Producer Sherwood Schwartz wasn’t trying to make anybody a star when he started casting his Sixties sitcom “Gilligan’s Island.” The present was supposed to be slapstick enjoyable for the entire household, peppered with jokes that landed simply as exhausting with mother and father as they did with their kids. To get this throughout, he wanted an ensemble that might stay in mellifluous orbit round Bob Denver’s blundering Gilligan. (Denver himself was already a small display screen star due to his portrayal of beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.”) If the actors might get away with delivering Schwartz’s groan-worthy banter with out evoking groans from the undemanding people at residence, they had been welcome on his uncharted desert island.
This is not to say he employed a bunch of nobodies to fill out the forged of “Gilligan’s Island.” Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer had been established, veteran performers, whereas Tina Louise was seen as a rising younger expertise. Viewers had been acquainted with their faces (and, within the case of Backus, his voice), simply to not the purpose the place they’d pop greater than Denver or any of their different fellow castaways.
Two different forged members who boarded the S.S. Minnow with lengthy oeuvres had been Alan Hale Jr. and Russell Johnson. Hale was a showbiz child who’d made good as a grown-up (he was 40 when he signed on to play the Skipper), whereas Johnson was in his mid-30s and beginning to look extra like a personality actor than a possible film star. Their profession trajectories had been starting to look fairly related when “Gilligan’s Island” got here round, too, which made some type of Hollywood sense contemplating that, six years prior, they’d each given supporting performances in the identical ho-hum studio Western.
The Skipper and the Professor go a-foraging for yuks within the Wild West
The Western was 1955’s “Many Rivers to Cross,” which didn’t, to the most effective of my data (or the web’s), encourage Jimmy Cliff’s majestic 1969 single of the identical title. The humorous oater starred Robert Taylor as dashing trapper Bushrod Gentry. And we’re simply going to let that identify sit there for a second.
Okay. Bushrod has an unintentional aspect hustle that includes saving pale-skinned damsels from the indigenous Shawnee tribespeople of Kentucky. This situation will get turned on its head when Bushrod finds himself getting saved by the plucky lass Mary Stuart Cherne (Eleanor Parker). As she tends to his wounds, she senses a love connection. Bushrod doesn’t. Alas, when Bushrod makes an attempt to depart the Chernes’ residence, Mary has her brothers pressure him right into a literal shotgun marriage.
As for the way Hale and Johnson match into this yuk-fest, the previous performs Mary’s miffed suitor Luke Radford, whereas the latter performs a fellow named Banks. There is not any hit of marooned hilarity to return from this pair (they by no means work together right here), however in case you had been to change on this film again within the day with out taking note of the forged record on the outset, you may get a chuckle out of seeing Hale and Johnson taking part in considerably in opposition to their “Gilligan’s Island” sorts (which Johnson would ultimately discover troublesome to flee).
As for the standard of the movie itself, you possibly can decide that for your self by renting it from the outlet of your alternative or streaming it free of charge (with adverts) on Tubi!
