The television show Gilligan's Island leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
I was watching the Spanglish Parody version of Gilligan's Island on MadTV the other day. Whatever happened to MadTV? It was kind of funny for its time. Anyway, it got me to thinking that there were a lot of unanswered questions from Gilligan's Island that are still unanswered today:
1. The S.S. Minnow was a 36 foot Wheeler Express Cruiser, probably not more than capable of 15-20 knots at wide-open throttle. How far off-course could they have drifted during a three hour cruise? For chrissakes, they could have swam home.2. The theme song says they were stranded on an "uncharted desert isle" but a "desert isle" has no water or plant life. Yet the island on the show is shown as lush and has an endless supply of water for seven people, not to mention food.3. Even if the Minnow drifted for days on end, it still would not be far from Hawaii, as evidenced by the fact that the Professor's radio was in range of Hawaiian radio stations.4. Speaking of radios, what ever happened to the VHF marine radio in the Minnow? Presumably a licensed tour boat would have a backup radio as well.5. The Minnow is shown in the credits as being washed ashore with a fairly large hole in it. While the castaways are able to build amazing things from coconuts and wood and bamboo, for some weird reason they are never able to repair the Minnow and re-float it.
6. Gilligan seemed to thwart a lot of attempts to escape Gilligan's Island. Was he indeed the mastermind of their imprisonment, trying to keep the "castaways" there against their will? Why was the island named after him?
I guess we'll never know. The real question is this: Why did I waste hundreds of hours of my lifetime watching this drivel - and even watching it again in re-runs?
