Universal contract darling Sandra Dee steps into the role originated by Debbie Reynolds and handles it well - she's got the perkiness and girl next door factor down to a tee. The material isn't as strong - Dee gets sick of waiting for her boyfriend from the first film, who is off at college, and decides to educate herself at college. Cue snobbish students and a crusty little old lady for Tammy's heart to melt.
The film does get points for continuity with the first movie, though it's not entirely consistent - she made such a lovely difference to that first film's family's life, you would think they would put in some appearance here.
And too many of Tammy II's adventures feel as if by rote: melting the heart of a curmudgeon old lady takes about five minutes (she used to grow up on the river, Tammy takes her out on the river, problem solved), the romance with the public speaking professor (John Gavin doesn't have especially good chemistry with Dee) is perfunctory (I got why Leslie Nielsen's character liked Reynolds in the first - she was deep whereas his crowd was shallow - but why does Gavin like Dee here?), the subplot where Tammy baby sits a horrid little boy is thrown in too late (Billy Mumy is the kid - a role he often played in the 60s), it's never entirely believable that the college let Tammy attend in the first place (would have been easier if she'd just been an employee there who they let attend occasional classes), and there's a horrid subplot where Tammy encourages a college teacher to quit and adopt kids so the teacher's painter husband won't be so threatened that he earns less money. Yuck.
On the bright side, there is a good villain in the niece of the old lady who wants her money and is anti-Tammy, some decent support cast and production values, and Dee sings a song.
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