Here on Gilligan’s Isle…

Sherwood Schwartz died last week, at the considerable old age of 94. On the life-scale, it can absolutely be said that he got a lot more than a three-hour tour, a three hour tour.

Sitcom cognoscenti may not be familiar with Sherwood Schwartz’s name, but they will, no doubt, immediately recognize that “a three hour tour, a three hour tour” is an excerpt from the brilliant lyrics to the series Gilligan’s Island. Written by Mr. Schwartz, who created and produced this timeless classic.

Did I say timeless?

I meant endless. Relentless. Mindless.

Hell for me would surely involve an endless loop of Gilligan’s Island reruns.

At one point, hell for me was having an office next to a sales guy who incessantly whistled – off-key, of course - the theme to Gilligan’s Island. (I’m having flashbacks now. Grrrrrr.)

There were certain sitcoms that even a young TV junkie like myself avoided at all costs, and Gilligan’s was certainly one of them. (You can throw Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres on that grill, too.)

Gilligan’s Island!

What was Bob Denver doing on such a show, after he had performed so admirably as beatnik Maynard G. Krebs in the droll and mildly subversive Many Loves of Dobie Gillis?

Well, I suppose he was just making a living, but Maynard G. Krebs vs. Gilligan?

Not that Gilligan’s was completely devoid of wit.

The ill-fated boat that the castaways were on when marooned was called the S.S. Minnow,

…named for Newton Minow, who as Federal Communications Commission chief in the early 1960s had become famous for proclaiming television "a vast wasteland."

Well, all the nostalgia for the Golden Age of Television aside, old Newton sure must have had shows like Gilligan’s in mind. Since the speech pre-dated Gilligan’s, he can’t have had it in mind. (Was the Beverly Hillbillies on the air yet, I wonder?) And, of course, it’s amusing to think of the three-network TV landscape, with a few “educational” stations and unaffiliated rogues thrown in for good measure, as a vast anything. (In my day, we meant it when we complained that ‘there’s nothing on.’)

Anyway, I’d take Maynard G., Dobie, Herbert T. Gillis, Thalia Menninger, and Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. over the Skipper, Mary Ann, the millionaire and his wife, any old day.

But maybe I was missing something:

TV critics hooted at "Gilligan's Island" as gag-ridden corn. Audiences adored its far-out comedy. Schwartz insisted that the show had social meaning along with the laughs: "I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications."

The “gag-ridden corn” is all flooding back to me, but I don’t think I was part of the audiences that “adored its far-out comedy.” Far-out. Now Dobie Gillis, that was far-out, man. I mean, come on, a beatnik on TV. (“You rang?”)

Sherwood Schwartz also gave us The Brady Bunch, which aired after my TV-watching prime, but which I did occasionally see. (And which had a theme-song that was equal to that of Gilligan’s on the obnox-o-meter. Fortunately, I never had a colleague who whistled The Brady Bunch while at work.)

I did “meet” Ann B. Davis, who played the Bradys’ housekeeper, Alice, when she came in to Durgin-Park while I was waitressing. I caught her eye when she walked in and said something brilliant like “Hey, you’re Schultzy.”, a reference to the role she’d played on The Bob Cummings Show (told you I’d been a TV junkie). For whatever reason, she got all snotty and haughty, and just swept by me, even though I wasn’t being a nasty D-P waitress, just someone who was, if not exactly thrilled, then pleased to see an iconic TV character of my childhood.

However greatly I may decry the shows he was responsible for, I will say that Mr. Schwartz lived a long, full and accomplished life. I read in his Wikipedia entry that he disliked Red Skelton, for whom he worked at one point. Disliking Red Skelton in itself wipes out the misery of my having had to listen to my colleague incessantly whistle (off-key) the theme to Gilligan’s Island.

And then there’s Schwartz’s nephew Douglas, who created Baywatch….

Gotta say one thing about this family. Gilligan’s Island. Brady Bunch. Baywatch.  They sure knew how to tap into something that resonated with the American TV-watching public. Would that I were so gifted and blessed.

Info Source: AP article on boston.com.