Wednesday morning, news editor Kim Jackson and I were paid a visit by an acquaintance who always strikes me as bearing an uncanny resemblance to a certain baby boomer TV icon.
“Chief,” I said after the fellow had left, “don’t you think he looks just like old-man version of the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, the one that appears in the dream sequences?”
“Yeah, he does,” Kim said. “Either that or that pilot who steered his biplane onto the island … .”
“Wrongway Feldman,” I said.
“That’s right, Wrongway Feldman,” Kim said.
“I think the old Professor might’ve appeared in that episode where Mary Ann thought she’d eaten poison mushrooms and gotten sick … .”
“Roomis-igloomis,” Kim said, reciting the name of the disease.
“Yep, roomis-igloomis,” I echoed.
“I can’t believe what you guys can remember,” said our newsroom neighbor, Cheryl Surendra.
“Well,” Kim said, “we watched Gilligan’s Island after school every day for a few years, and there weren’t that many episodes.”
“Chief, you remember the one where the guy on the top of the totem pole looked like Gilligan, and the Kupakai head-hunters thought Gilligan was some kind of deity, and the Professor taught Gilligan that Kupakai phrase that meant, ‘let these people go.’”
“Yeah.”
“You remember the phrase?”
“No.”
“Pulu see bagoomba,” I said.
“That’s right,” Kim said. “Pulu see bagoomba.”
While Cheryl rolled her eyes, I decided on this week’s list, my Top 7 Gilligan’s Island episodes:
1. Court-Martial. After the castaways’ re-creation of the shipwreck points blame toward Gilligan, he dreams himself as Lord Admiral Gilligan, swordfighting with pirates.
2. Meet the Meteor. A meteorite on the island makes everything near it age at a rapid rate. This one definitely featured dream scenes with the aged Professor.
3. The Postman Cometh. This is the mushroom episode, and it does feature a dream version of the Professor, but rather than being old, he’s a doctor who talks like Cary Grant.
4. Quick, Before it Sinks. The castaways, believing the island is receding into the sea, build and test a palm-and-bamboo ark.
5. High Man on the Totem Pole. This is the “Pulu see bagoomba” episode we were discussing earlier.
6. V is for Vitamins. Gilligan falls asleep while watching over the orange plants the castaways need for vitamin C, sending him into a hilarious, Jack and the Beanstalk-esque dream.
7. Big Man on Little Stick. Surfer Duke Williams rides a tsunami to the island, then catches another for the trip home. Amazingly, the castaways remain unrescued.
5 comments
meremark says:
May 18, 2012
WOW.
For me that is T.M.I. (Too Much Information). For those TV viewers those years that is F.G.U.R.M.I. (Forest-Gump Unquestioning Role Model Indoctrination) — 'behave like Gilligan, behave like Forest Gump, same same, be celebrated for it … someday … maybe.'
I 'shut out' Gilligan's Island because I couldn't identify with Gilligan as authentic for being re-cast of Maynard G. Krebbs — actor Bob Denver, ( "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", altho' "many" wasn't my most interest in the show, Tuesday Weld was), but in those days I hadn't realized an actor person is not the same as a character-role fiction. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I'm unconfused about it these days, either.
Anyway, HERE is the complete collection of full-length G.I. episodes. H.A.G.O. — K.Y.O. http://www.Fancast.COM/tv/Gilligan-s-Island/97792/full-e...
-
Don says:
Dec 3, 2011
I think you left out the “Chicken People!” episode (at least that’s what I call it). Mrs. Howell is collecting multicolored feathers to make a hat; meanwhile a NASA satellite camera destined for Mars lands on the island. After Gilligan trips over the let of the tripod, the camera lens shatters. The Professor boils a pot of glue to fix it, but it overheats and explodes, covering everyone with glue. They get angry at Gilligan, chase him, and everyone falls into the vat of feathers. Just then the camera begins to work. The crew at NASA thinks they’re seeing Mars. “There IS life on Mars!” one exclaims. ‘And WHAT life! Chicken people!”
Don says:
Dec 3, 2011
How about the one where the crate of radioactive vegetables washes up on the island? The one who eats the carrots can see for miles; the one who eats the spinach can lift the Skipper while he sleeps in a lounge chair…
Don says:
Dec 3, 2011
Harold Heckuba, the big producer (Phil Silvers) puts on a weird version of Hamlet on the island to make Ginger feel like she’s still in show business.
“there’s just one other thing… you ought to do:
To thine own self be true.”
——————————-
And finally, Jonathan Kincaid, a big game hunter, lands on the island and wants to shoot … Gilligan.
I wish some cable channel would run these shows……………..
Don says:
Dec 3, 2011
Okay, just one more. For some reason, Ginger uses a crystal ball to tell the future. “Look for a ship… when the MOON IS BLUE” she predicts, tongue in cheek. After the Skipper reveals to Gilligan that she’s a fake, a ship really does go right past the island, but alas, no one is looking for it.