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

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It shouldn't have ended this way.

For "Gilligan's Island: The Complete Third Season," Warner Brothers has enlisted Robert J. Thompson, Director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, to anchor a "documentary" on "Gilligan's Island: A Pop Culture Phenomenon." But that two-part title with colon is the only academic thing in this throwaway feature, which offers mostly participants in "The Real Gilligan's Island" reality show talking about their feelings, in lieu of actual analysis or behind-the-scenes information. It's as much a documentary as one of the episodes, and the third and final season of the show deserved better.

But I'll give Prof. Thompson this: he's right that a large part of the success of "Gilligan's Island," which debuted the fall after Pres. John F. Kennedy was assassinated, was due to Americans' need for escapist fare at a time when their beloved president had fallen, Vietnam was emerging as a quagmire, and the Civil Rights and women's liberation movements were in full but tense swing.

I'd like to go a bit further, though, in talking about what made a mediocre show, at best, such a phenomenon. The Sherwood Schwartz sitcom appealed mostly to children, as did his later "The Brady Bunch." It's a classic fish-out-of-water formula sitcom with a skipper and his mate stranded on an island with a millionaire and his wife, a movie star, a professor, and a country girl who all set out on a "three-hour tour" and got more than they bargained for. The largely slapstick and goofy gag humor was based on the friendly conflict between the bumbling Gilligan and the short-tempered skipper, but jokes were also made at the expense of the millionaires and movie star—lifestyles of the rich and wannabe famous.

The first year it aired, "Gilligan's Island" tied with "The Munsters," another escapist novelty sitcom, for 18th place, then ranked 22nd the following year, and by the third and final year the fascination ended—except, of course, for reruns. But for a three-hour tour and a three-year run, "Gilligan's Island" has cast a much bigger shadow on American pop culture. With all due respect for Prof. Thompson, I'd like to suggest a few additional reasons why.

The Slapschtick Factor The Skipper (Alan Hale, Jr.) and Gilligan (Bob Denver) were like a vaudeville team, a comedic pair where slapstick and goofy gags were as much a part of their repertoire as Gilligan's red shirt and the Skipper's bright blue one. Someone else can analyze the colors, but suffice it to say that Gilligan made the Skipper see red in just about every episode. It had been awhile since the "I Love Lucy" days, and shows that harkened back to simpler times fared well with viewers during the '60s. The goofier the better.

"The Open Boat" Factor Ever since Stephen Crane's 1897 story about three very different men in a lifeboat—a captain, a cook, and an oiler (not to be confused with the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker), people have been fascinated by different personalities and types thrown together into a confining situation from which there's no escape. Who would you like to be marooned on a desert island with? "Gilligan's Island" milked that trope for all it was worth, offering castaways that posed interesting contrasts. There was the smart professor (Russell Johnson) and the dim-witted Gilligan, the glamorous Ginger (Tina Louise) and the plain-Jane girl-next-door Mary Ann (Dawn Wells), and the very rich Mr. and Mrs. Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer) and the very poor everyone else. Opposites attract—especially in a sitcom.

"The Flintstones" Factor Part of what made watching "The Flintstones" fun was seeing Stone Age versions of modern appliances. With "Gilligan's Island," the castaways were forever building outlandish things—from a stage and orchestral instruments to medical supplies (like the Professor's bamboo stethoscope). If they could make all of these things, why couldn't they build a raft, you might wonder? Well, that would defeat the purpose, wouldn't it? These castaways were stranded on a desert island on half of America's behalf, kept isolated from a volatile world so that we could all experience their almost innocent isolation vicariously.

The Guest Factor Since the castaways couldn't get off the island, variety is the spice of life, and so the spice for this series was in the folks that dropped in on the island. Viewers tuned in almost subconsciously to see what sort of outside visitor would drop by next in order to tantalize the castaways with the illusive prospect of rescue.

The Predictability Factor Week after week, viewers knew that these castaways would be in the same placeat the same time (which, by the way, was Saturdays at 8:30 playing opposite "The Lawrence Welk Show"). Genre books and formula flicks are like comfort foods insomuch as they give people what they want and what they expect. No surprises. And that's what "Gilligan's Island" delivered week after week. You knew that something would wash ashore or somebody would drop in, the castaways would get their hopes up for rescue, Gilligan (or someone else) would screw things up, and fate would keep them stranded 300 miles southeast of Hawaii.

All of these factors are enough to compensate for some serious deficiencies in the show. No one, for example, seemed to care that passengers who went on a launch for a "three hour tour" ended up on an island with tons of clothing and, in the Howells' case, more than 20 pieces of luggage.

Now, the "native" bits will strike viewers as racist, but the rest of the show remains as benignly stupid as when it first aired on Sept. 26, 1964. In fact, there are two kinds of "Gilligan's Island" episodes: the so-stupid-they're-funny episodes, and the just-plain-stupid ones. This season seems to have more of the latter.

Here's how the 30 episodes shake out in this three-disc set:

1) "Up at Bat"—A goofy season opener has Gilligan dreaming he's Dracula after a bat bites him.

2) "Gilligan vs. Gilligan"—And if you thought that was unlikely, in this episode a foreign government sends a Gilligan look-alike to spy on the island.