Gilligan’s Island: Season 1
Gilligan’s Island: The Complete First Season (DVD)
Shipwrecked on an uncharted island, seven stranded castaways — including a movie star and a professor — struggle to survive not only the great outdoors but the mindless meddling of hapless first mate Gilligan (Bob Denver), who always seems to ruin the gang’s chances of getting off the island and back to civilization! In the first season of this classic comedy, everyone tries to help the Skipper (Alan Hale, Jr.) remember how to make a radio transmitter, Gilligan puts Skipper on a diet, an old aviator (guest star Hans Conried) crashes on the island, Skipper and Mr. Howell (Jim Backus) campaign to be leader, Skipper falls victim to an ancient curse, Mr. Howell produces a play starring Ginger (Tina Louise) and Gilligan and Mrs. Howell (Natalie Schafer) forms an orchestra with the others. Plus, watch for a surprise guest appearance by a young Kurt Russell as a jungle boy! One of the most hilarious sitcoms ever produced, this wonderfully wacky series changed television comedy forever.
]]>Despite critical barbs as sharp as a Maroobi spear, Gilligan’s Island has proven unsinkable. Its first season was 1964’s top-rated show. The expository theme song is one of television’s most quoted, and its characters–the Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.), first mate Gilligan (Bob Denver), the millionaire (Jim Backus) and his wife (Natalie Schaefer), a movie star (Tina Louise), “and the rest” (Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells, as the Professor and Mary Ann, wouldn’t get their opening credit props until season two)–are pop culture icons. Revisiting the first season’s 36 episodes is a not-guilty-at-all pleasure. Some sure and surprising hands piloted these inaugural episodes, including Ida Lupino, Jack Arnold (The Creature from the Black Lagoon), Christian Nyby (The Thing), and Richard Donner (who went on to direct Superman and Lethal Weapon).
The “seven stranded castaways” from the ill-fated S.S. Minnow (slyly named for former Federal Communications Commission head Newton “vast wasteland” Minow) received memorable visits from the likes of Hans Conreid as errant pilot Wrong Way Feldman, a young Kurt Russell as Jungle Boy, and Larry Storch as a Cagney-esque bank robber. But these were mere diversions from the heart of the series; the no-man-is-an-island social microcosm that creator Sherwood Schwartz conceived as an anti-war parable (this courtesy of his optional commentary during the fabled unaired series pilot). In the Christmas episode “Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk,” Santa Claus himself drops in to lift the disheartened castaways’ spirits. “You could have been enemies,” he tells them, “instead of a family group who all learned to get along.” This is they key to this series’ enduring popularity. That, and the unending debate: Ginger or Mary Ann? –Donald Liebenson
Product Features
- Gilligan’s Island Season 1
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Hours of good clean fun! We have not had this much clean fun since forever! The Gillian’s Island series is wonderful for the whole family. I never watched Gillian’s Island much as a child but my fourteen year old just loves it. So as a Christmas gift this year I looked over hundreds of dvds looking for the best one and found this treasure. Alex so was excited on Christmas morning! We watched theses dvds every day and are still on the first season. We all love sitting and watching Gillian. My seven year old didn’t…
There are two versions To anyone thinking of buying the complete series, there are two versions: the 9-disc double sided version and the 17-disc version which was made last year. In my case I made sure I was buying the 17 disc version and what was more interesting -at the time of this review- is that is HALF the price of the inferior 9 disc version(who would want the double sided discs when you can get the single sided cheaper? duh). The color episodes look great considering it’s an almost 50 year old show and the…