AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

hnt_dnl GILLIGAN'S ISLAND was one of my mandatory rerun shows as a kid! I watched it, like many other classic TV shows that aired in syndication at the time of my youth with regularity. Didn't really pay attention to much of the detail or innuendo or commentary. Just was a kid watching what was on. Back then, there weren't nearly as many choices as there are now.In re-watching the series recently to gain some perspective, I realize that, no matter how silly and brainless people say this show was, it really was a FUNNY show! I'd say that it's utter lack of realism and complete focus on comedy is the primary reason for it's popularity and staying power. It never tried to be anything more than it was. Even "greater" shows can't lay claim to that trait! The humor of GI is really broad, laced with sarcasm, wisecracking, innuendo, double-entendres, and, of course, physical comedy. There's quite a bit of ad-libbing that I realized went on. The dialogue, while simplistic for the most part, is actually engaging and still fresh in many ways. The main reason is that the 7 castaways are so well-defined and unique, illustrating that the actors really had a handle on their characters.Gilligan, Skipper, Mr. and Mrs. Howell, Ginger, Professor, and Mary Ann are all awesome in their own way. TV icon Bob Denver played the equally iconic titular and central character Gilligan, with the then early 30ish Denver so effortlessly essaying the role of the innocent man-child. Alan Hale was also wonderful as the lovable Skipper. The Laurel-Hardy routine of he and Gilligan is a joy to behold! I'd say my favorite character upon re-watch is really Mr. Howell. I'm amazed at how quick and natural that Jim Backus was with such a broad and somewhat cartoonish character. I'd bet he must have gotten at least an Emmy nomination for this role! Mrs. Howell (played by then veteran Natalie Schafer) was an ad-libbing scene-stealer much like her hubby and garnered many laughs of her own. Russell Johnson must be commended for having to play the straight-laced, no-nonsense Professor amidst all the wackiness! Glamorous Tina Louise was a childhood crush for me as Ginger and still does it for me! And hot Dawn Wells was so fresh and engaging as earnest do-gooder Mary Ann, and she did it WITHOUT ever coming across as annoying...no small feat! Of course, THE eternal question is "Ginger or Mary Ann?". They're both great in their own way and I'd take either one of them (as if I had a choice!). I can see why so many seem to prefer Mary Ann (the sweet farmgirl who would be the perfect mate) over Ginger (the sultry fantasy girl beyond reach), but it's not like Ginger was an awful person! She, like all the other castaways, in all their diversity, were presented as truly NICE people, which I find endearing as I re-visit this show. There are very few shows where EVERY character is likable. GI is definitely one of them.When I started re-visiting this show, I couldn't believe that it ran for only 3 seasons! Honestly, it seemed like it was longer and that is because there were over 30 eps per season! Plus, the running time of each ep was longer than the average half-hour show now. So, if you equate GI to a show today, it actually would amount to about 5 seasons worth of episodes...I'll take it! I also find that I can watch GI much more so than several other shows from this era that I used to watch as a kid. It just has a warm, inviting quality and setting that I prefer. And I simply love ALL the characters! And, ironically, with it supposedly being a "silly" show, I find much of it's dialogue NOT to be silly, as some of those other shows. GI still a winner over 40 years later!

eefan2001 If I were stranded on a desert island and allowed only one TV show, it would be "Gilligan's Island". For all it silliness, it's a psychologically complex show. Gilligan screws up every rescue attempt (except for the Don Rickles episode which, interestingly enough, is blown by Ginger)but clearly this is his subconscious working. Why would he want to be rescued? The island offers shelter and plenty of food, so he's in no danger of dying. He's got his best friend, the Skipper. He has a mentor in the Professor. He has parent figures in the Howells (rather strange parent figures, but still parent figures), a fantasy love interest in Ginger, and a realistic love interest in Mary Ann. Why would he want to leave? None of them seem that interested in leaving. Once every couple months, they'll concoct a half-hearted scheme to build a raft or light a signal fire, but overall they're more interested in their wardrobes or putting on talent shows or electing a leader on an island where everyone pretty much does what he or she pleases to begin with... It's a commentary on how man will change any landscape to suit his or her image. Gilligan's motives for staying have been outlined. Skipper is finally a leader (at least in his mind). The Howells love being among people they can clearly feel superior to. Ginger is now the celebrity she always imagined herself being, since her roles in minor movies show she was never A-list. The Professor is totally getting off on being the brains. Mary Ann feels useful and important, probably for the first time in her life, by being the only truly sensible person on the island. The show also comments on man's laziness: letting others do the work. When a guest star arrives the castaways always see that person as salvation, instead of using their own skills to get off the island. This show is awesome. Ginger's gowns alone could be the subject of a book.

bkoganbing 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.....................

John T. Ryan A Quantum Leap in the Evolution of the Sitcom. Honest, really, no sh*t! Little old GILLIGAN'S ISLAND! It's considered to be much funnier than NOVA.Jerry Van Dyke has often mentioned in his appearances on our Late Night talk shows how he had turned down the Title Role of Gilligan, but had accepted the lead in "MY MOTHER, THE CAR"(NBC, 1965-66). Oh well, HE moves in mysterious ways; for thanks to the Good Lord for allowing that questionable career move, or we may not have had the pleasure of Jerry as Luther Van Dam, Asst. Football Coach to Craig T. Nelson's Hayden in "COACH" (1989-97).To comment on the Gilligan phenomenon, we first should take an overview of the TV Sitcom.Born out of necessity, following the shot gun marriage of the old silent and sound two reeler Comedies and the Radio's Comedy series. The Sitcom has been with us ever since the dawn of commercial Telecasts in the 1940's. (The first commercial TV stations were licensed in 1940, but development of the medium was delayed by a little event called World War II.) Some of our earliest series were THE BUSTER KEATON SHOW (1950) ,THE COLLEGE BOWL (1950-51) with Chico Marx and the HANK McCUNE SHOW (1950-53). Hank who (?), we hear you ask.We couldn't find a more obscure name and title if we tried, but on his show, Hank McCune initiated a feature that was found to be an indispensable tool and an outright necessity to all of the comedy series that would follow. And that invention would be the use of the "technically augmented audience reaction", the Recorded Laugh Track.So when the GILLIGAN show hit the TV screen via CBS in 1964, the Television industry had some 15 years or so experience in producing these "ha-ha-ha" sitcom shows that they surely did some studying of what flew and what bombed. Slowly, some variation began to show. Some were successful and others were canned early, their innocuous plot lines and characters to spend their lives in a sort of Limbo of forgotten series.GILLIGAN seems to have done things just a little different. First of all, there were seven (7), count 'em folks, seven regular characters, and everyone was worked into the stories each week. Of course the 7 castaways were the only people on the Island; if one doesn't count the hundreds of temporary visitors who had come and gone their way, week to week.In any play, be it live on stage or a filmed episode, be it comedy or any drama, there is a certain need for exposition and having the story line propelled along its way. So that in a sitcom, each scene should serve some such purpose; and be there not just making for funny dialog and situations. (If you think that there is no such thing as trying to be too funny, just watch an old silent film of comedian Larry Semon.) Once again in getting back to GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, we contend that this series made an additional improvement on the use of the short, little comedy vignettes. In the GILLIGAN Show, the little scenes are devised to bring all of the characters into play, one or two at a time. They also made use of comical situations to move the story along. But they were fashioned in a manner so as to be able to virtually stand on their own without the rest of the story. (Not that there would be any call for a 3 to 4 minute comedy film!) The other achievement of the Production Staff of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND is one that they most probably did not accomplish on purpose. And that would be (My Theory) that in fashioning the short scenes in this manner, almost always using regular characters well known to viewers, have created the celluloid equivalent of the Daily Newspaper Comic Strip. This strong similarity in form and literary device is most apparent in comparing GILLIGAN to the 3 or 4 panels of daily strips like: MUTT & JEFF, BRINGING UP FATHER (Maggie & Jiggs), BLONDIE, BEETLE BAILEY, MOON MULLINS and even PEANUTS (with good ol' Charlie Brown.).Otherwise, the series ranks very high on the all time list of the Situation Comedy and was the subject of several "back-to type of Made-for-TV Movies as well as animated series of "THE NEW ADVENTURES OF GILLIGAN.