DVD Release Date: February 3, 2004 (Warner Bros. Home
Video)
black & white/916 min.
MSRP: $39.98
Number of discs: 3
Number of episodes: 37 (counting lost pilot)
Languages and subtitles: English, Closed Captioned,
Subtitles in English, French and Spanish.
Special features: “Lost Pilot Episode with commentary
by creator/producer Sherwood Schwartz,” “Tropical
Tidbits: On Screen Factoids on episode ‘Two on a
Raft’,” “Gilligan’s Island Survival Guide” and “Before
the Three-Hour Tour.”
Introduction:
Skipperrrrrr!!! One of the most popular sitcoms of
all-time is now on DVD, “Gilligan’s Island: The
Complete 1st Season.” Join the adventures of the
seven stranded castaways on an uncharted deserted
island now on your DVD player. With Gilligan, the
Skipper too, the Millionaire and his wife, the movie
star, and the Professor and Mary Ann – here on
Gilligan’s Island!
The series stars Bob Denver as Gilligan, Alan Hale Jr.
as the Skipper, Jim Backus as Mr. Howell, Natalie
Schafer as Mrs. Howell, Tina Louise as Ginger and Dawn
Wells as Mary Ann. The show launched on CBS in 1964
in black and white. The first season featured 36
classic episodes. But before those episodes there was
also an unaired pilot, which was never aired until
cable network TBS aired it nearly 30 years later. In
the lost pilot, the theme song was very different and
three characters were played by three other actors.
Instead of the movie star and the farm girl, there
were two secretaries. One was named Bunny, played by
Nancy McCarthy. The other one was named Ginger Grant,
but she's not like the Ginger in the series at all.
She was more like Mary Ann of the series. The role in
the lost pilot of Ginger was played by Kit Smythe. The
professor character was a high school teacher, and not
a real professor like he was in the series. John
Gabriel played the role in the lost pilot. Not to
worry folks, the lost pilot is indeed on this set!
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
Memorable episodes from season one include the very
first aired episode “Two on a Raft,” the Christmas
themed “Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk,” “So Sorry,
My Island Now” and “Gilligan Meets the Jungle Boy.”
Gilligan’s Island in season one also had some familiar
faces and voices. Two episodes had legendary voice
Mel Blanc as a voice of a parrot. Guest stars include
Vito Scotti (who appears many times in the show's
run), a young Kurt Russell (“Gilligan Meets the Jungle
Boy”), Dennis Miller (“Big Man on a Little Stick”) and
Hans Conried (as Wrongman Feldman in two episodes).
Packaging:
As far as the packaging goes, the cover is in a blue
scheme. A color photo of the seven castaways in a hut
style border frame with the SS minnow sign holding it,
is featured. The background of the cover has the
island and the ocean. A picture of Gilligan saluting
is next to the Gilligan’s Island logo, which is in its
trade mark yellow color. The case cover is the same
as the box cover. The back of the box has three black
& white small photos. It also has a brief synopsis of
the show and some info on the buoyant bonuses to float
your boat! And below the special features info has
the major credits of the show’s first season. The
case has black and white photos inside with episode
info surrounding the discs. It is a nice digipak
foldable case.
Disc 1 Side A has the lost pilot with commentary by
Schwartz, Episode 1, and the bonus features. Disc 1
Side B has episodes 2-8, Disc 2 Side A has episodes
9-15, Disc 2 Side B has episodes 16-22, Disc 3 Side A
has episodes 23-29 and Disc 3 Side B has episodes
30-36.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menu screen has the theme song playing with the
same photo used for the cover. The pointer is a
coconut, very creative. Each disc, except Disc 1 Side
A, has Play, Episodes, and Languages as the options.
Disc 1 Side A has Two on a Raft (first episode), Bonus
Material, and Languages. When you select bonus
material you can choose the lost pilot, with
commentary by Sherwood Schwartz. You can turn the
commentary off, if you don’t want to watch it with
that on. Then you can have the first episode (“Two on
a Raft”) with Tropical Tidbits on or off. Tropical
Tidbits are factoids on screen on the episode. After
that are the other extras. Unfortunately, there are
no scene selections or even chapters on this set. So
if you want to watch a particular scene, you will just
have to fast forward. I was disappointed with Warner
Bros. for not including this.
Video and Audio Quality:
The video is in black and white, how it originally
aired. Good to hear it isn’t the colorized episodes
TBS made. Fans like to see the show unedited and how
it aired originally, and this set does that. The
quality of the episodes is decent and they look good.
The audio is in mono and you might have to turn up the
volume a bit to hear well.
Special Features:
Now, let’s talk in detail about those special
features. They are all located on the first disc, on
side A. Let’s start with the lost pilot. It runs a
little over 24 minutes counting the opening and
closing credits. The theme song is different. Three
of the actors are different. Want to know more about
that? Then turn on the commentary option given by
Sherwood Schwartz! He explains everything well and
tells great stories. Such as, who sang the theme for
the unaired pilot? One neat thing I noticed is when
you have the commentary on, the English subtitles
automatically turns on so you know what is going on in
the episode, since Schwartz is talking. I liked that.
The next special feature is the Tropical Tidbits on
the “Two on a Raft” episode. I like this feature,
too. You can have it on or off, if it annoys you. If
anyone has ever seen Nick at Nite’s Pop-Up Brady Bunch
episodes, it is very similar to that. Some great
factoids are given. Such as, a brief scene in which
you can see the three actors from the lost pilot! The
factoids take about 1/3 of the screen and it looks
like an ocean wave. The next feature is the
“Gilligan’s Island Survival Guide.” This runs for
about 7 minutes and 30 seconds and is hosted by some
guy named Buck Thomas, if that’s his real name. It’s
very corny and seems to poke fun on the show. It is
humorous though. He gives multiple choice questions.
I could do away with this feature. Something like
interviews or bloopers would have been better to have.
The last feature is “Before the Three-Hour Tour.” It
starts with about a 30 second intro introducing the
feature. Then you come to a screen in which you can
choose which of the 7 castaways you want to learn more
about. Each castaway bio is about 30-40 seconds in
length. It’s pretty interesting to listen to it.
Final Comments:
This set is not that bad. The episodes are great to
watch. The commentary and Tropical Tidbits are the
best features. For those of you have never seen the
lost pilot, it is a must watch. For season two, I
hope we get even more extras. Network promos would be
nice, interviews with the remaining cast would work,
and bloopers, too. Bob Denver would be interesting to
hear on commentaries. For now, buy this DVD set and
you will never get off your couch, like the castaways
will never get off the island!
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):
Video quality: 4.5/5
Audio quality: 4.5/5
Special Features: 4.5/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 5/5
Overall: 4.6/5
-- Reviewed by pavanbadal on 08/05/04
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