By the time I was a kid watching Saturday-afternoon sitcom reruns, Gilligan’s Island was a staple of the syndication market. I loved the show’s inventiveness in constructing all of life’s necessities from a few coconut shells and banana peels, and, in retrospect, the show reminds me of a live-action Flintstones: The appeal was not in the plot but in the over-the-top island adaptations of modern gadgets and gizmos.
The anchor of the show was its earnest, wide-eyed innocent, Gilligan. The actor who played Gilligan, Bob Denver, has died. May he rest in peace.
"Bob Denver, whose portrayal of goofy first mate Gilligan on the 1960s television show Gilligan’s Island, made him an iconic figure to generations of TV viewers, has died, his agent confirmed Tuesday. He was 70.
"Denver died Friday at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer, his agent, Mike Eisenstadt, told The Associated Press. Denver’s death was first reported by Entertainment Tonight.
[…]
"Denver’s signature role was Gilligan. But he was already known to TV audiences for another iconic character, that of Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of Dwayne Hickman’s Dobie in the The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which aired from 1959 to 1963.
"Gilligan’s Island lasted on CBS from 1964 to 1967, and it was revived in later seasons with three high-rated TV movies. It was a Robinson Crusoe story about seven disparate travelers who are marooned on a deserted Pacific Island after their small boat was wrecked in a storm."
UPDATE:
GET SEASON ONE OF GILLIGAN’S ISLAND ON DVD!
(Nod to the reader who corrected my ghastly error in omitting this information.)
St. Peter Prior Junior College was never the same after Maynard enrolled. 😀
May he find a peaceful island in Heaven.
Thanks for the laughs, little buddy. Give my best to the Skipper and the Howells.
At least he won’t have to work anymore.
{alarmed voice}WORK!{/alarmed voice}
Michelle, you made a ghastly error in omitting a link to where we can purchase the complete set of Gilligan’s first season!
This was one of the few shows I was allowed to watch as a kid, during one of the few years we actually owned a television. (6th grade, I think)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000WN1WW/qid=1126115148/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-8107860-2599819?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846
hippo354, the ghastly error has been corrected. Thanks! 🙂
Don’t forget “Far Out Space Nuts” too……Gosh….this makes me hate the fact I’m a grown up now…
Hey Jimmy!
Nice Maynard G. Krebs reference! (Bob Denver’s other less famous role) I also heard somewhere (hearsay) that his role on Dobie Gillis was the inspiration for Shaggy on Scooby Doo (who was voiced by Casey Kasem!)
Thanks Michelle, my faith in you has been restored! pax…
Ah, “Dobie Gillis” memories!
Remember the time that Maynard got in trouble with his folks after phoning Dizzy Gillespie when the trumpet player was in Copenhagen, Denmark? Or remember how he used to lie on the bridge, talking to the cattle going down river to Cleveland? “Bye baby cows! Bye mama cows!” Yes, I know, watching stuff going down river to Cleveland doesn’t make any sense, but that’s what he was doing. Great, dumb stuff.
Does anyone know if Bob had a faith of any kind? Well, we can hope …
Michael Fraley, interestingly enough I find many references to his being a Catholic. “But it was Denver himself who fleshed the character out, mainly because the writers had no idea what beatniks were really like. Actually Denver didn’t know anything about them either — he’d been a Catholic school teacher when he landed the part!” — http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/lawrence/153/krebs.html
A Catholic schoolteacher, no less?