Poster: Stuck In The '70's
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The New Gidget aired fro 1986 until 1988 in first run syndication.
Twenty years after tv's first Gidget series had left the air this equally sunny syndicated series surfaced. Gidget ( Caryn Richman) was now in her late 20's and she and her girlhood idol, Moondoggie( Dean Butler), had been married for 8 years. They still lived close to the beautiful beach in Santa Monica, but were now a modern working couple. Moondoggie was an architect with the city planning department and Gidget ran her own little travel agency. Working for her at Gidget Travel was her long-time friend Larue ( Jill Jacobson).
Most of the stories revolved around the exploits of Gidget's niece Danni( Sydney Penny), who was living with the Griffins while her folks were overseas. Danni was the vivacious, impish sort of teenager Gidget herself had been in the earlier series-and like Gidget of yore, she and her best friend Gayle( Lili Haydn), were forever getting in trouble. Gidget's dad Russ ( William Schallert), was around to offer sage advice and remind Gidget of how similar she had been to Danni.
The pilot for this series was Gidget's Summer Vacation, a 1985 made-for-television film starring Caryn Richman and Dean Butler.
A Review Of The Pilot Film From The New York Times
Gidget and Moondoggie Are Back in a New Movie
By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER
Published: May 31, 1985
Anyone consumed by yearning for an update on the life of Francie (Gidget) Griffin, perky protagonist of such movies as ''Gidget'' (1959) and ''Gidget Goes Hawaiian'' (1961), may want to lay in a supply of potato chips and Twinkies, set aside a pair of toothpicks for propping the eyelids open and tune in Channel 5 tomorrow night for the two hours beginning at 8.
That's the time for ''Gidget's Summer Reunion,'' with Caryn Richman in the role originated by Sandra Dee. Gidget, now a matronly 27 and two years removed from her last outing on a surfboard, is beset by problems.
She and her husband, Jeff (Dean Butler), better known as Moondoggie, are a two-career couple struggling so hard to meet the payments on their lovely home not far from Malibu that they are losing touch with each other.
While Jeff climbs the ladder of success as a construction engineer under the covetous eye of his wealthy blonde boss, Gidget has been putting in long hours at her travel agency; and Jeff - Gidget discovers - has been consulting a marriage counselor Complicating matters further is a siege of flu that compels Gidget to substitute for her ailing guide on a nine-day tour of Hawaii that is scheduled to overlap Jeff's 30th birthday; a visit from her 15 1/2-year-old niece, Kim; the involvement of Kim with a swaggering surfer, and Gidget's plans to surprise Jeff with a birthday party that will be the first reunion in a dozen years of all their old surfing buddies.
Will Gidget and Jeff's marriage survive? Will Kim misplace her virtue in a hot tub? Will the nasty young surfers keep the old-timers off the beach?
At its best, ''Gidget's Summer Reunion,'' produced by Harry Ackerman and Ralph Riskin and directed by Bruce Bilson from a teleplay credited on screen to Robert Blees and George Zateslo, offers some splendid Hawaiian scenery and attractive surfing scenes. Otherwise, there are the potato chips and the Twinkies to offset the absence of genuine wit and invention and the presence of so much predictability.
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