Seemingly for the first time since the Harlem Globetrotters departed, Gilligan’s Island is newsworthy due the recent death of Bob Denver. Denver played the eponymous “Gilligan” on television during the show’s three year run in the mid-sixties and then actually became Gilligan in real life after the form-fitting red shirt and floppy white hat became permanently attached as the result of continuous reruns of the show over the last forty years. Presumably, Denver is now buried in that outfit three feet above the late Alan Hale still clad as the Skipper
People who attempt to summarize this show tend to focus on two of the more surreal aspects of it: (1) Gilligan repeatedly sabotaged the castaways’ chances of getting off the island through sheer stupidity (without the others smashing his skull to pulp while he slept), and (2) a surprisingly large number of guests were able to drop in on one of the world’s remotest locations while the island’s permanent inhabitants remained trapped there like Patrick McGoohan in the Village.
The question in my mind is to what extent is the conventional wisdom supported by the numbers? Since there were only ninety-eight episodes, I decided to review all the plot summaries to study these trends empirically. What I found was that Gilligan was not as big an albatross as he’s made out to be. In only 10 out of 98 episodes (or 10.2% of the time) did Gilligan’s stupidity, incompetence, or bad luck foil rescue attempts – and many of these escapes were far from a sure thing. For example in episode 4 when Gilligan fixes the transmitter by hitting it and then breaks it again by stupidly showing everyone how he fixed it, the castaways would have had little time to contact somebody with it before the batteries went dead. Far from a sure thing. The same is true, in Episode 20, when Gilligan destroys a weather balloon erroneously thinking it’s a monster. The chances of rescue by weather balloon (even unpunctured) seem remote to me.
Article comments
1 - John Bil
Gilligan was gay, why else would he and the skipper be sleeping together instead of with Ginger and Maryann.
2 - Al Barger
Now this is pretty good. Research and actual rational analysis of this show just accentuates the pure endearing goofiness of the silly thing.
But 5D, how do you feel about the theory that the show is a Karl Marx inspired class based social analysis?
3 - Vern Halen
You must have a lot of time on your hands....well, I have to admit, reading those stats was pretty funny. Keep up the tricky investigative journalism!
4 - Jim Banholzer
I remember reading in the National Enquirer some years ago when Alan Hale (The Skipper) was dying of cancer and had lost a lot of weight. He still showed up at public appearances and would tell the little kids that they were filming another remake of Gilligan's Island, only this time the Skipper would be playing Gilligan!
5 - The Fifth Dentist
That's pretty sad.
6 - M*** Mac*******
have you ever fantasized about gilligan? i'd like to do him right up the pooper. shit, all over the place. i like it dirty... oh,fuck, gilligan... i would plow his filthy little asshole.. mmm . delicious