Wednesday, June 12, 2019

CRAIG'S LIST - WEDNESDAY'S CHILD IS FULL OF... WHOA!



From Wikipedia:
Dobie Gillis is set in Central City, a fictitious city in the Midwestern United States (the original short stories are explicitly set in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area).

Central City, the same setting for the 1990s televersion of ‘The Flash’, seems like it was a gentle small town of the early 1960s.  So it doesn’t seem likely that it could be possible that at least five young ladies, perhaps even six, could be so identical in appearance. 

From the IMDb:

YVONNE CRAIG
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
- Pilot
(1959) ... Girl #1 (uncredited)

- The Flying Millicans (1960) ... Aphrodite Millican
- Dobie's Navy Blues (1960) ... Myrna Lomax
- Like Mother, Like Daughter, Like Wow (1961) ... Hazel Grimes
- The Sweet Success of Smell (1962) ... Elspeth Hummaker
- Flow Gently, Sweet Money (1962) ... Linda Sue Faversham



I’m thinking Craig’s first character, the unnamed girl in the pilot episode, could be either one of the other five girls or yet another girl in Central City.  And then there’s still another theory – because it was such a Zonk-filled introduction to the series that seemed to be populated with several tele-cognizants and more than just the expected serlinguist.  It could be that “Girl #1” was imaginary in one of Dobie’s dreams, only based on one of those other girls.


When I learned that she played those half dozen girls in Dobie’s life, I was eager to finally use a splainin I’ve been holding for a while – that they were all the same character, but that she had multiple personalities.  And being a small town, Central City citizens all knew about her condition and politely ignored it.

One day I’ll get to use that theory, but it is not today.  As it turns out, family members of each of those girls appeared in their episodes.  I was then tempted to suggest that perhaps they were all the daughters of Dobie’s father – after all, he had once been enamored of Hazel Grimes’ mother.  She may have been pregnant with his child when she and her husband left town.  But of course, that becomes creepy – if it turned out all those girls were his daughters, why didn’t he finally admit to his son why he shouldn’t be dating them.

However, I think a likely candidate for the father of all of those “identical cousins” could be Professor Millican.  That epitome of physical fitness and acrobatic prowess – good for climbing out of bedroom windows – might have been quite a Lothario among lonely wives of Central City. 

And carrying that idea further, it could be the Millicans visited other locations in Toobworld around the late 1930s, early 1940s and foisted more of these identical cousins on their citizenry.  (Especially with shows like ‘Sam Benedict’ and especially ’77 Sunset Strip’.)

And who knows?  Maybe even to Gotham City as well....


As always, this is just a theory. 

BCnU!

Image result for "yvonne craig"  "Dobie Gillis"
But... but... you're my sister!

No comments: