Harry here, now sit back and I'll tell you a tale, a tale of a mighty ship....
OK, this Sunday, the CBS movie o’ the eve is going to be something you’ll likely blow off. That is why I’m writing this review - in the hopes of convincing you to check it out. If I hadn’t had the opportunity to see it beforehand, I probably would have skipped it myself.
"Surviving Gilligan’s Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three-Hour Tour in History" (8 PM, CST) is a little made for TV ditty that by all counts should be pretty forgettable, except for one thing: it isn’t. If you’ve ever in your life (and my guess is, most of you have) watched Gilligan’s Island, then you probably have a soft spot for the insanely goofy adventures of the Castaways. I know I do. Admittedly, it’s not Shakespeare. Hell, it’s not even M*A*S*H or Night Court. Despite having lasted only three seasons on CBS - way back before our world was the recognizably corrupt place that it is now - Gilligan’s Island has managed to carve an odd little pop culture niche for itself. I’m sure you can name all seven characters and a huge chunk of you can probably name the actors as well. Then there are all the plot lines you can name off one by one, which brings to mind jokes like "Oh, you mean the one where they almost got off the island?"
At first glance, the film seems a little sparsely populated. 3 of the seven are on hand to guide us through this two-hour tour: Bob Denver, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells (who also nabs a co-producer credit and seems to occupy center stage most of the time). Once you realize that another three (Alan Hale, Jr., Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer) have already passed on, the program seems considerably more rounded. So whom are we missing? That’s right – the Movie Star, Tina "Ginger Grant" Louise. And as she didn’t even bother to show up for the reunion movies, her absence doesn’t seem to be much of a surprise.
This is not a documentary, despite having narrative interludes from the above three, and some fun little cutaway "man-on-the-street" type interviews. For the most part, this is a biopic, with actors cast to play the young Bob Denver, the younger Sherwood Schwartz, etc. Schwartz (Aaron Lustig), in particular, plays a key role as the creator, producer and theme song writer. We see him struggle, repeatedly, to get his vision across to the suits (one of whom is played by Dwayne Hickman – the title character from Denver’s other big sitcom of the day, "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"). Once the future creator of The Brady Bunch finally convinces them that he can develop more than three plot lines, they grudgingly give the green light for a pilot. Casting Castaways ensues. Some of the actors make for great equivalents (Eric Allan Kramer is EXCEPTIONAL as Alan Hale); others don’t necessarily look like their counterparts, but are cute enough to make you ignore this (Samantha Harris as Dawn Wells). NOBODY is horribly miscast.
There isn’t all that much comedy to be found in the two hours and in fact there are a number of dramatic scenes that are really quite on the moving side. It’s easy, I think, to forget that these seven people were actors with real lives and were nothing like the goofballs seen on the TV series and in this two hours, you get a genuine feel for what these people are really all about. Jim Backus’ Parkinson’s disease is explored toward the end of the film in a most tasteful manner. Natalie Schafer comes across as perhaps the most interesting person of them all, what with her rich Hollywood and stage background and all. Bob Denver (believably played by newcomer Jon Wellner) seems driven by the need to simply stretch himself on TV. He’s happiest on the set as his home life unravels. One of the many great moments in the film centers around Denver standing up to the CBS brass over the silly first season "And the rest" bit from the title sequence that is subsequently changed to "The Professor and Mary Ann".
On to the minuses and yes there are a couple. There seems to be a definite anti-Tina Louise thread that runs the course of the film. Her character is portrayed as pretty shallow and not necessarily all that smart. What do I know? Maybe it’s dead on. There are also a couple of sections where Denver, Johnson and Wells talk about the deaths of the other three and Johnson talks about the death of his son as well. These felt too much on the scripted side and had me shifting around a little uncomfortably, as did a reenactment of the spreading of Hale’s ashes at sea. Maybe it’s just my hang-up. In any case, it hardly ruined the film for me.
The affair ends on a nicely edited string of home movies taken back in the sixties set to "What a Wonderful World". After watching actors play these parts for two hours, this is the cherry on the cake. You can’t help but be emotionally stirred by this finale.
It matters not that you don’t "love" Gilligan’s Island. Perhaps you even hate Gilligan’s Island. Doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t enjoy this diversion. What the producers, filmmakers, and actors of this movie have succeeded in making is a film that requires only knowledge of its subject matter in order for the viewer to appreciate.
If, on the other hand, you possess memory after memory of afternoon ritual centered around reruns of the Castaways - who’ve been here for a long, long time – then I’m telling you EXACTLY where you need to be this Sunday evening.
Sign me –
Roj Blake
