[1] Dobie Gillis broke ground by depicting elements of the current counterculture, particularly the Beat Generation, primarily embodied in a stereotypical version of the "beatnik," mainly in the character of Maynard G. Krebs, portrayed by actor Bob Denver, though a few others are shown.

[2] The series revolved around teenager Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman), who aspired to have popularity, money, and the attention of beautiful and unattainable girls.

Another running gag is the reference, especially by Maynard, to a film called The Monster that Devoured Cleveland and its sequels, one of which always seems to be playing at the local cinema.

Zelda did not find Dobie particularly attractive, but fell in love with him because she found him helpless and needing of her care, and also because of the concept of "propinquity" (or nearness; as Gillis and Gilroy, they were typically seated together in class).

A stern educator fond of deadpan quips, Pomfritt referred to his pupils as "my young barbarians" or "students (and I use that term loosely)" and served as a father figure to both Dobie and Maynard.

Breaking the fourth wall, he would explain to the viewing audience his problem of the week, usually girls or money (in the earliest episodes, Dobie is seen emulating the trademark pose of The Thinker – head planted on fist in deep contemplation – before turning and acknowledging the camera).

At the start of the third season, Dobie and Maynard received their Army discharges, after which they, Zelda, and Chatsworth enroll in S. Peter Pryor Junior College, where Mr. Pomfritt was now a professor after having resigned from his position at Central High.

[3] Dobie Gillis was filmed with two cameras, a method that producer and director Rod Amateau had learned while working on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.

[2] The theme song "Dobie" accompanying the UPA-style animated titles was written by 20th Century-Fox musical director Lionel Newman, with lyrics by Shulman.

Because Hickman had appeared for several years on Bob Cummings as Chuck, he was required by Shulman and CBS to bleach his dark brown hair blond for the role of Dobie to distance himself from that character in the public's (and the sponsors') minds.

[16] By the second season, however, Hickman was permitted to return to his natural hair color, after he had complained to the producers that the constant bleaching required to keep his low crew cut hairstyle blond was causing his scalp to break out.

[3] Bob Denver, a 23-year-old grade-school teacher and postal worker with no previous professional acting experience, won the part of 18-year-old Maynard G. Krebs after his sister, a casting director's secretary, added his name to a list of candidates auditioning for the role.

[17] Before Pollard had completed his first episode, "The Sweet Singer of Central High", however, Denver returned and announced that he had been designated "4F" – unfit for service – during his physical because of a neck injury he had sustained some years earlier.

[17] For a handful of episodes towards the end of season three, Maynard became the show's lead character while Dwayne Hickman was hospitalized with and later recovering from pneumonia.

[2] Despite Maynard's increasing screen time, however, Denver – who had signed on as a Fox contract player without an agent – was unable to negotiate a raise in his $250 a week salary until season four.

[2] Experienced child actress Tuesday Weld was cast as Dobie's love interest in "Caper at the Bijou" and stayed on as a semiregular.

Weld and Dwayne Hickman had previously appeared as a teenaged couple in the 1958 Fox feature film Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!, based on a Max Shulman novel, though produced without his input.

[12] She departed the series after the first year to star in features, although she was persuaded by Max Shulman to return for two guest appearances, "Birth of a Salesman" (season three, episode 21) and "What's a Little Murder Between Friends?"

He quit the series in September 1959, midway through production of the first season after filming his fifth and final Dobie episode, "The Smoke-Filled Room", to appear in A Loss of Roses on Broadway.

Signing a contract with Dobie Gillis necessitated James, then an 18-year-old college student, changing her major from theater to English, so Shulman could assist her with her studies on set.

[4] Acting roles became sparse for James by the late 1960s; she went into law and politics under her birth name of Sheila Kuehl, and later became the first openly gay person elected to the California State Legislature.

While both Milton and Chatsworth were rich rivals of Dobie Gillis's (and both characters shared the same actress, Doris Packer, for a mother) and were, according to canon, cousins, where Beatty's Milton was a menacing and athletic physical threat, Franken's pompous, foppish Chatsworth tended to plot and scheme his way through competitions with Dobie, more often than not using his riches to get ahead.

[13] Young actor Bobby Diamond was brought on at the beginning of season four as Dobie's teenaged cousin, Duncan "Dunky" Gillis.

By 1962, the 28-year-old Dwayne Hickman had begun to look too mature to carry the teenager-based plot lines,[2] and instead Diamond's "Dunky" was given this material, with the older yet immature Maynard as a running partner.

[citation needed] Actress Sherry Alberoni, an original Mickey Mouse Club "Mouseketeer", played one of Zelda Gilroy's sisters in the 1960 episode "Dobie Spreads a Rumor".

was an unsuccessful pilot for a new weekly sitcom series, which was produced, directed, and developed by James Komack after creator Max Shulman was fired from the production.

In the pilot, Dobie had married Zelda and is helping his father Herbert run the Gillis Grocery when Maynard comes back to Central City from his world travels.

[22] Depressed over turning 40 and not living the life he had dreamed of as a teenager, Dobie goes to his beloved Thinker statue and attempts to destroy it, landing in jail.

[23] The set included all 147 episodes of the series, plus the original prenetwork version of the pilot and appearances by Dwayne Hickman and Bob Denver on other television programs of the time.

[28] The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis was a major influence on the characters for another successful CBS program, the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, which ran on the network from 1969 to 1970 followed by several spin-offs.