A Hollywood producer lands on the island and is unimpressed with Ginger's acting abilities, so the castaways put on their own production of "Hamlet" to get the producer's attention.A Hollywood producer lands on the island and is unimpressed with Ginger's acting abilities, so the castaways put on their own production of "Hamlet" to get the producer's attention.A Hollywood producer lands on the island and is unimpressed with Ginger's acting abilities, so the castaways put on their own production of "Hamlet" to get the producer's attention.
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Did you know
- TriviaPhil Silvers was cast as a producer partly because his production company was actually producing the show.
- GoofsWhen Harold Hecuba returns to the stage as Hamlet after the Professor speeds up the music tempo, the door on the back wall falls off. The scene then cuts to the castaways as an audience, then back to Harold Hecuba, and the door is hanging back the way it should be.
- Quotes
Gilligan: [Last lines]
[In his hammock, singing]
Gilligan: I ask to be or not to be, and that is the question that I ask of me...
Jonas 'The Skipper' Grumby: [Calmly] Gilligan, will you cut that out? I'm trying to get some sleep.
Gilligan: [Quieter, but still loud enough for the Skipper to hear] I ask to be or not to be, and that is the question that I ask of me...
Jonas 'The Skipper' Grumby: [Yelling] Gilligan, cut it out!
Gilligan: [Looks back, then sings almost inaudibly, but still loud enough for the Skipper to hear] I ask to be or not to be, and that is the questi... WHOA!
[His singing is interrupted when the skipper tips him out of his bunk onto the floor]
Jonas 'The Skipper' Grumby: [singing] And that is the answer that you get from me!
- ConnectionsFeatured in TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time (1997)
- SoundtracksThe Ballad of Gilligan's Isle
Words and Music by George Wyle and Sherwood Schwartz
Sung by The Eligibles
Gilligan sights a plane in the cold open that crash lands near the lagoon. The survivor is the fast-talking, arrogant, successful movie producer Harold Hecuba, who is searching for the lead of his next film. Early on, in another nod to the first year, he acts as the American version of painter Dubov. He moves into the Howells hut, kicks them out, and makes them his servants in exchange for the promise of a rescue.
His early shtick works well, but it definitely goes up a notch when our movie star sees his arrival as an opportunity to charm her way into his next project. She serves him his evening meal in different personas, most memorably as a second-rate Sophia Loren. He rejects her lousy melodramatic acting and shatters her confidence. She breaks down here as unconvincingly as she did in Angel, and, just like then, the castaways try to rally her by putting together a show for her to star in. This time the show will be to impress Hecuba; Gilligan has a brainstorm to set it to music, and the only book they have in their arsenal that will work is Hamlet.
Unlike Angel, this episode gets right to the fun. There are no scenes of mounting the stage or rehearsals; we skip ahead to the production. The Professor introduces the show to...no one in particular, then we zip from one bouncy Shakespearian song to the next. The songs vary in quality; the best of the bunch is easily the rousing send-up of Carmen. Hecuba observes the adaptation and is impressed enough to produce it. Presumably, he will take the cast of castaways back with him to Hollywood.
Hecuba's ego, though, proves too large for the group to handle. He dismisses their encore as a mess (conveniently forgetting how much he loved it the first viewing) and decides to school them in how it should be performed. It's all an excuse for our guest director to go crazily over-the-top in his one-man production. He speeds through all the castaways' parts, getting humorously mixed-up in wardrobe, and collapses in an exhausted heap. It's entirely unhelpful to the castaway audience, of course, and the kind of corny slapstick scene the series leaned on a little too much at times, but here it works.
The denouement is completely expected; the wily producer goes the way of Dubov and the Mosquitos. That's show biz.
COCONOTES:
Inarguably, Phil Silvers is one of the better guest stars in the series. He chews the scenery in the typical Sgt. Bilko gusto and fits in with the rest of the daffy cast.
His real life production company, Gladaya Productions, incidentally, helped to produce the series.
So in this one, the castaways all brought books on their favorite subjects, and the Howells a collection of records, on the three-hour tour. Uh huh.
Also, Ginger now has multiple wigs on hand, and a light blue dress not seen previously.
"I bring-a you bread!"
- Ralphkram
- Jun 27, 2018
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