That is, at what point is sheer incompetency, even in the absence of malice, contemptable? At what point do you say that their “tried their best” is pathetically inadequate, especially if you suffer as a result?
Gilligan was the key to their survival. Any time any of the others messed up, they stayed alive by saying “At least I’m not Gilligan”.
Exile before death. However, if food supplies run low enough and cannibalism is the only solution, I say hunt the incompetent fucker down and roast him to save (hopefully, more worthy) others.
Didn’t Gilligan save them all in the first place? Or at least the skipper?
And at least Gilligan did the work. Unlike useless Ginger or the Howells. If I’m atuck on an island, I’ll take a semi-competant hard worker any day over an imperious know-it-all who is too good to get their hands dirty. Gilligan FTW!
But who would make the coconut cream pies? Or maybe that was Mary Ann.
It was definitely Mary Ann. The actor Dawn Wells even published a cookbook of “Mary Ann’s” recipes
I’m looking at it from the POV of the showrunner on a more modern, more serialized series. At what point have we gotten so low on ideas that we kill off our main character, and where does the series go from there?
Although, if it were a modern series, two or three of the original castaways would have died by now, replaced by three or four natives or new castaways. Ah, fuck, it would be Lost.
The hardest worker on the island was the radio battery.
Oops. Honest, I thought this was CS, not GD.
It might be interesting to go through the series and count how often Gilligan saved everyone vs. how many times he thwarted their rescue. I remember an early episode where they repaired the Minnow with glue. Gilligan discovered the glue wasn’t permanent and kept everyone from boarding the boat. He saved them all from hostile natives at least twice.
You take the good, you take the bad,
you take them both and there you have
The facts of life, the facts of life
“Eat the rich” works just as well on an uncharted desert isle…
Were Gilligan and the Skipper a couple?
I dunno. Not much meat on those skinny bones.
Seriously? Oh please, let my Google-fu be working!
I assume, since you posted this thread in Great Debates and not Cafe Society, that you’re more interested in discussing this broader question than in just the show, although you’re using the show as an example.
To that I would say, you don’t kill Gilligan. I’d rather live on Gilligan’s Island than in Lord of the Flies, so I’d try my best to get along with everyone and cooperate. But, if necessary, I might impose some rules on Gilligan, to try to prevent his incompetence from becoming too destructive.
“I feel like Professor on Gilligan’s Island
I’m surrounded by idiots.
Why is everyone so well-behaved?
Let’s ditch Gilligan and we’ll be saved.”
-Something Fierce (from a song that’s actually about Reagan/Bush-era politics)
Wasn’t it Russell Johnson who said, okay, so I’m living on a tropical island with beautiful women, and my only competition is the fat guy and the idiot? Why would I want to leave? Yeah, a hole in a boat, that’s beyond my professorin’ skills, I guess.
The Professor was popular with Ginger because he kept recharging the coconut batteries for her vibrator.
And he (as much by dumb luck as anything) saved everyone from the pit trap. Also I think he found the water reservoir during the drought.
I’m not sure I buy it, but I did hear Sherwood Schwartz say Gilligan’s Island was conceived as a way to show people, however different, had to learn to get along and appreciate each other, and that was the purpose of the show. It was not an accident that it came out as America was tearing itself apart and it was a metaphor for America. Sure, okay, I guess…