Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island
TV-G | 26 September 1964 (USA)

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SEASON & EPISODES
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  • Reviews
    KnotMissPriceless

    Why so much hype?

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    ChanFamous

    I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

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    Salubfoto

    It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

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    Marva

    It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

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    nsequeira-50288

    I have a love/hate relationship with this show. First, I'll tell you the good. Then, I'll tell you the bad. This is the good:This show is a good sitcom, one of the best sitcoms ever made. It has an original premise, all seven characters are unique and complex. This is one of Sherwood Schwartz's gems. He also made The Brady Bunch, a tasteless garbage fire of a boring white bread family lovey-dovey comedy. He made this one first, and I don't know how he could make a good sitcom like this and then go make The Brady Bunch. This one is at least interesting. This one is cool, classic, timeless. It has a good aesthetic. I can't believe Sherwood Schwartz made both of them. This one has some real jokes. This one has conflict.It's family friendly. My favorite character is probably The Skipper. He's funny because he's fat. Everybody else is also OK. The concept is relatively original, sort of like a contemporary Robinsonade. This TV show is, uh, really good. It's from back when TV was original and fun. I can sit through this sitcom because it's wacky and every episode is different, but it feels real. The colors are vibrant.Now for the part that I hate. mainly, that it's based off Robinson Crusoe, which was written centuries before this show. Robinson Crusoe was written back when people still hadn't gotten to California. It was written before the age of radar, motors, GPS, or the like. Gilligan's island is set in the present day (and by that I mean the sixties), when finding seven people on an island would be very easy. Thus, the whole premise of the show is absurd and laughable, and is such a plothole that it prevents you from enjoying very much else.The first episode is the only really believable one. Gilligan and Skipper go out on a raft to try to find help, then give up and end up back on the island. That's the only one that feels as if it's set in the real world. If I was stuck on an island, the first thing I'd do would be maybe try to build a raft and get off the island. That first episode is the only time we see any characters on the water, or trying to get off the island in any sort of way. The first season is the only one that feels all that real. The last two seasons are fantasy. Multiple people get on the island- but they always get amnesia, or something, and never bother to tell the world that there are seven people on the island. It's a bizarre coincidence which I prefer to call a plot device. These seven people never get off the island. Why not?Do they want to stay there? I don't think they do. They all have lives apart from being on the island. so why don't they ever try getting off? This show, behind all the jokes, is depressing. I don't like watching people suffer. It's not enjoyable. Mr. Howell, in one episode, is revealed to have been rumored to be dead back on the mainland, but an impostor tries to impersonate him and says that Mrs. Howell died on the Minnow. That's Creepypasta level horror. How can seven people just vanish without being noticed? Gilligan might not be noticed- Skipper might not be noticed- Mary Ann might not be noticed- Professor would probably be noticed, considering he's a genius- Mr. Howell would be noticed, considering he's a billionaire, and Ginger would be noticed, since she's a movie star and everything. What sort of universe does this take place in? Seven people disappear, and everybody just thinks they died? Nobody searches for them, or anything? That's ridiculous. It's not even Mary Celeste level perplexing. they're on an island. It's a pretty big island, as far as I can tell- and random islands don't just happen. Most Pacific islands are known about. I mean, they had satellites and stuff back in the Sixties! And airplanes! They didn't have Google Maps, but they weren't barbarians!But society as a whole isn't entirely to blame for this tragedy. The castaways themselves are just as much to blame. At any time, they could lash together a few palm trees and make a crude sailing vessel- not as good as The Minnow, but just enough to take them back to the Mainland. They act completely helpless. Over the course of the show, they make all kinds of things that real castaways would never need- washing machines, bathtubs, huts that rival huts in Florida- I mean, they can do all that, but they can't make a boat? That's nuts. The island has plenty of vegetation that they could use to get off- but they never do. Are they stupid?Yes, to some extent. Skipper says that he's good at ocean navigation, but never tries to save them or get them off the island. Gilligan is irritating and immature. Mary Ann knows almost nothing. Ginger is vain. Mr. Howell is selfish and egotistical. Mrs. Howell is just as bad. The Professor is the only smart one out of the bunch, and even he doesn't realize that they could just make a raft, so I don't really have much sympathy for him, either. This is a show about idiots suffering. I don't like idiots, but I can't stand watching them suffer, either. Of course, they're not really suffering- but they're isolated from civilization and they're broken husks of their former selves. This show is really very dark. The show could give a reason as to why they couldn't get off. The trees are all too heavy, and can't float, or the island has no trees, or something like that. Or maybe the island has a forcefield that's invulnerable to radar. I don't know. Just some sort of explanation. There never is any explanation.But what bothers me most of all- is that this show had really good potential for a series finale. In the finale, they could finally get off the island. In the last episode, do they get rescued? No, of course not. It's just another plot, like all the other ones. Why? If the show was ending, they should have resolved the main conflict- the conflict of them being on the island. That would have been a good ending. it would have wrapped up everything, made it all seem complete. Instead, they had to make a movie about them getting off the island- which isn't good. I just don't get it. If they had ended the conflict, that would be fine- because we'd know what happened to them. The good? Well, the dream sequences are fantastic- and serve to give the show some diversions away from the setting. My two favorite episodes are the one where they switch bodies and the one about the mutated vegetables. Alan Hale is funny. The theme song is catchy. That's it. That's what I can say about this show. I like it.

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    shanakin

    I have to say Gilligan's Island for me is one of those shows that bring's out the kid in me still. No matter how many times I see the antics of Gilligan and the group it just makes me feel as if I was a kid again running home from school to catch those reruns that seemed to never go away of Gilligan's Island. Yes there are people out there who may not understand the show and it was certainly illogical of how many things that would have to of been stored away on the ship for a supposed three hour tour. But the thing I take away from watching it as an adult now is there unity on the island. No matter what happened they always cared for one another and looked out for one another like a family. I watched Rescue from Gilligan's Island recently that first reunion movie and took away one thing that was mentioned by the Skipper, he stated "It's not like were on the island where we trusted one another, this is civilization dog eat dog". And that so rang true to me, no it wasn't set in the real world but I think that's what we all look for is to just get along and put all our differences aside.As much as they wanted off the island I think we as viewers wanted on just for the comfort of knowing that we are wanted. Russell Johnson stated in his memoirs in a book from the show he wrote several years back that the show was a safe kind of wonderful for it's viewers, I think he was right about how we felt for the comfort of watching Gilligan's Island. The reruns endure because the show was perfectly cast with Bob Denver as Gilligan, I think we would all like to be that child like still to hold on to it as if it were a warm summer day. I love this show

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    rcj5365

    All right,so TV Guide rated this sitcom as the top 50 worst television shows of all time,but "Gilligan's Island" does stands out as one of the most maligned sitcoms of the era in a decade that was full of fantasy-themed shows ranging from "My Favorite Martian","My Mother The Car", "I Dream of Jeannie","Bewitched","It's About Time","F-Troop","The Ugliest Girl In Town","Batman","Get Smart","Green Acres","The Beverly Hillbillies",and much more.Created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz,and originally produced by United Artists Television in association with the CBS Television Network,the series starred Bob Denver(formerly of "Dobie Gillis")as the main character Gilligan along with Jim Backus,Russell Johnson,Alan Hale, Tina Louise,Dawn Wells and Natalie Schafer. It aired for three seasons at CBS from its premiere episode on September 26,1964 until the series finale on April 17,1967. Only Season 1 of "Gilligan's Island" was in black-and-white for 36 episodes that aired on Saturday nights after "The Jackie Gleason Show" at 8:30e/7:30c and had stiff competition against "Lawrence Welk". For Season 2 the network moved the show from Saturday nights to Thursday nights this time in color for 32 episodes where CBS put it at the 8:00e/7:00c time slot opposite "Daniel Boone",and "The Donna Reed Show". For the third and final season the show again moved from Thursday nights to Monday nights at the 7:30e/6:30c time slot for the remaining 30 episodes in color where it got clobbered opposite NBC's powerhouse hit "The Monkees" until its cancellation on April 17,1967(a total of 62 color episodes were produced from 1965 to 1967). Repeats of Season 3 aired from April 19,1967 until September 4,1967. The series ran for a total of 98 episodes.The reason why "Gilligan's Island" remains a cult classic among the very few? For one,this series was really targeted for kids instead of adults and that what made it so great to this day in recycled repeats. It was based on sophisticated humor. It was silly,stupid and corny but the cast was lovable by all aspects. But speaking of the characters:You have First-Mate Willy Gilligan(Bob Denver)who was just as clumsy and naive when getting into all sorts of predicaments with those who want to get off the island. Every episode had Gilligan getting into one hilarious situation after another. And for all 98 episodes!!!Skipper Jonas Grumby(Alan Hale,Jr.) is everything that Gilligan isn't but perfectly capable of taking charge and keeping the rest of the castaways in line.Thurston Howell III(Jim Backus)is the archetypal crass capitalist who doesn't do any work,and sits around all day talking about money and bonds knowing that his grand ambition is to defraud all the other castaways.Eunice "Lovey" Howell(Natalie Schafer)is much the "heiress" as she can be. Profession Roy Hinkley(Russell Johnson) is not the college professor,but in aspects a high school chemistry teacher,but is truly too smart for his own good. He is the only one that keeps the other alive on the island where he can take materials that are wherever resources are available on the island and whip it up in jiffy(imagine making a radio transmitter out of a coconut).Ginger Grant(Tina Louise)always the glamorous movie star who can seduce the men for information about what goes on surrounding the island.Mary Ann Summers(Dawn Wells)the naive farm girl from Kansas who can be classified as normal and the only castaway with "common sense" who also tends the island's crops and keeps herself entertained by listening to soap operas on the radio.The success of "Gilligan's Island" enjoyed solid ratings during its original run,but then grew in popularity during decades of repeats in the 1970's and 1980's in national syndication. The success also spawned two animated Saturday Morning cartoons series("The New Adventures of Gilligan",and "Gilligan's Planet),and three made for TV-movies in he late-1970's and early-1980's,and there are talks of a big screen version based on the classic 1960's sitcom as well.

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    fearfulofspiders

    Gilligan's Island is a show anyone from age 4-100 could watch. Of course, people have varying taste, but to those who have not been introduced to this nice show, do not know what they're getting into.The episodes are fun and funny. Slapstick plays a major key-role in the comedic style of this show, but there's also some subtle stuff as well as in-jokes.The acting is great. Every character is casted perfectly, and some of the performances are so over-the-top, it actually fits in and adds to the atmosphere.There's nothing vulgar, which makes this great for kids. Some of the first season I believe is in black and white, which to kids, can be a slight turnoff. This is a very friendly show.The various antics and mishaps are hilarious to watch, be they from concept or full realization.Overall, I highly recommend Gilligan's Island to anyone with a great sense of humor. With a wonderful cast, funny episodes, and great premise, this is a show to watch in the morning as you eat breakfast.

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