Bob Denver compared his friendship from Gilligan Island with Alan Hale Jr. to a classic duo
The Sitcom by Sherwood Schwartz in 1964 “Gilligan’s Island” is a series of wacky Slapstick comedy, yes, but there is something undeniably classic on this subject. Although his characters were trapped on an unexplored desert island, and there seemed to be little hope of escape, there was an underlying current of unconscious optimism at the heart of the show. The seven stranded shipwrecks were depressed by their fate but shredding and optimistic on a daily basis. They looked like Voltaire’s candidate in this regard. They live in the best possible world.
We can also easily compare “Gilligan’s Island” to the “Myth of Sisyphe”, the Treaty of Albert Camus on the philosophical pleasures of futility. The shipwrecked can be trapped in an endless loop of hope and despair, often ready to be rescued only so that the effort fails once again, but there is a fanciful joy to accept the absurdity of their fate. We can also compare “Gilligan’s Island” to the characters of Commedia Dell’Arte, the ancient tradition of Italian comedy which is based on characters of familiar stock for their scenarios. The shipwrecked are the modern versions of pants, he dottore, et al. Gilligan (Bob Denver) is clearly Arlecchino.
We can see the influence of commedia in the interactions between Gilligan and the skipper (Alan Hale Jr.). Gilligan is an innocent, largely unconscious and always clumsy. He can thwart the rescues and destroy widgets with his negligence, but it is difficult to stay angry with Gilligan because he is so impeccable and without sure blow. All our anger is concentrated through the skipper, which often carries the weight of Gilligan’s clumsiness. It is the skipper that is rejected in the face with the Gilligan scale. It is the skipper that falls from his hammock when Gilligan shouts. They are a perfect comic duo and whose comedy historians will remember perpetuity.
In an interview with The Birmingham News (easily transcribed by METV), Denver said that he also thought that he thought that his comic chemistry with Hale was classic, declaring that their dynamic is akin to Laurel & Hardy’s relationship.
Bob Denver considered that he and Alan Hale were similar to Laurel & Hardy
To provide a little context at the moment when Denver gave the interview, he in fact had to describe the premise of “Gilligan’s Island” to readers. It was then before the series was in popularity in 1964, and its characters had not yet been anchored in American culture. It is unusual to hear the elevator ground for “Gilligan’s Island”, but Denver does exemplary work, saying:
“It’s a kind of ‘Robinson Crusoe’, with laughter. I think it’s funny. In fact, it’s pretty weird … We turned the pilot to Kauai … We are on our fourth episode now … They go well, I think. […] Jim Backus is one of the funniest men I have ever seen. Him and Natalie [Schafer] Play a rich man with his wife blocked on this island. They are constantly changing clothes, get dressed. These two really get out of the left field. They make comedy in comedy. “”
You have to use a little imagination to consider discovering “Gilligan’s Island” for the first time. The presence of Backus was certainly an argument of sale, because it was probably the largest star that Schwartz landed for the distribution of the show. As for him and in Hale, Denver wanted to assure readers that their antics would be funny and compared with precision and hays a known comedy duo. One was tall and angry, the other was small and sweet. It reads very well. Denver judiciously described it as follows:
“Alan Hale, Jr. and I are a team, a bit like Laurel and Hardy. […] Hale is the skipper of the chartered boat for a fishing trip that is escaped, and I am the only companion and the crew of Alan … I am continually frustrating the brown party. “”
Denver could not have predicted how “the island of Gilligan” would become, even less that it would remain in reruns for generations after its cancellation. The fact that millions were raised on “Gilligan’s Island” and that his silly comedy has remained popular for so long, is just a testimony to its classic foundations.
