Gilligan's Island

The Narrative Innovations of Gilligan’s Island

23 The Narrative Innovations of Gilligan’s Island miserably, Schwartz was able to recut the pilot to his liking. Despite featuring the comic timing preferred by Schwartz, the aired pilot, “Two on a Raft” (September 24, 1964), is little better than the unaired version. The episode begins the morning after the shipwreck, as the castaways awaken to discover their circumstances on the island. Thinking he is still at sea, Gilligan jumps awake and dives overboard, only to land face first into the sand. Gilligan and the Skipper set sail on a makeshift raft while the other castaways (now featuring Russell Johnson as the Professor, Tina Louise as Ginger, and Dawn Wells as Mary Ann) search the island, fearing the presence of Marubi headhunters. When their raft sinks, Gilligan and the Skipper unknowingly end up on the very same island from which they sailed. They and the other castaways mistake one another’s sounds for the Marubi. The episode ends with a comic bit about a spring trap above a cave entrance. Each set of castaways enters the cave, fighting with each other in the dark, thinking they are Marubi. After Gilligan accidentally springs the trap, sealing all seven castaways into the cave, they dig themselves out amicably as the episode comes to an end. The Narrative Innovations of Gilligan’s Island The first season of Gilligan’s Island is far more devoted to serial narrative than we would expect of a 1960s telefilm sitcom. In episode 2, “Home Sweet Hut” (October 3, 1964), the Skipper demands that each of the castaways help build huts for protection . When everyone wants their own hut, the castaways have to work together to settle on how they can most efficiently protect themselves from the elements. Even by the end of this episode, the castaways have not settled on the solution yet, as each castaway sets off to build his or her own hut. Eventually, Gilligan and Skipper would bunk together, as would Mr. and 01 Metz text.indd 23 1/20/12 12:00 PM 24 Gilligan’s Island Mrs. Howell, and Mary Ann and Ginger, leaving the Professor to inhabit the supply hut alone. In episode 3, “Voodoo Something to Me” (October 10, 1964), the Skipper’s irrational fear of the supernatural powers of the Pacific Islanders is introduced, a fear that would return again and again in the series. In “Voodoo ” (season 3, episode 73, October 10, 1966), one of the most beloved episodes of the series, a witch doctor constructs cute voodoo dolls of all the castaways. In episode 12 (“Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk,” December 19, 1964), a Christmas episode, the castaways decorate a tree while reminiscing about their first day on the island. This allowed Schwartz to once again edit the footage shot for the pilot, refining that material yet again. All of these early episodes demonstrate the care the first season spent on telling the story of the castaways on the island. By the middle of the first season, The Witch Doctor’s voodoo doll castaways in “Voodoo” (October 10, 1966). 01 Metz text.indd 24 1/20/12 12:00 PM 25 The Narrative Innovations of Gilligan’s Island these sorts of stories would be depleted, forcing the writers of the show into the absurdist minimalism I argue is the productive heart of the show. The best example of this shift lies in the show’s increasing reliance on dream sequences. Of the ninety-eight episodes of Gilligan ’s Island, fourteen of them featured act 2 dream sequences exactly seven minutes in length. Typically, Gilligan would go to sleep worrying about the events of the day, and his subconscious mind would process that material into a familiar story (Dracula, Cinderella, and the like). Season 1 featured only three such dream sequences. In the most interesting episode, “The Sound of Quacking,” the dream sequence allowed the crew to shoot on the set of Gunsmoke and was thus primarily an industrial , not a thematic, decision. After obsessing about eating fish and bananas for weeks, the castaways capture a duck that lands on the island. Gilligan goes to sleep cradling Everett, the name he chooses for the duck, protecting the tasty fowl from the other ravenous castaways. As Gilligan enters his dream state, he emerges as Marshal Dillon, with Skipper as his assistant, Festus. As in High Noon, a mob (Mr. Howell and the Professor) comes to...