In the mid-1960s, television viewers looking for intellectual, dramatic fare knew they wouldn’t find it on Gilligan’s Island, and that suited creator Sherwood Schwartz just fine.
He didn’t intend for the show to be anything more than an escape, a preposterous, formulaic sitcom that stood on the strength of its cast, in particular Gilligan himself, Bob Denver, to deliver laughs and a simple message of learning to live with one another.
The critical scorn never bothered Schwartz, who once said, “I know what the critics love.
We write and produce for people, not for critics.” Gilligan’s Island would become one of television’s most beloved shows over the course of three seasons before being canceled in 1967, prior to a planned fourth season.
Ironically, while more prestigious shows would come and go, never to be heard from again, Gilligan’s Island lived on in a series of follow-up projects that kept the…
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