I'm sorry to report that our beloved Gilligan, actor Bob Denver, has died. He was 70 years old. Denver died Friday of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer. He also underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery earlier this year.
Denver's signature role was Gilligan, but when he took the role in 1964 he was already widely known to TV audiences for another iconic character, Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of Dwayne Hickman's Dobie in the "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963. Krebs, whose only desire was to play the bongos and hang out at coffee houses, would shriek every time the word "work" was mentioned in his presence.
Gilligan on the other hand was industrious but inept. And his character was as lovable as he was inept. Viewers loved the skinny kid in the Buster Brown haircut and white sailor hat. So did the skipper, played by Alan Hale Jr., who always referred to his first mate affectionately as "little buddy."
"As silly as it seems to all of us, it has made a difference in a lot of children's lives," Dawn Wells, who played castaway Mary Ann Summers, once said. "Gilligan is a buffoon that makes mistakes and I cannot tell you how many kids come up and say, `But you loved him anyway.' " No matter how often Gilligan botched up a potential rescue opportunity, the rest of the castaways always forgave him. There's not too many shows on today that show that kind of unconditional love.
My favorite "Gilligan's Island" episode was when Gilligan drank fluorescent dye that the professor made. They were going to paint as much of the island with the glow-in-the-dark substance, in hopes that a plane or ship would spot them and rescue them. But Gilligan thought it was the fixings for one of Mary Ann's coconut cream pies, and drank it all. But it wasn't all a total flop - Gilligan glowed in the dark after drinking the stuff, so the skipper and everybody else made him stand up on the tower they built, hoping that he would be spotted by a plane. They don't make comedy shows like that any more, folks.
We'll miss you, little buddy, but as long as there's reruns, your memory will live on.
3 comments:
My kids watch reruns of Gilligan's Island as if it were a brand new show. It's slapstick silliness is still funny today! When I was a kid I always wanted Gilligan and Mary Ann to hook up. They made the cutest couple.
Scene: Gilligan flapping homemade wings of feathers gathered on the lagoon.
Skipper: Gilligan, you can't fly!!
Gilligan: I can't?
Scene: Goofy music as Gilligan plunges to the sand.
Gilligan, thanks for the laughs. May you now soar with your own wings.
Another good one comes to mind, MP. Perhaps you can refresh my memory on what they were attempting to make Gilligan do, but all I can remember is Gilligan saying repeatedly "You can't make me, you can't make me."
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