Reality tends to stick its big nose in and kick the hell out of our favorite fantasies sometimes, doesn’t it? Gilligan’s Island was a great show in its time, but the whole idea of it is kind of kooky since the premise that the three-hour tour….the three hour tour, would mean that the SS Minnow would be outbound for an hour and a half and then inbound for the same time. Plus, unless the storm came out of nowhere, which can happen on the open sea, but is still noticeable when one is only a relatively short distance from shore, there is a possibility that the boat could be knocked off course. But then we get to the idea of the Minnow being in uncharted waters, which is hard to believe back in the 1960s, since sailors had been crisscrossing the globe for centuries at that point. Being blown off course wouldn’t be too hard on the open ocean, but given the size of the Minnow and how fast it might be able to go, an hour and a half wouldn’t put it that far from any known islands and wouldn’t constitute a seriously big search area when thinking about how much water a search party can cover. For the sake of the story though it does make sense to have them crash on an uncharted island that would somehow be beyond the reach of any search party, though it would be as likely as actually falling off the edge of the earth as happened in the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It is an interesting thought to contemplate however, that Gilligan and crew found a version of Davy Jones’ locker long before Disney ever came up with the idea.
Then there’s the cast to consider. The two millionaires make sense, but what about the professor, Mary Anne, and Ginger? What in the world were they doing on that cruise? What was Mr. Howell doing with all that cash on him anyway? There are so many questions pertaining to the characters and the story when it comes to this show that trying to sort them all out might be possible, but it’s a giant headache at times too. Why the Minnow was allowed to drift though is pretty straightforward. Gilligan, being Gilligan, tossed the anchor overboard to try and keep the craft in place, but either the Skipper didn’t check to make sure it was attached to the chain or Gilligan didn’t bother to look, because they lost the anchor and that was that, the boat was set to drift, apparently for three days it sounds like, before the craft crashed upon the island, with huge holes in the sides that made it look as though it hit a few submerged rocks on the way in. A truly skilled individual, or at least one that knew how to patch a hole here and there, could have fixed the boat and set it afloat again, but obviously that wasn’t in the cards as the castaways spent a good amount of time on the island, creating a show that a few of those involved didn’t even believe in that people came to care a great deal about.
Just looking at the dynamics of it, this journey should have been fairly simple, and the weather shouldn’t have been much of a factor for a skilled seaman like the Skipper since considering how much wide open ocean exists around Hawaii, spotting weather patterns isn’t too hard for those who know what to look for. The idea for this show was to basically make it appear as simple as possible and that was easily attained since the whole idea is one that likely made a lot of skilled and seasoned sailors wince considering the craft that was used and the fact that Skipper was someone that should have known what he was doing. Plus, having a professor on board, someone with skills leaning towards a variety of things that were found to be useful, should have been enough of a winning combination to get the group off the island in short order. The professor made things out of coconuts for crying out loud, it’s hard to think that he couldn’t come up with some sort of compound that could have been used to repair the Minnow while Gilligan and Skipper could have been chopping down trees to try and patch the holes as best they could, or find something else to use that might have worked.
That’s the point with shows like this however, it’s usually a chance to do the most outlandish things possible without really getting into the practical side of things. Once everything starts making sense the show is pretty much over, and reality gets to take the place of the fantasy.
Follow Us
