At Long Last, He's Finally Off the Island

Bob Denver, a.k.a. Gilligan on Gilligan's Island, has died. From a Chi Sun-Times obit:

Denver's show never should have lasted. It was dumb, stupid and moronic -- all three. A boat goes out in the Pacific for a three-hour cruise and shipwrecks on a deserted island for many years with a skipper, Gilligan, a movie star, a Kansas girl, a brainiac and a millionaire couple. How absurd.

"Gilligan's Island" did last, living for just three years -- 98 episodes in 1964 to 1967, on CBS -- but surviving in syndicated perpetuity for decades afterward. Why? Largely because reruns swamped daytime TV back in the days when there was no real cable. Most of us had just ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS, and no self-respecting latchkey kid would watch PBS and the Cookie Monster.

So it would be, like, 3:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. I'd go home and wait for Gilligan to get hit on the head by the skipper's cap. That wasn't funny. It was reassuring, like seeing a McDonald's on a vacation.

Whole thing here.

Official Bob Denver site here.

Occasional Reason contributor and Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in an Age of Globalization author Paul Cantor discusses other reasons for Gilligan's Island's enduring popularity here.

Comments

[madpad]

Skipper!

[Kevin]

My favorite episode was the one where they almost get off the island but Gilligan screws it up. Kills me every time.

[smacky]

What's wrong with 1980's-era cookie monster? 🙁
He still ate cookies back then.
I still respec' myself.

[Rich Ard]

Good lord, close the italics tag on the article that just hit the main page.

[Dave W.]

Money quote from linked article:

"It?s too early to tell how [the role of nation-states] will play out, but I think it?s clear that we?re moving into an era where economics will trump politics, which is an important way of thinking about globalization."

Never thought about it that way before.

[Russ D]

My favorite Bob Denver episode was when Howard Stern made him smoke a tampon.

[The Postman]

My favorite episode was where he got busted for marijuana possession in his West Virginia home after feds discovered a package of pot heading his way in the mail - oops! That actually happened.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

When I read "off the island" I thought it was about Number 6.

Come to think of it, even shows like The Prisoner made more sense then Gilligan's Island.

[ralphus]

Does this mean that the "Free Gilligan!" T-Shirts my buddy silk screened in college just shot up in value?

The best part of the Gilligan pot bust story was that Mary Ann sent him the bud.

[OPUS]

Gilligan is with the Skipper now. For the whole eternity cruise.

[Herman]

Would putting the iconic white hat on the coffin be too tacky? Maybe Russell Johnson could bring something made from coconuts and bamboo for old times sake?

[Jim Walsh]

I saw Bob Denver ten years ago, hawking his book at a shopping mall in Charleston, West Virginia. There he stood at a table in his Gilligan hat, mostly ignored by the shoppers, looking lost behind a pile of books. Damn sad.

[Pro Libertate]

Gilligan's Island had its moments:

I ask to be or not to be,
A rogue or peasant slave is what you see;

A boy who loved
His mother's knee,
And so I ask to be or not to be.

So here's my plea, I beg of you,
And say you see a little hope for me.

To fight or flee, to fight or flee,
I ask myself to be or not to be.

Hey, it's not Shakespeare (chortle), but, then again, Shakespeare mixed his metaphors--the hack. Taking up arms against a sea of troubles, indeed.

[Stevo Darkly]

Hey, I remember that song! Many years later, I found out it was to the tune of a song from the opera Carmen -- but to me, it will always be the "Hamlet-as-a-musical episode of Gilligan's Island theme song."

(In the same way that "Barber of Seville" is "that song from that one Bugs Bunny cartoon.)

[Stevo Darkly]

My favorite Bob Denver episode was when Howard Stern made him smoke a tampon.

Wasn't that the same episode where they strapped Mary Ann into the tickle chair and subjected Ginger to the Robo-Spank? Or vice versa?

[Cliff]

Steve, that last post made me spew coke out of my nose, hilarious!

[Stevo Darkly]

At least Stern didn't succeed in badgering Mrs. Howell to take her top off.

"C'mon, honey. C'mon -- take your top off."

"How darrrrre you!"

[Syd]

Everybody's mourning Gilligan and nobody's mourning Maynard G. Krebs?

[Pro Libertate]

Stevo, even more stuck in my head is the one that goes, "Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; do not forget, stay out of debt. . . ."

As for Bugs, all I have to say is kill the wabbit.