Day 26: Now listen to this story that we will tell to you...
The story of The Minnow, five passengers, and crew...
If those lyrics seem familiar but not...there's a reason. They are the intro lines for the theme song to The New Adventures Of Gilligan, a cartoon series based on everyone's (well, at least my) favorite fictitious castaways. This series aired in the early 1970's, and is extremely difficult to find...but today, I struck gold. In the mail, I received a 4-DVD set of the entire animated series, purchased online from a collectables shop somewhere in Illinois. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. This is damn nigh the Holy Grail of Gilligania...
After viewing one episode, it is, as I recalled from childhood, basically an extended collection of episodes featuring Gilligan, The Skipper too, The Millionaire...and you know the rest... (pun intended. ;-) Five of the original cast provided the voices for their cartoon counterparts, with Jane Edwards voicing Ginger and Jane Webb giving speech to Mary Ann. Tina Louise wanted to distance herself from the series, and Dawn Wells had prior touring commitments in a stage play, so they were unwilling and unable to participate, respectively.
The other addition to the group is Snubby, Gilligan's monkey friend. Obviously, training a real chimp would have been difficult, but hey...animation allows for anything! :-) It has been pointed out to me that the original series was pretty much a cartoon with live actors, and I agree. That's what made it so delightful!
I suppose today's post won't mean much to anyone except me and a few other die-hard Gilligan nuts, but to us, this is like striking oil...which happens in one of the cartoons, according to the episode guide...I have great faith that the cartoon Thurston Howell III will find some way to gain control of the oil well, only to get his come-uppance in the last five minutes...or else he will soften towards the end and share with the others. Even as much as I love the show and the characters, I can't pretend that they aren't predictable.
So...I pose a question to my readers (audience participation time! :-) What was YOUR favorite TV show/toy/book/etc. from childhood which you still enjoy? Come on...admit it...you still have that Brady Bunch lunchbox in the attic, don't you? How about the Strawberry Shortcake dolls, the Red Ryder BB gun, the Rock-Em Sock-Em robots, the Lassie coloring book, the Star Trek videos, or any other of the bajillion entertainment-based items aimed at the under-18 market? We were raised as pop culture consumers, you know...
Looking forward to some good answers...
In today's News From The Motherland...a possible postal strike...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8259867.stm
Cheers!
FLT3
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Ahh, the black and white episodes of The Andy Griffith Show are my (continued) guilty pleasure from my childhood. I take great pleasure in saying the lines as the characters do when a particularly humorous, or maybe poignant moment arrive in the show as most nights I continue to watch it in back to back episodes even today.
It's not that it was necessarily a slice of Americana that made me enjoy it. Over the years, I came to enjoy the characters themselves, watching them evolve, show different emotions, etc. Don Knotts was my "Jim Bacchus." Goofy, funny, but could show all kinds of emotions from funny, to goofy, to fearful, to emotional, to you name it, and could change on a dime--part of the endearing qualities of "good old Barn." And my favorite actress there was always Betty Lynn, aka "Thelma Lou." She was "the cats."
One personal story--years ago, there was some sort of "Mayberry Reunion" at the amphitheatre in Pelham. I didn't attend, but the next day I was at church--late as usual, far in the back (where I feel most comfortable anyway), and a friend of mine came to get me. He was the "greeter" that day and told me, "Darrell, I want you to meet somebody."
From my back row pew it wasn't hard to exit stage left, and come face to face to Betty Lynn, who was just showing up to attend church after appearing at the Reunion the day before. My friend had recognized her and shouted, "Thelma Lou"--although it was 35 years after her time spent in the series, of course--and told her he had somebody that she had to meet.
She was gracious, and sweet, as I poured out how she helped me get through tax school--yes, nerdy me took two breaks each day from studying--one at noon, and one at 5 pm--and watched back-to-back episodes of The Andy Griffith Show on different channels. For that year I was out of touch with the world, but it gave me a respite from the hustle and bustle of school, the fast pace of Miami (not to say that never got our attention, you understand), and just a feel good moment the entire time.
Anyway, as I finished, she told me she just had to give me a hug. So there I was, hugging "Barney's girl," smack dab in the middle of church. "Where I come from, that means we's got to get married."
Hope this wasn't too long. I'm a Gilligan's Island fan, but it can't touch The Andy Griffith Show to me.
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