Question: Why is the Skipper so superstitious? In the Season 1 episode "Waiting for Watubi," the Skipper thinks he's cursed, and in the Season 3 episode "Up at Bat," Gilligan gets bitten by a bat, and the Skipper thinks Gilligan will turn into a vampire. For a level-headed man, this seems quite strange.
Question: Why did the Howells, Ginger and Mary Ann have so many changes of clothes with them? It was only a three hour tour.
Answer: Bob Denver answered this when he was on a talk show hosted by Pat Sajak. He said they were going to write into an episode where the castaways found all these clothes, but it got too complicated, so he said, they decided, "who cares, it's only a TV show," and forgot about it. So the writers and actors even asked this, they just never bothered to address it.
Answer: I've been binge watching it, and a couple of times trunks with costumes have washed ashore, and in one episode the professor figured out how to make thread for weaving cloth.
Question: What was the Skipper's job in the navy?
Answer: While the Skipper did state he was a Navy cook in one episode, other pieces of information were given in other episodes which offer conflicting information regarding his back-story. This excerpt from the Wikipedia article about The Skipper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skipper) summarizes it best: "Little was ever learned about his past, but in several episodes he mentions variously having several ships blown out from under him, and his veteran's status, implying that he'd served in World War II. One episode indicates the Skipper was a veteran of the Battle of Guadalcanal. In another episode he gets amnesia, and thinks he's on a covert mission behind enemy lines, mistaking the others to be Japanese soldiers, including Ginger, whom he mistakenly believes to be a ventriloquist. He claims to be the CO of the 177th Infantry Regiment, which is a U.S. Army regiment, but whether that actually happened or was just a wish-fulfilling fantasy is open to debate, for later on in the series he says that he was simply a cook. In one episode he claimed to have been a Navy Bandmaster and in another he claims to have been the best card player in the US Navy." There are inconsistencies in the back-stories of most characters on "Gilligan's Island," even including whether "Gilligan" is the eponymous character's first or last name. This suggests that plot consistency wasn't foremost on the minds of the show's writers and creators (I mean, why would the Howell's bring suitcases full of money on a three-hour Hawaiian tour?), who instead focused on zany misadventures and missed rescue opportunities.
Question: 1) Why was the grounded Minnow moved from the shoreline to the lagoon in color seasons? With holes like it had in the sides, it should have sunk at sea! 2) A friend says he counts four people on the stern area in the color version as the Minnow puts to sea. I really cannot say for sure but is that a goof or a shadow or something else? 3) Is the third season music SLIGHTLY different from the season two? Some on Youtube claim it is. Only proof they show sounds like someone played with an audio equalizer / compressor and made it more pronounced.
Answer: 1) The answer to the moving of the Minnow probably has no profound significance except for aesthetic. They were re-doing the opening in color, and it looks like they had a different model of the Minnow and placed it in a different setting. This is more a "continuity error" than a decision of any import in the minds of the creators, I'm guessing. 2) I see five people on the stern. But even if my eyes are playing tricks on me, someone could have easily been below deck. 3) The music does have a somewhat different quality between season two and season three. The differences are subtle. I agree with you that it probably wasn't actually re-recorded, but instead, was just remastered a bit. Also note, for reasons unknown to me, in the season three opening, the pictures of Mary Ann and the Professor (rest in peace, Russell Johnson), are reversed, compared to season two.
Question: I know there is a good reason but, if the castaways could build huts, bicycle powered generators and fix the radio, why couldn't they fix the boat?
Answer: There's no absolute answer to this, but: 1) The hole in the boat was big enough that they couldn't patch it sufficiently well to float it. All the rafts, huts and other constructions on the island, were flimsy enough that wind and rain got through most of them reasonably easily. 2) None of them were qualified to build or repair boats, so it would have been risky to even try going out with a patch they made. 3) It's a silly 60's sitcom - making sense was never a big concern of producers at the time!
Question: My sister insists an episode exists where pirates arrive on the island looking for a long-lost buried treasure. She swears she remembers the pirates kidnapping Ginger and trying to make her tell them where the treasure was. Does anyone remember this?
Answer: There was an animated version of "Gilligan's Island" on the CBS Saturday Morning lineup in the 1970s. I don't remember the episodes, but maybe that's where the episode is from.
Answer: This could be Season 3, Episode 17, "Court Martial," where Gilligan dreams about being an admiral whose ship gets boarded by pirates Captain Hook, Long John Silver, and Captain Kidd. (https://gilligan.fandom.com/wiki/Court-Martial)
She says that is not the episode she remembers. She said the pirates arrive on the island, don't find the treasure, kidnap Ginger, and hold her in a cave until she tells them where the treasure is. Appreciate the help though.
Question: All through the show MaryAnn makes coconut cream pies for everyone. Where does she get the eggs, milk, wheat flour...every ingredient but the coconut?
Answer: It's never explained how she gets the ingredients. There may be substitute ingredients someone on a tropical island could possibly use, like eggs from island birds, wild sorghum as a substitute flour and sweetener, wild goats milk (such creatures are common enough thanks to sailors of previous centuries), citrus fruit for flavor, etc.
Answer: Many people are superstitious, regardless of age, personality, temperament, background, and so on. It's usually something they grew up with and is ingrained into their thinking. It was particularly more prevalent in the era (first half of the 20th century) that the Skipper grew up in and may have been influenced by culture, family beliefs, religion, limited education, etc.
raywest ★