and gives the prize to Dobie.
20. The Second Childhood of Herbert T. Gillis
Air Date: 1961-03-07
It's Dobie's graduation and Herbert, feeling embrassed that he never graduated, goes to night school to earn his diploma.
21. Dobie Versus the Machine
Air Date: 1961-03-14
Dobie and Maynard, out of high school, don't know what to do with themselves and seek professional help. In the end they decide to enlist in the army.
22. Baby Shoes
Air Date: 1961-03-21
Herbert, Winifred and Zelda reminisce as Dobie and Maynard prepare to leave for the army.
23. I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier, Sailor, or Marine
Air Date: 1961-03-28
Maynard misses the bus on his first day in the Army, but Chatsworth fills him in for him.
24. The Chicken Corporal
Air Date: 1961-04-04
Being put in charge of his squad's barracks goes to Dobie's head and his friendship with Maynard suffers.
25. The Solid Gold Dog Tag
Air Date: 1961-04-11
Despite opposition from his mother, Chatsworth decides to join Dobie and Maynard in the Army.
26. The Battle of Maynard's Beard
Air Date: 1961-04-18
The Army orders Maynard to shave off his beard.
27. Spaceville
Air Date: 1961-04-25
Maynard and a chimp get launched into space.
28. Like Mother, Like Daughter, Like Wow
Air Date: 1961-05-02
Dobie's mother becomes jealous when she learns that the attractive widowed mother of Dobie's latest girlfriend is an old flame of Mr. Gillis.
29. Dobie Plays Cupid
Air Date: 1961-05-09
Dobie tries to improve Maynard's confidence with girls.
30. Like Father, Like Son, Like Trouble
Air Date: 1961-05-16
Dobie gets cast in the army play and while in costume, leads an army officer's daughter to believe he is an army official.
31. Be It Ever So Humble
Air Date: 1961-05-23
Dobie and Maynard get weekend passes, but Zelda has been telling all the girls back home that she and Dobie are engaged.
32. Aah, Yer Fadder Wears Army Shoes
Air Date: 1961-05-30
Dobie exaggerates his dad's war record to impress a girl from a long military family.
33. Everything But the Truth
Air Date: 1961-06-06
Zelda invents a secret engagement to try and impress some sorority girls.
34. Goodbye Mister Pomfritt, Hello Mr. Chips
Air Date: 1961-06-13
Dobie and Maynard organize a tribute to Mr. Pomfritt, hoping to convince him not to leave Central High.
35. Take Me to Your Leader
Air Date: 1961-06-20
Dobie, Maynard, and Zelda believe that the store's beautiful blonde next patron is secretly an alien.
36. This Ain't The Way We Used to Do It
Air Date: 1961-06-27
Offended by what he sees a laxity in today's army, ex-sergeant Herbert Gillis puts his son's squad through some rugged training exercises before they graduate.
1. Ruptured Duck
Air Date: 1961-10-10
Dobie and Maynard get their honorable discharges from the army and decides to go to college.
2. Dobie, Dobie, Who's Got Dobie?
Air Date: 1961-10-17
Zelda competes with a beautifull college girl for Dobie's affections.
3. Move Over, Perry Mason
Air Date: 1961-10-24
Maynard sues after getting his hand struck in the store's gumball machine.
4. The Fast White Mouse
Air Date: 1961-10-31
Dobie and Zelda worry they are genetically inferior and thus doomed to failure like the loser rat in their biology class experiments.
5. The Gigolo
Air Date: 1961-11-07
Maynard becomes the most sought-after date because no girl's boyfriend would be jealous of him.
6. Dig, Dig, Dig
Air Date: 1961-11-14
Dobie wants to study Egyptology, but Mr. Gillis thinks Dobie only has a crush on the teacher.
7. Eat, Drink and be Merry...For Tomorrow, Ker-Boom!
Air Date: 1961-11-21
Maynard predicts the end of the world.
8. The Richest Squirrel in Town
Air Date: 1961-11-28
A larcenous rodent is stealing from Mr. Pomfritt's desk, but Maynard and Dobie get blamed.
9. The Second Most Beautiful Girl in the World
Air Date: 1961-12-05
Dobie finds he has to share his new date, a tender-hearted girl, with another boy on each date he takes her on.
10. This Town Ain't Big Enough for Me and Robert Browning
Air Date: 1961-12-12
Inspired by Robert Browning's assertion that a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Dobie goes after an unattainable girl, putting his relationship with Zelda at risk.
11. Have Reindeer, Will Travel
Air Date: 1961-12-19
Maynard gives the class's Christmas funds to a poor Mexican family.
12. Crazylegs Gillis
Air Date: 1961-12-26
Dobie and his girlfriend have to babysit for a college football player's kids and he ends up having to fill in for him during the game.
13. Blue Tail Fly
Air Date: 1962-01-02
Dobie runs against Chatsworth for student council.
14. I Do Not Choose to Run
Air Date: 1962-01-09
Herbert is running for mayor and Dobie falls in love with his opponent's daughter.
15. Happiness Can't Buy Money
Air Date: 1962-01-16
Chatsworth wants Mr. Gillis to teach him to be more responsible.
16. Magnificent Failure
Air Date: 1962-01-23
Mr. Gillis decides to sell the store.
17. For Whom the Wedding Bells Tolls
Air Date: 1962-01-30
Doibie and Maynard stow away on a boat headed for South America. Dobie wants to get away from Zelda, but she follows them.
18. Girls Will Be Boys
Air Date: 1962-02-13
Maynard goes out with a female version of himself. Dobie thinks she should act more feminine. When she realizes it's fun to be feminine, Maynard gets scared away.
19. Marriage Counselor
Air Date: 1962-02-20
When Dobie's psychology class teaches him about the many benefits of marriage, he decides it's time to marry Zelda.
20. The Big Blunder and Egg Man
Air Date: 1962-02-27
To impress a girl, Dobie invests more than he should in his economics class project. He buys stock in an egg company and ends up with a room full of eggs.
21. Birth of a Salesman
Air Date: 1962-03-06
When Dobie wants to join an exclusive fraternity, Mr. Gillis bribes members to accept him.
22. Like, Oh Brother
Air Date: 1962-03-13
Dobie and Maynard help Dr. Burkhart establish a center for disadvantaged kids. Maynard wins over the little delinquents by talking to them at their own level.
23. Wanted: Dead or Alive
Air Date: 1962-03-20
Dobie tries to convince Maynard that he is not going to fall for any more money-mad girls, but then a successful college dropout shows up on campus and asks Dobie and Mr. Pomfritt to come work for her as salesmen.
24. Names My Mother Called Me
Air Date: 1962-03-27
When his latest girlfriend tells him to change his silly name, Dobie learns that he is named after a Noble Prize winner.
25. Dobie Gillis: Wanted Dead or Alive
Air Date: 1962-04-03
In order to get good enough grades to follow his latest heartthrob to Harvard, Dobie must cheat on an exam to pass his poetry class.
26. The Truth Session
Air Date: 1962-04-10
Maynard decides to always speak the truth, upsetting all his friends in the process.
27. I Remember Muu Muu
Air Date: 1962-04-17
Maynard writes an article for the school newspaper about a primitive dance demonstration in his anthropology class, but takes his cue from tabloid writing and makes it sound like an orgy.
28. Sweet Success of Smell
Air Date: 1962-04-24
When their biology professor discovers that Maynard can track missing objects by their smell, Maynard becomes a Private Nose.
29. When Other Friendships Have Been Forgot
Air Date: 1962-05-01
Maynard moves away and Dobie misses him greatly.
30. I Was a Boy Soronity Girl
Air Date: 1962-05-08
Dobie and Maynard take jobs as waiters at a soronity house party.
31. It Takes A Heap o'Livin' to Make a Cave a Home
Air Date: 1962-05-15
Maynard discovers a prehistoric throwback living in a cave and decides to move in with him
32. Back-to-Nature Boy
Air Date: 1962-05-22
Chatsworth's cousin Edwina is tired of society life. She wants Maynard to show her how to live the simple life.
33. How to Cheat an Honest Man
Air Date: 1962-05-29
When Dobie tries to impress a girl who expects complete honesty, he as well as his dad and Maynard get arrested for trying to reverse a fixed parking ticket.
34. Bachelor Father and Son
Air Date: 1962-06-05
Winnie goes to visit her sister in Cleveland, leaving Herbert and Dobie to enjoy the bliss of bachelorhood for a week on their own.
35. Like Low Noon
Air Date: 1962-06-12
Dobie's old nemesis Butch Baumgartner, now the army's heavyweight boxing champ, is coming home and the word is that he is coming to knock Dobie's brains out.
36. The Frat's in the Fire
Air Date: 1962-06-26
Dobie gets a job at a lumber company and dates the boss's daughter, although he already has a girlfriend.
1. A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to a Funny Thing
Air Date: 1962-09-26
Maynard saves a suicidal jumper but falls from the ledge himself and is taken to a psycho ward.
2. What's a Little Murder Between Friends
Air Date: 1962-10-03
Dobie names Thaila as his beneficiary on a life insurance policy, then becomes paranoid that she and Maynard are trying to kill him.
3. Northern Comfort
Air Date: 1962-10-10
Mrs. Gillis's cousin Virgil visits and gets the Gillises to supply him with all he needs for a singing engagement.
4. The Ugliest American
Air Date: 1962-10-17
On a class trip to an African jungle, Dobie is captured by a tribe of cannibals.
5. A Splinter Off the Old Block
Air Date: 1962-10-24
Dobie's teenage cousin Duncan moves in with the Gillises and tells Dobie's girlfriend that Dobie needs help for a drinking problem.
6. What Makes the Varsity Drag?
Air Date: 1962-10-31
Dobie joins the football squad to impress a girl, but only succeeds in making her big bruiser boyfriend jealous.
7. Like Hi, Exlosives
Air Date: 1962-11-07
Duncan and Maynard don't realize they loaded up the Gillis Grocery delivery truck with a case of nitroglycerin.
8. Where is Thy Sting
Air Date: 1962-11-14
Dobie pretends to be terminaly ill to gain a girl's sympathy. However, due to a mixup, Dobie is led to believe he's really in poor health.
9. Flow Gently, Sweet Money
Air Date: 1962-11-21
An older woman teaches Duncan how to be rotten to succeed in the world so he'll be able to provide for her younger sister. But meanwhile the younger sister is falling for nice, honest Dobie.
10. Strictly for the Birds
Air Date: 1962-11-28
Dobie and Maynard train a mynah bird to help them with their history exam.
11. The Iceman Goeth
Air Date: 1962-12-05
Maynard and Duncan accidentally lock Mr. Gillis in the meat freezer, and think they've killed him.
12. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Gillis
Air Date: 1962-12-12
To avoid failing an upcoming test that will cause him to flunk out of school, Maynard drinks a potion that is supposed to turn him into a genius, but ends up transforming him into a monster.
13. Will the Real Santa Claus Please Come Down the Chimney
Air Date: 1962-12-19
To cure Maynard of his childish belief in Santa Claus, Mr. Gillis climbs down the chimney on Christmas Eve and gets stuck.
14. Who Did William Tell?
Air Date: 1963-01-02
Duncan gets a role in a visiting production of William Tell and falls for a young opera star, unaware she has a jealous boyfriend.
15. Too Many Kooks Spoil the Broth
Air Date: 1963-01-09
Dobie falls for a kitchenware heiress and wants to impress her by selling one of the man's Quickie-Cookers.
16. Vocal Boy Makes Good
Air Date: 1963-01-16
Performing at Pryor College, the Lettermen hire Dobie as an emergency replacement singer.
17. All Right, Dobie, Drop the Gun
Air Date: 1963-01-23
A fugitive criminal and his girlfriend hold up the Gillises in the store. Maynard arrives and complicates the situation.
18. And Now a Word From Our Sponsor
Air Date: 1963-01-30
Dobie is the new DJ on the college radio station. A mobster tries to give him payola to make his country-singer girlfriend a star.
19. Two for the Whipsaw
Air Date: 1963-02-06
Chatsworth pays Dobie to take his place at a fancy dinner with old friends of the family, whose daughter he remembers as being particularly ugly.
20. The Moon and No Pence
Air Date: 1963-02-13
Dobie falls for brainy a Russian ballerina and solicits Zelda's aid to improve his grades. When that fails, he ends up dancing outside her window.
21. The Beast with Twenty Fingers
Air Date: 1963-02-20
Maynard and Herbert get struck in one of those finger toys just as Mr. Gillis is about to leave for a grocer's convention.
22. Thanks for the Memory
Air Date: 1963-02-27
When a foreign student likes Dobie because he is simple-minded, Zelda decides to teach him how to improve his memory
23. Three Million Coins in the Fountain
Air Date: 1963-03-06
When Chatsworth's family goes broke, he gets Maynard and Duncan to help him raise money claiming it is charity for a needy family.
24. Beethoven, Presley, and Me
Air Date: 1963-03-13
The song-analyzing qualities of a computer are transfered to Maynard, and cousin Virgil uses his ability to predict hit songs to become a singing star.
25. The Little Chimp That Couldn't
Air Date: 1963-03-20
A test chimpanzee is doomed unless Maynard can show that he is more talented than he seems.
26. There's Always Room for One Less
Air Date: 1963-03-27
Thrown out by his mother, Chatsworth moves in with the Gillises for a while.
27. The General Cried at Dawn
Air Date: 1963-04-03
Maynard doubles for a Latin American general while on vacation.
28. Now I Lay Me Down to Steal
Air Date: 1963-04-10
Staying overnight at the Osbourne mansion with Dobie and his new girlfriend, Maynard is suspected of stealing jewelry from their safe when he is found sleepwalking.
29. Lassie, Get Lost
Air Date: 1963-04-17
A teenage celebrity's dog is lost and Dobie tries to find it.
30. The Rice and Old Shoes Caper
Air Date: 1963-04-24
Zelda is tired of being rejected by Dobie, while Maynard realizes that no other woman would put up with him.
31. Requiem for an Underweight Heavyweight
Air Date: 1963-05-01
Maynard temporarily gains super-strength. Mr. Gillis becomes his prize fighting manager.
32. I Was a Spy for the F.O.B.
Air Date: 1963-05-08
On a trip to Washington DC with the Gillises, Maynard gets mistaken for a rocket scientist and sought by foreign spies for his secret fuel formula.
33. There's a Broken Light for Every Broken Heart on Broadway
Air Date: 1963-05-15
Maynard guides a fellow student to become a singing sensation, then ponders if he should step aside when a big-time agent wants to take her on.
34. Beauty Is Only Kin Deep
Air Date: 1963-05-22
Dobie falls in love with a girl at school, but family tradition prevents her from marrying until a match can be found for her older sister.
35. The Call of the, Like, Wild
Air Date: 1963-05-29
A chemical concoction makes Maynard irresistible to women.
36. The Devil and Dobie Gillis
Air Date: 1963-06-05
Desperate for date money, Dobie figuratively sells his soul to Chatsworth and agrees to fix the outcome of a $5,000 charity raffle.
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Rating
5.8/10
Release Date
1959-09-29
Episodes
147 (4 seasons)
Status
Ended
Cast
Production Companies
Martin Manulis Productions
20th Century Fox Television