La isla de Gilligan

If you're old enough to use the computer, you've probably watched Gilligan's Island. Are you checking to see what other people think about it?

I remember every day after elementary school, I'd come home and watch Gilligan's Island, then Star Trek, the old series. It was the way of the world. I can still taste the cookies and milk I'd wolf down, and occasional apple.

One thing for sure: my parents knew that when I was watching Gilligan's Island, it was clean. Do we even have anything as purely non-sexual and clean as this series? (Ahhh Dawn Wells... siiiigh)

Our local cable provider recently started carrying a channel that replays Gilligan's Island, and I've watched them all again through the eyes of an adult. Even though I knew every line, and what would happen in every episode, I still laughed and felt like a kid again.

Maybe someone would complain that the portrayal of the Japanese sailor who doesn't know the war is over is a horrible stereotype, and did anyone notice how.... white... the cast is? But who cares? It's just fun, like a live action cartoon.

By today's standards, something like this would never even be proposed, let alone produced.

Maybe we need more shows like this!

Here are some random thoughts on "Gilligan's Island":

--Great fun watching as a kid. As the previous person commented, the show was incredibly hokey, but that was part of its appeal.

--I always wondered why the castaways never tried some of the same escape schemes again after they were ruined by Gilligan.

--The show was remarkably prolific, having produced over 100 episodes in only 3 years.

--A lot of people don't realize that Russell "The Professor" Johnson was a Army Air Corps bombardier (on the B-26 Mitchell?) during WW II and had been in dozens of movies before "Gilligan's Island". Russell's book is the best "Gilligan's Island" book out there, in my opinion.

--Mary Ann, in my opinion, is a hands-down winner in a Mary Ann vs. Ginger debate. Dawn Wells was nice enough to send me an autographed picture after I wrote to her.

--At least one researcher has prepared a paper showing how the seven castaways represented the Seven Deadly Sins.

--Trivia Time--an actress named Judith Baldwin played Ginger in the "Gilligan's Island" movies

--Dawn Wells, bless her heart, threw the others off key when the castaways sang on the show--they had her just mouth the words during the singing scenes

--Of all the cameos the stars of "Gilligan's Island" have done on other shows, my favorite is Russell Johnson appearing on a "Newhart" episode saluting "Gilligan's Island"; his was kind of a "hidden" cameo--they didn't identify him as "The Professor"

--I have to agree with the previous reviewer--the Mosquitoes episode was my favorite

I have always been a fan of this show and I grew up with it.

I have to say that being in my late 30's now, I still enjoy watching it. There is nothing in the show to offend anyone and you don't have to worry about something inappropriate for young viewers. Not too many shows nowadays are around that you can let a child watch that doesn't have something that is either offensive or has objectionable content.

Oftentimes, if I come home after a hard day at work, not physically tired but mentally exhausted, the perfect thing for me is to turn on a television show that doesn't require too much thinking, its just fun and that is what Gilligan's Island is for me. It is a very welcome stress reliever to come home and spend thirty minutes laughing and getting rid of the stress of the day.

It is truly a classic television show because of the stories; the theme song and the cast and their chemistry. Everything is a perfect blend.

This has got to be one of the campiest shows of all time. When you look at all this show you see a stereotype of the different types of people who make up our society. You have the working guys (Skipper and Gilligan), the intellectual (the Professor), the sex pot (Ginger), the sweet girl (Mary-Ann) and the upper crust capitalists (the Howells). Too bad this show didn't last another season. I would have loved to have seen them do a series finale instead of the horrid reunion movies. Maybe if they did it that way we could have gotten another season where Mr. Howell builds a resort on the island and Gilligan was the jack of all trades that really kept things rolling.

Also, the biggest question of all, Ginger or Mary-Ann?

Most of the reviews so far have damned "Gilligan's Island" with faint praise; most of the people have said that they either watched it as a kid (inferring that it wasn't meant for adults), or watch it only when nothing else is on.

Too bad. I pity them.

Too many people nowadays are trying to appear to be sophisticated and worldly; comparing the seven castaways with the Seven Deadly Sins, for example. "Gilligan's Island" was never meant to be fodder for college treatises or a locale from which to mine deeper, hidden meanings. It was a show that was meant to entertain the public....and for its brief three-year run, it did just that.

LET UP ON THE SHOW, ALREADY!! All you do is come off sounding like someone who, as my father used to say, wouldn't be satisfied if you had the moon with a fence around it. Just watch it and put the world on hold for a half-hour or more. Forget that you've got that test tomorrow, or the car needs to go into the shop, or the housework is piling up. So maybe it is/was far-fetched, and it had plot holes big enough to sail the "Queen Mary" through. You mean shows about a family of pop musicians ("The Partridge Family"), a genie ("I Dream of Jeannie"), a witch ("Bewitched"), a clan of hayseed multi-millionaires ("The Beverly Hillbillies") didn't stretch credibility beyond the breaking point either?

And remember another thing before you try to compare this to "Seinfeld", "Night Court", "Friends", or any other recent sitcom. "Gilligan's Island" managed to be humorous *without* falling back on sexual innuendoes a la "The Golden Girls", racial humor as heard in "All in the Family" or "The Jeffersons", or the foul, offensive language as heard in just about anything coming through my TV on the WB, Fox or UPN networks. Sorry, but if that is what is necessary for something to be "funny" today, I'll stay stuck in the '60s or '70s.