Main Cast: Sally Field, Don Porter, Lynette Winter, Betty Conner, Peter Deuel
Release Year: 1965
Run Time: 30 minutes
Plot
Bubbly newcomer Sally Field became an instant star by virtue of her vivacious interpretation of the title character in the delightful half-hour sitcom Gidget. Although only one season's worth of episodes were filmed, they were enough to launch Field into a spectacular show-business career, which would eventually yield a brace of Academy Awards. In Gidget, the actress is seen as 15 1/2 year surfing enthusiast Francie "Gidget" Lawrence, whose wholesome misadventures with her beach-nut friends cause no end of trouble for her stern but loving widowed father, Prof. Russ Lawrence (Don Porter). As with many another 1960s sitcom, Gidget offers contemporary viewers the opportunity to see a number of stars-in-the-making in some of their earliest appearances. Among the prominent actors showing up in the series' 32 episodes are Martin Milner in the episode "The Great Kahuna," Judy Carne in "Is It Love or Symbiosis?" Barbara Hershey in "Chivalry Isn't Dead," Walter Koenig in "Gidget's Foreign Policy," Daniel J. Travanti in "Now There's a Face," Bonnie Franklin in "Too Many Cooks," and another future Oscar-winner, Richard Dreyfuss, in "Ego a-Go-Go." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
