Gilligan's Island - The Complete Series Collection
by Abner Biberman, Ida Lupino, Jerry Hopper, Stanley Z. Cherry, George Cahan
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DVD Cover Information
Director: Abner Biberman, George Cahan, Ida Lupino, Jerry Hopper, Stanley Z. CherryBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 2507 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-11-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Turner Home Ent
Movie Reviews of Gilligan's Island - The Complete Series Collection
Movie Review: Absurdism lives
Summary: 5 Stars
The charter boat S.S. Minnow, out of Honolulu, Hawaii, was on a sightseeing tour when it was caught in a storm & shipwrecked on an uncharted South Pacific island. Numerous questions abounded for nitpickers who found the show's simplicity annoying- chief among them were: If the cruise was only supposed to be for 3 hours, how & why did the passengers pack so much? Well, obviously they did not. Each episode, in a way, is a self-contained vignette, not necessarily related to the others, although some are. Producer Sherwood Schwartz has tried to cast his show as a sort of tv version of the Grimm Bros. fairy tales- with each show teaching a lesson. Others believe GI is akin to the Genesis myth- yet farcical rather than dramatic. GI shows a group of castaways exiled from the paradise of modern America, filled with fast food, modern appliances, & entertainments galore. Marooning replaces exile but instead of finding themselves lost from history they end up severed from their modernity. In truest Biblical fashion they long for Salvation- not of their souls, but of their corpi. & like mankind, eternally doomed by Adam & Eve's sin, the castaways are doomed by Gilligan's stupidity, & their own ethics for not offing him. In a way Gilligan & Co. are living cartoons- occasionally over-the-top Tex Avery toons, but more often the Nietszchean hell of the Roadrunner & Wile E. Coyote. Despite the failures, the castaways always survive- not unlike the numerous personae of Buster Keaton, or more aptly Charlie Chaplin's Tramp. Most often it's Gilligan's failings that doom the castaways. But others' failures abound: the Skipper's need to be in control, Mr. Howell's need to manipulate, Mrs. Howell's need for routine over pragmatism, the Professor's Rube Goldbergian devices, Ginger's need for attention & approval, & Mary Ann's na?ve-t?.
So, the query is- if the characters are so dumb & predictable, why are they so beloved? Because they are archetypes, not stereotypes- despite the absurd plots. Even when treated to the stand-bys of doppelg?ngers or `certain' doom, the viewer knows the episode will end just where it began- not waiting for Godot, but salvation. Still, the characterizations are so strong, that by the 3rd or 4th episode we know how every character is going to react to a certain premise. This would kill most shows- witness the dull meanderings of the 1980s mega-hit, The Cosby Show. But, being set with such a wacky initial premise allowed each episode to go off on increasingly absurd branches without viewer backlash against the characters. This allowed producer SS to moralize without being preachy- unlike, say Bill Cosby's show. This absurdism also allowed SS to have a retinue of occasional stock actors to play many parts- the most notable recurring actor being Vito Scotti- who made a handful of outrageous appearances as different characters. In a way, GI's fantastical plots allowed a lot of subtextual social commentary to go on without being heavyhanded. In this way, GI resembled another all-time tv classic- The Twilight Zone. On TTZ writer & producer Rod Serling could slip in political messages under the guise of an extraterrestrial storyline, that he could never slip by the network censors were he overtly writing about McCarthyism or racism. Similarly, GI could tackle greed, vanity, materialism, & relationships by using far out scenarios to comment on more prosaic dealings with such things. This is why viewers were drawn into the show in its network run, & have never let it go since. Despite the absurd silliness we all know versions of the 7 castaways in our own lives. This made them REAL, despite their often caricaturized state. Add in the fact that the castaways never really learn their lessons, & the parallels to reality could become depressingly obvious, were they not so hilarious. Never before nor since has tv been so existential, & simple, at the same time. The show was about total illogic, yet it made perfect sense, especially the more its slapstick & absurdism pushed the pedal to the metal.
Summary of Gilligan's Island - The Complete Series Collection
Studio: Turner Hm Entertainm Release Date: 11/13/2007Comedy DVD Video
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