Relatedly, I can’t hear the Toreador Song without singing Polonius advice speech.
I remember there being two kinds of plots. One was where someone from the outside world came to visit, promised to rescue them, then defaulted on the promise. The other was just their own domestic living issues: Gilligan makes dinner, Ginger gets jealous, Mrs. Howell loses her pearls.
I always liked the domestic plots better than the guy-from-outside plots. The “soap opera” interactions among the ensemble were better than their interactions with guest stars.
Also, the “How do we get along together” plot-lines made half an ounce of sense, whereas the “I decided I won’t rescue you” plots made zero sense at all, and I found them insulting. Also damn mean!
The domestic squabble plots usually had a happy ending, but the “non-rescue” plots were always disappointing.
Type #3: one or more of them is in danger (a volcano suddenly appears on the island; somebody hunts Gilligan; the government launches a missile - I remember the last one especially as there were two different syndicated cuts; in one, they include the scene where the general in charge is told that the warhead won’t work, but they’ll launch anyway to test the guidance system, but in the other, it’s cut, so it makes the viewers think that the warhead is a dud but something Gilligan does might set it off).
One of the reasons it was considered stupid: you had to suspend disbelief quite a bit on occasion. For example, there’s an episode where somebody else is on the island, and he’s being picked up by a helicopter, but somehow, despite all of the castaways looking for a rescue ship, Gilligan seems to be the only one who hears the helicopter coming.
How could Gilligan represent sloth? The Skipper always supervised him but I don’t remember seeing him pitch in much, Mary Ann and Ginger did the cooking and cleaning, the Professor spent his time tinkering, and the Howells never lifted a finger. Everything else, Gilligan did.
FYI: The batteries were recharged with electricity generated by pennies immersed in seawater.
How can they make a radio that runs on coconuts, but they can’t repair the Minnow’s CB? How can they make those huts but they can’t make a raft? Why can’t they repair the Minnow? How can there be a thousand people visiting them on the island, but none of them think to send a rescue craft after they leave?
Argh.
They always had a reason. The castaways had learned a secret, or had pissed them off, or something screwy. It was always shallow and selfish and stupid, but it was a reason.
It’s like asking if Scoobie Doo gets a bad rap.
I always thought it was for kids. Sure I watched it, as it was practically on continuous loop after school, along with The Beverly Hillbillies and Star Trek. We kids watched it to our parents disdain. In fact, I never saw any adult set aside time to catch Gilligan’s Island.
It’s nostalgic these days as it reminds me of those carefree afterschool afternoons.
Some more recent, similar type shows that are silly and escapist, yet more up to date, and still somehow give me that “nostalgic feel” are:
“Todd And The Book Of Pure Evil” and
“Danger 5”
Check them out and see if they don’t bring back some nostalgia from the past.
They did, but Gilligan smashed it to bits when he dropped a load of firewood on it.
They made rafts, but none of them proved seaworthy.
They did, but the glue they made to patch it up was no good and it disintegrated.
See two posts above.
My favorite question: Why did they never kill Gilligan after he fucked up for the umpteenth time? :dubious:
Yes I think the television show Gilligan’s Island gets a bad rap. There were multiple situational takes on then-current comedic forces, trends and even (yes) atrocities laid before eagerly anticipative audiences. Two toes curled!
Wait, I’ve just finished tabulating the in-thread responses thus far. Additional information indicates that yes, the television show Gilligan’s Island is entirely and eminently deserving of the bad rap it gets, being the lowest of low-brow crap foisted on an innocent and unsuspecting viewing audience still reeling from shocking revelations regarding their beloved Ricky Nelson and some woman named Hazel. One throat barfing.
Watching it in reruns as an adult, I decided that each episode was ‘the only day on the island’ - there was no continuation, every day was the only day that something unusual happened [they didn’t have lots of visitors, they had a boring year and then suddenly the cannibals/the globetrotters/the secret agent dropped onto the island]
Sort of like I seem to remember The Goodies - I seem to remember that they would do something different each show that was not related to any other show. I was disgusted with PBS at the time, they would only show it occasionally as filler programming, instead of getting the whole series I think they only showed about 10 over 2 years.
It takes some skill to write such water-tight plots.
One of the Really Stupid Bits - and IIRC, this was from really early in the series. The Professor has embedded a stick in the lagoon that he’s using to measure the water level, but he hasn’t told anyone else about this, so naturally Gilligan uses the stick for something else, then puts it back almost exactly in the same place (one hell of a coincidence, but not the stupid part yet) so that the Professor thinks the water level is rising, hence the island is sinking (since sea level doesn’t change).
Gilligan does this a couple of times, and the last time he does it, he evidently sticks the stick so deep in the mud on the bottom of the lagoon that the Professor thinks the water level has gone up drastically relative to the island - the island is sinking fast! So he has them all move to the highest ground on the island, or some such.
Does he look to see if the water’s moved higher up the beach (which of course it hasn’t)? No, he just treats the stick as Truth, and ignores that nothing’s happening with the actual island. The water’s way higher up on his stick, therefore the water must be rising fast and the island must be sinking fast. You’d think even a high-school biology teacher would want to double-check a result like that.
Oh, and Mary Ann, of course. If Ginger came on to me, I’d wonder what her ulterior motive was. One of the constants of the series was that Ginger never came on to anyone simply because she loved or desired him; she did so because there was something else she wanted, and her sex appeal was the bait to get that.
Certainly more plausible than Lost in Space. Funnier than the Partridges. Excellent basic casting (minimal need for guest stars.) Most important, not as stupid as today’s recurring reality shows.
An all-white cast? I didnt mind.
Thats because it was called “The Smothers Brothers Show”.
Note that the IMDB page says “The Smothers Brothers Show” (original title)
I* knew* there was a reason why we did that! :smack:
The Professor thought the island was sinking because Gilligan was using the stick to anchor his lobster traps, and he kept moving it out into deeper water each day to catch bigger lobsters. He had no idea the Professor was using it to measure the water levels, and he didn’t tell anyone he was using it to catch lobsters.
There was at least one epsiode that was a sequel to another: “The Return of Wrongway Feldman,” with Hans Conried in the title role, toward the end of the first season.
I couldn’t have noted it because I didn’t look it up. The guy who said it was called My Brother, the Angel looked it up.
Like I said: I’m lazy! :o