Slate remembers Bob Denver

[Smilings]

Even the liberal web magazine Slate was sad at the passing of Bob Denver.

Gilligan's Dreams
Bob Denver created the TV archetype of the inept but lovable slacker.
From Slate By Dana Stevens|Posted Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005,

Amid all the harrowing real-life rescues of the past week, I hope it isn't too offensive to take a moment to remember the loss of one fictional castaway: the actor Bob Denver, who played the eponymous first mate on Gilligan's Island from 1964 to 1967. After surviving quadruple bypass surgery earlier this year, Denver, 70, died of complications from cancer treatment on Friday. He's survived by his third wife, Dreama Denver (with whom he hosted a syndicated radio show called Weekend With Denver and Denver) and four children.

The pre-Gilligan generation probably best remembers Denver as the archetypal beatnik Maynard G. Krebs, the goateed best-friend character on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which aired from 1959 to 1963. Dobie Gillis was the first TV show for and about the emerging teen culture of the baby boomers; Denver's character, with his surrealist one-liners and trademark aversion to work, could be seen as a kind of predecessor to the 1960s hippie. It was Denver's real-life love for jazz that inspired Maynard's incessant bongo-playing and name-checking of bebop legends like Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. The character was nearly written out of the show four episodes in, when Denver suffered the un-Krebs-like fate of being drafted; after failing his physical, he returned to the series for the rest of its run. *

The year after Dobie Gillis ended, Denver would move on to his second iconic television role, the spacey sailor of Gilligan's Island. Though the show was dismissed by critics as silly fluff, Gilligan's Island immediately found a loyal following (its creator, Sherwood Schwartz, would again tap into the sitcom zeitgeist with The Brady Bunch a few years later), and though only 98 episodes were made during its three seasons on the air, the show has lived on in continuous syndication now for over 40 years.

(here the article goes on to other matters)

[Teebs]

Awww. But then, how could anybody forget our lovable First Mate

The poor guy had a rough last year on Earth, which Dreama Denver describes in pretty graphic detail in her own book (Gilligan's Dreams) which came out last year. He put off going to the doctor even when he knew deep down something was wrong, and by the time he was diagnosed it was a bit too late. Then there was the heart surgery on top of that. They had to get his heart 'up to scratch' before his body could take the anaesthesia for the throat surgery. And he'd already lost so much weight, even though he was skinny to start with. But his family rallied round him and were with him right at the end when he passed over peacefully.

Without people like Bob Denver, life loses a bit of its sparkle. Thankfully he won't ever be forgotten. We loves ya, Bobby D.