Radio Free Kirkopolis

Bob Denver, Gilligan, has died.
I can’t tell you how sad this makes me. One of the fondest memories of my childhood was the every day ritual of my brother and I racing home from school to catch “Gilligan’s Island” re-runs on channel 11 at 3:30pm. I have seen every episode at least 20 times, my favorite being the one with the radioactive seeds. To this day, if I catch it on TV I will stop whatever I’m doing to sit a spell and watch.
Bob was 70 years old!!! Wow, he looked really good for 70, not as good as Dawn Wells, but pretty good none the less.
As I type this, I have the show’s bump music going through my head, and am thinking of the little know trivia that the theme song was patterned after the middle portion of “Stairway to Heaven.” Listen close, imagine the tempo a little slower, and you got Jimmy Page.
I never thought of the obvious “Why so many clothes for a three hour tour?” or “How hard is it to fix a two foot in a boat?” questions, I just watched and enjoyed.
This may seem kinda strange, but I always wanted to be Gilligan. Maybe it was because he was always happy, maybe because Mary Ann had a crush on him (yeah, that’s probably it) or maybe because everyone just plain old liked him. I hate to turn his character into an over-analyzed literary character, but he was the one that taught me that it was ok to be a bumbling accident waiting to happen. This is a trait I will carry with me for the rest of my life- and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Thanks Bob, I hope your tour was as fun as mine.