Dwayne Hickman nearly starred in the first true sitcom spin-off

The Bob Cummings Show had an ambitious and novel plan for expansion.

The Everett Collection

Dwayne Hickman will be forever associated with the role of Dobie Gillis. It's a character he played across four decades, in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and its later nostalgic reunion flicks. But before he was Dobie, the teen idol was known as Chuck.

A syndicated newspaper article in 1956 compared Hickman to Elvis Presley, dubbing him the teen sensation of television. He had recently become a household name thanks to playing Chuck on The Bob Cummings Show. The entire cast of The Bob Cummings Show was visiting Joplin, Missouri, Cummings' hometown. The audience broke out into starstruck screams. "We want Chuck! We want Chuck! We want Chuck!" they cried. Nobody had seen this coming. It was a precursor to Beatlemania and Biebermania.

Naturally, they wanted to cash in. With the first spin-off from a hit sitcom.

Before we go further, we should define "spin-off." 

The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows defines one as "when one or more characters from a series, usually supporting characters, subsequently appeared on another series." You know, like Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. from The Andy Griffith Show

In the late 1950s, this concept was new.

To that point, most spin-offs had been in the Western genre. And most of those had been seeded in anthology series. The 20th Century Fox Hour birthed Broken Arrow in 1956. Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre spawned Trackdown in 1957… and The Rifleman a year later.

Some cite The Honeymooners as the first spin-off, as those characters originally appeared in sketches on Jackie Gleason's Cavalcade of Stars. But that was more of taking a hit segment and giving it its own airtime. And besides, that was a variety show spinning off a sitcom.

Networks had yet to really dive into taking side characters from a sitcom and giving them their own vehicle. Like Frasier from Cheers. The first sitcom-to-sitcom spin-off to do it was Pete and Gladys, born from December Bride in 1960.

But The Bob Cummings Show tried. In a bold way.

"Cummings and CBS are looking into the possibilities of TV series for each of the main supporting performers on the show," a profile of Bob Cummings revealed in February 1957. It was a novel idea, and Cummings ambitiously planned to go BIG with several at once.

"There's Ann B. Davis, who plays Schultzy, his secretary; Rosemary DeCamp, his TV sister; young Dwayne Hickman who is seen as his nephew; and last but far from it, Grandpa Collins, the dual role that features Cummings as his own grandpa," the article explained. This would be akin to The Mary Tyler Moore Show planning to launch Rhoda, Phyllis and Lou Grant simultaneously — before anybody had ever considered the idea! Pretty forward-thinking, no?

"Really, the best possibility and the one we are working on first," Cummings said, "is a series for Dwayne Hickman, who plays the part of my nephew. It would be a program titled Chuck Goes to College, aimed at the teen-age market. There isn't anything like it on the air and a survey we have already taken indicated there is a tremendous demand for a 'school' show."

Yes, at the time, even the very notion of a sitcom centered around teens in school was novel.

The Encyclopedia of Unaired Television Pilots, 1945–2018 lists this proposed series simply as Chuck. The entry further explained, "The pilot was to place Chuck in college (Gridling University) and relate his mishaps as a pre-med student and in a relationship with a steady girlfriend (Olive Sturgess)."

So what happened? Pretty simple — the network declined to pick up the series in 1958. Hickman returned to The Bob Cummings Show (a.k.a. Love That Bob) for a final season. 

A year later, in 1959, Hickman was cast to play Dobie Gillis and finally got the chance to star in the "school" show that audiences were hankering.

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28 Comments

Lantern 26 months ago
Is that Ann B. Davis in the above photo with Dwayne? Wow!
SalIanni 26 months ago
So when is MeTV going to do a Dwayne Hickman "Dobie Gillis" tribute? He certainly deserves it, either there or on Decades.
igsjr 26 months ago
If you're curious to get a look at Chuck in college, track down "The Kappa Sigma Party," a 1956 episode of THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE & HARRIET. Dwayne Hickman has a brief bit as his LOVE THAT BOB character in the beginning, discussing with David Nelson plans for a fraternity blowout.
bagandwallyfan52 igsjr 26 months ago
Is David Nelson's and Rick
Nelson's friend Wally Plumstead Skip Young in
The Kappa Sigma Party 1956 episode of The Adventures of Ozzie And Harriet?
igsjr bagandwallyfan52 23 months ago
Sorry, my friend -- I just saw your question. Skip Young (Wally) is not in the episode.
LalaLucy 26 months ago
That could have been interesting, as I enjoyed Love That Bob and especially Chuck, but glad it worked out as it did or we'd never had Dobie and all those great characters.
ncadams27 26 months ago
Broken Arrow, Trackdown, and The Rifleman we’re not spin-offs as the shows that spawned them were anthology shows that had no regular characters to spin-off.
justjeff 26 months ago
Wrong, wrong, wrong wrong, wrong!!!!!!!!

The FIRST sitcom spin-off took place on radio in the 1940s when The Great Gildersleeve left Fibber McGee & Molly and for his own show. Shortly after that, another Fibber McGee & Molly character (Beulah) was spun off into 'her' own radio show.

I put the word 'her' in quotes, because the role was originally played by a *man*....Marlin Hurt.

Now, for those nitpickers who say "Yeah, but that's NOT a TV sitcom"... re-read the title of the article: "Dwayne Hickman nearly starred in the first true sitcom spin-off". NOWHERE does it say TV sitcom! I rest my case... and (as Mrs. Slocombe used to say on "Are You Being Served")...I am unanimous in that!
bradyguy justjeff 14 months ago
Okay...relax, Jeff. You're OVERRULED!

If you're going to picky...and petty..then we all will. I'm going to nominate Huckelberry Finn as the FIRST spinoff. RE-READ the title...JEFF!

Now...I'm sure somebody will go further back than that into literature...and plays....etc.

But you get my point...right, JEFF?? LOL
justjeff bradyguy 14 months ago
WRONG AGAIN! 😝 I was referring to radio, NOT literature... so who's being picky and petty? LOL!

In fact, if you want to *really* nit-pick... then virtually every story, tall tale, folklore, etc. is a spinoff of some sort of predecessor.... but let's be fair... "The Great Gildersleeve" has been noted many times as the first broadcast program spinoff, and if *you* re-read the the title, it says "Dwayne Hickman nearly starred in the first true sitcom spin-off". "Gildersleeve" was a sitcom. It (and "Beulah") both spun off from "FIbber McGee and Molly" - a sitcom... 😣...so I rest my case [until you disagree with me again]😛
Deleted 26 months ago
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bagandwallyfan52 26 months ago
The Writers on Love Boat usednthe name CHUCK
When Tom Bosley and
Marion Ross were guest
Stars and Tom and Marion
Said that the name of their
son was CHUCK.
bagandwallyfan52 26 months ago
Actually Spike (Danny Butch) called Howard Cunningham ACE.
bagandwallyfan52 26 months ago
When Spike and Moose(Clint Howard) broke
Into Arnold's Drive In they
Had a guy with the nickname Bobo.
Richie Cunningham called
Lori Beth Sweet Knees.
Fonzie called Jenny Piccalo
Pumpkin in the Happy Days
Episode where Jenny got the wrong idea that she and FONZIE were married.
FLIP was the nickname of
The brother of Roger Phillips.
26 months ago
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