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Whirled Views 9.4
Good morning!
On this day in 1967: The final episode of Gilligan’s Island aired.
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Topic: Watercooler Chatter, WorldMagBlog
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back to top58 Comments to “Whirled Views 9.4”
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port,
Aboard this tiny Ship.
The mate was a mighty sailin’ man,
The Skipper brave and sure,
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour.
A three hour tour. [sound of thunder]
The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed.
If not for the courage of the fearless crew,
The Minnow would be lost.
The Minnow would be lost.
The ship’s aground on the shore of this
Uncharted desert isle
With Gilligan, the Skipper too,
The Millionaire and his wife,
A movie star, (and the rest) the Professor and Mary Ann,
(All) Here on Gilligan’s Isle!
So this is the tale of our castways,
They’re here for a long, long time
They’ll have to make the best of things,
It’s an uphill climb.
The first mate and (his) the Skipper too,
Will do their very best,
To make the others comfortable,
In their tropic island nest.
No phone(s)! No light(s)! No motor car(s)!
Not a single luxury,
Like Robinson C-ru-soe, it’s primitive as can be.
So join us here each week my friends,
You’re sure to get a smile,
From (For) seven stranded castways,
Here on “Gilligan’s Isle.”
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Gilligan!!
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They didn’t rescue them unitl years later in the movie, right?
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Gilligan’s Island trivia: Does anyone here know the answers to these without looking them up?
What was the Skipper’s name? (Not the actor. The character had a name, although it was used only a couple of times in the show.)
What was the Professor’s name? (Same note.)
Although Gilligan’s first name was never spoken, creator Sherwood Schwartz knew what it would be if it ever were to be needed. What was it?
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Interesting way to start the day. I was surprised that they all had such an extensive wardrobe for such a short cruise.
May the lord of Host shower blessings on all of you today.
Blessings
Roger
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Jonas Grumby was the Skipper’s name.
Professor Roy Hinckley.
I did not look these up. (promise)
I can tell what any Gilligan’s Island episode will be about by the first 30 seconds of intro music.
So I got *that* going for me.
Tychicus – you beat me to the lyric this morning. I guess I shouldn’t have hit the SNOOZE button twice!
Have a great long weekend everyone. I hope Anlir shows up with his college football pool.
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Gamecocks 7
Wolfpack 3
We go to Georgia next week.
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I thought Gilligan’s Island was a documentary.
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I was going to tease and say “Maynard” for Maynard G. Krebs, another character Bob Denver played.
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Dobie, Dobie, Dobie!
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My sister-in-law appeared in the first episode and every one afterwards. She’s the teenager sailing the little sailboat they pass as the three-hour-sail commences out of the harbor.
Good news is she dumped the boyfriend with her and went on to a happy and productive life afterwards..:-)
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How does the adage go? If Satan can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy?
Or something like that. Too tired and busy to look it up. I keep thinking the end is in sight, but when I get to the river bend, an ocean appears.
Not really sure how this happened . . .
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Donna, you’re gonna love Duma Key! I don’t think it will scare you until….
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From the end of The ice cream man (what a fascinating story!!!) in The ABCs of C Street (August 29, 2009):
What, pray tell, is a purest?
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DRILL: Stop already. My chapped lips havent healed yet.
Blessings
Roger
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Friends,
From an interesting post by Ed Feser:
After all, as “organic living” fanatics never tire of telling us, living in harmony with nature is the key to happiness. And there ain’t nothin’ more natural than “unprotected sex” – and the large families that result from it. No? (Cf. The Last Superstition, pp. 132-53)
To be sure, the “organic” crowd somehow never seems to draw this conclusion. Live organically! Go green! Go vegan! Be at peace with all living things! Oh, and chemically neutering yourself, wrapping your private parts in plastic before intercourse, and murdering your unborn offspring are all consistent with this.
Right. Got it.
Phony baloney indeed. Or as Someone once put it, “they strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.”
Addendum 8/20: In the combox below, reader Rodak asserts the now common view that the sin of Onan (Genesis 38: 9-10) had nothing to do with either contraception or masturbation. Like so much of what has become the conventional academic wisdom about the Bible, this is simply false. Interested readers are advised to check out this article by Fr. Brian Harrison for a defense of the traditional interpretation of the passage in question.
http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2009/08/rubber-souls.html
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Mark Roth – Maybe a purest is even purer than a purist?
Travis Birkenstock – “I can tell what any Gilligan’s Island episode will be about by the first 30 seconds of intro music.
So I got *that* going for me.”
I’ll bet that impresses all the girls!
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My cousin sent this to my wife. This is absolutely hilarious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOrjcLJ2IE0&feature=related
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Just so everyone knows the guys singing are: These very talented singers are all Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA) in Minnesota and they can really sing. They are also funny. Turn up the volume. Here they sing “Waking up is hard to do”
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My fave Gilligan episode was “All About Eva” the one where Tina Louise played both Ginger and a homely gal who self-exiled herself to the island. Needless to say MaryAnn and Ginger do a “makeover” and Eva then escapes the island to pass herself off as the real Ginger.
When the series first started Tina Louise was quite the big star. The talking heads thought the show would have her starring in it instead of as a supporting cast. She is still alive and holds the distinction of being America’s first Jewish pinup model.
What I’ve found interesting is how many theses and/or dissertations have been done about the show. Sad comment on the state of academia.
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#4 SteveG, for many years Alan Hale Jr operated/owned a seafood restaurant in LA: “Alan Hale’s Lobster Barrel”. I believe it is closed now. In his final years–in fact a few days prior to his death–Hale would visit children in hospital cancer wards.
“The skipper’s here and everything is going to be alright..”
I read about but did not read a book out a few years ago that told the life stories of ea of the show characters. The skipper had been a PT boat captain during the Pacific theater and had been friends with Lt J.G. Jack Kennedy! It was interesting fiction to say the least.
Russell Johnson had acted in films with Ronald Reagan in the 50s. Johnson was nearly rejected for the part of The Professor since he refused to take off his shirt in the audition. ( I suspect not so much as modesty as reluctance to show scars or tattoos)
And can anyone confirm the reason Mr Fred Rogers never took off his sweater was his arms were covered in sailor tattoos??
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Sawgunner,
The Mr. Rogers’ story is an urban myth debunked by Snopes.com.
There were also episodes were Gilligan and Mr. Howell had doppelgangers.
Bob Denver and Dawn Wells also, if I remember correctly, smoked a lot of pot during that time and it continued to Denver’s recent death and Wells’ recent arrest for sending MJ to Denver.
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MaryAnne was smoking as out 2008. I think the Denver incident happened a few years ago where Denver was arrested for receiving MJ that Wells sent. I’ll have to check.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336817,00.html
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Jon is right. Mr. Rogers did not serve in the military and did not have any tattoos.
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According to Snopes, Mr. Rogers wore “long-sleeved shirts and sweaters on his show to maintain an air of formality”.
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Joe B.- That was funny and your right they are talented.
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Joe, that was really funny, just sent it to 2 friends who are RNs and to my retired pastor and his wife who have been through their share of surgeries lately.
Somehow I didn’t watch Gilligan’s Island too much, but it was always part of the background music in my youth it seems.
I pretty much know all those old black-and-white, 30-minute Twilight Zones, even though they quit making them by the time I was in my teens I think (but thanks to reruns I’ve seen them ever since). But every once in a while one comes on during a marathon that’s new to me, though I can’t figure out how I’d have missed any in all those years.
So I guess I’ve always liked the scary stuff with a message. Haven’t started ‘Duma’ yet. The gross slasher stuff in the 1980s and 1990s I though was just gruesome and I stayed away from all that, although the original “Halloween” still sends chills up my spine, especially in the opening scenes with that music and all the shadows and winds.
“What was that??? Is there someone watching me from behind that clothesline????” Wind blows the sheet away. Nothing there. Or so it would seem ……
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That video was great. I wouldn’t mind waking up to them after surgery, except I may split the stitches open.
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The reason that Mr. Rodgers never took his sweater off was because, early in the series, some nasty neighborhood children super-glued it to his body, while he was taking a nap.
Mr. McFeely was suspected being the mastermind behind the operation. Mr. Rogers confronted McFeely about it and they fought with tireirons and baseball bats, which is why McFeely never appeared again on the series, or anywhere else, actually.
They never aired that episode.
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Ahhh, the truth comes out!
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Travis! A kindred spirit!
If there had ever been a reason to say Gilligan’s first name, it was to have been Willy. (That tidbit comes from Russell Johnson’s book, Here on Gilligan’s Isle.
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R.C. Sproul claimed that he and Fred Rogers were classmates in seminary.
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How about the Beverly Hillbillies? That’s a classic, too.
Joe B. – Thanks for the link to the video. Very funny – & tuneful!
Wagus – I believe Fred Rogers considered his show to be his ministry. And the name McFeely was his grandparents’ last name, though plenty of people have made fun of it for how it sounds.
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Actually there were several Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood episodes that were never aired (see above):
Episode 83: Mr. Rogers loses his temper with one of the puppets and somehow finds a large industrial chain saw.
Episode 104: Mr. Rogers gets tangled up in the zipper of his cardigan sweater and goes ballistic, taking off one of his dress shoes and vigorously bludgeoning one of the cameramen with it until he is wrestled to the ground and subdued by the studio audience.
Episode 146: Mr. Rogers suddenly and inexplicably twists the heads of several of the puppets off and swallows them whole.
Episode 202: Police and coroner reports never released to the public, sealed by continuing judicial order.
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Okay, so Fred Rogers was not a veteran. Was Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) a WWII vet from the Normandy landing? I’m having myths shatter left and right all about me today!
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23.. Maryann WAS smokin’? Have you seen her mugshot? I think Bob Denver grew wacky tobacky high on his West Virginia mountain top. Probably shared some with Sir Paul McCartney
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I also heard that Dawn Wells was chosen for the MaryAnn character over another aspiring actress, Raquel Welch!
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I didn’t like the Beverly Hillbillies. They were always talking about eating grits and greens. Any real southerner knows you don’t eat grits and greens together. Grits are for breakfast and greens for supper.
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Okay, so Fred Rogers was not a veteran. Was Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) a WWII vet from the Normandy landing? I’m having myths shatter left and right all about me today!
Sorry, but no. Keeshan did enlist in the Marines, but it was very near the end of the war and he never saw combat.
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Speaking of childhood television show hosts and military service/tattoos, here are some interesting possibilities.
Oscar the Grouch – ordinance. Lost most of his hearing during mortar fire exchanges on Iwo Jima.
Big Bird served two tours in WWII as a carrier pigeon.
Howdy Doody was head of a puppet state for Stalin in Eastern Europe after WWII. He’s since been cleared, pardoned. Came stateside to remake himself, image.
Lambchop, believe it or not, was at Normandy.
Burt and Ernie were comrades in arms patroling the DMZ. Burt was in the Philipines in WWII and almost lost his head to a tribe of cannibals; perhaps because of its unusual shape.
Cookie Monster is actually a German POW.
Anyone remember Rita Moreno from the Electric Company? “Hey you guys!”? Female drill sergeant. (Not really – well, at least not that I know of).
Barney – pacifist, draft-dodging agnostic, self-help guru and conscientious objector. Was slated to go to ‘Nam but hung out with hippies and the likes instead.
Kermit the Frog – Special ops in ‘Nam. Not easy being green? No, it wasn’t.
Statler and Waldorf – WWII vets.
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KBells, my ex-husband has never been swimming in a swimming pool because of the Beverly Hillbillies. He only swims in CEE-mint Ponds.
I always hated shows that spoofed the south. I never thought I spoke like them.
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Old Hick – And ya just know that Barney must smoke something funny.
True story about Bert & Ernie…
They were named after the characters Bert & Ernie in It’s a Wonderful Life. One was a cop & one was a taxi driver.
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Kim – So you’re not like Ellie May?
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Naw, all them critter’s’d make me itch. Bet they’s stink to high heaven too.
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Kim, There are shows that make fun of my accent too. SNL does it alot with Sarah Palin. It may be close, but…
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In high school the boy I loved, loved, loved heard me say “I ought to do…” only I pronounced ought “orda”. He was from Ohio and asked me what orda meant. He was genuinely confused and I was mortified. I have done my best to pronounce at least the words I know in English correctly.
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,546510,00.html
This is only about 5 miles from me!!!!
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Interesting article, Kim. Sounds like a lovely place to live, minus the terrorists, of course.
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This is nice:
Jonah,
The following quote from your column was spot on:
“This suggests that the White House still thinks it has a communication problem, and if only it dispels the cloud of ‘lies’ belched up by the opposition, there will be nothing but blue skies ahead. Funny how the people who run the most sophisticated communication operation in the history of the presidency keep concluding that their difficulties stem from their inability to get their message out and never from what their message actually is.”
Marketers make this mistake all the time, which ensures that marketing consultants like me have steady work. No amount of advertising, promotion, bikini-clad showroom girls, or gimmicky give-aways can sell a lousy product or one that consumers do not actually need. Or as I like to say, “You can’t polish a t***.”
As I see it, Obama’s healthcare plan is the Windows Vista of public policy. It’s far too complex for anyone to understand why it’s better. It’s larded up with bloated features that make it impossible to use. And for the vast majority of existing customers, the current system for all its faults, works pretty well. Or at least well enough that the upgrade is worth neither the extra expense nor the risk that it will destroy the entire system. And no amount of advertising can sell it.
From http://corner.nationalreview.com/ (item ObamaCare as Windows Vista)
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RR 50
great analogy of windows vista/obamacare
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I never watched the Cookie Monster and Big Bird when I was a child. Was I ever a child?
I think this is the same group on Joe B’s link.
http://www.youtube.com/user/misterdregs
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Joe B. #18
Funny video
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The first time I ever watched Sesame Street was when I was living in Spain, watching a 3-year-old boy and doing housework for an Air Force captain and his family, in return for room and board. Paul went to a neighborhood nursery school and spoke Spanish as well as English, and enjoyed watching Spanish children’s TV shows.
Barrio Sésamo didn’t have a Big Bird. I just read in Muppet Wiki that there had previously been a 7-foot-tall hen, Caponata, who was reddish-pink instead of yellow, but had a personality similar to Big Bird (but couldn’t do stuff like skating and dancing). By the time I was there in 1983, Caponata had been replaced with Espinete, a pink hedgehog. According to Paul’s dad, Espinete was a much more active and interesting character than Big Bird.
We never watched Sesame Street when my kids were young, but Zach probably did at daycare (along with Barney and Magic School Bus and Lambchop), because he knew the characters much better than I did. We had picture books with Sesame Street characters, and I was forever getting Bert and Ernie mixed up, and he would angrily correct me.
Three years ago we put on a production of It’s a Wonderful Life at church. We were new there, and I barely knew the names of any other cast members (I was the bank examiner, my husband was Mr. Potter). I only knew people by the names of their characters. I don’t remember who was originally cast as Bert (or was it Ernie?), but he dropped out within a few weeks.
Rather than try to replace him, the director simply cut out some of his lines, and the ones that she felt important to keep she gave to Ernie (or was it Bert?). So we took to calling him Bernie. (It was well over a year later that I finally learned his real name was Brian, and longer before I stopped calling him Bernie by mistake.)
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Joe B,
Thanks! Enjoyed the video, sent it to daughter, the RN.
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My attempt at humor-between-my-classes has obviously failed. I’m not very good at posting when I don’t have much time to think or contemplate whether or not to hit the post button.
No offense intended to any of the vets out there. I’m one myself. Just thought it would be a light thing. But after seeing the thread on the AP photo afterward I was reminded of my tastelessness in ascribing military service to muppets.
My apologies to any and all who took offense.
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I got to go to Radnor Lake with neighbors again–the very best hike I’ve ever had there! In two hours we saw a smattering of small birds (chickadees and the like–but it really wasn’t a songbird day); butterflies; two wonderful views of large birds: a great blue heron hunting on our side of the lake, just about the best view I’ve ever had of one, and a large owl sleeping on a tree limb (a pass-it-on view–we saw it because another couple was looking at it, and we pointed it out to several more people); a doe and fawn near the road pretty soon after we entered the park (spots beginning to fade) and, later, two does and a fawn and, a couple minutes later, a mature buck that ended up meeting up with the does and fawn for some good wildlife activity (one doe chased him, and we saw all of them running and leaping in the course of a few minutes); two bitterns; the usual selection of turtles sunning on logs; and three otters playing near the road! One of the bitterns was on a mess of sticks that the women watching him and I all took to be most likely a beaver lodge.
When I saw the buck head toward the road, I backed up several steps to give him space to cross, but the does and fawn all went off into the forest, leaping over logs as they did so–and no, I don’t think we panicked them, though I don’t think they were crazy about meeting up with the buck, and in fact they might have kept their distance from him a little more effectively had people not been there right at the time when their paths happened to cross. We had already seen the does and fawn, and then saw the buck, and he went back toward where they were and then they ended up together. One doe chased him but he didn’t go far, so generally they just all stayed in that area for five or ten minutes while we watched them interact.
But one owl, one great blue heron, one buck, two fawns, three otters, and miscellaneous more common sightings–all in all a wonderful hike on a pretty day. It was also very nice weather for it although the humidity was a bit much at the end once it got a bit warmer.
And after we watched the otters playing next to the bank, their bodies practically under our feet, I made my usual joke: “Ain’t evolution grand?” We serve a great God, we really do.
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Amen, Cheryl! Sounds like a wonderful place to hike.
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