What subjects are there of which the first you ever heard of them was seeing them on GI (no matter how they figured into the episode)?

For me, the first thing that comes to mind is that "Skipper" means captain of a boat or ship. At first I thought Skipper was just the name of that big guy who picks on Gilligan.

Then there were headhunters, which I had never heard about before GI. And voodoo-- the idea of controlling a person by making a doll that resembled them and manipulating it was rather fascinating (though I can't recall ever taking it seriously).

I don't think I even knew that dates grew way up in palms until Gilligan shot them down with a bow and arrow. Since I didn't like them, I didn't care where they came from anyway.

I think GI was where I first heard the words latitude, longitude, amalgomated, swallowtail, cosmic, and most of the big words the Professor used. I don't think I had ever heard of Buck Rogers until that jetpack episode, or of Archimedes until he was referred to.

For all its silliness, Gilligan's Island actually did introduce some points of significance, especailly if you became attached to it as a kid.

That's so true -- it really was educational. lol.

I can really appreciate the show more now as I'm in high school and undertsand more of the jokes. I also understand more of what the Professor talks about and recognize some of it from my classes.

I think one of the things I heard first on GI was about how the government would test weapons down in the South Pacific on islands (ep 18: 'X Marks The Spot'). We recently talked about this in AP History and I sounded all smart 'cuz I saw it on GI. Also, I knew that salicylic acid was asprin 'cuz of the Prof. hehe.

Some of the other things I heard first on GI were: amalgamated, J.P. Morgan, all those other money terms (lol), I learned what the words 'collusion', 'indicitive', and 'chicanery' meant from the show. lol. I use so many GI phrases in my daily speech that it's kinda frightening. heh.

Same here on the subject of Buck Rogers!

Well, you are asking me to delve deep into my memory here, but I can recall that several things were new to me when I first heard of them by on Gi in my youth. I think that's where I learned about the Gold Depository at Fort Knox (I heard about it on Gilligan a few years before I watched Goldfinger, and some years later was stationed there when I was in the army) - in fact several of Mr. Howell's financial and political jokes I did not understand until I was much older, a number of the Professor's explanations were educational to me, such as the fact that salicilic acid is the scientific name for the main ingredient in aspirin. In fact, I think the word "lagoon" was taught to me by the castaways.