L'isola di Gilligan

I decided to watch Gilliagan's Island for the numerous times Al Bundy from Married with children mentions this show.. And, It is a lot of fun to watch the goofy Gilligan and his fellow stranded castaways in many hilarious situations. Even after those years, it is still a good sitcom.

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

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.

It's Saturday night circa early 60's and right after The Jackie Gleason Show on CBS comes `Gilligans Island'. When it first aired about the only two well-known members of the cast to the vast majority of viewers were Bob Denver who had appeared as the beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on Dobie Gillis and the multi talented Jim Backus. Russell Johnson who played the Professor was one of those actors that would appear on various TV shows. It's run on prime time was three seasons but thanks to re-runs Gilligans Island has in fact never left the airwaves. The 98 episodes play over and over yet they still hold up well today and one can still find themselves laughing at various episodes even though they may have seen it dozens perhaps even hundreds of times. If You're not wrapped too tight then like the theme song said `You're sure to get a smile'

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?