Does the town where the series takes place get mentioned? I have seen a few stock footage shots of the street where Gillis Grocers is located however I can't recall if they ever mention the name of the town it takes place in. Anyone know??
shareWell they have snow and in one Season one show, the docks are mentioned, so I logically assumed it was a town in Michigan, Minnesota or Wisconsin or maybe even Ohio or North- western Pennsylvania.
Last night though, when I saw Dobie, Herbert & Maynard riding in the
delivery truck, long outdoor shot behind it showed Palm trees in the distance!
I'll keep watching for clues though.
Go for it or just be a gopher!
(MR.) happipuppi13 🐕 *arf,man!*
Okay , I believe I've figured it out.
They are in a small burgh/town, somewhere
near or within Chicago and close to Lake Michigan
In several episodes, Maynard mentions going to 'The Stockyards' to Dobie & others.
The most well known stockyards were in Chicago. Known as
"The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co.", was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century. (1865 to 1971.) Their goal was to butcher and process the livestock locally rather than transferring it to other northern cities for butchering and processing.
(Which is why Maynard mentions 'sheep-dipping')
==============================
I also found this question on YAHOO answers. :
To go from Chicago to Cleveland by water what four lakes would you go through?
Best Answer:
1) Up the Michigan
2) Down the Huron
3) Through Lake St. Clair
4) Into Lake Erie to Cleveland
In a season 3 show, Maynard is on a bridge watching a boat come down
the river delivering cattle, which he stated is coming in from Cleveland.
...and as we know, Cleveland is mentioned a lot
in this show. Winifed even travels to Cleveland to see her sister.
So, although the town isn't mentioned, Herbert refers to one of the news -
papers as a 'downtown paper' (meaning not one printed locally in their little town.)
All of which (to me) adds up to Chicago, Illinois and one of these :
CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS (Districts)
Edison Park *
Roscoe Village
Beverly
Lakeshore East
Rockwell Crossing
Lakewood Balmoral
Holstein Park
Bridgeport *
Calumet Heights
Marynook *
-------'
SUBURBS
Lake Bluff *
Wilmette
Tinley Park
Oak Park * <--- #1 choice.
Glen Ellyn
Western Springs
Orland Park
Glenview *
Woodstock *
Frankfort
* Indicates what I feel would be a good name for their ficitinal town.
Go for it or just be a gopher!
(MR.) happipuppi13 🐕 *arf,man!*
The name of the setting of the series is Central City, which is a fictitious town only identified to be someplace in the midwestern United States. The original Max Shulman Dobie Gillis stories are set specifically in Minneapolis-St. Paul, so one can presume Central City is someplace close to that area.
shareSEASON 1 EPISODE 29- The Big Sandwich
Dobies parents are out of town and make a long distance call home MR Gillis asks the operator to connect him with a Springfield number..so the answer maybe Springfield, Illinois.
Since Cleveland is mentioned in Dobie Gillis dialogue more often than is any other city (including multiple references to Maynard's favorite movie being THE MONSTER THAT ATE CLEVELAND), I'd say that Herbert G. was directing his phone call above to Springfield, OH.
Most great films deserve a more appreciative audience than they get.
I'll go for Minnesota, like some others in the this thread. As mentioned, it was Max Shulman's home state, so likely one of the Twin Cities. This was my sense when watching it when I was growing up. There are those other vaguely and sometimes no so vaguely midwestern references in the show but to me it always felt Minneapolis-St. Paul, not sure why. It didn't have a regional flavor, as such, but then most sitcoms back then didn't.
shareOne clue which may (or may not!) help is "the old Endicott Building." Whenever the boys were looking for something to do, Maynard would suggest that they "watch 'em tear down the old Endicott Building" (and he would pantomime the wrecking ball by head-butting Dobie's shoulder).
Therefore I'm hunting for Endicott Buildings (preferably deceased). So far I've found that there used to be a nice big one at 155 Cabot Street in Beverly Massachusetts, but that's kinda far from the Midwest. There's one in Korea, but if it was even built by 1959, it would have been the *new* Endicott Building at that time (and even further from the Midwest).
There is apparently *still* a well-known Endicott Building in St. Paul Minnesota that's been there since the late 1800s -- and since Max Shulman was from there, that may be where the idea came from. Does anyone know if the building is mentioned at all in Shulman's stories?
And in Juneau, Alaska, "The century old Endicott Building ... was destroyed by a fire on August 15th, 2004." So of course it was still standing during not only the entire run of Dobie Gillis, but also when the two reunion shows were filmed. And not all that close to Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, etc.
Oh, wait, this one (as well as the one in St. Paul) could actually be relevant: There was an Endicott Building in Detroit, just across Lake Erie from the oft-mentioned-above Cleveland. The building was long gone by 1959 (having been built in 1879 and torn down in 1927), but its demolition could conceivably have been a vivid childhood memory for whoever wrote the first script that mentioned it.