All on reruns. I am somewhere between DaddyO and Doc, age-wise. Anyway, Dobie Gillis was a very cleverly written show, and a real delight. It was topical as well. Something to watch while waiting for JP Patches. There was an episode in which Maynard got ESP somehow (probably a bonk in the head) and he became a Kreskin-like hit on National TV. The show brought him in to tell the world on TV whether Nixon or Kennedy would be elected President. Dobie is in the back alley, telling him through mental telepathy not to do it, that it would destroy democracy and the electoral process.
Maynard gets the message and at the crucial moment tells the TV host, "How do I know? The election hasn't taken place yet." Instantly he loses all credibility, his celebrity, and returns to being a lovable beatnik, which is just fine with him.
Later, when Lenny and Squiggy in a 70's show entered Laverne and Shirley's apartment with a "Hello!," after one of them would say something like, "Of all the stupid, idiotic things..." - that was borrowed from a gag the writers wrote into the Maynard character. Maynard would come in at the right instant asking, "You rang?" At times I will see a TV show borrow a similar gag or plotline and think, "They borrowed that from Dobie Gillis!"
DaddyO nailed that show in his description. Teenage angst from a lovesick boy. The object of his dreams was a rich girl played by Tuesday Weld. But alas, Dobie was the son of last small grocery store owner, the perennial underdog fighting for significance in order to impress her.
Basically, Dobie Gillis was a TV version of the old Archie Comics: Archie was Dobie, Jughead was Maynard, Weld was Veronica. There was a Betty who adored Dobie, but his eye was on the prize. Oh, and some rich boy played Reggie. Unathletic, but had enough money to compensate.