Big Screen Gilligan's Island At Last

[bbjohn]

If this thing has a quicksand scene, that may be its only redeeming quality.

What made the original Gilligan's Island work was the cast. They did an incredible job with the material they were given. Their comic timing was perfect. Bob Denver and Alan Hale Jr. were the closest thing I've ever seen to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The cast was so good, you almost forgot how bad much of the material was. They were so good, and the chemistry was so strong, they even made the 1979 update and its sequels look good.

You just can't replicate a cast like that. A big-screen remake of GI could work, but, without a cast like that, I wouldn't take any bets on it.

-Big Bad John

[herbsmall]

Okay, now that all the rejoicing has died down I'll explain my reasons for being excited about this.

Is it going to be Citizen Kane? Of course not. It will likely be awful as so many other television retreads are. Who cares? Ya'll are missing the point here.

Gilligan's Island ran for three years but had five deep mud/quicksand scenes in it and used the "Q" word at least twice beyond that. Once more in one of the dreadful tv movies that followed. We didn't get that much in all the other iterations of television Tarzan put together. Prominently displayed on Sherwood Schwartz map of Gilligan's Island was a spot marked for quicksand. He used it in the next absolutely abysmal series he created - It's About Time. It only ran for one season but had quicksand as a plot device. Deep mud worked it's way into another terrible effort to revamp Gilligan's Island in the old west with Dusty's Trail. Schwartz's other successful creation, The Brady Bunch, finally worked the "Q" word into one of the later awful Brady variety show specials with Vincent Price.

Get it now? Can you see it? Schwartz was either one of us or committed to the use of quicksand as a cheap plot device. Either way we benefit.

But now it gets better - His sons are producing this movie. The writers are going to stretch a half hour show of dubious content to begin with into a feature length move ripe for sequels? They have got to go for one of Dad's favorite gimmicks. They just have to. Making it a hot babe would only improve on it. This has got to be the best shot we've had in years if ever. Just go ahead and book it.

Who was in the mud on Dusty's Trail? I've seen a few episodes and agree that it is terrible, but it did star the absolutely gorgeous Lori Saunders, who was better known for Petticoat Junction. Another bad part about trying to set Gilligan in the old west was that Lori always wore some frumpy old west dress. I would have loved to have seen Lori in some of the skimpier (for then) outfits that Ginger and MaryAnn sometimes got to wear on Gilligan.

[Duncan Edwards]

Okay, now that all the rejoicing has died down I'll explain my reasons for being excited about this.

Is it going to be Citizen Kane? Of course not. It will likely be awful as so many other television retreads are. Who cares? Ya'll are missing the point here.

Gilligan's Island ran for three years but had five deep mud/quicksand scenes in it and used the "Q" word at least twice beyond that. Once more in one of the dreadful tv movies that followed. We didn't get that much in all the other iterations of television Tarzan put together. Prominently displayed on Sherwood Schwartz map of Gilligan's Island was a spot marked for quicksand. He used it in the next absolutely abysmal series he created - It's About Time. It only ran for one season but had quicksand as a plot device. Deep mud worked it's way into another terrible effort to revamp Gilligan's Island in the old west with Dusty's Trail. Schwartz's other successful creation, The Brady Bunch, finally worked the "Q" word into one of the later awful Brady variety show specials with Vincent Price.

Get it now? Can you see it? Schwartz was either one of us or committed to the use of quicksand as a cheap plot device. Either way we benefit.

But now it gets better - His sons are producing this movie. The writers are going to stretch a half hour show of dubious content to begin with into a feature length move ripe for sequels? They have got to go for one of Dad's favorite gimmicks. They just have to. Making it a hot babe would only improve on it. This has got to be the best shot we've had in years if ever. Just go ahead and book it.

Who was in the mud on Dusty's Trail? I've seen a few episodes and agree that it is terrible, but it did star the absolutely gorgeous Lori Saunders, who was better known for Petticoat Junction. Another bad part about trying to set Gilligan in the old west was that Lori always wore some frumpy old west dress. I would have loved to have seen Lori in some of the skimpier (for then) outfits that Ginger and MaryAnn sometimes got to wear on Gilligan.

The scene on Dusty's Trail was lame at best and involved an attempt to exploit some natural hot mud for a spa. The only person I can recall getting into it was the old rich guy when he thought Dusty had fallen in. Very shallow. Would probably be worth revisiting since I'm working form a brief memory of 35+ years ago.

And yes Lori Sanders used to get my attention on Petticoat Junction even when I was a little kid.

EDIT - Well ask and ye shall receive. Here it is on Youtube and the episode of question is appropriately titled Wizard of Oooze . Unless you get a thrill from seeing a muddy Bob Denver in long underwear this is about the best part -http://youtu.be/cc0I6476UUc?t=5m40s

I guess the point of the entire exercise is that it shows Sherwood Schwartz had to be a muddy man of some sort.

[herbsmall]

Well, if you're a fellow Lori lover, I'll go ahead and warn you that she doesn't get in the mud in her Jungle film, Mara of the Wilderness, either. I posted a couple of pics from it in the jungle girls thread a while back.

[Duncan Edwards]

Well, if you're a fellow Lori lover, I'll go ahead and warn you that she doesn't get in the mud in her Jungle film, Mara of the Wilderness, either. I posted a couple of pics from it in the jungle girls thread a while back.

Thanks but saw that one years ago. It was early on the list.

[jack c]

I agree that political correctness will preclude a helpless female in quicksand scene these days.
Too Bad. - I vote for Mary Ann, too.
We'll see.

[groppingmire]

for those in the la area you can meet mary ann at the shrine http://www.comicbookscifi.com/