"Gilligan's Island" was one of my favourite shows when I was really young, and even today I'll catch an episode or two on a whim. Yes, it was campy. Yes, you could leave your brain in the next room and watch it all the same. Yes, it's silly, but that's kinda the point. It was just a series meant to be funny.That silliness prevents me from giving the series a higher rank, as I was yearning for an intelligent episode somewhere to moderate the goofiness of the show. Oh well, c'est la vie.

All right,so TV Guide rated this sitcom as the top 50 worst television shows of all time,but "Gilligan's Island" does stands out as one of the most maligned sitcoms of the era in a decade that was full of fantasy-themed shows ranging from "My Favorite Martian","My Mother The Car", "I Dream of Jeannie","Bewitched","It's About Time","F-Troop","The Ugliest Girl In Town","Batman","Get Smart","Green Acres","The Beverly Hillbillies",and much more.Created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz,and originally produced by United Artists Television in association with the CBS Television Network,the series starred Bob Denver(formerly of "Dobie Gillis")as the main character Gilligan along with Jim Backus,Russell Johnson,Alan Hale, Tina Louise,Dawn Wells and Natalie Schafer. It aired for three seasons at CBS from its premiere episode on September 26,1964 until the series finale on April 17,1967. Only Season 1 of "Gilligan's Island" was in black-and-white for 36 episodes that aired on Saturday nights after "The Jackie Gleason Show" at 8:30e/7:30c and had stiff competition against "Lawrence Welk". For Season 2 the network moved the show from Saturday nights to Thursday nights this time in color for 32 episodes where CBS put it at the 8:00e/7:00c time slot opposite "Daniel Boone",and "The Donna Reed Show". For the third and final season the show again moved from Thursday nights to Monday nights at the 7:30e/6:30c time slot for the remaining 30 episodes in color where it got clobbered opposite NBC's powerhouse hit "The Monkees" until its cancellation on April 17,1967(a total of 62 color episodes were produced from 1965 to 1967). Repeats of Season 3 aired from April 19,1967 until September 4,1967. The series ran for a total of 98 episodes.The reason why "Gilligan's Island" remains a cult classic among the very few? For one,this series was really targeted for kids instead of adults and that what made it so great to this day in recycled repeats. It was based on sophisticated humor. It was silly,stupid and corny but the cast was lovable by all aspects. But speaking of the characters:You have First-Mate Willy Gilligan(Bob Denver)who was just as clumsy and naive when getting into all sorts of predicaments with those who want to get off the island. Every episode had Gilligan getting into one hilarious situation after another. And for all 98 episodes!!!Skipper Jonas Grumby(Alan Hale,Jr.) is everything that Gilligan isn't but perfectly capable of taking charge and keeping the rest of the castaways in line.Thurston Howell III(Jim Backus)is the archetypal crass capitalist who doesn't do any work,and sits around all day talking about money and bonds knowing that his grand ambition is to defraud all the other castaways.Eunice "Lovey" Howell(Natalie Schafer)is much the "heiress" as she can be. Profession Roy Hinkley(Russell Johnson) is not the college professor,but in aspects a high school chemistry teacher,but is truly too smart for his own good. He is the only one that keeps the other alive on the island where he can take materials that are wherever resources are available on the island and whip it up in jiffy(imagine making a radio transmitter out of a coconut).Ginger Grant(Tina Louise)always the glamorous movie star who can seduce the men for information about what goes on surrounding the island.Mary Ann Summers(Dawn Wells)the naive farm girl from Kansas who can be classified as normal and the only castaway with "common sense" who also tends the island's crops and keeps herself entertained by listening to soap operas on the radio.The success of "Gilligan's Island" enjoyed solid ratings during its original run,but then grew in popularity during decades of repeats in the 1970's and 1980's in national syndication. The success also spawned two animated Saturday Morning cartoons series("The New Adventures of Gilligan",and "Gilligan's Planet),and three made for TV-movies in he late-1970's and early-1980's,and there are talks of a big screen version based on the classic 1960's sitcom as well.

Gilligan's Island is a show with about as dopey a premise as ever one had. Five people who really do look like they could afford a chartered ocean tour on something a lot more sturdy than the S.S. Minow are stranded on a desert island after being blown off course from their three hour tour. How they make do and their many oh so close times when they are rescued is the basis for this show which only lasted for three seasons.The problem with a show like Gilligan's Island is that you have no opportunity for an ensemble of players in support or for guest stars. When you had them, you had to create the most bizarre situations to get the guest stars off, but once again not rescue the series regulars. It leads to a limited amount of stories that made rational sense and the plots got sillier and sillier as Gilligan's Island ended without the castaways being rescued.What makes Gilligan's Island stand out and attain a kind of cult status though was the incredibly good casting and chemistry among the seven players. What a movie star, a professor of something or other, and millionaire, his wife, and their secretary were dong on the Minow defies logic. Still Tina Louise, Russell Johnson, Jim Backus, Natalie Schaeffer, and Dawn Wells created indelible characters.Not to mention the skipper of the S.S. Minow Alan Hale and the mate who discovered that blessed isle named for him, Bob Denver. Denver by all accounts should have been killed and eaten by the others he fouled up rescue attempts so often. Still he was a lovable lunkhead though he drove his patient skipper batty.But if not for the courage of the fearless crew.....................

This review may sound caustic but I hope I never have to watch another episode from this show ever again. I grew up watching this show in syndication from 1969, then it went to Saturday morning TV, then through the colorized TBS years, past the not so special reunion shows, up until a few years ago watching "The Real Gilligan's Island" movie. I've gorged myself with Gilligan's Island and I've had my share, one can only eat so much cake. I always enjoyed the earlier shows the most, having them building their huts, trying to fix the Minnow only to have it fall apart because the glue disintegrated, hiding from savages in a cave and so on. It was a great ensemble cast with a pretty cool lagoon set complete with running waterfall. I've moved on now, and it's time to say goodbye and farewell. Thanks for the memories little Buddy.