In "Rock-a-bye Dobie," the last episode of the first season, Herbert and Winnie were talking about Dobie and the need for Herbert to have "the talk" with him.
I'm paraphrasing here, but Herbert says Dobie needs help tying his shoes.
Winnie says, "We're not talking about his shoes, we're talking about his head."
Herbert says, "Which one?"
LOL!
Roland, that's a lilac bush!
You're right Joanna, that was pretty risqué for 1960. It's hard to tell if it was scripted or improvised, because Winnie immediately says "Herbert!"
I just finished watching the first season, and was really surprised how funny it was -- I was expecting it to be kinda corny, I guess. Got a kick out of Bob Denver saying things like "Daddy-O", "I don't, like, dig" and "Man, that guy's a square."
By the way, Winnie slaps the counter as she says "Let's not talk about his feet, let's talk about his head!" He also slaps the counter and responds "Okay, which one?"
"Rock-a-Bye Dobie" in general was actually chopped up and heavily reshot before it was aired - in the original version, it was heavily implied that Herbert thought Dobie'd had a child out of wedlock and that probably disturbed the censors more than anything (to the point where they didn't "get" or notice the "his head" comment)
shareI just binge-watched the entire series, and I thought it was funny that Herbert and Winnie actually considered, even for a minute, that Dobie could be married and living in a nice apartment with a wife and baby, while still living at home and dipping into their cash register.
Roland, that's a lilac bush!
I really don't think that was the joke the writers had in mind. I think it had to do with the old saying of "looking at someone like they had 2 heads" because they were acting strange. Not even sure how much the risque term was used or known back then. Got to be careful not to assume there's a modern meaning to every saying in an older program.
shareI think the show was hipper than the censors who just didn't catch the jokes in Dobie Gillis...It looked like such a clean show, malt shops...chasing suburban girls...
Even the theme song...
Oh Dobie, wants a girl who is dreamy,
Dobie, wants a girl who's creamy,
That isn't particularly subtle...The writers from day one were slipping dirty jokes into the works.
In the episode "The Gaucho" (1960), Thalia gives Dobie an open mouth kiss, which was actually shown in close up. By today's standards, it would be considered tame, but pretty hot stuff for television at the time. I'm surprised the censors weren't all over that.
Let's not forget women actually coming
off stronger (in mind & spirit) than a lot of the guys too.
Only "Lucy" before this and not until "Bewitched" & "That Girl" did girls/
women get portrayed in sitcoms like that. They were usually quite the opposite.
Go for it or just be a gopher!
(MR.) happipuppi13 🐕 *arf,man!*
This is nothing new, many comment on the scene in "It's A Wonderful Life", where George and two other guys watch neighborhood flirt Violet walk away, and make subtle comments on how sexy she is. Heck, one guy hints at going home.and having sex with his wife. " The saucy line is " I wonder what my wife is doing now", or something similiar. It caught me off guard considering the time period of the film. Check out Pre Code films. I have only seen one episode of Dobie in syndication. My elders liked it.
shareexactly especially since giving head wasn't around in the '50s or '60s, the sexual giving head.
shareCaught a few episodes on Decades binge weekend, heard the phrase "cotton picking " a few times in an episode.
shareYeah I watch quite abit of movies from this period and cotton-picking was pretty common I found. Which reminds how warped this country has always been in it's sense of what is right and wrong.
shareme too!!!! and this was my introduction into this great and ground breaking show. so clever, so nuanced, so well put together and so ahead of it's time in terms of humor, comedic timing in a sitcom, original storylines, and a soon to be standard comedic sitcom format.
I was really upset that Decades did this the way the did this. they should've shown 2 episodes back to back and then continued this for a year. that way it wouldn't be over suddenly, and so quickly and that way I wouldn't of missed as many episodes as I did because after a while I had to go to bed two night ago. and so them getting rid of this show after just three days is criminal.
People who read all of these "double meanings" into outdated terms need to remember that the world did not start yesterday.
shareHa ha they snuck in a double entendre. Good one!
shareOne thing to bear in mind is that the censorship rule (at least by the time of Laugh-In, which began just four years after Dobie Gillis ended) was that double entendres were OK, just as long as the "clean" meaning was obvious.
I agree with an earlier poster, most people would probably take Herbert's comment to mean that he thought Dobie "had two heads," i.e., wasn't normal -- which did seem to be his general opinion of the boy. In fact that may well be what the writers actually meant.