Shows We Loved - Gilligan's Island
December 29th 2010 12:31
Only a handful fit that bill and one of them involved seven mismatched castaways.
Gilligan's Island followed the misadventures of seven people stranded on a desert island. The memorable castaways included Gilligan, the skipper, a girl-next-door, a professor, a movie star and an affluent couple. Bob Denver filled the title role of the dimwitted crewman.
Gilligan's Island officially ran from 1964 to '67 before becoming a pop-culture staple in syndication.
Panned by critics as downright silly but I would wager that on any given day, some station, somewhere is running the program still.
You all know the story. A small charter boat, the S.S. Minnow sets sail from Hawaii with a Skipper (Alan Hale) and one crewman, Gilligan (Bob Denver). The passengers are the millionaire (Jim Backus) and his wife (Natalie Schafer), the movie star (Tina Louise), the farm girl (Dawn Wells) and the professor (Russell Johnson).
The Coast Guard gives them a bad weather report, they get caught in a storm and the rest as they say is history.
The original pilot concluded filming on November 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated and the cast featured Kim Smythe who played the role of Ginger and Nancy McCarthy who played a character by the name of Bunny while actor John Gabriel had the professor role.
The island used in the long shots of the series opening and closing sequences is Coconut Island, located in Kane'ohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii and variously featured just about every geographic feature known to manknd including caves, a volcano (in episode "Operation: Steam Heat"), a gold mine (in episode "The Big Gold Strike") and even a snow-capped mountain ("Man With a Net").
It was also home to a number of fictitious plants and animals, such as the wasubi berry and the mantis khani while it also strangely enough was inhabited by a chimpanzee and a gorilla - which being native to Africa always seemed a little out of place in the South Pacific.
Unfortunately for the cast, none were contracted to receive residuals - in other words, they were never paid for all those reruns.
Jim Backus died in 1989 of pneumonia, Alan Hale Jr. in 1990 of respiratory failure due to cancer, and Natalie Schafer in 1991 of cancer. Bob Denver died in 2005.
For all its flaws, all its coconut cream pies and every 'Skippppeerrrr' which found its way through our TV speakers - Gilligan's Island certainly earns its place as a show we loved.
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Comment by katyzzz
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Comment by Mr Nice Guy
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Afternoon TV was a high rotation business as far as kids were concerned huh? It was either Gilligan's Island, Brady Bunch, McHale's Navy or Hogan's Hero's . . . oh with the occassional series of Batman thrown in for good measure.
And you're so right about the harmless nature of the story-lines.
Enjoy your New Year.