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 was a mighty sailing man
The skipper brave and sure;
Five passengers set sail that day
On a three hour tour. (A three hour tour.)
The weather started getting rough
The tiny ship was tossed.
If not for the courage of it's fearless crew;
The Minnow would be lost. (The Minnow would be lost.)
They came to rest on the shores of this
Enchanted desert isle
Gilligan; the skipper too.
The Millionaire
And his wife;
The movie star;
The professor and Mary Ann -
Here on Gilligan's Isle!
Believe it or not, I remember the opening theme song to the Classic TV show. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't admit that!Except for Ginger (the movie star) and Mary Ann - the rest of the ship's passengers have disembarked with the passing of Russell Johnson who played the Professor Thursday at the age of 89.
Bob Denver (Willy Gilligan), Alan Hale Jr. (Skipper Jonas Grumby), Jim Backus (Millionarie Thurston Howell III), Natalie Schafer (His wife, Eunice "Lovie" Wentworth Howell), Tina Louise (Ginger Grant), Russell Johnson (Professor Roy Hinkly), and Dawn Wells (Mary Ann Sommers) starred in the show that lasted only three seasons on CBS from 1964 to 1967.
The show was criticized by critics - but for folks of my vintage - it is one of the touchstones of our childhood.
The spunky bunch of castaways still survive in re-runs.
My athletic experience crossed paths with the Minnow. When I played on St. Paul's B-team (6th and 7th grade), basketball practice was at 5:00. So, after school I came home and ate an early supper at 4, when Gilligan's Isle came on.
Just watching the show take me back there, sitting on the floor a footstool over my legs like a TV table, eating dinner. I love the show. It was silly and fun. They seemed to have all kinds of visitors, but couldn't get off the island. They were visited by a big-game hunter who wanted to hunt the most clever prey - man - and hunted Gilligan, but came up short. There were natives and a lost pilot who landed his float-plane in their lagoon.
It's a show I can watch over and over again, like Andy Griffith, it's just fun.
Little things in the show didn't always make sense to a 12 year old. I didn't understand why it seemed all the passengers had changes of clothes with them when the trip was scheduled to only last three hours. The skipper and Gilligan wore the same clothes everyday - and the professor wore pretty much the same thing, but had all kinds of scientific gear (beakers and such) with him on ship.
Yet, the adventure of the intrepid group was inspiring and made me use my imagination. My parents didn't get a color TV until after I left for college, so my view of Gilligan's Isle was in black and white. It didn't matter. I loved the show.
I could identify with Gilligan as someone who felt he couldn't do anything right, and I was definitely in the Mary Ann camp when it came to the question of Ginger or Mary Ann?
The show's three hour tour continues in re-runs, on You Tube, in DVD Box sets, and in the hearts and minds of millions, like me, who grew up in our homes perched in a place we knew as Gilligan's Island.
While I can sing by heart the opening theme to Gilligan's Isle - the song over the closing credits I had to look up:
So this is the tale of our castaways,
They're here for a long long time.
They'll have to make the best of things,
It's an uphill climb.
The first mate and his Skipper too
Will do their very best,
To make the others comf'terble
In their tropic island nest.
No phone, no lights, no motor car,
Not a single luxury
Like Robinson Crusoe
It's primitive as can be.
So join us here each week my friends,
You're sure to get a smile,
From seven stranded castaways
Here on Gilligan's Isle!
Comments
Post a Comment