Rescue from Gilligan's Island

As a youngster and lifelong fan of Gilligan's Island, I still recall my excitement when I first learned that Rescue From Gilligan's Island was going to be shown on television. I also remember my profound disappointment when I finally saw the show: it wasn't particularly funny.

Now, some 25 years later, I found myself purchasing this movie on DVD anyway, for two reasons: To enjoy sweet memories of youth when TV humor was simply good fun and didn't even pretend to be anything more, and because it only cost $5.99.

Well, what can I say? I was disappointed again because, again, it wasn't particularly funny. Yet I am still very glad I now own this movie on DVD. How can that be?

For all the abuse Gilligan's Island has taken over the years from "serious" humorists, the fact remains that the show appeals to everyone's desire for real friendship and camaraderie, without all the drama of real life. The original show was just plain fun to watch. And frankly, so is Rescue From Gilligan's Island, despite its many, many flaws.

I know it is anathema to say so, but this movie would have scored much higher if only it had included a laugh track, as did the original TV series. The laugh track itself creates the illusion of camaraderie with an audience, and that was always part of the appeal of Gilligan's Island. So I found myself pretending to hear the original laugh track every time the cast told a joke (i.e., constantly), and lo--the film was much more palatable!

On the bright side, losing the laugh track made me realize just how good these actors really were, and how great an ensemble they comprised. After all, the original cast never heard the roaring laughter the audience heard as the actors playing the castaways fired one asinine line after another between ludicrous slapstick action sequences. Without a laugh track, for example, the actors portraying Russian spies in this movie behaved beyond reproach; they were simply painful to watch. But then again, so was Wrongway Felman, Harold Hecuba, and other visitors to the island, without a laugh track. It is precisely because this ensemble was so good that they managed to score with such silly humor every time in the finished product. That takes talent (and guts, I suspect). For this reason more than anything else, I truly missed Tina Louise as Ginger: no one could adequately replace a member of such a tight ensemble. Kudos to Judith Baldwin for trying, however. Thurston and Lovely Howell are hilarious characters even without the laugh track.

Overall, as another reviewer observed, the value of this film is that it provides a trip down the most pleasant stretch of memory lane. It would be wrong, however, not to mention the unforgivable production of this DVD. The sound is bad, a few jump cuts are embarrassing to watch, and the video has frequent static bars like you would see on an old, worn videotape. Shame on the production company. Shame on you!

Bottom line: If you don't appreciate the Gilligan's Island TV series you will hate this movie with a capital "H", with good reason. But for those of you who get misty just thinking about Gilligan, the Skipper and company, Rescue From Gilligan's Island will help you feel like a kid again for 90 minutes, with good reason. A cast featuring Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Bill Murray and other notable comics simply couldn't even come close to pulling off the feat this underrated ensemble pulled off time and time and time again for years, for no better reason than to make all of us feel good for a half hour each week.

NBC, out of nowhere in 1978, announced this TV film "Rescue From Gilligan's Island" as a Movie of The Week(which they did so well in the day!). Much was made of the fact that Tina Louise declined to be in the film-a mistake on her part-feeling the Ginger role had 'ruined' her career. Judith Baldwin kind of faked her way in the sultry part, but truly it was Dawn Wells who was still da bomb of the two of them. The story was what everyone had wanted to see. Many of the cast had aged noticeably but once in familiar costumes, they jumped back into the roles easily from the get-go and they kept it with "real time" in that they'd been missing for 15 years. It has the familiar theme song from the start and the Professor finds out grave news-via one of his ingenious devices-they have to leave the island because it's sinking. Gilligan's incompetency in cooking a fish on the wooden raft of huts causes a fire-which attracts the Coast Guard-and gets them rescued. After a rather-highly budgeted location scene that had them return to the the Honolulu harbor they left from-the film descends into familiar territory, on studio sets, with two Russian spies pursuing Gilligan for a missing part (from a Soviet rocket)he's wearing for good luck. One by one the castaways find they can't really connect back into society after the lapse of 15 years and are drawn back together, for...another boat cruise. The film wound up being a ratings smash for NBC, with one of the highest ratings ever for a TV movie, apparently! So much so they commissioned two more very lame,set-bound "sequel" movies-The Castaways of Gilligan's Island, and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island. The former had them winding up-after another three hour tour-back on the same island(apparently it did not sink) and, within the first 10 minutes rescued again by a condo developer who'd been there already and, puts them in charge of their famous island as a resort getaway. The latter film really was threadbare, and a new low-point for guest stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain as the "bad guys" who create robots to go head to head with The Globerotters on the island at a sporting event. Jim Backus-who had been suffering the terrible effects of Parkinson's Disease-had to step out and was replaced by his and Mrs Howell's long-lost son. Backus, apparently so cared for his cast mates, and the role that despite his crippling illness found some strength and gave it his all to do a very quick walk-on scene(he could barely walk) and one or two lines that were written in at the last moment. He was obviously visibly ill. It's hard to think that the core of the cast, save for Dawn Wells, Tina Louise and Russell Johnson, have passed on because the show was so immortal even for it's mere 3 seasons and 3 movies.

The original Gilligan's Island TV series had 30-minute episodes each week. That was just the right length. I was a young college student when the run started, I remember looking forward to each episode and enjoying them.

I suppose naturally enough producers decided to make a 90-minute movie where the professor is able to forecast a big storm, they lash all the huts together, and end up floating again in the Pacific after the storm subsides.

A Coast Guard helicopter spots them, a Coast Guard cutter tows them back to Hawaii, and they receive a great welcome. But ultimately each finds that the 15 years away made it hard for them to readjust, for all different reasons.

When the skipper finally gets his insurance settlement he buys a second boat, the Minnow II, and to celebrate everyone that had been stranded take a celebratory cruise. But then a storm comes up and you can guess it, the only appropriate thing happens ...

I enjoyed this movie even though 90 minutes of over-the-top silliness is a bit much to take. I enjoyed seeing the whole cast but I'd guess that audiences not a fan of the original TV series might not like this too much.

By the late '70s, I'd spent many an afternoon watching Gilligan's Island in syndication after school. Each episode was the TV equivalent of a Hostess Twinkie - light, fluffy, undeniably artificial, sweet and sappy enough to make you sick. But come the next day, you wanted another one anyway. Rescue from Gilligan's Island looks like nothing so much as an extended episode from the original series. Depending on how much you liked or hated the series, that can be good or bad. All the old staples were back, from the fast-motion slapstick to the groaners masquerading as punchlines. As soon as I saw the network promo where the Skipper said, "After 15 years, we're finally rescued," I was looking forward to watching this on TV. I missed the original lagoon set, though. The new lagoon looked a lot smaller and darker, not at all inviting. Perhaps the worst part of the movie was seeing everyone back in "civilization" after years of seeing them only on the "island." The message of the movie is true: there's no place like home, which in this case was the island.

Most of the cast was back, looking none the worse for wear. Alan Hale, Jr. could have stepped fresh from the series, as could Dawn Wells, Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer. Russell Johnson looked his age, and Bob Denver added the most years. Judith Baldwin was nowhere near as alluring as Tina Louise. Choosing between Mary Ann and this Ginger would be no contest. At least her leaden delivery and wooden expressions made me appreciate how underrated Tina really was.

The DVD transfer is easily the worst I've ever seen. Where did they get the source material, off a videocassette recorded from a local broadcast? There were numerous flaws in the tape, including a fuzzy, washed out picture, bad dropouts, tracking problems and many jumpy edits where a second or two seemed to be missing. In fact, roughly three minutes of running time are missing here, clocking in at only 92 minutes. Lots of hiss on the audio track. Even the printing on the DVD was bad. It was ragged and looked like somebody used an old inkjet printer to sloppily print the label. The company involved in the DVD mastering got prominent on-screen credit. If it were me, I wouldn't brag about it. I'd call it amateurish, but I've seen amateur-produced DVDs that were much better. But what can you expect for a $5 DVD? At least secondhand copies can be had for less.

Even though Tina Louise is missing from the movie, and the cast looks older, they still pulled off a very convincing movie. Unlike the Andy Griffith reunion where Barney is still deputy, which doesn't make any sense because he had been a Raleigh detective by the end of the original series, or the Dick Van Dyke Reunion where mush of the script doesn't make a bit of sense, especially the part of Rob playing on his computer. Unlike these and other reunions of 60s sitcoms, Rescue from Gilligan's Island makes sense. The castaways had been on the island for 15 years, and any hope of being rescued has long since past, which accounts for the fact that the castaways look much older. The radio has been dead for years, and the barometer doesn't work either, until Gilligan finds a disc on the Lagoon from a Soviet satellite.

The Professor is able to fix the barometer to only find out that a storm is coming, which will wash away the island. Thus, the castaways build a boat by joining all three huts together (why they didn't think of that before, we'll never know), and then are rescued later on. Each person returns to pick up his/her life, but things aren't going very well. Gilligan and the Skipper have to prove that it wasn't the Skipper's fault for the shipwreck, Ginger will not do a nude scene, Mary Anne doesn't love her fiance of 15 years, and the Howells' are being taken for their money. Also, the Professor has become a celebrity, instead of the scientist he wanted. It's a great story-line, much better of any TV reunion movie.

Although Tina Louise is absent, Judith Baldwin's performance is a fair one, convincing enough, although she does look younger than everyone else. The movie lacks in a few places, but it's overall a great movie, and is very much like the series, silly but classic. At the end of it, they're shipwrecked again on the same island, which in one way doesn't make sense because didn't the island get washed away in the storm? But hey, it's like the series, silly to the end.