things I've never understood

[gregrob]

Gilligan's Island was a very badly written show. Here's a list of things that don't make sense and some other quirks.

1. Why does the entire ship fall apart after only having boards glued over the holes with the temporary glue? Sure the Skipper reglued the entire ship but are we supposed to believe that there was nothing else holding the ship together?

2. Why does Sam the parrot react excitedly to the word "boat"? It is never revealed.

3. Why does Erika Tiffany Smith not tell anybody back in civilization that the castaways are alive? She had no greedy reason to not do so.

4. In "Not Guilty" we never know who actually caused the "accident" that killed Randolph Blake.

5. In "Up at Bat" nobody seems to have ever heard of rabies. The professor doesn't even consider it! I find it especially amusing when Ginger says "Nobody ever died from a bite on the neck." Yeah right.

6. In "Hair Today Gone Tomorrow" why does Gilligan's hair turn white? It is revealed that the bleach caused the hair to fall out (why he would get bleach in his hair is beyond me too) but why did it turn white in the first place? I'll be darned if I can make sense out of the tag either when Gilligan and the Skipper have beards! This is the stupidest, most inane episode of all!

[Céline]

It's amazing how people take Gilligan's island so seriously.There's no need to make sense in a comedie.What is not funny for you can be for others.I suppose that a show about a witch is better?

[Steve Carras]

What is odd to ME is the inconsistencies.
1.Sherwood Schwartz's going from producer ("created andproduced by") to executive producer (whereupon his name is verticaly sandwiched between his creator AND EP credit,both separate.Like..)
Created by
SHERWOOD SCHWARTZ
executive Producer

During 1965-66, we don't see this anymore;Sherwood is just back to being creator producer then midway thru 1966-67, the finalseaosn,Nov.1966, in "The Invasion", he's AGAIN credited as he will nomrally be save for "Gilligan goes Gung Ho" and the final episode, "Gilligan the Goddess" where he is ONCE AGAIN just a producer as well as the customary creator.Jack Arnold is the executive producer for all the middle season episodes and directed many of them (includes classics like "Smile! You're on Mars Camera" and the unforgettable "The Friendly Physician")(see also number 5)

2.The above mentioned later episodes that have Sherwood's reinstated executive status (something that Thurston Howell would truly crave) ALSO (except for "Slave Girl" & "Bang! Bang! Bang!" which started off with the usual theme and then had the famous logo OVER the opening aciton before the credits) had a pre-theme teaser a la FLINSTONES, FRIENDS, ALLY McBEAL,etc.

3.In one of the last episodes, a African American NON Headhunter is seen at a space base (yet another one these) in
It's ABird, it aplane, it's Gilligan".

4.Around this time the girls (but NOT Mrs.Howell!) start donning miniskirts which then (1967) had just taken hold in America (compare with just a few years before, even as beatle-and Mosqujito mania had hit).

5."Up at bat"-there is a conflict as to whether this was the last of 2nd season of the first of the last.
Now all of these show that the series was produced out of order, PLUS Sherwood insisting that the XMAS one (the twelth one,
"Birds Gotta Fly Fish Gotta Talk" was meant to be the first..maybe a pilot due to the ACTUAL first broadcast, "Two on a raft" SHOWING at leats the castways firt realizing, as Mary Ann might quote from Judy Garland, "we'renot in Kansas(or civilzation) any more,Toto".

Like many shows and movies, Gilligan had a lot of backlogging. The featuring of miniskirts and the "It's a bird.." integetrated humans back in Cape Canaveral in yet another airbound GI episode show the changing of the times,esp.after the success of Bill Cosby and Robert Culp in I SPY (a semi-serious show witha respectiuable blakc comic in a somewhat serious role;here in GI a serious African American person in a sitcom is seen in the beginning). The minis Mary Ann and Ginger Grant wear at the very end showed the show WAS changing. Mary Ann's changing hairdo is another thing wearing it like Twiggy or Dusty Springfield back home . But the supposedly LAST one, "Gilligan the Goddess" has her wearing her OLDER style and the show asmentioned has Schwartz listed once again as a producer, no exeuctive producer.
Also, alternating 1966 and 1967 copyruights for the last 20 episodes.(And "Gilligan the goddes" has, yep,1966 even though a number BEFORE had 1967 as a copyright!!!!)

I can only assume many episodes WERE HEAVILY backed up--and also for "Up at Bat", this has Schwartz only with no exectuve producer..SS is listed, then writer Ron Friedman and directorJerry Hopper. It continued like this until "Topsy Turvy" njhext season, then "Invasion" which also was the first tok have a teaser saw our hero Schwartz REPROMOTED to EXECUTRIVE.Now what does trhis all add up? Well,if you are Mrs.Howell yuou will say..uh SIX (as in "Where therer's a will").Actrually, it means one simple thing.
First."Gilligan the Goddess" was about the tenth episode of the third season, but delayed until the very last, "Bang Bang Bang","It's a Bird",etc.were the LAST, and the drag Gilligan episode with the magic trick was an oldepisode by the time that it was aired.Finally "Up at Bat"may have been the first after Jack Arnold left-it';s certainly the first since he left creditwise, unless there were some mention of him in subsequent episodes at the end credits that were hacked off in syndicvation. "Up At Bat' May have been the last (post-Arnoldmind you) intermediate seaosn episode, and without Jack Arnold's credit it could be easilyplaced in the FIRST HALF OF THE LAST SEASON!

So..
(I won't even get into the musical direction isssue)
I believe that (Going by ry Ann's hairdo and credits and styles in general)"Topsy Turvy","Gilligan the Goddess" and
"High Man on totem pole", were done before the "Hunter","Bang Bang Bang " and others where Dawn Well as Mry ANn sports different dos (as she does in "Slave Girl" which had the shortest tag), and where Schwart's producer-credit changes.

This is similiar to mid 1940s to mid 1950s Warner Bros.cartoons that due largely to a Technicolor backlog, were stalled and as a result "1949"shorts looked like 1946 ones, since they WERE!

With the moremodern minskirts and a slightly integrated group of folkson the base in some later "the Castaways and the people back home who never heard of them" latterday episodes,one can say that such ones were produced truly at the end of the show'srun while "Gilligan the goddess"and I beleive "Lovey Secret Admirer"may have been stalled more..