And it arguably remains popular to this day.
LOL, as a Romantic influenced by fellow Swiss Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Wyss wasn’t looking at the situation in terms of realism. He was probably trying to show Rousseau’s argument that civilization was not to be trusted (“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”), and that away from civilization, in a “state of nature”, humans could construct a better, freer society.
So the scenario of six people stranded with all the supplies isn’t just an adventure story; it’s a social and philosophical experiment that demonstrates Rousseau’s ideals.
Yeah, then again, even children could go all “Lord of the Flies”…
Another variant is the play (and 1950s movie) The Admirable Crichton, where the class system is up-ended as the butler is (obvs) the competent leader/manager, and his bumbling employer clueless.
The guys at QI did mention that originally the title was Der Schweizerische Robinson oder der schiffbrüchige Schweizer-Prediger und seine Familie, As Stephen Fry said, in essence it meant: A Swiss family doing a Robinson. (or pulling a Robinson).
Translators mangled it and many later thought that the family was called Robinson. The family, as noted, were not named in the book, it was just a title pointing out that it was a Robinsonade. (Curiously, nowadays, I notice a lot of this in manga or other places: Long title names that are exactly what it says on the tin -or cover-)
The family in the Gold Key comic Space Family Robinson was named “Robinson”, as was the family in the unrelated TV series Lost in Space. Homage, or ignorant creators? Take your pick.
Yeah, then again, even children could go all “Lord of the Flies”…
On the other hand, six teenage boys were marooned on an island, and they worked together until they were rescued in good health over a year later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongan_castaways#:~:text=The%20Tongan%20castaways%20were%20a%20group%20of%20six,of%20Tongatapu%2C%20stealing%20a%2
I remember seeing the Disney movie around the time I was in first grade. For some reason, the scene where they install the bamboo plumbing in the treehouse stuck in my mind.
Wasn’t Kurt Russell in the movie, probably in one of his first roles?
Thanks to the attraction at Disneyland, I was intimately familiar with that treehouse before I ever saw the movie for the first time on TV. What else were you going to do with those C tickets?
'fraid not. James MacArthur (“Book’im Danno – Murder one”) was in it, although he’d ben in other Disney roles. And Tommy Kirk (another Disney fave), but Russell didn’t start until 1963.
Fun fact: Before Disney’s 1960 version, there had been a 1940 RKO version. Disney used that film as an example of “what not to do” (that is, film on indoor sets – the Disney filmshot on location). Nevertheless, Disney bought the rights to the RKO film and haven’t released it. It’s hard to avoid sayin that Disney suppressed the earlier version (as Wikipedia tries to do), but they pretty clearly did. There have been opportunities to get a DVD copy, but you had to look for them,
It’s reportedly available streaming on Disney plus, but that doesn’t make up for all the years the film was unavailable.