A Quantum Leap in the Evolution of the Sitcom. Honest, really, no sh*t! Little old GILLIGAN'S ISLAND! It's considered to be much funnier than NOVA.
Jerry Van Dyke has often mentioned in his appearances on our Late Night talk shows how he had turned down the Title Role of Gilligan, but had accepted the lead in "MY MOTHER, THE CAR"(NBC, 1965-66). Oh well, HE moves in mysterious ways; for thanks to the Good Lord for allowing that questionable career move, or we may not have had the pleasure of Jerry as Luther Van Dam, Asst. Football Coach to Craig T. Nelson's Hayden in "COACH" (1989-97).
To comment on the Gilligan phenomenon, we first should take an overview of the TV Sitcom.
Born out of necessity, following the shot gun marriage of the old silent and sound two reeler Comedies and the Radio's Comedy series. The Sitcom has been with us ever since the dawn of commercial Telecasts in the 1940's. (The first commercial TV stations were licensed in 1940, but development of the medium was delayed by a little event called World War II.) Some of our earliest series were THE BUSTER KEATON SHOW (1950) ,THE COLLEGE BOWL (1950-51) with Chico Marx and the HANK McCUNE SHOW (1950-53). Hank who (?), we hear you ask.
We couldn't find a more obscure name and title if we tried, but on his show, Hank McCune initiated a feature that was found to be an indispensable tool and an outright necessity to all of the comedy series that would follow. And that invention would be the use of the "technically augmented audience reaction", the Recorded Laugh Track.
So when the GILLIGAN show hit the TV screen via CBS in 1964, the Television industry had some 15 years or so experience in producing these "ha-ha-ha" sitcom shows that they surely did some studying of what flew and what bombed. Slowly, some variation began to show. Some were successful and others were canned early, their innocuous plot lines and characters to spend their lives in a sort of Limbo of forgotten series.
GILLIGAN seems to have done things just a little different. First of all, there were seven (7), count 'em folks, seven regular characters, and everyone was worked into the stories each week. Of course the 7 castaways were the only people on the Island; if one doesn't count the hundreds of temporary visitors who had come and gone their way, week to week.
In any play, be it live on stage or a filmed episode, be it comedy or any drama, there is a certain need for exposition and having the story line propelled along its way. So that in a sitcom, each scene should serve some such purpose; and be there not just making for funny dialog and situations. (If you think that there is no such thing as trying to be too funny, just watch an old silent film of comedian Larry Semon.) Once again in getting back to GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, we contend that this series made an additional improvement on the use of the short, little comedy vignettes. In the GILLIGAN Show, the little scenes are devised to bring all of the characters into play, one or two at a time. They also made use of comical situations to move the story along. But they were fashioned in a manner so as to be able to virtually stand on their own without the rest of the story. (Not that there would be any call for a 3 to 4 minute comedy film!) The other achievement of the Production Staff of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND is one that they most probably did not accomplish on purpose. And that would be (My Theory) that in fashioning the short scenes in this manner, almost always using regular characters well known to viewers, have created the celluloid equivalent of the Daily Newspaper Comic Strip. This strong similarity in form and literary device is most apparent in comparing GILLIGAN to the 3 or 4 panels of daily strips like: MUTT & JEFF, BRINGING UP FATHER (Maggie & Jiggs), BLONDIE, BEETLE BAILEY, MOON MULLINS and even PEANUTS (with good ol' Charlie Brown.).
Otherwise, the series ranks very high on the all time list of the Situation Comedy and was the subject of several "back-to type of Made-for-TV Movies as well as animated series of "THE NEW ADVENTURES OF GILLIGAN.
Jerry Van Dyke has often mentioned in his appearances on our Late Night talk shows how he had turned down the Title Role of Gilligan, but had accepted the lead in "MY MOTHER, THE CAR"(NBC, 1965-66). Oh well, HE moves in mysterious ways; for thanks to the Good Lord for allowing that questionable career move, or we may not have had the pleasure of Jerry as Luther Van Dam, Asst. Football Coach to Craig T. Nelson's Hayden in "COACH" (1989-97).
To comment on the Gilligan phenomenon, we first should take an overview of the TV Sitcom.
Born out of necessity, following the shot gun marriage of the old silent and sound two reeler Comedies and the Radio's Comedy series. The Sitcom has been with us ever since the dawn of commercial Telecasts in the 1940's. (The first commercial TV stations were licensed in 1940, but development of the medium was delayed by a little event called World War II.) Some of our earliest series were THE BUSTER KEATON SHOW (1950) ,THE COLLEGE BOWL (1950-51) with Chico Marx and the HANK McCUNE SHOW (1950-53). Hank who (?), we hear you ask.
We couldn't find a more obscure name and title if we tried, but on his show, Hank McCune initiated a feature that was found to be an indispensable tool and an outright necessity to all of the comedy series that would follow. And that invention would be the use of the "technically augmented audience reaction", the Recorded Laugh Track.
So when the GILLIGAN show hit the TV screen via CBS in 1964, the Television industry had some 15 years or so experience in producing these "ha-ha-ha" sitcom shows that they surely did some studying of what flew and what bombed. Slowly, some variation began to show. Some were successful and others were canned early, their innocuous plot lines and characters to spend their lives in a sort of Limbo of forgotten series.
GILLIGAN seems to have done things just a little different. First of all, there were seven (7), count 'em folks, seven regular characters, and everyone was worked into the stories each week. Of course the 7 castaways were the only people on the Island; if one doesn't count the hundreds of temporary visitors who had come and gone their way, week to week.
In any play, be it live on stage or a filmed episode, be it comedy or any drama, there is a certain need for exposition and having the story line propelled along its way. So that in a sitcom, each scene should serve some such purpose; and be there not just making for funny dialog and situations. (If you think that there is no such thing as trying to be too funny, just watch an old silent film of comedian Larry Semon.) Once again in getting back to GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, we contend that this series made an additional improvement on the use of the short, little comedy vignettes. In the GILLIGAN Show, the little scenes are devised to bring all of the characters into play, one or two at a time. They also made use of comical situations to move the story along. But they were fashioned in a manner so as to be able to virtually stand on their own without the rest of the story. (Not that there would be any call for a 3 to 4 minute comedy film!) The other achievement of the Production Staff of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND is one that they most probably did not accomplish on purpose. And that would be (My Theory) that in fashioning the short scenes in this manner, almost always using regular characters well known to viewers, have created the celluloid equivalent of the Daily Newspaper Comic Strip. This strong similarity in form and literary device is most apparent in comparing GILLIGAN to the 3 or 4 panels of daily strips like: MUTT & JEFF, BRINGING UP FATHER (Maggie & Jiggs), BLONDIE, BEETLE BAILEY, MOON MULLINS and even PEANUTS (with good ol' Charlie Brown.).
Otherwise, the series ranks very high on the all time list of the Situation Comedy and was the subject of several "back-to type of Made-for-TV Movies as well as animated series of "THE NEW ADVENTURES OF GILLIGAN.