I was sorry to read that actor Bob Denver passed away. It surprised me because from TV I think of him as a kid, not an older fellow.
His most famous role that everyone talks about was as Gilligan, in Gilligan's Island. But I remember him more from his prior role as a beatnik, Maynard G Krebs, in "Dobie Gillis".
Dobie Gillis was an early 1960s show about an average teenage boy trying to get along with his friends, parents, school, girls, etc. I enjoyed it when I was very young. It was on reruns, but I haven't seen it in a while. I do remember it as being a cut above the silly humor of most TV shows -- a little more thoughtful, a little more intellectual, jokes that were a little less obvious. I remember the parents as being definitely NOT the typical Cleaver/Nelson TV parents of that era -- the father, trying to run his grocery store, was always hollering at Dobie for something or another. I liked shows that had that as they seemed to be more realistic. (Ward Cleaver, for all his mildness, made me terrible nervous, and he was someone I wouldn't want to visit.)
Mr. Denver, as Maynard, was kind of a comedy relief, and wasn't too central to the plots. But it was nice seeing an anti-establishment figure, esp way back then -- he'd wear torn sweatshirts and had a scruffy little beard -- and issue poetic philosophical observations that may or may not made sense.
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