What could the Professor create?

[NicePete]

I've been inspired by Ukelele Ike.

Given the fact the Gilligan's Island was probably the surrealest show ever put on the tube and thus was not designed to be scientifically (or otherwise) accurate; how many of the Professor's creations could he really have made with things he found around a tropical island.

F'rinstance, the pedal car seems plausible, as does the hot water plumbing system. The coconut phonograph doesn't (I think you'd have problems with the needle). We have lots of technical experts on this board, from engineers and chemists to tropical botanists. What could the Professor really have made?

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Plunging like stones from a slingshot on Mars.

[Mojo]

If you can get the record to rotate that the proper speed, you can make a serviceable phonograph out of a styrofoam cup and cactus needle.

[NicePete]

I assume you could substitute a coconut shell for the styrofoam cup and there you go.

You see, that's why I needed to invoke the expertise of the Teeming Millions. One response and my OP's already been proved wrong.

[David B]

I'm thinkin' that if he could make a pedal-car, he could have also fixed the damned boat!

[Gilligan]

I don't know how he built all those things, I just know I'm the one who always broke them.

[Ukulele Ike]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh...Frank, I thought you were KIDDING!

-- Uke, running away as fast as his little legs can carry him

[Markxxx]

It seemed to be implied it wasn't building a raft that was the problem it was getting this raft into the shipping lanes.

The Pacific was so big unless you buildt this huge ship to carry food etc unless you got it into the shipping lanes you were doomed.

Now this doesn't explain how other people got to the island though.

[NicePete]

I think the Professor didn't really WANT to escape. Think about it -- he's the only reasonably attractive male on a lush tropical island with Ginger and Mary Ann...

Would you want to leave?

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Plunging like stones from a slingshot on Mars.

[Keeves]

If you can get the record to rotate that the proper speed, you can make a serviceable phonograph out of a styrofoam cup and cactus needle.

But what would the record itself be made of?

[Polycarp]

Uke...you asked for it!!

Now, about the theological implications of Gilligan's Island....

[Cabbage]

Ah yes, of course! The Seven Deadly Sins:

Gilligan Sloth
Skipper Anger
Professor Pride
Ginger Lust
Mary Ann Envy
Mr. Howell Greed
Lovey Gluttony

[pluto]

Cabbage -- you win my prize for the best post of the day!

(To claim your prize send a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Enclose two twenty-dollar bills for shipping and handling. Prize will be received in six to eight weeks. Not all prizes will be awarded. You need not be present to win. No purchase necessary. Make that three twenties.)


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"Finally, consider Kottke's voice which sounds like geese farts on a muggy day."
Leo Kottke
6- And 12-String Guitar

[Polycarp]

:::claiming an assist for setting him up:::

[BenDover]

What would have been really great is if MacGuyver had been stranded with them instead of Gilligan . . .

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If there is room for doubt - doubt!

[Cabbage]

WOOHOO! What do I win!!??

[John Bredin]

"Lovey: Gluttony"

Huh? Not on the "Gilligan's Island" we see in THIS universe!

[Snappy Plissken]

:urrs:: Yanno purty Kurt Russell was on that show once when he was younger...was Jungle Boy I believe. I need to see that episode.

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Snappy, The Crazy Toddite - Friend of Skippy

[AuraSeer]

Yanni is really Kurt Russell? How was this kept secret for so long?

[Keeves]

Snappy Plissken -- I've been wondering this for a while, but your reference to Kurt Russell makes me gotta ask: Are you related to the famous Snake Plissken? (I thought he was dead!)

[Markxxx]

I read in Sherwood Schwartz's book that they ridiculed him for the episode where the Prof made a balloon from raincoats. 25 years later some people in (then) East Germany did this and it worked. They floated to West Germany.

Well this is in the book anyway.

[Snappy Plissken]

Keeves makes the intelligent assumption:

Snappy Plissken -- I've been wondering this for a while, but your reference to Kurt Russell makes me gotta ask: Are you related to the famous Snake Plissken? (I thought he was dead!)

Ahehe. Finally somebody askes. It's...with some role-playing game on AOL I play with my friend Skippy. I'm essentially being myself, just related to...Snake. So yapyup.


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Snappy, The Crazy Toddite - Friend of Skippy

[The Ryan]

Keeves
Member posted 09-29-1999 03:49 PM

But what would the record itself be made of?

Do you mean what materials would the record be made of? Because I don't see what on the island would be worth recording.

[David B]

Maybe that's where the idea for all these nature recordings came from.

[GuanoLad]

Weren't the records some of the things saved on the Minnow?

I can't figure out how he managed to keep the radio going after it got damaged so often - and they had no power or spare batteries.



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"So what you are telling me, Percy, is that something you have never seen is slightly less blue than something else that you have never seen."

[whitetho]

David B did declare:

I'm thinkin' that if he could make a pedal-car, he could have also fixed the damned boat!

Russell Johnson, the actor who portrayed Roy Hinkley, PhD. (AKA "The Professor") has expessed annoyance about the people who endlessly, and unfairly, harp on the fact that in spite of Professor Hinkley's millions of brilliant successes, he ultimately was unable to fix the boat, like it was his job to do absolutely everything on that island!

In any event, in episode 8 Professor Hinkley made a valiant attempt to repair the Minnow, utilizing a glue made from tree sap. Unfortunately, the glue eventually failed, and the boat fell apart. (I suppose you could have done better?)

And don't foget that in the later TV movie, the castaways of course do escape from the island, back to the mainland. And whose idea was it to convert the huts to rafts, and who oversaw the construction, and coordinated the group's actions, so that when the tidal wave struck the island they were carried to safety? Professor Hinkley, of course!

Of course, if Cecil was aboard the series would have ended after one show, with everyone safe and sound. So be sure to invite Unca Cece along for all your vacations.

The Skipper was gluttony.
Lovey was envy.
Anger--?

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We have met the enemy, and He is Us.--Walt Kelly

[Lumpy]

As far as why they couldn't get off the island with a raft, it was established in the series that the wind and ocean currents flowed from Hawaii to the island. I cite the following episodes:
-First attempt by the Skipper and Gilligan to leave the island on a raft. They get washed back up on the island. (In fact, it seemed like anything[ dumped in the ocean off Hawaii ended up on the island.
-Gilligan finds stone tablet carved with runes that seem to give directions for how to reach Hawaii. The Professor eventually figures out that the tablet is saying how to go from Hawaii to the island.
-Gilligan and the Skipper start building another raft, with the Skipper saying that the Professor says the ocean currents have temporarily shifted. (I can't remember if that was the second appearance of the Mad Scientist, or the time a magnetic mine washed up in the lagoon.)

That said, I can't remember why they thought they could get off the island the time they found an intact inflatable raft (which sunk because no one could resist taking some of the gold that had been discovered on the island.)

[Polycarp]

I have no thought to add to this board, but I couldn't let Uke's offspring slide off the bottom of the board into oblivion.

[Ukulele Ike]

Thanks loads, Poly.

If this thread is my offspring, it's the somewhat demented one I keep locked in the attic.

[danielnsmith]

GuaonoLad said:

- and they had no power or spare batteries.

I remember the episode where the batteries did go dead. The castaways had to recharge them by stirring coconut milk in the shells.