First of all, this article is more about the general design of the US sitcom “Gilligan’s Island” – about two sailors and five tourists stranded on a tropical island – rather than any specific episode of it. This is mostly because, due to the show not really being easily or cheaply available on DVD in the UK at the time of writing, I’ve mostly just watched random short clips of it on Youtube. I stumbled across the show’s ridiculously catchy season two theme tune in early April – it got stuck in my mind for days and made me curious enough to watch a few clips. Hence this rambling, sleep-deprived article.
Anyway, the reason I want to talk about this show is because of just how self-contained it is, how it uses costume design in a clever way and also the general atmosphere of what I’ve seen of the show.
[Edit: From a comment on another site, I later learnt that what I’m going to say about the show’s structure only applies to the second and third seasons of the show. The first season apparently had more of a modern-style linear plot.]
This was a show broadcast well before the invention of the VCR, so unless it was repeated, it was easily possible for people to miss episodes of it. Whilst it apparently does the classic sitcom thing of every episode having a self-contained story, the really fascinating thing is how the show’s theme song literally tells you both the entire premise of the show and who all of the characters are. Even if you just see one totally random episode, then you won’t be confused. It’s very “basic” by modern standards, but it’s also sort of genius.
It also speaks to an age when TV shows were just random, casual entertainment rather than the sort of almost novel-like things they are these days. Where, whilst some TV shows clearly had dedicated fans (just look at the original “Star Trek” from the 1960s...), most TV shows weren’t really designed with these in mind. And, these days, this is weirdly fascinating to see.
Following on from that, there’s also the way that the show uses costume design as well. Because all of the characters are stranded on a desert island, the show can do the classic cartoon thing of making some of the main characters wear the same outfits in every episode, making them instantly recognisable.
More than that, the two most famous characters – Gilligan (Bob Denver) and Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.) – wear bold red and blue shirts respectively. Their hats are also opposite colours as well. These costume designs stand out against the more muted outfits worn by the other characters and give the show this weirdly focused cartoon-like atmosphere. It’s a subtle thing, but it definitely adds something.
Then there’s also the general atmosphere of the show as well. Like another contemporary sitcom of the time “The Addams Family” (1964-66), it has this wonderfully innocent and stylised atmosphere to it as well. Yes, most of the comedy in the clips I’ve seen was just basic slapstick, arguments and/or farce but, like “The Addams Family”, it has a very unusual and recognisable setting (a desert island, rather than a bizarre mansion).
There’s less cynicism to it than you’d expect from a modern sitcom and there’s also less “topical” stuff (which almost makes it feel like it is set in another world) and everything is just a bit more stylised than a modern sitcom would be. All of this lends the clips I’ve seen a type of feel-good atmosphere which I’ve only really seen in “The Addams Family” before.
And, yes, this emphasis on feel-good escapism can possibly partially be explained by the historical context these US sitcoms were first broadcast in – namely the fact that people in the US were being conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War during the mid-late 1960s.
But, yes, “Gilligan’s Island” is not only fascinating because of its catchy theme tune and cartoon-influenced costume designs, but also because it is a relic from an age when TV show episodes often had to be as self-contained as possible because no-one had VCRs or DVRs or streaming or any way (other than pointing a film-reel camera at the screen) to “catch up” on episodes that they missed. An age when TV was a lot less prestigious or complex than it is now, and when sitcoms focused more on stylised places and innocent escapism. And all of this makes even just short clips of this old show weirdly fascinating. Like something from another world.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
