L'isola di Gilligan Gilligan Gets Bugged (1964–1992) Online

"Gilligan Gets Bugged" begins with Gilligan victimized by an insect that the Skipper believes is the deadly mantis cani, whose bite proves fatal within 24 hours. The Professor reveals the symptoms to be pain in the joints, loss of appetite, and itching, and with Gilligan seemingly displaying all three everything looks hopeless. Mrs. Howell deduces that any bug with a green body and yellow wings has to be deadly: "what a terrible color scheme!" A 'going away party' ends with everyone drifting away in tears, leaving the guest of honor alone and wondering where they all went. Things grow worse when the Professor learns that the mantis cani travels in such swarms that by nightfall all of them will have been bitten and are doomed. It's not easy for a comedy to cover such a touchy subject but it's a game try, the final gag the perfect capper, exactly 24 hours later!

At the midpoint of the series, just one episode after human Mosquitoes invade the island, we get a much less fun, more irritating type of insect. The result is a typical outing with an interesting premise that suffers from a thin plot, lazy gags, and a weak, anticlimactic conclusion.

Apparently, Gilligan has had enough of showers as in the cold open he is building a bathtub. The Skipper notices a bug on his little buddy's neck and swats it with a palm leaf, but Gilligan soon complains of being bit. The species is a green bug with big yellow wings.

The Skipper scampers off to that noted expert on tropical insect life, the Professor, who just happens to have a book on the subject. His research concludes that Gilligan is a possible victim of the Mantis Canti, an insect species so dangerous that our lead only has twenty-four hours to live. However, if he doesn't show any of the three symptoms-aches and pains in the joints; itching; and loss of appetite-he'll live to continue screwing up rescue attempts. So, to try to wring some humor out of this grave news, they decide to keep his impending demise a surprise so as not to alarm him.

Through that ancient sitcom device of misunderstanding, the other castaways believe Gilligan's time is drawing short. None of the jokes really land in these scenes even though the laugh track works hard to convince us otherwise.

Depressed, the castaways decide to cheer him up with yet another party, this one sort of a Bon Voyage, if you will. There is a nice character moment where the guest of honor thanks them for being kind and thoughtful even though he's a royal screw up, but overall it's a very short and melancholy event. The other castaways are too overcome with emotion to finish 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow' and drift away, and Gilligan is left alone and confused with his cake.

The second act undermines the drama of Gilligan's last hours by shifting the focus off him. Suddenly, to up the stakes, there is a swarm of Mantis Canti to contend with, and all of the castaways will suffer Gilligan's fate within the next twenty-four hours. The Professor's book, however, offers an antidote, and all of the ingredients they need to make it just happen to be the island. (As stated before, this is the most resource-laden deserted island in history).

So all the castaways go out into the jungle to collect the ingredients, get predictably bit, panic, and scramble back to the Professor, forgetting that their assignment is to help Gilligan. (In fact, our lead finally learns of his fate in a cheap throwaway line). Here, the episode grinds to a halt as the castaways are too frazzled to return to work and prefer to sit around and wring their hands as the Professor reads. He comes to a chapter that lets them all off the hook in one of the lazier, more boring, and unsatisfying conclusions to an episode in the series.

COCONOTES:

Given his general clumsiness and ineptitude, why is Gilligan building the bathtub and not the Skipper or Professor?

Did he build those toy boats, too?

In the color episodes, the Professor uses The World of...series to conduct his research. It's actually the same white prop book week after week. He hides the title with his hand in some shots so the audience won't notice he's reading from the same book on a new subject.

The Mantis Canti work on a really tight schedule, exactly twenty-four hours.

Minor plot hole: Gilligan supposedly has no appetite, yet the girls bake him a cake, and no one sticks around to see him eat it. If they did, they would realize he didn't have one of the symptoms.

Minor plot hole: the castaways beg the Professor for serum. He tells them he doesn't have any, of course, since they haven't provided him with any of the ingredients yet. They left them all in the jungle.

While building a bathtub, Gilligan gets bit on the neck by a big green bug with yellow wings. According to the Professor's book, it is the deadly "mantis canti" whose bite will kill a human in just 24 hours. Is Gilligan doomed? Well....

Although any episode would be a letdown after "Don't Bug the Mosquitoes", this one is a read downer all on it's own. However, it does have some redeeming qualities.

Highlights include the Skipper telling Gilligan to never send out his bathtub navy without air cover, Gilligan showing the symptoms of being bit, even though we know the real causes, the Skipper breaking the news about Gilligan to the girls apparently without being tactful, the Howells in practically everything they do, the Professor explaining to Gilligan the importance of the syrup...um, serum, the castaways all dressed to protect themselves, only to get bit, the castaways begging the Professor for serum that he hasn't developed yet, the castaways reacting to the Professor holding the bug close to them and finally the epilogue scene which is actually quite good.

This episode does highlight something that castaways would face, the threat of deadly insects, snakes or other creatures. Unfortunately, the seriousness of the issue does work against the comedy. The party they throw Gilligan ends so sadly that the rest of the show really never recovers, no matter how many castaways get bit on the rear. Still, the ending is quite nice with the Skipper's final line almost being out of character. A nice, but not so memorable episode.

Tidbits & Trivia

• Since we've seen very little of the shower stall these days, I suppose the castaways need a bathtub. As usual, the bathtub is never to be seen again after this episode.

• Why would the Skipper ask Gilligan if he was actually bit by the bug, couldn't he look himself?

• Gilligan saying the bath is for "Saturday nights" reflects the old tradition of taking a bath only one night a week. It's often used as a joke in many movies and TV shows of the time, but now it's rather lost.

• As Mary Ann leaves the Skipper with the pie, she runs into, then ducks under a big leaf.

• We do not see the Howells until almost 9 minutes into the episode and we catch them just starting to walk when they should have been walking for a while.

• In addition to his inability to secure a decent education, Skinny Mulligan cheats at bobbing for apples.

• It seems that Gilligan, Mrs. Howell and the Professor have derrières that this dreaded bug does not find attractive.

• The bug itself is not a very good looking prop as it only sits there.

• So, just how does the Professor know that the bug is not poisonous? Of course, since Gilligan didn't show any symptoms after a while, I suppose that would have been a really good clue. Still, shouldn't the rest of the castaways continue to get the ingredients needed for the serum anyway?

• Hmm, I wonder where Gilligan got the red and yellow plastic boats?