Gidget: Gidget's Foreign Policy

Gidget: Gidget's Foreign Policy
ABC
December 15, 1965
Sitcom
DVD
C+

I don't like how the character of Inge is punished in this episode (including spanking by her boyfriend!), and for once I don't at all sympathize with Gidget's schemes.  That said, even with the line "I just set women's rights back 100 years, where they belong," I don't think the episode, the first directed by Jerrold Bernstein, is entirely anti-feminist.  Like other recent episodes, it's more ambiguous and conflicted.  This time Jan Crawford plays Ben rather than Roger.

Gidget: Gidget Gadget

Gidget: Gidget Gadget
ABC
October 13, 1965
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Anne leaves John (going home four blocks) after six months of marriage, feeling neglected.  Gidget of course interferes, including setting them up with dance lessons.  The male dance instructor is a pre-Get-Smart Dick Gautier.  The "instructress" is played by Janis Hansen, who'd return in a different role.  Larue has some cute moments, including dressed a spy.  I would've given this a B, but the ending with both Anne and John spanking Gidget is just wrong by modern standards, on so many levels.  Both writer Stephen Kandel and director E. W. Swackhamer would return.