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For all its popularity, Sherwood Schwartz's CBS comedy classic "Gilligan's Island" is a very strange waterfowl in the sitcom pond. It combines what's effectively a live-action cartoon with a series of morality plays hidden inside outlandish stories that demand viewers grab disbelief by the neck and hoist it out of their TV room. On top of that, all of this is acted out by characters that were inspired by the seven deadly sins.

From 1964 to 1967, the toil and turmoil of the S.S. Minnow survivors offered viewers a regular dose of Robinson Crusoe antics mixed with a hefty dose of slapstick and a generous spoonful of genuine depth. Despite the series' comparatively short life, this (along with copious reruns) was more than enough to earn it a reputation as one of the best shows of the 1960s.

"Gilligan's Island" ran for three extremely eventful seasons that involved so many...

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Mash is a medical war comedy-drama series created by Larry Gelbart. Based on the 1968 novel by author Richard Hooker and its 1970 film adaptation by Ring Lardner Jr., the CBS series is set during the Korean War and it revolves around a group of military doctors as they defy orders and rely on humor to deal with the heartbreaking consequences of war. Mash stars Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson, Loretta Swit, Larry Linville, Gary Burghoff, Mike Farrell, Harry Morgan, Jamie Farr, William Christopher, and David Ogden Stiers. So, if you loved the hilarious comedy, heartfelt drama, and likeable characters in Mash, here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Bluestone 42 (Prime Video & Pluto TV) Credit – BBC Three

Bluestone 42 is a British sitcom series co-created by Richard Hurst and James Cary. The BBC Three series is set in Afghanistan,...

Steve Martin’s movie career is replete with comedy classics such as The Jerk, Roxanne and Father of the Bride, in which Martin and Martin Short appear in several scenes together and somehow resist the urge to relentlessly roast each other.

But he also made a number of not-so-memorable comedies. One movie that didn’t make much of a cultural dent was Sgt. Bilko, the 1996 remake of the ‘50s sitcom The Phil Silvers Show. The story of a scheming, amoral U.S. army sergeant flopped at the box office, and has since been largely forgotten. Even Martin himself wasn’t a fan.

In retrospect, perhaps the most interesting thing about Sgt. Bilko is that the filmmakers ended up feuding with the U.S. military while making it.

It’s not uncommon for Hollywood movies to negotiate deals with the Pentagon that allow them to use real-life military equipment and facilities in exchange for certain concessions.

Steve Martin is a man of many talents — he’s an actor, a comedian, a writer and the best the banjo player in the world the only banjo player we’re currently aware of. He’s also an expert on fine art, so much so that he once gave a Q&a on the subject at the 92nd Street Y, to the confusion and anger of comedy fans who were apparently expecting something less “boring.”

Now the famed art collector has himself inspired a new art show, themed around one of Martin’s ‘90s comedies. No, not Sgt. Bilko.

There’s currently an exhibit at Hauser & Wirth’s West Hollywood location simply called “L.A. Story,” based on the 1991 comedy of the same name. L.A. Story, which Martin also wrote, tells the story of an Angeleno TV weatherman named Harris K. Telemacher who falls in love with an English journalist,...

Gene Roddenberry considered potential Tos spinoffs, including a Harry Mudd show, and a hospital drama featuring Dr. M'Benga. "Assignment: Earth" was designed as a pilot for a new Star Trek-adjacent show, starring Robert Lansing as Gary Seven. NBC proposed a Spock series post-tos cancelation, but Roddenberry declined to produce the spinoff show.

In 2024, the Star Trek franchise is built on spinoff shows, but during the heyday of Star Trek: The Original Series, such things remained a pipe dream for creator Gene Roddenberry. The concept of a Star Trek spinoff show wouldn't become a viable concept until the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987, though that was more of a franchise revival than a spinoff. When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered in 1993, the spinoff TV show was born, and the franchise hasn't looked back since.

Over 20 years earlier, Gene Roddenberry, and the network, were considering which Star Trek: Tos...

Al Ruddy, who co-created the famed CBS sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, then captured Academy Awards for producing the best picture winners The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby, has died. He was 94.

Ruddy, also credited as one of the creators of the long-running CBS police drama Walker, Texas Ranger, died Saturday following a brief illness at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, a publicist announced.

On the heels of The Godfather (1972), Ruddy produced another box-office hit with the original The Longest Yard (1974), the prison-set football movie that starred Burt Reynolds. The pair then reteamed for the action road films The Cannonball Run (1981) and its 1984 sequel, both directed by stuntman-turned-helmer Hal Needham.

The personable Ruddy also produced such films as Bad Girls (1994), the first Western with all female leads (Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore); the baseball comedy The Scout (1994), starring Albert Brooks and Brendan Fraser; and Matilda (1978), a comedy...

Terry Carter, who portrayed Pvt. Sugie Sugarman on The Phil Silvers Show, the sidekick of Dennis Weaver’s character on McCloud and Colonel Tigh on the original version of Battlestar Galactica, has died. He was 95.

Carter died Tuesday at his home in Manhattan, his son, Miguel Carter DeCoste, told The New York Times.

Carter appeared three times on Broadway early in his career and produced and directed a documentary on jazz legend Duke Ellington for PBS’ American Masters series in 1988.

The Brooklyn native appeared on all four seasons (1955-59) of CBS’ The Phil Silvers Show (also known as Sgt. Bilko) as Pvt. Sugarman. He then played Sgt. Joe Broadhurst alongside Weaver’s Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud on NBC’s McCloud from 1970-77 and Tigh in the 1978 Battlestar Galactica movie and 1978-79 ABC series.

An only child, John Everett DeCoste was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 16, 1928. He graduated from Stuyvesant High...

Owen Roizman, the cinematographer who shot some of the most notable films of the 1970s New Hollywood era, has died. The Hollywood Reporter confirms the news that the Oscar-nominated director of photography, who worked often with William Friedkin, Lawrence Kasdan, and Sydney Pollack, passed away in his home in Encino on Friday night, at the age of 86.

Roizman shot over 30 films and music videos across his decades-long career, including some of the most acclaimed cultural touchstones of the '70s and '80s. Friedkin's "The French Connection," a movie that famously includes one of cinema's most exhilarating car chase sequences, was only the second film Roizman ever worked on as a cinematographer.

In an interview with American Cinematographer, the artist once explained that he undercranked the camera for the famous (and infamous) chase scene, using only 18 to 20 frames per second instead of the typical 24 in order to give the effect of high speed.

Owen Roizman, the five-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer who partnered with director William Friedkin on the gripping movie classics The French Connection and The Exorcist, has died. He was 86.

Roizman, who also teamed with director Sydney Pollack on five films, including Three Days of the Condor (1975), Absence of Malice (1981) and Tootsie (1982) — when he somehow made Dustin Hoffman look good as a woman — died Friday night at his home in Encino, his wife of 58 years, Mona, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was in hospice care since August, she said.

He received an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in November 2017. “Film is made up of many tiny, silver particles, and each one of those particles is represented by every person who works on a film,” Roizman said in his acceptance speech. “Had you changed any one of them on any movie, the movie would have looked different.”

Roizman had quite the career, also...

Of the many TV-to-movie adaptations, the diciest propositions have always been the films based on series that were tailored to the personality of their stars. Dan Aykroyd made "Dragnet" work (until its lame action finale) because he was doing a dead-on, deadpan parody of Jack Webb's Sergeant Joe Friday, whereas the great Jim Varney struggled as Jed Clampett in 1993's "The Beverly Hillbillies" because, when it came to playing TV rednecks, he was too defined by his Ernest P. Worrell persona to approximate Buddy Ebsen's interpretation and/or add his own flourishes.

It gets dicier when you're adapting a show named after the actual star. Even if creator James L. Brooks went nutzoid and decided to revive "The Mary Tyler Moore" show starring Sydney Sweeney, there would be an audience of exactly zero for it. Fans of the show would be aghast at the notion of anyone trying...