Gilligan's Island: The Complete 3rd Season (DVD)

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3) "Pass the Vegetables, Please"—In an episode that comes closer to those from the first few seasons, Gilligan finds a box of seeds and everyone reaps what they sow . . . until they realize that the seeds were a lost box of experimental radioactive seeds that give each of them super powers of sorts. Probably the funniest episode of the season.

4) "The Producer"—Phil Silvers guests as a producer who crash-lands on the island, and the castaways end up doing a musical version of "Hamlet."

5) "Voodoo"—When a witch doctor turns the professor into a zombie, there's heck to pay.

6) "Where There's a Will"—Mr. Howell includes everyone in his will, but fears he's going to be the target of a murder.

7) "Man with a Net"—The gang gets their hopes up when a butterfly collector shows up on the island, only to see their hopes flit away when he's more interested in Lepidoptera.

8) "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow"—The crew of the S.S. Minnow turns suddenly bald, and not even the professor can tell them why.

9) "Ring Around Gilligan"—The evil Dr. Balinkoff returns with a ring that transforms the gang into robots.

10) "Topsy-Turvy"—Headhunters invade the island, but Gilligan's even less help than usual after he takes a whack on the head and ends up seeing things upside down. A frequently shown episode in reruns.

11) "The Invasion"—Another dream episode, this time with Gilligan fancying himself as a spy after he finds an attaché case in the lagoon.

12) "The Kidnapper"—The women are kidnapped one by one by a mysterious perpetrator, and held for ransom.

13) "And Then There Were None"—So, were the writers conked on the noggin with coconuts? What's with all the dream episodes this season? This time Gilligan has Jekyll and Hyde fantasies.

14) "All About Eva"—When an average-looking young woman comes to their island, the castaway women can't keep themselves from giving her a makeover.

15) "Gilligan Goes Gung Ho"—Barney Fife comes to the island when Gilligan takes his new position as deputy way too seriously.

16) "Take a Dare"—Okay, "Survivor" fans, step into this way-back machine and see how in 1967 Sherwood Schwartz had contrived a game show where a contestant had to survive on the island for a week.

17) "Court-Martial"—Big-dreamer Gilligan does it again, this time thinking he's Lord Admiral Gilligan, the scourge of scurvy pirates and hero to damsels in distress.

18) "The Hunter"—Schwartz does a take-off on "The Most Dangerous Game," where a big-game hunter tries to bag the ultimate trophy: the two-legged kind.

19) "Lovey's Secret Admirer"—Okay, now it's contagious. Mrs. Howell dreams she's Cinderella, though Gilligan still gets into the act as her fairy godfather.

20) "Our Vines Have Tender Apes"—Shades of jungle boy Kurt Russell from season one, this time it's an older chest-thumper who stirs things up.

21) "Gilligan's Personal Magnetism"—Lightning turns Gilligan into a human magnet.

22) "Splashdown"—Don't think about this too hard, but the castaways try to attract the attention of astronauts flying high overhead.

23) "High Man on the Totem Pole"—When Gilligan finds his likeness on a totem pole, it almost goes to his head . . . until the castaways realize it was carved by headhunters.

24) "The Second Ginger Grant"—Bonks on the head and dreams continue, with Mary Ann convinced she's Ginger and Gilligan thinking he's Mary Ann.

25) "The Secret of Gilligan's Island"—This dream (yep, another one) finds Gilligan transported to the Stone Age after he discovers prehistoric stone tablets and envisions everyone as cave dwellers.

26) "Slave Girl"—When Gilligan saves a girl from drowning, she becomes his servant for life (though on this island, "life" means one episode, and then you're gone, or else you return for a sequel).

27) "It's a Bird, It's a Plane"—The castaways pin their escape hopes on a jet pack that they discover.

28) "The Pigeon"—And from that high-tech scheme it's back to basics as the professor sends an SOS the old-fashioned way, via carrier pigeon.

29) "Bang! Bang! Bang!"—As with the radioactive seeds, another blessing turns out to be a curse in disguise. This time they make things out of moldable plastic, only to discover it's plastic explosives.

30) "Gilligan, the Goddess"—In yet another Gilligan revered the reviled by natives episode, Gilligan is the substitute that natives choose when they look for a virgin to toss into a volcano.

Video: The picture on this release, though a remaster isn't indicated, is really very good. You notice it especially when the Skipper and Gilligan stand next to each other and you see those blind-you bright blue and red shirts. There's plenty of definition and no bleed, which, given the year, is surprising.

Audio: Nothing special here, just Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, but because it's all dialogue and laugh track (and Foley effects), that's sufficient for this time-capsule of a show.

Extras: The "documentary" is a major disappointment. Fan club presidents and "Real Gilligan's Island" participants does not a documentary make. There's no sense of development, no sense of history, and no sense of behind-the-scenes information. Just a lot of testimony to the show's appeal. Creator Sherwood Schwartz's intro to the season is better, as is his commentary for episode four, "The Producer."

Bottom Line: There's a huge difference between popularity and excellence. Hot dogs are a favorite across America, but no one is going to tell you it merits an 8 on a culinary scale of 10. That's the way it is with this show. Fans are going to buy it and enjoy it no matter what, as if it were a guilty pleasure. But the reality is that the writers were running out of ideas for the castaways this third season, as evidenced by the huge number of dream-sequence episodes. The third season of "Gilligan's Island" isn't the best. Neither was Season One, when the creators were still finding their way and using black and white film stock. But ratings and reviews aside, the biggest tribute to "Gilligan's Island" is that a show which ran only three years has made such a big splash on the American pop-cultural scene.

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