Gilligan's Island: One of the most loved and also (strangely enough) often maligned sitcoms in TV history. It was originally run on CBS (1964 - 1967). It must be one of the most heavily viewed programs in the history of syndication. GI was an essential part of the after school ritual for millions in the early seventies. Seeing it so much as a kid left an indelible print on my brain to the extent that, even though I haven't watched the show regularly for the past 25 years, I can still recite some of the character dialog when prompted. A remarkable testament to the effect (for good or ill) of TV on young minds.
The show revolves around the fate of the crew and passengers of the lost Honolulu tour boat--the S.S. Minnow---blown off course by a freak storm onto "an uncharted desert isle".
Most of the episodes center on the "seven castaways" efforts to get off of the island and back to civilization. The attempts are always sabotaged by the bumbling first mate of the Minnow --Gilligan (Bob Denver). I like the skinny and young Denver as Gilligan -however the characterization works only on a rather limited basis marked by age and appearance. Put 15 years and 15 pounds on Denver (as was done in the reunion movies) and Gilligan's antics become almost intolerable. The Skipper (Alan Hale Jr) is seen by some to be a gruff authoritarian figure--however I see him as being much more benign (Alan Hale's natural affability comes shining through). I believe that Gilligan and the Skipper come across most of the time like "Mutt and Jeff" rather than as "Laurel and Hardy".
Jim Backus and Natalie Schaefer playing Thurston and Lovey Howell (The millionaire and his wife) are the most accomplished members of the cast. The Howells are played for all they're worth by Backus and Schaefer. Both actors were masters of the ad-lib. I especially like one laugh line Thurston Howell III gets as the castaways listen to a radio broadcasting the launch of a test missile that the professor calculates will hit and destroy the island. The radio announcer does the countdown... then crows, "And it's a perfect launch!"-- "It would be...," says Howell with bitter, comic resignation.
Ginger--the movie star--seductress, red head (Tina Louise) & Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) the virginal, wholesome Kansas farm girl, brunette--certainly set up the eternal question of preference among the male viewers of the show. For my part... either girl would do in a pinch. Tina Louise does a creditable imitation of Marilyn Monroe -I would bet heavy money that the character of Ginger holds the TV record for the sheer number of come-ons made by a woman (always for ulterior motives and never for sex). It's to Louise's credit that she made all that flirting seem real and in context and always in bounds. Sweet, little Mary Ann is a much more incidental character and the only character in the show that is played "straight" most all of the time.
Russell Johnson is first rate as the Professor---the island's resident intellectual / technician. He has a good laugh line in one of the episodes when the other other castaways wax nostalgic about what they miss the most about their previous lives back in civilization--the Professor suddenly pipes up: "What I miss most is Saturday night at the library....the hustle and bustle at the reference desk...." .
It has been pointed out by more than one deep thinker that the "Castaways" are meant to represent "archetypes" of humanity. I am certain that the character types and the casting contributed much to the success of this show. The casting is so critical because the setting for the series (an otherwise uninhabited tropical island) is not the most promising for a situation comedy (which is the reason no doubt for the many strange visitors that find their way to the island--everyone from a World War One fighter pilot to a rock band to a mad scientist to an exiled South American dictator-to a dozen others).....
I mentioned at the beginning of my comments that Gilligan's Island is often abused by critics. It received bad reviews from the the very first show and there are plenty of people who have continued to hammer away at it through 5 decades down to the present day-(Did anyone else see Larry King make Bob Denver squirm when he was a guest on Larry King Live a few years ago?). Gilligan's Island is generally attacked for being comedy of a very low variety--dumb and unsophisticated and marked by a noted lack of realism (How is it that the Howells brought so many clothes along for a three hour cruise?---Why can't the Professor figure out a way to get them off the island if he can make a generator out of a coconut? And why doesn't anyone sleep with anyone else? etc...) I will concede that the overall tone of many of the episodes is slightly juvenile. (The most avid perennial viewers of this show would have had to have been 9 - 11 year old boys). However, that said, it's never been proved to me that Gilligan's Island was any more unlikely in either premise or execution than any number of its contemporaries. Contrived characters and situations have always been a hallmark of American network TV from the beginning --all the way, arguably to the present ---but that's another subject. I can find at least some jokes and situations on GI that contain more social and political comment and present sex in a way more realistic than can be found on Dick Van Dyke (as an example).
Sherwood Schwartz and the show's cast and writers must be given much credit for creating a unique version of an escapist fantasy---that has...like it or not...found a place in American pop culture.
The show revolves around the fate of the crew and passengers of the lost Honolulu tour boat--the S.S. Minnow---blown off course by a freak storm onto "an uncharted desert isle".
Most of the episodes center on the "seven castaways" efforts to get off of the island and back to civilization. The attempts are always sabotaged by the bumbling first mate of the Minnow --Gilligan (Bob Denver). I like the skinny and young Denver as Gilligan -however the characterization works only on a rather limited basis marked by age and appearance. Put 15 years and 15 pounds on Denver (as was done in the reunion movies) and Gilligan's antics become almost intolerable. The Skipper (Alan Hale Jr) is seen by some to be a gruff authoritarian figure--however I see him as being much more benign (Alan Hale's natural affability comes shining through). I believe that Gilligan and the Skipper come across most of the time like "Mutt and Jeff" rather than as "Laurel and Hardy".
Jim Backus and Natalie Schaefer playing Thurston and Lovey Howell (The millionaire and his wife) are the most accomplished members of the cast. The Howells are played for all they're worth by Backus and Schaefer. Both actors were masters of the ad-lib. I especially like one laugh line Thurston Howell III gets as the castaways listen to a radio broadcasting the launch of a test missile that the professor calculates will hit and destroy the island. The radio announcer does the countdown... then crows, "And it's a perfect launch!"-- "It would be...," says Howell with bitter, comic resignation.
Ginger--the movie star--seductress, red head (Tina Louise) & Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) the virginal, wholesome Kansas farm girl, brunette--certainly set up the eternal question of preference among the male viewers of the show. For my part... either girl would do in a pinch. Tina Louise does a creditable imitation of Marilyn Monroe -I would bet heavy money that the character of Ginger holds the TV record for the sheer number of come-ons made by a woman (always for ulterior motives and never for sex). It's to Louise's credit that she made all that flirting seem real and in context and always in bounds. Sweet, little Mary Ann is a much more incidental character and the only character in the show that is played "straight" most all of the time.
Russell Johnson is first rate as the Professor---the island's resident intellectual / technician. He has a good laugh line in one of the episodes when the other other castaways wax nostalgic about what they miss the most about their previous lives back in civilization--the Professor suddenly pipes up: "What I miss most is Saturday night at the library....the hustle and bustle at the reference desk...." .
It has been pointed out by more than one deep thinker that the "Castaways" are meant to represent "archetypes" of humanity. I am certain that the character types and the casting contributed much to the success of this show. The casting is so critical because the setting for the series (an otherwise uninhabited tropical island) is not the most promising for a situation comedy (which is the reason no doubt for the many strange visitors that find their way to the island--everyone from a World War One fighter pilot to a rock band to a mad scientist to an exiled South American dictator-to a dozen others).....
I mentioned at the beginning of my comments that Gilligan's Island is often abused by critics. It received bad reviews from the the very first show and there are plenty of people who have continued to hammer away at it through 5 decades down to the present day-(Did anyone else see Larry King make Bob Denver squirm when he was a guest on Larry King Live a few years ago?). Gilligan's Island is generally attacked for being comedy of a very low variety--dumb and unsophisticated and marked by a noted lack of realism (How is it that the Howells brought so many clothes along for a three hour cruise?---Why can't the Professor figure out a way to get them off the island if he can make a generator out of a coconut? And why doesn't anyone sleep with anyone else? etc...) I will concede that the overall tone of many of the episodes is slightly juvenile. (The most avid perennial viewers of this show would have had to have been 9 - 11 year old boys). However, that said, it's never been proved to me that Gilligan's Island was any more unlikely in either premise or execution than any number of its contemporaries. Contrived characters and situations have always been a hallmark of American network TV from the beginning --all the way, arguably to the present ---but that's another subject. I can find at least some jokes and situations on GI that contain more social and political comment and present sex in a way more realistic than can be found on Dick Van Dyke (as an example).
Sherwood Schwartz and the show's cast and writers must be given much credit for creating a unique version of an escapist fantasy---that has...like it or not...found a place in American pop culture.