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It may be common knowledge among TV historians that Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island" wasn't beloved by critics when it debuted, but it was a big hit with audiences. Critics said that the show was fluffy, unrealistic, and insubstantial, and Schwartz likely agreed. Indeed, its insubstantiality may have been the main reason for its success. Over the years, the seven main cast members of "Gilligan's Island" have all cited the show's featherweight tone as a necessary relief for audiences who had been inundated with turbulent news of the outside world. It certainly didn't help that "Gilligan's Island" was also very kid-friendly, featuring no serious conflicts, no sex, no violence, and no adult themes. 

In the year 2025, "Gilligan's Island" isn't just accepted as popular, but has become something of a cultural institution. Its images, music, and characters are archetypal nearly to the point of becoming Jungian. Gilligan (Bob Denver) and...

Many fans of the show have noticed that Professor Roy Hinkley (Russell Johnson) was the only reason anyone could survive on "Gilligan's Island." Not only was he able to keep a cool head in extreme situations, but he was also the only one with any kind of engineering knowhow. He was able to repair radios, examine mysterious chemicals that washed up on shore, and it was likely he who constructed the island's aqueduct system. While Mr. and Mrs. Howell (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer) were lying around drinking mai tais and Gilligan (Bob Denver) was bumbling through life, the Professor was getting s*** done on "Gilligan's Island." The fact that he never became angry on confrontational speaks largely to the character's maturity and command largesse.

The original "Gilligan's Island" series didn't have proper closure, but some late-stage TV movie follow-ups did explore what happened to the castaways later in life.

In the late, great Larry Cohen's 1974 horror classic "It's Alive," Frank (John P. Ryan) and his wife Lenore (Sharon Farrell) have just had their second child ... and it's a monster. Their baby was born with fangs and claws, as well as increased dexterity and an unhuman lust for violence. As soon as the baby is born, it kills the nurses and scurries away through a skylight. The bulk of the film is a gruesome manhunt ... er, babyhunt ... wherein Frank and the local police track the killer baby through the streets, through a school, and eventually into the sewers. The baby murders people at each stop. It's posited along the way that the baby was mutated by the birth control pills still in Lenore's system when she was pregnant, and that the pharmaceutical company that made the pills is liable for any damage the mutant baby does. The Big Pharma...

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It's astonishing how many gorillas turned up on "Gilligan's Island." Gorillas are native to central, Western, and Eastern Africa, so it would be highly unlikely that one would organically find its way to the South Pacific, where Gilligan's Island is likely located. Gorillas, however, were common fodder for 1960s comedy writers, and they were employed frequently. Or rather, actors in gorilla costumes were employed frequently, and created an absurd subset of ape tropes that we, as a culture, still haven't fully and philosophically unpacked. 

Apes were featured heavily in the "Gilligan's Island" episodes "Diamonds Are an Ape's Best Friend", "Beauty Is as Beauty Does" (September 23), "The Chain of Command" (December 2), "Forward March", and "Our Vines Have Tender Apes". It was a profuse plethora of primate pransktership. 

In all of the above cases, the apes were played by prolific Hollywood stuntman Janos Prohaska,...

It's hard to imagine that over 20 years have passed since audiences all around the world were first introduced to the diverse group of passengers of the ill-fated Flight 815 in the 2004 cultural phenomenon Lost, a mind-bending sci-fi supernatural series that focuses on the traumatized survivors as they find themselves stranded on a mysterious tropical island in the South Pacific. Touting a stacked ensemble cast led by Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Josh Holloway, and Naveen Andrews, the smash hit original has widely been regarded as one of the greatest television shows of all time, running for six spellbinding seasons.

Party of Five alum Matthew Fox famously headlined the sci-fi staple, portraying the brilliant-yet-haunted surgeon Jack Shephard, who swiftly emerges as the de facto leader of his fellow survivors and experiences an epic spiritual transformation throughout the course of the acclaimed series. However, it's hard to imagine anyone other than Fox as the capable Jack.

Though the castaways of "Gilligan's Island" had their fair share of misadventures while trapped on a desert island, the cast of the series seemed to mostly appreciate the bounties that came from starring in the show — save for one. Tina Louise, the actor who portrayed Ginger the movie star, seemingly wanted nothing to do with the series after it ended and didn't come back for any of the spin-offs, leading many to assume she truly hated everything to do with "Gilligan's Island." Her co-star Dawn Wells, who played the chipper and earnest farm girl Mary Ann, was essentially the opposite. She not only returned for several "Gilligan's Island" projects, but even reprised her role on an episode of "Baywatch."

As characters, Ginger and Mary Ann are polar opposites, and the actors behind them seem pretty dissimilar too. In a 2019 interview with Woman's World, however, Wells shared her feelings about working...

Tina Louise was starring on Broadway with Carol Burnett when producers approached her about a part in a new sitcom. “The CBS casting director Ethel Winant called me at the theater, ‘Do you think you could play this Lucille Ball/Marilyn Monroe-type of character?’” the 91-year-old actress told Forbes. “I said yes.”

The Lucy-meets-Marilyn character was Ginger Grant, the “movie star” who was shouted out in the opening credits of Gilligan’s Island. That character description was enough to make Louise ditch Broadway, but she was in for a rude awakening when she arrived on set. “I got there and the director wanted it to be a more sarcastic kind of character,” she said. “And so, then I didn’t even want to work on it anymore. I told him I wanted to quit.”

The head of CBS intervened, calling Louise in for a meeting. “I explained to him...

On Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island," every character represented a different American class, and each one served a vital social function. The Skipper (Alan Hale), for instance, could be seen as a representative of the American military, while his sailing know-how provided the Island with a better understanding of their surroundings. Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) was a working-class character with knowledge of farming, but she was also a barometer of the Island's general mood. If she was happy, then things were going well. Gilligan (Bob Denver), meanwhile, was the innocent of the island, providing a plucky spirit of survival, while also offering something like a childlike perspective to the plight of the castaways.

The itinerant actress Ginger (Tina Louise) was weirdly vital. Many feel that Ginger, because she was so glamorous, provided mere sex appeal to "Gilligan's Island," but one can see that she also served as something of a morale officer.

"Gilligan's Island" only aired for three seasons on CBS, but it became a rerun sensation when it hit syndication after getting canceled in 1967. Kids in the market for a relentlessly silly sitcom to watch after school while they were neglecting their homework and chores couldn't do better than this aggressively formulaic show about seven castaways shipwrecked on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Just about every episode revolved around the characters' inevitably thwarted attempts to return to civilization, and this familiarity bred nary a hint of contempt.

The key reason the show never got old for its undemanding target audience was the cast. Bob Denver (Gilligan), Alan Hale Jr. (Skipper), Jim Backus (Thurston Howe), Natalie Schafer (Lovie Howe), Russell Johnson (Professor Roy Hinkley), Dawn Wells (Mary Ann), and Tina Louise (Ginger) formed a perfectly balanced ensemble that understood precisely what was expected of them. You couldn't imagine anyone else playing these roles.

TV comedy legend and founding Simpsons writer Mike Reiss is used to pushing the boundaries of corporate censorship, and NBC is just lucky that he never introduced Alf to Michael Jackson.

For all of Reiss’ incredible writing and producing credits — The Simpsons, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and more — it’s easy to overlook his time working on a brief, bizarre, science-fiction sitcom shortly before The Simpsons shot into the stratosphere. As Reiss openly admits, the average fan who approaches him on the street is more likely to talk to him about Queer Duck than they are to ask about Alf, but that doesn’t mean that Reiss’ memories of the NBC show about a wise-cracking, cat-eating alien living with a middle-class family in the San Fernando Valley are any less out-of-this-world.

Reiss recently appeared on the #1 (and only) Alf fan podcast ALFsplaining...

The second of the three "Gilligan's Island" spinoff TV movies was called "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island," and it aired on NBC on May 3, 1979. It arrived one year after the first movie, "Rescue from Gilligan's Island," and 12 years after the final episode of the original "Gilligan's Island" TV series.

The "Gilligan's Island" TV movies were considered dubiously canonical by the show's fans. Tina Louise didn't reprise her role as Ginger from the "Gilligan's Island" TV show for any of them (with Judith Baldwin serving as her replacement), while, generally speaking, they aren't nearly as well-remembered or beloved as Sherwood Schwartz's original creation. The animated "Gilligan's Island" spinoff shows also contradicted what happened in the TV movies, leaving fans to debate which of the "Gilligan's Island" timelines counts as the "real one." Personally, I like to think "Gilligan's Planet" is the canonical path.

In "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island," life...

In the United States, the last time any of the extant cast members of "Gilligan's Island" were united on screen, specifically to reprise their characters from the show, was for a 1992 episode of "Baywatch." The episode, titled "Now Sit Right Back and You'll Hear a Tale," saw some of the Baywatch lifeguards finding a small island off the coast of California where Gilligan (Bob Denver) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) had been stranded for a few years. They explained that they left their original island in a daring escape, only to become equally stranded on another island. Sadly, by the end of "Now Sit Right Back," it was revealed that Gilligan and Mary Ann weren't real, and that the events of the episode were all a dream.

By 1992, Alan Hale, Jr., Jim Backus, and Natalie Schafer had already passed away, and it seems that Russell Johnson and Tina Louise didn't want to,...

In the "Alf" episode "Somewhere Over the Rerun," also alternately titled as "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island", the furry little alien Alf (voiced by Paul Fusco), becomes obsessed with watching reruns of "Gilligan's Island" on TV. Alf dreams of living with the castaways of Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom, feeling them to be delightfully funny and living in a tropical paradise. What could be better? He begins dressing in Hawaiian shirts and ordering bamboo furniture, hoping to turn the ordinarily unassuming Tanner household into something more interesting. 

Alf's obsession with "Gilligan's Island" leads him into the Tanners' backyard, where he begins digging up all the grass, hoping to create a tropical lagoon just like on his favorite show. This causes Willie (Max Wright) to become furious, and he demands that Alf fill in all the dirt he dug up. While filling the yard back in, Alf falls asleep and begins to dream.

It's hard not to love a good fan theory, because sometimes they're absolutely bonkers while actually having some pretty salient points. Fan theories have been around since long before the internet, of course, with theories about the potential eighth passenger on The Minnow on "Gilligan's Island" dating back to at least the 1960s, but the world wide web has made it much easier for fans to develop and share their theories. Anyone with a wild take can head to social media and proliferate it, which means we are in an era of some truly fascinating fan theories. One of the most unique connects Stephen King's terrifying monstrous clown Pennywise from "It" to a beloved character from a Disney classic, and while it sounds ludicrous at first, it's really not all that far-fetched. At the very least, it's not any more far-fetched than the idea that Jesus Christ was an Engineer in the "Alien" movies,...

"Gilligan's Island" isn't exactly known for its sophisticated humor. The show was a light-hearted sitcom about castaways who somehow never managed to escape their isolated locale despite multiple guests visiting them throughout their three-season run. "Gilligan's Island" was nonsense, but it knew what it was and fully embraced its silliness. As a result, it became a beloved TV classic, especially since it became widely syndicated after its final season wrapped up in 1967.

But for all its absurdity and campiness, the show did at least try to provide somewhat of a balance, most notably in the form of Jim Backus' Thurston Howell III and his wife, Natalie Schafer's Mrs. Thurston. The billionaire couple were envisioned as a way to break up the slapstick humor provided by Bob Denver's Gilligan and Alan Hale Jr.'s Skipper, and certainly brought an air of refinement to an otherwise ridiculous sitcom. Much of...

On a recent ranking of the seven main characters on "Gilligan's Island," /Film ranked Mary Ann at only #5. This is not to say that she was an insignificant character, though. Indeed, all seven of the characters on "Gilligan's Island" were invaluable members of the ensemble, and removing any one of them would irreparably damage the established comedic dynamic. Mary Ann ranked low merely because she was given so few stories of her own. Her function, however, was key. Mary Ann was something of an innocent character, and her happiness was a sign that all was well on the island. You knew things were bad when Mary Ann became upset. 

Also, actress Dawn Wells embodied the character perfectly. Indeed, the characters on "Gilligan's Island" have become comedic archetypes for the ages, so deeply ingrained in the American subconscious that they are practically Jungian. It would be hard to imagine "Gilligan's Island...

At the start of "Gilligan's Island," before the seven castaways-to-be took their fateful three-hour tour, there were only two pre-established inter-character relationships. There was, of course, the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Howell (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer), a couple that had been married for years, but there was also the professional relationship between the Skipper and his first mate, Gilligan (Bob Denver). As audiences would eventually learn, Gilligan was kind of clumsy and innocent like a child, but he was clearly capable enough as a sailor to remain in the Skipper's employ. 

Also, the Skipper, although often wrathful enough to strike Gilligan with his hat, clearly had affection for the man; the Skipper often referred to Gilligan as his "little buddy," and the two men had no compunctions about sharing a cabin. It's never made an integral part of the show, but one might get the impression that the...

Everything about your favorite sitcoms feel as though they were fated to be. 60 actors auditioned for the role of Laura Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," but Van Dyke, creator Carl Reiner and the casting director couldn't have known at the time that they were waiting for pool shark Mary Tyler Moore to show up and blow them away. Fortunately, the universe interceded. The cosmos also ensured that "Cheers" would not only survive two major cast departures, but launch the replacement actors (Woody Harrelson and Kirstie Alley) to full-fledged stardom. And when you upset the karmic whims of the television firmament, you get Danny Cooksey in "Diff'rent Strokes."

Piecing together a successful sitcom is tricky business, so it's best not to be rash in your decision making. Obviously, you need to give yourself space to try things because you're creating a universe and characters that are meant to enchant for the long haul (i.

Casting for a television series is considerably different than casting for a film or a stage play in that it's about more than just finding the right ensemble for right now; creators need to consider each actor's capacity for maturing and/or evolving in their role, as well as their ability to work and play well with others. You might be able to get away with casting a bit of a malcontent on a movie (though most directors I've spoken to sternly discourage this line of thinking), but if someone's even just a tad contentious during the casting process, they could make everyone's life miserable over the long haul, and that's just not worth it.

Obviously, creators and casting directors try like hell to get it right the first time through, but compromise is always necessary. Sometimes your first choice suddenly becomes unavailable, sometimes they want too much money and...

By the late '80s, "Gilligan's Island" had become a pop culture fixture. Though Sherwood Schwartz's sitcom only lasted for three seasons and 98 episodes from 1964 to 1967, it was heavily syndicated throughout the '70s and '80s, ensuring new generations became familiar with Gilligan and his fellow castaways. Not only that, the show produced two animated spin-offs with "The New Adventures of Gilligan" (1974-75) and "Gilligan's Planet" (1982-83). What's more, the original cast returned for three live-action TV movies: "Rescue From Gilligan's Island" (1978), "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island" (1979), and "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island" (1981). So, by the end of the 1980s, the "Gilligan's" universe was most certainly etched into the public's collective consciousness.

But you could also argue that it was waning in popularity. The last live-action TV movie, "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island" — which almost featured a different team entirely — was not a big ratings success...

Fox’s Sunday-afternoon football games and Fox News host Jesse Watters may soon have a new digital home.

Fox Corporation expects to launch a new stand-alone subscription-based streaming service by the end of 2025, as the company, which has resisted the call to plunge millions into developing premium content for broadband audiences, sees new allure in the business. The plan, said Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch, would be to launch a new broadband outlet that helps “put our content in front of everybody who wants it on any platform,” and would be “‘holistic of all of our content, sports and news.”

Murdoch said the company believed it could reach a new audience separate from the one that watches Fox properties via cable and broadcast. Fox has “no intent” to drive linear audiences to the service, he said, but rather wanted to reach a demographic that does not subscribe to traditional TV.

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On "Gilligan's Island," romance always ran at a low ebb. Apart from Mr. and Mrs. Howell (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer), there were no couples on the island, and none seemed to form over the course of the show. Indeed, several of the characters seemed too silly or childish to form anything approaching a real-life affair. Gilligan (Bob Denver) was too innocent, and the Skipper (Alan Hale) was more often thinking of engineering and survival than being charming. Ginger (Tina Louise) was often dressed in pretty gowns, and was certainly presented as a sex symbol, but was more concerned with fame and acting than flirting with any of the men or women around her. 

The two "normal" characters on the island were Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) and the Professor (Russell Johnson), who often served as the show's "straight man" characters...

Sherwood Schwartz's sitcom "Gilligan's Island" debuted in 1964, and it was, for the bulk of its three-season run, a pretty big hit. Critics notoriously disliked the show for being too lightweight, disposable, and disconnected from reality, but audiences loved the show's broad slapstick, archetypal characterizations, and overall silliness. The show, as many know, struck a sweet syndication deal after it was canceled, allowing it to be rerun in perpetuity. "Gilligan's Island" reruns remained on the air for decades, allowing the show to seep deep into the public consciousness. The characters became new Jungian archetypes, and the theme song became a national anthem of sorts. Several generations of kids were raised on "Gilligan's Island" without their parents intending it. The show just made its way into our eyeballs.

Those same generations came of age watching the seven "Gilligan's Island" actors, and at least one of them was likely a Boomer — or a Gen-Xer's — first crush.

The "Roseanne" episode "Sherwood Schwartz: A Loving Tribute" was, as the title implies, a tribute to one of the most successful sitcom creators to play the game. Schwartz, of course, is the mastermind behind both "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch," and he worked as a writer on shows like "My Favorite Martian," "The Red Skelton Show," and "I Married Joan." Schwartz is a giant of the televised medium, and many TV shows owe him a debt; he provided several generations of goofy comedians with inspiration.

"Gilligan's Island" was particularly well-known among the public, partly because of its indelibly dumb humor, and partly because of endless reruns that continued through the 1980s. Every American knew the premise of "Gilligan's Island" and every sitcom writer wanted to emulate its success. It stood to reason that the makers of "Roseanne" — a blue-collar sitcom — would want to pay it, and Sherwood Schwartz, homage.

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Fans of "Gilligan's Island" are likely intimately familiar with the show's original pilot, which was shot in 1963, but not aired to the public until 1992. The pilot, called "Marooned," featured Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Jim Backus, and Natalie Schafer, but also starred three rudimentary characters that didn't carry over into the completed series. The Professor was originally a high school teacher played by John Gabriel. The Mary Ann character was a secretary named Bunny (Nancy McCarthy), and Ginger was still named Ginger but was ... another secretary. She was played by Kit Smythe.

Eventually, the show was reworked, and creator Sherwood Schwartz wrote a tighter, better pilot with the Professor (Russell Johnson), Mary Ann (Dawn Wells), and Ginger (Tina Louise) that we all know and love today. 

In Schwartz's biography "Inside Gilligan's Island: From Creation to Syndication," he mentioned that Louise...

Alan Hale, Jr. was a deeply committed and versatile character actor whose career stretches all the way back to the 1930s. He has appeared on stage, in movies, and on hundreds of TV shows. He played the lead role in the 1952 TV series "Biff Baker, U.S.A." and the 1957 series "Casey Jones." He was involved with comedy, drama, Westerns, superhero shows, romances, and legal thrillers. There didn't seem to be much Hale would say no to. 

Of course, most audiences know Hale as Jonas Grumby, a.k.a. The Skipper on the 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island." That show was an enormous hit when it debuted, and, entrenched itself deeply in the American consciousness. Also, thanks to sweet, sweet syndication deals, reruns of the three-season show managed to stay on the air continuously for decades. Gen-Xers grew up watching "Gilligan's Island" as late as the late '80s. Alan Hale became a broadly recognized archetype,...

The arc of Sherwood Schwartz's sitcom "Gilligan's Island," which first debuted in 1964, is well documented by TV historians. Because it was so broad, unrealistic, and silly, the series garnered some pretty negative reviews from critics. "Gilligan's Island," after all, takes place in a slapstick universe where none of the characters have to wrestle with survival; their food and water supplies seem to be well taken care of, and all of the characters more or less get along. The only terrible fate the castaways faced was the ever-sinking reality that they would never return to civilization. Which, from the look of it, wasn't too awful a thing to ponder, as they had a bottomless supply of clean water and fruit salads. 

Audiences seemed to latch onto the show's generally nonthreatening tone, however, and the show was almost an instant success. After three seasons, "Gilligan's Island" was folded into a near-perfect...

Ruben Östlund's 2022 film "Triangle of Sadness" was an unlikely Oscar darling, earning nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. It didn't win, but it was odd to see the Academy Awards recognize a movie with an extended ship-wide vomit sequence. The premise of "Triangle of Sadness" was simple and wicked. A group of wealthy know-nothings -- including Instagram influencers, Russian oligarchs, and other ancillary money-hoarders -- gathered on a luxury yacht for an anything-goes-type pleasure cruise. The ship's staff have shifted into "the customer is always right" mode, and have to entertain each of the oligarch's weird whims (Swim party! Whee!), even if it interrupts the natural flow of the ship's operations.

The weather starts getting rough. The yacht lurches through the ocean waves. During a fancy dinner party, all the guests become queasy. Despite the courage of the fearless crew, the cookies all were tossed.

In the "Baywatch" episode "Now Sit Right Back and You'll Hear a Tale", Eddie (Billy Warlock) and Shauni (Erika Eleniak) are out in the ocean trying to rescue a beleaguered jet skier, when they discover an island that they hadn't ever noticed before. Going ashore, they find that two people have been living on this island, stranded far from shore, for decades. They are Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) and Gilligan (Bob Denver), the same characters seen on the 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island." 

Wait, what? Aren't those fictional characters? Gilligan and Mary Ann explain that their experiences being stranded on the uncharted desert isle are very much real. Shauni marvels, "I thought you were just a TV show!" But everyone sort of lets the unreality of the situation slip past. No further questions are asked about how Gilligan and Mary Ann were filmed or how their footage was converted into a 1964 CBS comedy series.

When it returned for its second season in September 1965, "Gilligan's Island" was broadcast in color for the first time. The show just happened to straddle the line between CBS's transition from black and white to color broadcasting, and thus its first season forever remains immortalized in monochrome, though attempts were made to colorize it in syndication. But color wasn't the only new addition to the show in its second season. The iconic "Gilligan's Island" theme, originally sung by the band The Wellingtons, had been switched out for a brand new title song.

"The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle," was written by executive producer and show creator Sherwood Schwartz and songwriter George Wyle, and recorded by The Wellingtons (who actually played the band The Mosquitoes in a later episode of "Gilligan's Island") in a mad rush at director Mel Shavelson's home studio. But for season 2, the song needed to include...

Now that The Goonies 2 is confirmed to be in development, I find it hard to be excited about it as the sequel is happening without Richard Donner. The 1980s are home to many classics, of which some went on to become franchises and others were left to enjoy their success on their own. Although it’s true that not every successful and popular movie deserves a sequel, the ongoing trend of reboots and long-awaited sequels means that no movie is safe from getting these treatments – and now it’s the turn of The Goonies.

Directed by Richard Donner from a story by Steven Spielberg and written by Chris Columbus (a winning combination of talents), The Goonies follows a group of kids living in the “Goon Docks” area of Oregon – hence why they call themselves “the Goonies.” When their homes face foreclosure, they find an old treasure map that sets...

To the eyes of this author, there are four perfect TV theme songs in the history of the medium. For instrumentals, the two best themes are Jack Marshall's surf-like monster music he composed for "The Munsters" and Danny Elfman's Platonic-ideal-of-a-haunted-house music for "Tales from the Crypt."

For theme songs with lyrics, the two best of all time were, not coincidentally, written by Sherwood Schwartz. He and Frank de Vol composed the handy, catchy theme for Schwartz's own sitcom "The Brady Bunch," while Schwartz teamed with George Wyle to compose "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle." These two theme songs, each only about 60 seconds, managed to explain -- in rhyme -- the premise of their respective shows succinctly while also introducing each of the characters. Additionally, the songs are catchy earworms that burrow deep into the brains of listeners, latching onto the memory and never letting go. When I'm in my 90s,...

Though it only aired for three seasons from 1964 to 1967, all 98 episodes of "Gilligan's Island" were shown in syndication for years, garnering the sitcom a devoted following that spanned generations. But if you happen to belong to the generation that saw the show when it first aired, you might recall the first season debuting in black and white.

A decade before "Gilligan's Island" hit the airwaves, NBC became the first U.S. network to transmit a coast-to-coast color transmission, broadcasting the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, California across the nation on New Year's Day 1954 But the network that would later host "Gilligan's Island," CBS, had beaten NBC to the punch when it came to the first ever color broadcast in the U.S. Though it wasn't a coast-to-coast transmission like the Tournament of Roses parade in 1954, CBS's 1951 broadcast of musical variety special "Premiere" was the first ever commercial color program shown in the U.

A fun bit of trivia: when "Gilligan's Island" was at the height of its popularity, sometime in 1965 show creator Sherwood Schwartz received a visit from one Commander Doyle of the United States Coast Guard. Evidently, the Commander was getting a lot of (jokey) telegrams from his officers, asking why a more concerted effort hadn't been made to locate and rescue Gilligan and his fellow castaways. This story was confirmed in a 1967 interview with the Sioux City Journal, handily transcribed by MeTV.

"Gilligan's Island," as TV history buffs may know, was a smashing success in its first two seasons, gathering as much attention from audiences as it did scorn from critics. Many saw "Gilligan's Island" as being too fluffy and frivolous, lacking any discernible edge. The series took place in a colorful cartoon world where there was no death or pain or real-world threats. The seven stranded castaways on Gilligan's Island never faced starvation,...

Jim Backus began his acting career in the 1940s, lending his voice to myriad radio dramas and animated shorts. He was a recognizable staple in Hollywood throughout the 1950s and 1960s, having appeared in films like "Rebel Without a Cause," "The Naked Hills," "Man of a Thousand Faces," "Zotz!," "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," and dozens of others. Also throughout the same period, Backus voiced the whimsically aged Mister Magoo in many, many cartoons. In addition, he headlined his own sitcom, "The Jim Backus Show," and appeared on "The Untouchables." He was capable of dramatic work, comedic work, and everything in between. By the time Backus played Thurston Howell III on Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island," he was a massive star, deeply entrenched in Hollywood. Backus was certainly the biggest celebrity on the series and his involvement even led to some major last-minute rewrites.

"Gilligan's Island," however,...

Gwen Van Dam, a veteran character actress of seven decades whose 140 credits spanned television, film and the Los Angeles stage, died Dec. 19 at her home in West LA. She was 96.

Per previous reporting attributed to her son Dirk Smillie, the cause of death was a recurrence of cancer.

Throughout her long-tenured career, Van Dam appeared in 1978’s Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis, 1994’s Star Trek Generations with Patrick Stewart, the romantic war drama Coming Home featuring Jane Fonda and Jon Voight and the Sidney Poitier-helmed Gene Wilder pic Stir Crazy.

Among her television credits are illustrious series like Days of Our Lives, Gilmore Girls, Knots Landing, ER, Moonlighting, The Brady Bunch, Maude, Owen Marshall, New Girl, Modern Family and Criminal Minds.

On the music video side of things, she appeared in visual works for U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Panic! At the Disco and heavy metal band Mastodon.

Thanks to the earworm that is "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island," most audiences know how Gilligan (Bob Denver) and the other castaways became stranded. Gilligan and the Skipper (Alan Hale) took five passengers on an intended three-hour tour of the Hawai'ian islands when they hit rough weather and were thrown off-course. The ship set ground on the shore of an uncharted desert isle, and the seven castaways had to learn to survive. Because "Gilligan's Island" was broad and cartoonish, however, the survival was never harrowing or even particularly difficult. There were rarely food or water shortages, and everyone brought huge amounts of clothes and supplies. Life actually seemed okay on Gilligan's Island, the utter isolation notwithstanding.

Series creator Sherwood Schwartz said that he intended "Gilligan's Island" to be an idealized microcosm of a well-functioning American democracy. Seven character, all from different classes, are forced to live together by extreme circumstances,...

Sherwood Schwartz's sitcom "Gilligan's Island" was a tremendous success when it premiered in 1964. The premise is well-known to TV viewers the world over, thanks to its immensely catchy theme song. Five passengers set sail from Hawai'i one afternoon, hoping to take a three-hour boat tour of the island, guided by the Captain and the First Mate of the S.S. Minnow. The ship, however, hit bad weather, was thrown off-course, and crash-landed on an uncharted tropical island. The series showed the travails of the seven stranded castaways as they aimed to survive, and consistently bungled their own attempts at escape. "Gilligan's Island" took place in a cartoonish world, however, where there was no actual scarcity or death. Everything was bright and clean and the castaways generally got along. 

Meanwhile, two years later ... 

William Dozier's adventure comedy series "Batman" was a tremendous success when it premiered in 1966. Its premise...

Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island" is simultaneously hopeful and hopeless. It is hopeful in that seven ostensible strangers, all from different classes and walks of life, became stranded on a remote tropical island, and managed to survive and thrive, living together in harmony and often working together to achieve common goals. Even though there are rich people and poor people on the island, all sense of class has been erased. On Gilligan's Island, everyone is equal. Democracy works.  

The show is hopeless, however, because the seven stranded castaways seem to be eternally trapped on that island. Every time an opportunity for escape presents itself -- a hot air balloon, a new signaling device, etc. -- Gilligan (Bob Denver) fouls it up for everyone. Gilligan, a friendly, gentle, clumsy idiot, bumbles his way through life, often ripping hope from his compatriots. 

More viewers likely see "Gilligan's Island" in its former context,...

Holiday episodes have long been a staple of TV sitcoms. Just about every long-running series gets around to doing at least one Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas episode, while some shows (like "The Big Bang Theory") turn it into a tradition. When done well, they can reveal more about the main characters via reflections on past holidays in their lives or simply the sight of watching them deal with the pressure of, say, finding the perfect costume or whipping up a feast to remember. With Christmas, there's often a touch of melancholy mixed in with the festive spirit. Some people feel lonely or regretful at Christmastime, so it's comforting to see one or more of our favorite characters do a little soul searching.

If you're looking for characters to contend with life's curveballs in a meaningful way, you're probably not looking to "Gilligan's Island." The Sherwood Schwartz sitcom about seven castaways...

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There are many ways to interpret Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island." Author Paul A. Cantor once wrote in his 2001 book "Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization" that the series presents an idealized version of American democracy. Cantor's thesis pointed out that the show's seven castaways all came from different American classes -- there were two millionaires, a professor, a farmer, a pair of military men, and an entertainer -- but when they were forced to live on a deserted island together, they became fast friends. Not only that, but they also thrived. Schwartz was said to have confirmed Cantor's thesis in an obituary printed in the Washington Post.

Many (including this author) see a Sisyphean element to "Gilligan's Island." Every episode begins with hope. Often, a new person or object will wash ashore, offering the castaways an opportunity for escape.

For three seasons between 1964 and 1967, Sherwood Schwartz's "Gilligan's Island" delighted undemanding television viewers with the exploits of seven castaways stranded on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. It was a sitcom the whole family could enjoy (though some parents might've had qualms about sanctioning such tropical buffoonery), though it didn't really find its place in the popular culture until it went to syndication. When "Gilligan's Island" could air five times a week, it became a couch potato favorite; suddenly, people were generating wild theories about the series' underlying themes and, by sheer repetition, memorizing the plots of whole episodes.

After stumbling out of the gate with its pilot (which was missing several key cast members), the show quickly found its formulaic groove thanks in large part to the dorky chemistry of its ensemble. But while they were a perfect fit, Schwartz and his writers realized early on...

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Though there are only three seasons of "Gilligan's Island," the CBS sitcom became hugely popular thanks in part to its frequent showings in syndication. The show debuted in 1964 and ran until '67, but it was shown widely throughout the '70s and '80s, helping establish it as one of TV's most familiar sitcoms.

But it wasn't just the show itself that gave "Gilligan's Island" its cultural recognition. Once the series wrapped up, it lived on in the form of two animated spin-offs: "Gilligan's Planet" and "The New Adventures of Gilligan." Most of the castaways from the S.S. Minnow — named as such for a hilarious reason — also returned in three live-action TV movies: "Rescue From Gilligan's Island" (1978), "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island" (1979), and "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island" (1981).

In the latter, the original castaway characters returned to the...

Behind every cheerful, carefree franchise, there's a fan theory hypothesizing that someone was dead the whole time. Despite having aired decades before fans began sharing viral theories that the castaways on "Lost," musical teens in "Grease," and even the old sweetie pie in "Up" somehow died before the opening credits rolled, "Gilligan's Island" has nonetheless gotten swept up in a grim fan theory like a ship in a monsoon.

Generally, these weirdly dark non-canonical fan theories titillate some people while making others (myself included) respond with a big ol', "Who cares?" In the case of the tale of Gilligan's isle, though, the depressing theories are based on a real part of the show — an inconsistency in the theme song that becomes more and more noticeable each time you throw on an episode.

The "Gilligan's Island" theme song, brought to us by series creator Sherwood Schwartz and prolific composer and songwriter George Wyle,...

"Gilligan's Island" is a fun show about a group of castaways who never seem to get rescued despite nigh-weekly opportunities to make their way back to civilization. It's a premise that requires a certain suspension of disbelief from the get-go, especially by the time you witness the other castaways forgive Gilligan (Bob Denver) for sabotaging their attempts to secure a rescue for the umpteenth time.

However, there's a reason the CBS show is a classic. It carries a rare charm that's able to lull the viewer into said disbelief so easily that whenever you watch the show, it's hard to resist going with the flow from the second you hear that infinitely catchy theme song. This ability to casually sweep the viewer away for 25 minutes of desert island levity helped "Gilligan's Island" become one of the best TV shows of the 1960s, despite the fact that it contains some truly hilarious mistakes.

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The seven lead characters in Sherwood Schwartz's 1960s sitcom "Gilligan's Island" have become an indelible part of the world's pop consciousness, emerging as a new canon of distinctly American Commedia del'arte archetypes. The Professor (Russell Johnson) is the updated version of Il Dottore. Mr. Howell (Jim Backus) is the new Pantolone. The Skipper (Alan Hale) is clearly a modern Scaramuccia, and Gilligan (Bob Denver), well, he's Arlecchino. Additionally, Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) is likely Colombiana, Ginger (Tina Louise) is Gianduja, and Mrs. Howell (Natalie Schafer) is ... I guess another Pantolone.

It's hard to imagine a world where the seven stock "Gilligan's Island" characters were dramatically altered, as the seven characters audiences saw were downright perfect. One could always predict how one character might interact with any of the others.

Of course, it took a little trial and error to get the characters right.

"The Ballad of Gilligan's Island," in case it needs repeating, is the single best TV theme song of all time. In addition to explicitly explaining the premise of the classic show, "Ballad" introduces every single one of its seven main characters by name. It also helps that it's one of the most insidious earworms this side of "Yellow Submarine"; once you get "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island" stuck in your head, it will never leave. Your mind will be as lost as the Minnow.

In the original pilot episode for "Gilligan's Island," back before the final cast had been selected, the theme song was a calypso number composed by John Williams. That song, however, wasn't exactly what show creator Sherwood Schwartz wanted, so he and songwriter George Wyle wrote a second, better theme.. His and Schwartz's "Ballad" was written as a sea shanty, and no one can hear its...

The 1980s was truly an era of world-class sitcoms, but many of the decade's brightest series have faded from our cultural memory. While iconic shows like The Golden Girls and Cheers undoubtedly made television history, they're part of a larger wave of comedies that helped propel the sitcom format into new territory.

For decades, sitcoms like I Love Lucy, Good Times, and The Brady Bunch centered on the concept of family. There were some exceptions, but these shows, like Dream of Jeannie or Gilligan's Island, were often built around a gimmick. The 80s changed that, opening windows to a plethora of different environments. The sitcoms of the era explored the relationships between coworkers, neighbors, and friends. On top of this, they eschewed flashy premises, putting faith in sharp writing and well-rounded characters.

The Facts Of Life Shines Thanks to Its Cast It's a Seminal Series on Female Friendships

The Facts of Life...

Assuming you haven’t bought tickets to the symphony lately, your only exposure to classical music has been hearing it as the score playing in the background of movies. In that sense, musically, that stupid superhero movie you watched might just be the highest form of art you’ve experienced all year.

Those movies are going to be the absolute pinnacle of any composer’s career. Before that, they’ll be doing even sillier stuff, and that goes equally for the most famous composers of all.

6 John Williams Did the Original Theme Song to ‘Gilligan’s Island’

In the 20 years after 1976, four new movies broke the record for highest-grossing movie of all-time: Jaws, Star Wars, E.T. and Jurassic Park. All four of them were scored by John Williams. But a decade before the earliest of those four, Williams was enlisted to write the theme song to a TV show — a new series called Gilligan’s Island.

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As the theme song of "Gilligan's Island" reminds us before every episode, five passengers set sail on a charter boat from Hawaii for what should have been a three-hour tour. Of course, that three-hour tour eventually turned into three seasons of Gilligan, his captain, and the passengers being stranded on an "uncharted desert isle," where their boat, the S.S. Minnow, ran aground.

The ship seen stranded on the sands of the South Pacific island in the opening credits was actually a real boat, which was destroyed especially for "Gilligan's Island," mystifying a local man in the process. But Sherwood Schwartz's sitcom actually used several different models for the S.S. Minnow, which was revisited throughout the CBS series as the castaways attempted to fix it on various occasions. Alas, the small vessel was never fully restored, even after...