popular thinking

SPEAKING OF GILLIGAN: There were other bigger stars who filled the role of TV's lovable goof, but none of them were quite as lovable in their goofiness as Bob Denver's "Gilligan."

Gilligan is gone.
The red rugby shirts with the white collars and the white fishing caps remain, but Bob Denver will never wear them again.
Sure, others will don the duds – whenever bored TV writers decide to spice up their mediocre sitcoms with a Gilligan theme.
TBS came calling to Quincy's Marina Bay not once, but twice, seeking a Gilligan-wannabe for its series The Real Gilligan's Island, which wasn't real at all.
How could you replace Gilligan, anyhow?
Some likely remember Denver as TV beatnik Maynard G. Krebs, of The Dobie Gillis Show, but it was his three-season turn on Gilligan's Island that cemented his status as one of America's most lovable goofs.
Gilligan debuted on CBS on Sept. 26, 1964. More than four decades later, he has outlived his competitors in syndication.
Perhaps his character endured because he always meant well, no matter how much he bungled his attempts to get off the island.
On his Web site, www.bobdenver.com, Denver told fans that he enjoyed Gilligan's slapstick comedy.
Viewers loved Gilligan so much that one anonymous bidder paid $28,750 to acquire one of his TV-worn shirts in 1999.
Denver, 70, and the other castaways only appeared on 98 original TV episodes over three seasons (all available on DVD).
But Denver reprised the Gilligan role for three TV movies and two aborted shows.
When he wasn't Gilligan, he was Gilligan-like in the short-lived Saturday morning show, Far Out Space Nuts. He later popped up in character on everything from ALF to Baywatch, The Simpsons and MTV's Road Rules.
He tried other roles, too. But once you go Gilligan, you never go back.
"When you've been part of a show that has made so many people happy and continues to do so to this day, it's hard to resent it,'' he wrote online.
Thanks, little buddy.

Related: Bob Denver's official site; 'Little Buddy,' Bob Denver, dead at 70 (Boston Herald)