RIP Professor

[jmra]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/16/showbiz/r ... nson-obit/
(CNN) -- Actor Russell Johnson, best known as Professor in the 1960s TV sitcom "Gilligan's Island," died Thursday, his agent said. Johnson was 89.

[txglock21]

RIP Mr. Johnson...Who is still alive? I know Dawn Wells (Mary-Ann) and Tina Louise (Ginger), but I think that's it. Loved Gilligan's Island growing up!

[anygunanywhere]

Start singing the theme song around someone today and get it stuck in their head.


Juuuussst sit right back and you'll hear a tale, the tale of a fateful trip.......

Wait. Its stuck in mine now.

Anygunanywhere

[WildBill]

I heard about the professor on Walton and Johnson this morning. They actually played a theme song written by John Williams [Star Wars] that had a calypso sound to it. Obviously this version didn't get chosen for the series.

I think they mentioned that Mary Ann and Ginger were still alive.

They placed an interview with the professor that was recorded a few years ago. The professor was talking about how cheap the studio was when making the show. Even though the show was getting good ratings and filmed on a beautiful lush location with green jungles and blue water they continued to film in black and white because they didn't want to pay the money for color. After a couple of seasons, when it appeared it would stay on the air, they started to show it in color.

[SewTexas]

RIP Mr. Johnson...Who is still alive? I know Dawn Wells (Mary-Ann) and Tina Louise (Ginger), but I think that's it. Loved Gilligan's Island growing up!

I believe I read yesterday that they are the only two still alive.

I was just a kid when the show was on but I loved the professor...he was MacGyver before there was MacGyver.

[WildBill]

I heard a bit on the radio that claimed Gilligan's Island was a parable about the seven deadly sins.

The sins are pride, greed, sloth, lust, envy, wrath and gluttony.

1. The professor was pride. He was always proud of his inventions.
2. Thurston Howell, the millionaire of course was greed.
3. His wife, Mrs. Howell [Lovey] was sloth. She never helped with finding food, cooking producing electricity, getting rescued from the island, etc.
4. Ginger the movie star was lust.
5. Mary Ann was envy. See Ginger above.
6 &7. The skipper was wrath and gluttony. He was always getting angry at Gilligan. The gluttony is self explanatory.
Gilligan was the devil. He always did something to prevent them from getting rescued.

Pretty far out stuff!

http://ttlf.tripod.com/gilligan.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Dragonfighter]

My wife and I are huge fans, my wife more so. One Christmas I bought her the complete collection and the book Gilligan, Maynard and Me autographed to her by Bob Denver. Bob Denver and his wife even corresponded personally by email. I have, in some circles, carried the moniker "Professor" and so the next Christmas I got a lab coat autographed to me by Russell Johnson.

I was a fan of his from a long time ago and remember a scifi movie, can't recall the title, where aliens came and recruited the Earth's greatest scientific minds to help solve a world ending problem. It was one of the few shows that dealt with inertial stasis in hyperspace. He had the best line when the clear plastic tubes slid down over them and he was asked how he felt, "Like a new toothbrush."


Last summer when we were going to MCAS Kaneohe Bay to catch a C-5 back to the mainland, my wife points to the marina on the way in and says, "Is that the marina they filmed Gilligan's Island at?" I said that I didn't know but it looked like it. Another family was waiting to be manifested also and the gentleman's mom who lived there permanently said it was the marina and that Coconut Island (within eye shot) was the island used for the pilot, the rest of the series being back lot.

It seems a lot of my favorites are fading away these days.