N: The New Gidget

 

The New Gidget

The famous surfer girl played by several actresses on screen and by Sally Field on TV in the 1960s returned to the screen one last time in this syndicated sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1988. It outlasted the the original series by a year. A pilot movie, "Gidget's Summer Reunion" had aired just a year earlier.

In this series, Frances "Gidget" Lawrence was now in her 20s and married to Jeff "Moondoggie" Griffin. Caryn Richman (later to play Greg's wife in the Brady Bunch sequel The Bradys) played Gidget, who now ran a travel agency, and Dean Butler (who'd previously played Almanzo Wilder on Little House on the Prairie) was Jeff, a city planner in Santa Monica. William Schallert (best known as Patty Duke's TV dad) was Gidget's father Russ Lawrence. Anne, Gidget's sister, and her husband John were overseas; as such their teenage daughter Danielle "Dani" Collins (Sydney Penny, future soap opera actress, and mostly recently on Pretty Little Liars) stayed with her aunt and uncle. Dani was similar to how her aunt had been as a teen, as Dani and her friend Gail Baker (Lili Haydn, who played Jenny, the daughter on Mrs. Columbo, and is also a professional violinist) were always getting into trouble. Gail was much like Gidget's childhood friend Larue (played occasionally by Jill Jacobson). In the TV movie, Gidget's niece had been named Kim. 

I really loved watching this one. It was a guilty pleasure for me. One thing, though, I didn't really like the Gail character (she was bit annoying) and I would get annoyed if Russ was not in an episode but Gail was. She was only a recurring cast member. I was surprised she wasn't promoted to the opening credits for the second season. I wondered, when Gail was tagging along with the Griffins on vacations, who was paying for her tickets? We never saw her parents. And something that never occurred to me until I read something on this blog: No appearances by Sally Field. I guess she was too busy with her film career at the time. It would be years before Field returned to series TV. 

The theme song remained the same for both seasons, but new graphics were added for the second year. Going with the show's surfing theme, one episode featured an appearance by '60s surf-rock stars and Jan and Dean, and another episode was a tribute to Gilligan's Island, with Gilligan cast members Alan Hale and Bob Denver.