Gidget (TV Series) In and Out with the In-Laws (1966) User Reviews

JUST ONE BIG GREAT HAPPY WAR.

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 23 September 2023]

Bruce Bilson, directed this comedy of errors. Bruce had a lengthy list of comedies to his credit, such as HOGANS HEROES and PATTY DUKE.

I do agree with the last reviewer this is a bit confusing-- but still fun, and Bilson got some good performances from this cast. In short, Gidge's boyfriend, Jeff, wants her to meet the folks. Of course, she thinks the guy is getting serious and planning to marry her? WHAT!

Gidget "cautiously" goes to the luncheon date at the fashionable Beverly Terrace hotel to meet Jeff's parents (well played by Hal March and Hazel Court). Everything goes haywire! At the hotel is a convention with lots of single salesmen... Do the math.

Gidget gets splashed at the lunch counter and is a mess, and in the meanwhile Jeff's dad gets into a shoving match. Gidget's dad is the recipient of a black eye, and it's one big happy family.

Could have been a pilot episode for another comedy show because the focus was mainly on Jeff's parents. Hal March was a popular game show host and of course, for all of us film buffs, Hazel Court a staple in British horror films. Had this been done a few years later, this would have made a super episode on LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE. It has that feel.

Look for the "original" movie SUPERMAN Kirk Alyn in a bit role as a guest at the hotel.

On a sad, sad note, as of this writing most of the Warner Brothers lot is being torn down, including Gidget's old house, to make way for new sound stages. Lots of history, going back 100 years.

SEASON 1 remastered color Columbia dvd box set. Thanks to METV for rerunning this classic show on Saturdays.

Meeting Jeff's Parents

[JordanThomasHall · 5/10 · 23 August 2017]

Gidget (Sally Field) receives a letter from her boyfriend Jeff Matthews who is away at college that his parents will be in Los Angeles and may want to meet her. 15-year-old Gidget is terror-stricken as somehow she thinks this will mean marriage. Meanwhile, her father Professor Lawrence (Don Porter) is being wooed by one of his students Della Mae (Janis Hansen, who went on to be "Gloria" in "The Odd Couple" series) who is after a passing grade. She offers to drive the professor to the university, but he said he needs his car and suggests she take Gidget to her luncheon date with the Matthews at the Beverly Terrace Hotel. Mrs. Matthews (horror film actress Hazel Court) is primarily concerned with her vanity and disappointed that shoe salesman at a convention at the hotel did not pay attention to her. Mr. Matthews ("The $64,000 Question" host Hal March) seems to take her antics in stride, kidding her. Della Mae pulls up to the hotel and sees a sign that 20,000 salesman are inside and parks to go into the hotel herself. Gidget goes to the soda fountain inside where unknowingly Mrs. Matthews is sitting. The 40-year-old redhead is finally come onto by two salesman and she politely turns them down, just happy knowing they thought she was attractive. Gidget praises her "groovy" turn-down and compliments her, not knowing it's Jeff's mother, then goes on about how worried she is to meet his parents and marriage. Someone spills root beer on Gidget's sweater as Mrs. Matthews leaves and Gidget later switches sweaters with Della Mae. Mrs. Matthews has her husband go down and spot a girl with a root beer stain to talk with her and put her at ease in a chance to meet her the way she did. Naturally he meets Della Mae instead, and instead of a comical confusion there is an argument about his wife trying to get compliments from other men, and Della Mae suspecting him of doing the same- to the disgust of everyone in the lobby. When Gidget's father comes to pick her up and asks a bystander what all the commotion is about. He says "some old goat is trying to pick up a young girl" and he mistakenly sees Mr. Matthews talking with Gidget and rushes to punch him out cold. Now things are really haywire.

The plot is convoluted, making it seem long and forcing an effort to keep the storyline in mind. There is a lot of screen time and comedic lines for the pairing of Hazel Court and Hal March, as well as Janis Hansen, and one must wonder if it was to showcase them for an upcoming series, making this a pilot of sorts. In spite of the script, it was their appearances with touches of comedy that made the show somewhat enjoyable.

Total Head-Scratcher

[richard.fuller1 · 4/10 · 18 May 2014]

Absolutely puzzling.

So here's the supposed confusing plot: Gidget gets a letter from her boyfriend Jeff, that he wants her to meet his parents, Jim and Laura Matthews (played by Hal March and Hazel Court).

The casting of Hazel Court emerges as the absolute puzzlement. A very beautiful woman, but clearly English. That actually figures into it later on.

So Gidget goes to meet Jeff's parents at a hotel where a shoesalesman convention is going on. She's driven there by her father's flirtatious student, Della Mae.

Right off the bat, Laura contributes to the confusion by feeling she is getting old because none of the salesmen are whistling or flirting with her, but then when two salesmen DO hit on her, she volleys them off.

I had to watch the beginning three times to figure out what was going on. Finally caught on that this was supposed to be Jeff's mother (we also see Jeff's dad, played by March, a man who specialized in wolf behavior on sitcoms).

We only get the faintest hint that these are Jeff's parents. When Laura speaks to Gidget in the shop and learns Gidget is nervous about meeting her boyfriend's parents, and THEN Laura realizes they are speaking about her son, she asks her husband to go down and talk to Gidget and tell her in essence she has nothing to worry about.

Why didn't Laura just tell Gidget her son was also named Jeff, then they could realize they had met? As it is, the episode was endlessly confusing already, but then when Gidget gets root beer thrown on her sweater, so Laura uses this to help Jim (Hal March) recognize Gidget, but Gidget has changed sweaters with Della Mae. This may have decently led to some confusion, but by this time, the episode was totally confusing.

The entire bit with Laura and Jim talking about her aging so men don't flirt with her anymore, but then Jim gives way to his 'older men are so dignified' bit is amusing, as was the encounter at the end with Jim and Della Mae, she who is wearing Gidget's rootbeer stained sweater, but the attempt at making it confusing only succeeded in making it confusing more. It was already a head-scratcher.

We don't learn a thing in Jim and Laura's conversation where they say anything about a son named Jeff, let alone a son, period, nor that they are there to meet his girlfriend, and "what sort of name is Gidget?" No, we get none of that, but truly one of the most confusing bits (remember Laura is English?) is when Gidget gets Laura on the phone and doesn't recognize the voice at all. What are the chances of her meeting two Englishwomen sounding so much alike in a hotel overrun with shoesalesmen? Again, I had to watch the first half, up to when Gidget meets Laura in the coffee shop, three times before I understood what was going on.