Gidget Grows Up
| Gidget Grows Up | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | John McGreevey |
| Directed by | James Sheldon |
| Starring |
Karen Valentine Paul Lynde Edward Mulhare |
| Theme music composer | Shorty Rogers |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Harry Ackerman Jerome Courtland |
| Editor(s) | Aaron Nibley |
| Running time | 75 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Screen Gems |
| Release | |
| Original network | American Broadcasting Company |
| Original release | December 30, 1969 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Gidget |
| Followed by | Gidget Gets Married |
Gidget Grows Up is a 1969 television film directed by James Sheldon and starring Karen Valentine, Paul Lynde and Edward Mulhare, freely adapted from the novel Gidget Goes New York by Frederick Kohner. It premiered on ABC on December 30, 1969, and was intended as a pilot for a possible new Gidget series, possibly a sequel to the 1960s sitcom Gidget.
Plot
After two years of college abroad, Gidget returns to Santa Monica. She discovers that the letters she wrote to her boyfriend Jeff, intended to make him jealous, have backfired, and her attempts to patch things up with him are rebuffed. Inspired by a speech she hears on television made by the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, she hops a bus to New York City to work for the United Nations.
She meets the Ambassador, who finds her a job, but because she has only two years of college education, the best position the United Nations will offer her is tour guide. She meets and has a fling with Alex MacLaughlin, an Australian Agronomist who finds her and two of her fellow employees an inexpensive Greenwich Village apartment, managed by the eccentric Louis B. Latimer, a grown child actor has-been attempting a comeback as an independent film director.
Gidget has a number of comical and romantic adventures before being reunited with former boyfriend Jeff.
Cast
- Karen Valentine as Gidget
- Edward Mulhare as Alex MacLaughlin
- Paul Petersen as Jeff "Moondoggie" Griffin
- Warner Anderson as Ambassador Post
- Robert Cummings as Russell Lawrence
- Nina Foch as Bibi Crosby
- Paul Lynde as Louis B. Latimer
- Susan Batson as Diana
- Hal Frederick as Lee
- Helen Funai as Minnie
- Mario Aniov as Abdul
- Gunilla Knudson as Katrina
- Doreen Lang as Mrs. Willard
- Michael Lembeck as Arnold
- Davis Roberts as Bukumbu Representative
See also
- Gidget (film)
- Gidget Goes Hawaiian
- Gidget Goes to Rome
- Gidget's Summer Reunion
- The New Gidget
- List of television films produced for American Broadcasting Company
External links
- Gidget Grows Up at the Internet Movie Database
- Gidget Grows Up at OVGuide, eight video clips comprising the entire film, more or less
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