T’wasn’t a great show, but I watched about every episode of GI. He was better in Dobie Gillis, and I absolutely loved him in “The Good Guys” (I can still sing the theme song to that one!) It was a sort of proto-Seinfeld.
But he was really awful in Dusty’s Trail. Of course, everyone was awful in that series. I don’t think it was his fault.
To Bob:
“I’m a good guy,
hey, you’re another one too!
Like a brother, each to the other one
true blue!”
I bet Tina Louise doesn’t, because she’s afraid of type-casketing.
She’s more afraid they’ll stick her in the coffin. She looks like Skeletor.
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from this tropic port,
aboard this tiny ship.
The mate(deceased) was a mighty sailin’ man,
the skipper(deceased) brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day,
for a three hour tour, a three hour tour………
The weather started getting rough,
the tiny ship was tossed.
If not for the courage of the fearless crew,
the Minnow would be lost; the Minnow would be lost.
The ship took ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle,
with Gilligan(deceased), the Skipper(deceased) too,
the Millionaire(deceased), and his Wife(deceased),
the Movie Star, the Professor and Mary Ann,
here on Gilligan’s Isle.
RIP.
The mention of “Dusty’s Trail” got me to thinking. Though born in '64, somehow, I never saw reruns of GI until after I had seen the syndicated DT around '73 or so. I thought GI was a rip-off from it until I noted that Denver looked much younger in GI.
Sir Rhosis
did they ever get off the island? i loved that show as a kid.
Yeah, they made it off in 1978, then Gilligan restranded them on their anniversary tour. Got off again, started a hotel, and finally hosted the Harlem Globetrotters and a very shamefaced, why am I doing this crap Martin Landau.
Sir Rhosis
And they went into space.
I remember as a kid really enjoying Mr. Denver in Who’s Minding The Mint? I haven’t seen it in years. Maybe somebody will air it now. That and “The Good Guys”.
Landau said he did it because he thought it was funny. He never badmouthed it.
Interesting bit on snopes. They say that Willy was considered as a given name, but was never used in the series. Sherwood Schwartz said ‘Gilligan’ was Gilligan’s given name, not his surname:
Fair enough. But look at this other quote, also by Schwartz:
So in one quote Schwartz says it’s his given name, and in another he says it’s his surname.
I’d just like to say I think the series should have ended after Gilligan re-stranded them on the island in the movie – closing the circle was just a very Gilligan’s Island thing to do. 
So long, li’l buddy.
Shaw just flat-out stole one episode of Gilligan’s Island and made it into Pygmalion (after the same episode was stolen by Lerner & Lowe and made into a musical, of course). Shameful.
The movie “Surviving Gilligan’s Island”, available on DVD, is one of the best movies about TV ever and I would highly recommend it. (I think it garnered the highest ratings of any network movie in years.)
Screw Hunter S. Thompson. Bob deserves to go out in a 150 foot cannon. I was thrilled last Christmas when I got an e-mail from him. I’d ordered an autographed Gilligan shirt for a cousin (who didn’t appreciate it) and the order was screwed up because I stupidly mixed up the mailing address (I was in the process of moving and unthinkingly combined present and future addresses) so I wrote back to check on it and when I learned what the problem was I made some type of comment or other about how I’m so much an Alabamian hillbilly that even my address is inbred, expecting it to only be read by whoever did shipping.
Bob himself wrote me back a short e-mail with a “LOL” and “thanks for the laugh” and a comment to the effect of “Having lived in both West Virginia and Los Angeles for years I can tell you, I’ll take living around inbred hillbillies over living around actors anyday of the week”.
I thought "This is so *&@#$ing cool---- I just got a LOL and an inbreeding joke from FREAKING GILLIGAN! (Of course he was a pothead, bless his heart, so making him laugh wasn’t that hard, but he was GILLIGAN!)
“There’s just one other thing, you’ve got to do…”
I’ll let somebody else bring it home
“To thine own self be true!”
Do you think Bob will be included in the Memorium section at next year’s Oscars?
The ultimate tribute, from Sherwood Schwartz, in today’s L.A. Times:
I don’t know if someone posted this above (I don’t think they did), but he died as a result of complications from cancer treatment.
I think it would be ok to exclude him. Looking at his bio, he really didn’t do many movies at all. He was pretty much a TV actor.
In fact, I doubt he is even a member of the Academy.
I don’t know if that is a requirement (did they show Rodney Dangerfield?)
Just heard this on the radio:
Sampiro, you are SO much my hero.