Tuesday, September 26, 2006

On this day in 1964, seven castaways found themselves stranded on a strange and seemingly deserted island. Their names shall live on forever. Gilligan. The Skipper. The Millionaire and his wife. The Movie Star. The Professor and Mary-Anne. All of them on Gilligan's Island. (Ok, so only two of their actual names shall live on forever). Sherwood Schwartz had a hit on his hands, and it would run until 1967. Two years after the end of Gilligan's Island, lightning struck twice on the same date, as Schwartz launched an even bigger hit franchise on this date in 1969: The Brady Bunch.

Decades later, even a few years after the Gilligan's Planet cartoon, Playskool put out this Gilligan's Island playset. Somehow we remember the island being bigger and without a dock for the handy rowboat and raft. You know, if they'd had a pair of sea worthy vessels handy, the show probably wouldn't have lasted three seasons, even if they did have Gilligan to screw things up...