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Wally Cleaver's bombshell date was the same girl who revealed the origin of Dobie Gillis' name
She moved a little too fast for two teens of early-Sixties sitcoms.
Beaver and Gilbert gaze at the young woman in the movie theater ticket booth like they've spotted a rare snow leopard. This blonde doesn't go to school — she works a real job! After punching out, she heads to Hank's Place where she chugs frosty mugs of lager and smokes cigarettes!
"She's what they call a woman of the world," Gilbert declares in awe.
Certainly, Mayfield had rarely seen a girl like Marlene Holmes. The youths of Leave It to Beaver were more into saying "Gee!" than drinking beer. But the episode "Box Office Attraction" came near the end of the series, as the boys were coming of age. Wally's date with Marlene was proof that the Cleaver kids were soon to be men. Though not quite yet.
Wally heads out on a Saturday date with Marlene, after bringing her home to meet Ward and June. Marlene — gasp — lies to his parents about her schooling! She then drags to Wally to Hank's, where she commences lighting up and sipping a brewski. All this after she clutches Wally in the car and plants a kiss right on his smacker! Wally is in over his head with this "fast" older woman. He heads home alone.
Diane Sayer played Marlene in this 1963 tale, in one of her earliest screen roles. A year later, she portrayed a victim of the strangler in The Strangler, sang with the Rat Pack in Robin and the 7 Hoods, and ran alongside Ann-Margret as a juvenile delinquent in Kitten with a Whip. No wonder the innocent Wally and Beaver could not see eye-to-eye with ol' Marlene!
But before all that, in the spring of '62, Diane Sayer made her screen debut on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Thanks to her character, the spectacularly named Giselle Hurlbut, we know why "Dobie" is named Dobie!
"I think 'Dobie' is icky and awful and too, too ridiculous!" Giselle Hurlbut hurls at Dobie in "Names My Mother Called Me."
Giselle also envisions a demanding future of Dobie. She tells him once they're married, she expects him to work his way up to a vice presidency role in a big corporation and move them into a split-level house in the suburbs with three children (two boys and a girl). She has it all figured out. And she's devastated that one day she might be featured in the society pages as "Mrs. Dobie Gillis."
So why is Dobie named Dobie? Even Dobie doesn't know! He asks his folks. Mr. Gillis says it was all mom's doing.
Meanwhile, Dobie receives a mysterious letter from a Dr. D. W. Kline, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who summons the young man to New York. Dobie meets Dr. Kline, who presents the teen with a scrapbook about Dobie's life. Dobie's mother has been sending him clippings about the boy for years.
Dobie and Dr. Kline philosophize on the meaning of life, as Kline is nearing the end of his life. He asks the adolescent to deliver his final words of wisdom to a waiting world. "Be kind to each other and have a dream," Dobie declares.
Of course, the "D." in D. W. Kline stands for Dobie. Dobie Gillis was named after the revered scientist.
Dobie returns home and tells Giselle he will not change his name. She doesn't care — she has a new fiance.
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