Haven't seen anything in previous reviews re: motivation, at least originally, behind the filming of this show. Gidget was an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the Patty Duke Show, which had been doing very well on ABC since 1963. A couple of very sad notes re: the demise of both programs. When Patty and other actors showed up at the film company to start shooting for the fourth season of the Duke show, they had no idea that the network had been trying to get the production company to pay for having the program shot in color. When the producers said, "no way" (this would have been very rare by the way; the networks always paid for this process, and just shortened the TV season to pay for the increased costs) the show was canceled--on the spot! Gidget hadn't been doing all that well during the regular season, being up against shows like the Beverly Hillbillies, and other established programs. But during the summer time, the show really began to catch on with teenagers all over the USA. By then, however, it was felt that it was too late to continue on with Gidget, so they decided to put Sally Field in another show, and that's where the idea for The Flying Nun came about. Even though that program did pretty well, I can speak from personal experience when I say that they should have let well enough alone. People loved Gidget!