Sunday, January 09, 2022

Dwayne Hickman Top Ten

In honour of his passing.
1) The Boy With Green Hair (1948) - Hickman was a child actor. In this one he plays a boy who doesn't have green hair. (You know, contrast.)
2) The Bob Cummings Show (1955-59). This sitcom ran for 179 episodes with basically the one storyline: Bob Cummings was a photographer who tries to score with hot, willing models but is constantly cockblocked his sister, housekeeper (Alice from The Brady Bunch) and nephew... played by Hickman.
3) The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-63). Hickman's starring vehicle. 147 episodes of Hickman as a teenager who cockblocks himself. Cockblocking was very big on TV in the 50s. Tuesday Weld and Warren Beatty had guest roles on this.
4) Cat Ballou (1965) - Jane Fonda became a star as a gal turned outlaw... Lee Marvin won an Oscar playing a drunken gunman... everyone forgets Hickman and Michael Callan are in this as brothers, and quite good.
5) Ski Party (1965) - AIP take the Beach Party formula to the snow, and rip off Some Like It Hot in the bargain with Hickman and Frankie Avalon playing Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. This film is fun. I mean, c'mon, Lesley Gore sings 'Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows' and James Brown sings 'I Feel Good' in a sweater.
6) How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) - Hickman replaces Avalon in the 6th instalment of the Beach Party series, easily the worst one. It feels all wrong him romancing Annette Funicello, who was pregnant at the time and is constantly covering her stomach with buckets of KFC. Everyone is in this: Buster Keaton, Brian Donlevy, Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Montgomery... The green room would've been awesome. The film, not so much.
7) Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Marchine (1965) - genuinely entertaining sci fi comedy spoof with marvellous Vincent Price in the title role but Hickman and Avalon doing a very good buddy act.
8 ) Doctor You've Got to be Kidding (1967) - one of the many comedies that helped kill Sandra Dee's career. The actors are better than the material - they include Bill Bixby, Mort Sahl, George Hamilton, Celeste Holm (!) and Hickman.
9) High School USA (1983) - does anyone else remember this film? I remember loving it as a kid. Combined the latest stars (Michael J Fox, Nancy McKeon, Anthony Edwards) with boomer stars (Tony Dow, Hickman).
10) Designing Women - Hickman wasn't in this but later in his career he became a TV executive and he was responsible for this show for many years, which was a handful. He writes about it in his entertaining memoir, Forever Dobie.

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