ABSTRACT
The sequels Gidget Goes Hawaiian and Gidget Goes to Rome each have a fundamental incoherence in that each of the films stars a different actress as Gidget—Deborah Walley in Gidget Goes Hawaiian and Cindy Carol for Gidget Goes to Rome—while also changing writers and producers. Nonetheless, these films are intertextual reworkings of the original Gidget, recalling and repeating the coupling of Gidget and Moondoggie, and crucially, James Darren remains in the role of Moondoggie across all three films. The marketing for the sequels serves to introduce the new Gidget actress, but shifts somewhat from the marketing to teen girls for Gidget. While Gidget Goes Hawaiian tries to serve both an adult and teen audience, Gidget Goes to Rome pitches itself as a successor to Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. Both films are runaway productions that provide touristic views of exotic locales and also transplant Gidget and Moondoggie into an alluring, unfamiliar environment that causes them to drift apart, form triangles with new romantic partners, and then reunite at film’s end. The breakups underscore the fragility of their relationship, and of happy endings, while also reassuring fans that Gidget and Moondoggie will be united in the end.
