Maryann On Jul 19, 7:56 am, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > What Gilligan’s Island Was Really AboutJuly 18, 2011 byJeffrey Tucker > The creator of Gillgan’s Island, Sherwood Schwartz, died last week, and the > Washington Post asked Paul Cantor for his own interpretation of the > television series, since Professor Cantor had written an entire book on the > subject. Theresultis hilarious and interesting. Substitute the word Democracy > for Freedom and we are getting somewhere. > xxxWhat ‘Gilligan’s Island’ creator Sherwood Schwartz was saying about > democracyBy Paul A. Cantor, Published: July 15Sherwood Schwartz,who died > Tuesday at the age of 94, will not be remembered as one of television’s > innovative geniuses. But he did create two of the most popular shows in TV > history,“Gilligan’s Island”and“The Brady Bunch.”And he did something rare: He > made people laugh, even in reruns. > But what did the sitcom king have in common with the French thinker Alexis de > Tocqueville? Answer: They both were interested in democracy in America. > In 2001, I published a book called“Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age > of Globalization.”I wrote that “Gilligan’s Island” reflected the political > confidence of 1960s America in the midst of the Cold War. A representative > group of Americans could be dropped anywhere on the planet and they would > rule, creating a small-scale model of U.S. democracy and fending off a > sampling of its enemies, from Soviet cosmonauts to a Japanese soldierstill > fighting World War II to a Latin American dictator. > Gilligan is the perfect democratic hero because he has no claims to > superiority. The Professor has wisdom; the Millionaire has money and social > status; the Skipper has a kind of military authority as captain. Gilligan is > the pure common man. And, of course, the only time the castaways hold an > election, he is chosen as president. Throughout the series, Gilligan > represents the triumph of the ordinary over the extraordinary. > Schwartz learned about my book and wrote to me to get a copy. He explained > that he had always thought of “Gilligan’s Island” as a show about democracy. > His favorite episode, he said, was the one about the exiled dictator “because > it’s the most meaningful” and demonstrates how democracy can go wrong. He was > particularly proud of the “dream sequence in which Gilligan realizes he’s > simply a puppet dictator of the real dictator.” > Much to my gratification, Schwartz said all this before reading my book. > Academics like me are always accused of just making up our interpretations. > But mine was being confirmed by the highest authority the writer himself. > Once Schwartz had read the book, he wrote me another long letter explaining > that it had always bothered him that people criticized “Gilligan’s Island” > for being silly; they didn’t understand it, he said. “Not a single critic got > it, with the basic concept of democracy staring them right in the face.” He > viewed my book as a vindication of his work: “I never thought I’d see the day > when an English Professor of some note would use ‘Gilligan’s Island’ as one > of four pillars on which rest the liberal democratic view of the recent past > in America.” > I wrote back, thanking him for taking time out of his busy Hollywood schedule > to correspond with me. I added: “I’ve written three whole books on > Shakespeare and Mr. Big Shot Elizabethan Playwright won’t even give me a > call.” It’s not a great idea to trade jokes with a comedy writer, but I hope > I gave Schwartz a chuckle. > In my correspondence with him, I was struck by his intelligence, his learning > and his seriousness of purpose. Above all, he clearly knew what he was doing > in “Gilligan’s Island” and could articulate the thinking behind it. > Most people would never guess it, but maybe, of all the characters on the > desert isle, Sherwood Schwartz was closest to the Professor. At least this > professor thinks > so.http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-gilligans-island-creator-sherwood-schwartz-was-saying-about-democracy/2011/07/14/gIQAVVrXGI_story.html
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