Rescue from Gilligan's Island

Before watching the reunion movie "Rescue from Gilligan's Island", the only exposure I had to the original television series was seeing the last five minutes of one episode. After watching this reunion movie, I have absolutely no desire to watch any more of the original show. This reunion movie goes wrong in just about every way you can think of. Most of the principle cast looks very tired and old, and seeing them try to get the energy to do their shtick is a sad sight. In fairness to the cast, they were working with an incredibly bad script. The gags are as tired and old as the cast. Not only that, but the movie doesn't seem to know what to do with its premise, having the rescued castaways doing things that don't seem the least bit comically inspired. Also, an incredible amount of time is spent on the subplot with the communist spies hunting for Gilligan's medallion, a subplot that's ultimately for nothing and could have easily been written out without affecting the rest of the story in the least bit. This sorry excuse for a movie should be marooned on an uncharted island.

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.

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.

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.

When I heard that this reunion movie was going to be made, I really looked forward to it. However, once you get past the reunion of the characters and the looking at how they changed (gee, Ginger looks and sounds different) you get just a routine chase movie where a couple of Soviet spies chase Gilligan to get a back a computer disc that came off of one of their satelites. This film might have been a great piece of nostalgia, but it comes up a little short once you get reacquainted with the funniest group of castaways ever.