Homer
09-06-2005, 10:29 PM
http://www.jiggscasey.com/images/gilligan/gilligan.jpg
Somewhere, on some channel, in some time zone, Gilligan is still stranded.
Bob Denver, forever in reruns the most clueless castaway of Gilligan's Island, died at a North Carolina hospital Friday from cancer treatment-related complications, his family announced Tuesday. He was 70.
Denver underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in May.
"He gave us the gift of love and laughter," the Denver family said in a statement, "even in his passing."
Russell Johnson, the brainy professor to Denver's brainless first mate on Gilligan's Island, said he shared tears with Denver's friends and fans. "Frankly, Bob Denver would adore your laughter most of all," Johnson said on his Website. "That's more likely why God created him."
Denver starred on Gilligan's Island from 1964 to '67. The sitcom about seven shipwreck survivors, from Hollywood bombshell to Kansas farm girl, was never an Emmy nominee, was not a critical favorite and was a top 20 hit just once. It produced 98 episodes, two fewer than the traditional 100 believed to be mandatory for syndication success. And yet it was in reruns that the show became inescapable, if not indestructible.
"It's 40 years this year it's been on the air continually," Denver observed in 2004 to the Charleston Gazette, a newspaper based in his adopted home state of West Virginia.
If viewers wouldn't let go of Gilligan, Denver never broke with the Minnow's hapless first mate, either. He revisited the character several times, in several incarnations, from Saturday morning cartoons (1974's Gilligan's Planet, 1982's Gilligan's Planet) to reunion TV-movies (led by 1978's top-rated Rescue from Gilligan's Island), to a cameo on ALF.
A slightly earlier TV generation, however, arguably best remembered Denver as Maynard G. Krebs, the bongo-playing beatnik on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-1963). Though not a rerun phenomenon, the comedy produced nearly 50 more first-run episodes than Gilligan's Island.
Denver's 1993 autobiography played tribute to both of his iconic incarnations: Gilligan, Maynard & Me. Like a good parent, the actor refused to play favorites.
"I enjoyed both equally, but in different ways," Denver wrote on his Website. "Maynard gave me the chance to do wonderful word comedy...When I was offered Gilligan, I chose it because that character gave me the chance to do physical comedy, which I love."
"With Maynard and Gilligan, I had the best of both worlds."
Man this really Sucks.... I loved Gilligan
Somewhere, on some channel, in some time zone, Gilligan is still stranded.
Bob Denver, forever in reruns the most clueless castaway of Gilligan's Island, died at a North Carolina hospital Friday from cancer treatment-related complications, his family announced Tuesday. He was 70.
Denver underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in May.
"He gave us the gift of love and laughter," the Denver family said in a statement, "even in his passing."
Russell Johnson, the brainy professor to Denver's brainless first mate on Gilligan's Island, said he shared tears with Denver's friends and fans. "Frankly, Bob Denver would adore your laughter most of all," Johnson said on his Website. "That's more likely why God created him."
Denver starred on Gilligan's Island from 1964 to '67. The sitcom about seven shipwreck survivors, from Hollywood bombshell to Kansas farm girl, was never an Emmy nominee, was not a critical favorite and was a top 20 hit just once. It produced 98 episodes, two fewer than the traditional 100 believed to be mandatory for syndication success. And yet it was in reruns that the show became inescapable, if not indestructible.
"It's 40 years this year it's been on the air continually," Denver observed in 2004 to the Charleston Gazette, a newspaper based in his adopted home state of West Virginia.
If viewers wouldn't let go of Gilligan, Denver never broke with the Minnow's hapless first mate, either. He revisited the character several times, in several incarnations, from Saturday morning cartoons (1974's Gilligan's Planet, 1982's Gilligan's Planet) to reunion TV-movies (led by 1978's top-rated Rescue from Gilligan's Island), to a cameo on ALF.
A slightly earlier TV generation, however, arguably best remembered Denver as Maynard G. Krebs, the bongo-playing beatnik on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-1963). Though not a rerun phenomenon, the comedy produced nearly 50 more first-run episodes than Gilligan's Island.
Denver's 1993 autobiography played tribute to both of his iconic incarnations: Gilligan, Maynard & Me. Like a good parent, the actor refused to play favorites.
"I enjoyed both equally, but in different ways," Denver wrote on his Website. "Maynard gave me the chance to do wonderful word comedy...When I was offered Gilligan, I chose it because that character gave me the chance to do physical comedy, which I love."
"With Maynard and Gilligan, I had the best of both worlds."
Man this really Sucks.... I loved Gilligan