Retro : Separating Dwayne From Dobie

Even though I have played many different characters and led many different lives, when people hear the name Dwayne Hickman, only one thing comes to mind. So, rather than fight it, I have decided to just go with it and enjoy it because it seems no matter where I go or what I do, for the rest of my life I’ll be ... Forever Dobie.”

-- from “Forever Dobie: The Many Lives of Dwayne Hickman,” by Dwayne Hickman and Joan Roberts Hickman

When couch potatoes think of Dwayne Hickman, the image that usually pops into their minds is Dobie Gillis talking to the audience while sitting in front of Rodin’s statue “The Thinker.”

Hickman became part of pop culture playing the typical girl-crazy teen in the 1958-63 comedy series “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.” Audiences adored the zany escapades of Dobie; his good friend, the far-out beatnik Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver), and Zelda Gilroy (Sheila James Kuehl, recently elected to Congress), the rather plain teen-ager who wanted to marry Dobie.

Hickman’s “‘The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” was introduced to a new generation recently when Nick at Nite aired the series.

Hickman’s new anecdote-laden autobiography “Forever Dobie: The Many Lives of Dwayne Hickman” (Birch Lance Press, $20), which he co-wrote with his wife, Joan Roberts Hickman, fans will discover there’s a lot more to the actor than Dobie Gillis. In fact, he’s almost had as many lives as a cat.

Hickman, 60, the younger brother of actor Darryl Hickman, began his career 54 years ago as an extra in the John Ford classic “The Grapes of Wrath.”

“I started as a 6-year-old,” says Hickman, who comes across just as nice as Dobie Gillis. “I think I worked two days. I know I made $21. I don’t remember it very well. My brother had a big role in that, he played one of the Joads. I was always growing up around the studios.”

In the ‘50s he became a teen idol, thanks to his roles as Chuck in the sitcom “The Bob Cummings Show” and his debut as “Dobie Gillis.” In his book, Hickman writes about his hilarious and disastrous attempts to become a singer during those days.

After “Dobie” left the air, Hickman segued into motion pictures, appearing in “Cat Ballou” and low-budget A.I.P. flicks such as “Ski Party.” When roles began to dwindle in the ‘70s, Hickman gave up acting and managed a Las Vegas resort; he also spent several years as a CBS executive. Recently, he’s been a director and has written scripts with his third wife, Joan. Hickman, who has a 30-year-old son, is also the proud dad of a 2-year-old son.

Hickman was approached about two years ago to write a book on “Dobie Gillis.” He turned down the offer. “First of all, everybody was writing ‘tell all’ books,” he recalls. “I didn’t have anything to tell. There is nothing all that exciting. Not that my life is dull, but if I did have juicy details to tell I would be embarrassed for myself and maybe the other people would be embarrassed. I really didn’t want to write a book about ‘Dobie Gillis.’ ”

The agent then told Hickman the publishers wanted an autobiography. “I said, ‘OK. Let me talk to Joan.’ I didn’t know if I could write a book myself. I am really not that great a writer. I really depended on Joan. She is my secret weapon. I didn’t want to work with a ghost writer or a person who comes and interviews you. I think those biographies are missing something. I don’t think they really reflect the viewpoint of the person.”

“Did you ever read any of David Niven’s books?” asks Joan Roberts Hickman. “That’s what we had in mind because I remember years ago reading ‘The Moon Is a Balloon’ and thinking this is so fun. This guy tells great stories. I wanted to give a feeling, the same feeling I have about Dwayne, that this is a really nice man, that you would be lucky if you got to know him.”

And Hickman does have plenty of stories to tell, such as the time he accidentally used John Wayne’s dressing room on the set of the 1944 movie “Tall in the Saddle”; his ill-fated attempt to ask Tuesday Weld, who played the beautiful Thalia on “Dobie Gillis,” out on a date; his working relationship with the rather quirky Bob Cummings, and why the network dyed his hair blond for the first season of “Dobie.”

“We just sat upstairs while Albert (his 2-year-old) took his naps and we literally wrote it,” Hickman says. “Joan would kind of interview me and talk about things. When we first started on the project, I thought, ‘How will I ever remember everything?’ But it’s funny. The little bits and pieces begin to come back. It was a real labor of love. It took forever.”

Hickman also talks about the state of television today in his book, laying out his opinion that TV was superior in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

“It sounds like I’m prejudiced to the old days, but each show had its own individual personality. Today it is, like, all the same. There is so much input from the networks and studios. The scripts on ‘Dobie’ and on ‘Bob Cummings’ were tight. They had been thought about and worked on. Changes were really minor. A staff of 12 writers (today) is often not as good as one writer.”