Gidget Grows Up Explained

Genre:Comedy
Based On:a book by Frederick Kohner
Director:James Sheldon
Starring:Karen Valentine
Edward Mulhare
Paul Petersen
Guest Stars:
Warner Anderson
Bob Cummings
Paul Lynde
Nina Foch
Theme Music Composer:Shorty Rogers
lyrics by Kelly Gordon
sung by Jean King
Composer:Shorty Rogers
Country:United States
Language:English
Executive Producer:Harry Ackerman
Producer:Jerome Courtland
Editor:Aaron Nibley
Cinematography:John M. Stephens
Runtime:74 minutes
Company:Screen Gems
Network:ABC

Gidget Grows Up is a 1969 American made-for-television comedy film directed by James Sheldon with stars Karen Valentine, Edward Mulhare and Paul Petersen as well as alphabetically listed special guest stars Warner Anderson, Bob Cummings, Nina Foch and Paul Lynde. Freely adapted from the novel Gidget Goes New York by Frederick Kohner, the film premiered on ABC on December 30, 1969, and was intended as a pilot for a possible new Gidget series, possibly a sequel to the 1960s sitcom Gidget.[1]

Plot

After two years of college abroad, Gidget returns to Santa Monica. She discovers that the letters she wrote to her boyfriend Jeff, intended to make him jealous, have backfired, and her attempts to patch things up with him are rebuffed. Inspired by a speech she hears on television made by the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, she hops a bus to New York City to work for the United Nations.

She meets the ambassador, who finds her a job, but because she has only two years of college education, the best position the United Nations will offer her is tour guide. She meets and has a fling with Alex Mac Laughlin, an Australian agronomist who finds her and two of her fellow employees an inexpensive Greenwich Village apartment, managed by the eccentric Louis B. Latimer, a grown child actor has-been attempting a comeback as an independent film director.

Gidget has a number of comical and romantic adventures before being reunited with former boyfriend Jeff.

Cast

Guest stars in alphabetical order

Cast members listed only in end credits
Susan BatsonDiana
Hal FrederickLee
Helen FunaiMinnie
Mario AniovAbdul
Gunilla KnudsenKatrina
Doreen LangMrs. Willard
Michael LembeckArnold
Davis RobertsBukumbu Representative
Cynthia LynnDispatcher
Donald SymingtonClerk
Harlan CarraherBen
Margot JaneRae Ellen
Leo G. MorrellTurkish Delegate
Lloyd KinoJapanese Delegate
Hugo BianquiItalian Delegate

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. "Gidget is Returning to the Screen--Only Now She's a Valentine". Los Angeles Times December 28, 1969: L 39 d.