The series final episode is fittingly campy entertainment, the last visitor to the island being one looney king of kings. Popular character actor Stanley Adams plays King Kaliwani, desperately in search of a "white goddess"! At first, the offer sounds intriguing to Ginger and Maryann, toss in Mrs. Howell too, who is used to rubbing elbows with royalty, right? That is.... until it's learned the female attraction will be thrown into a boiling volcano!
The guys have no choice but to intercept the king's plans, take a chance and have one of them dress up as the damsel in distress. Enter Gilligan, or rather Giliana (dig the fancy threads!), formally crowned queen for a day -- if he or she survives. And surprise! The king actually likes what he sees and would rather have Giliana all for himself! Egads!
Is this how it all ends? Stay tuned.
Well written by the team of Jack Paritz and Bob Rodgers who also cranked out some classic episodes for BATMAN, later writing for LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE, many other sitcoms. Yes! I agree with the last reviewer, Stanley Adams does come off as a poor man's Jackie Gleason -- to a degree. Adams was quite popular at the time in both movies and tv.
The story goes the series was actually renewed for a fourth season, then CBS abruptly changed its mind (mostly because the top brass wasn't too fond of the show to begin with). The ratings were quite low, however, the series ranking 48 in the Top 50. That said, THE MONKEES ranked 42 --and was renewed! What producer Sherwood Schwartz should have done was go to another network, following the lead of many other series, such as LEAVE IT TO BEAVER.
Filmed partly at Alamitos Bay, a long sandy beach, adjacent to Long Beach, California, which kind of resembled Gilligan's Island at various angles!
SEASON 3 EPISODE 30 remastered color CBS dvd box set.
Gone... but not for long!