Sherwood Schwartz sails off to that big island in the sky

Another piece of my childhood died recently with the passing of television icon Sherwood Schwartz. Being a child of the 60s and 70s, I grew up watching many of Mr. Schwartz’s productions, namely Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch. Schwartz also had a few other, less successful shows that I vaguely remember — It’s About Time starring Joe E. Ross and Imogene Coca as cave people confronted with astronauts from the future, and Dusty’s Trail starring Bob Denver and Forrest Tucker in the Old West. Neither show lasted more than a season. I also discovered another show in the 80s which Schwartz had written for, I Married Joan, which starred Joan Davis and Jim Backus (a pretty funny show that seems to have been forgotten these days).

I certainly grew up with the Brady kids. I was probably Bobby’s age when the show started so I could kind of relate to the kid point of view in the show (except I had no siblings), but even then I never really connected to the show which seemed simplistic even to my six-year-old sensibilities. I never really kept up with the various spin-offs or TV movies (although I loved the two theatrical films), but I still get a sense of nostalgia for my childhood whenever I see anyone from the show on TV. It may not have been my favorite show, but those early childhood memories are certainly tied to it.

I wasn’t really old enough to have watched Gilligan’s Island when it first aired, but this show that ran for only three seasons and 98 episodes captured my young imagination after it entered syndication, with its famous theme song and wacky cast of characters and situations. Even back then I wondered why the Howells brought so much luggage for a three-hour tour and where Ginger, who apparently didn’t bring any luggage, got her movie star wardrobe or where they managed to come up with the costumes for their occasional stage presentations. I’ll always remember my favorite episode featured Vito Scotti as Dr. Boris Balinkoff, a mad scientist who brought the castaways to his castle and switched their personalities so the Skipper had Ginger’s voice, Mary Ann had the Professor’s voice, etc. I just thought that was the funniest thing and the lip sync was pretty spot on.

I liked Gilligan’s Island more than The Brady Bunch, I think, simply because it was funnier (and it also seems less dated today). I know Schwartz saw the show more as a comment on society with the various characters, but much of that got lost in the slapstick, the unbelievable situations, and the fact that no matter how many people visited the island, the castaways somehow never managed to get off (and let’s not even discuss The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island … I prefer my memory of the show to remain pure). Week after week, you could count on Gilligan getting into trouble, dragging everyone into his escapades and then he somehow seemed to be the one to make it all right in the end. Maybe I always saw a little Gilligan in myself back then, more so than any of the Brady kids, and I liked that the underdog of the group always seemed to come out ahead in the end.

Schwartz himself was an underdog in the TV industry. No one expected a silly show about seven people stuck on an island to make it past the first 13 episodes, and while The Brady Bunch was never a gigantic success, it did well enough to last for five seasons. While Schwartz had more hits than misses in his long career, the underdog prevailed and became a TV legend thanks mainly to those two, wildly different shows (or were they so different after all?). To this day, I can still come across a rerun of Gilligan’s Island and stop what I’m doing to watch because it makes me laugh and feel like a kid again. Thank you, Mr. Schwartz, for giving us all that gift of laughter.

Clacked by Chuck Duncan
on Jul 12, 2011 @ 19:59 EST5EDT