The Two Faces of Gilligan

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"Members of the jury, friends and relatives: The case before us is one of crime and murder. Therefore, I caution you to withhold judgment until all the facts are in. Therefore, we must assume Dr. Gilligan is innocent until proven guilty. Now, where is the filthy killer?"

Judge/Mr. Howell (Jim Backus)

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I have mentioned here before that my favorite Gilligan's Island episodes were the ones in which the castaways got to play characters in spoofs of familiar fairy tales and movies.

I have heard that the episode that first aired on this night in 1966, "And Then There Were None," is Dawn Wells' favorite from the series. Wells, of course, played Mary Ann in the series, but the spoofs gave her the opportunity to get some variety.

It was as Mary Ann, though, that Wells got the episode off and running.

See, in this episode, the castaways started disappearing, one by one. Mary Ann disappeared while she and Gilligan (Bob Denver) were doing the laundry. That led to speculation that she had been taken by islanders looking for wives. Then Ginger (Tina Louise) vanished during a search of the island for Mary Ann.

The Professor (Russell Johnson) hit on the idea of dressing up Gilligan in women's clothes as bait while the Professor and the Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.) were close by to catch the natives before they could do anything. Nothing happened — except that Mrs. Howell (Natalie Schafer) also went missing.

The men went running to the lagoon, hoping to save the women, but they found nothing when they got there, and some assumed the islanders had already gone.

But then the Professor concluded he had been wrong. There were no signs of invaders anywhere in the lagoon — no footprints in the sand, no tracks left by the islanders' canoes. The Professor deduced there never had been any invaders on the island.

And that left the unpleasant option that one of the men had succumbed to island madness, snapping under the stress and becoming a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde who abducted and then killed the women.

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Gilligan, of course, was very susceptible to all kinds of things, and he began worrying that he was the Jekyll/Hyde the Professor had warned them about because he had been alone with each of the women shortly before they disappeared.

But the Skipper pointed out that he had been with Gilligan and Ginger before she disappeared, and Gilligan relaxed enough to fall asleep. But each of the men disappeared, too, leaving only Gilligan. He went looking for them and stumbled near the fallen clothesline, struck his head and was knocked out. His dreams picked up where his conscious mind left off, and he dreamed about being a Jekyll/Hyde on trial in Victorian England.

And thus a spoof on that story — but it was really a spoof of all sorts of characters, both real and fictional. There were more literary/historical references in that episode than in any other single episode in the series — and possibly any such spoof episode in any other series in TV history.

Mr. Howell (Jim Backus) played the presiding judge, a character based on the famous "hanging judge" of the 19th century. Mrs. Howell's character was clearly Mary Poppins — and she was Dr. Gilligan's defense attorney. Mary Ann was a Cockney flower girl straight out of "My Fair Lady."

Ginger's character, the Lady in Red, was based on John Dillinger's — how shall I put this? — companion.

Dr. Gilligan himself indulged in a bit of literary referencing, you might say. At one point he held a lily, sniffed it and recited poetry, which was a reference to 19th–century author Oscar Wilde. (That reference may have been a bit obscure for anyone who didn't study literature in college — neither did I, for that matter, but I have done quite a bit of reading in my life.)

The title of the episode was taken directly from one of my favorite Agatha Christie books, "And Then There Were None."

The Skipper played a court bailiff, and the Professor played the prosecuting attorney. Apparently there was a bit of nepotism involved in the Professor's character's job. He called the judge Uncle Tony. He also said Dr. Gilligan was "Frankenstein, Bluebeard and Jack the Ripper, all rolled into one."

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On the witness stand the Lady in Red proved that the mere mention of food turned Dr. Gilligan into a werewolf–like Mr. Hyde.

Gilligan regained consciousness. Tangled in the clothesline, he stumbled on and fell through a trap door, the very one that each of his fellow castaways had fallen through. Dangling from the clothesline, Gilligan had, without knowing it, provided his friends with a means to escape the pit.

I have heard it said that the moral of the story is, "When your imagination runs wild, don't go along for the ride." I don't know if that was the message of the episode, but it's still good advice.

On the other hand, perhaps the episode was a cautionary tale, warning against being obsessive about food.

Remembering the First Time

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"And Then There Were None," the Agatha Christie mystery that was published 75 years ago today, was the first Agatha Christie book my parents permitted me to read.

I always thought that was sort of amusing. I mean, I had already read a lot of books that really were been beyond my years, as my grandmother would say. But my parents — and my grandmother, too, for that matter — were enablers, giving me books that someone my age probably had no business reading. My parents were educators. They believed in reading, and they encouraged me to read anything and everything.

Except Agatha Christie. They kind of held back on that one, maybe because they still read her books when I was young. Maybe they wanted to keep that just for themselves. I have read most of Agatha Christie's books, and they would have been far easier for me to comprehend than many of the books I read.

I suppose if my first experience with Agatha Christie had not been such a positive one, I might never have read another one of her books.

But I selected "And Then There Were None." It didn't feature any of Christie's well–known detectives. I didn't know at the time that it is regarded by many as her masterpiece. Accordingly, it is Christie's best–selling book. It is also the best–selling mystery ever — and one of the best–selling books of all time.

No, I didn't know any of that when I first sat down to read it. I was only about 12, maybe 13, and I don't remember what attracted me to it. Maybe I liked the title — which was the American version of a well–known nursery rhyme. Maybe I liked the artwork on the cover of the paperback copy I read. As I say, I don't remember now what drew me to it, but I do remember it was my first Christie book.

It really was an absorbing book. Ten people were invited to spend the weekend on a remote island. Each was lured there by a different ruse. As I recall, one was drawn by the possibility of a job, another by the offer of an all–expenses paid vacation, etc.

In fact, each was being drawn into an ambush. Each had been judged guilty (unofficially) of causing the death of another but not in a way that could lead to criminal charges. The person who had invited them to the island planned to execute all, one by one, as their punishment for their crimes.

And, one by one, each one was killed. Or so it seemed.

Actually, the person who was responsible was one of the "guests." He enlisted the help of another guest in faking his own death; he said that, believed to be dead, he would be free to search the island for whoever was doing it. Consequently, he earned the trust of that other guest, who wound up being bumped off shortly thereafter, as I recall. Moral: Be careful who you trust.

Once all the others were dead, the culprit committed suicide — but not before leaving a note explaining to the authorities what had happened.

I thought it was a clever book, and I began taking on other Christie books. I have enjoyed most of them, but I have never experienced the same thrill I got with that first book.

Christie's Venture into Historical Fiction

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"It's as easy to utter lies as truth."

Agatha Christie
"Death Comes as the End" (1944)

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There is more than one reason why I have always liked Agatha Christie's "Death Comes as the End," which was published 70 years ago this month — but I think it really boils down to one thing.

It really was quite a departure for her.

As far as I know, it is the only one of her books that was not set in the 20th century. Nearly all of her books were set in or near the time of the book's publication. Whenever Christie wrote about the past, it was in the context of a character's flashback.

It had no European characters, either, being set near the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes in 2000 B.C.

It wasn't Christie's only book to be set in an exotic locale. She did that lots of times.

But, as far as I can tell, it is the only book she ever wrote that wasn't set in the 20th century — and it didn't have at least one European character. Usually, the European character(s) solved whatever crime had been committed. But there was no Europe in 2000 B.C.

It was similar to a book that Christie published five years earlier, "And Then There Were None," in the sense that there were many deaths. And it was, as far as I can tell, the first book to combine a detective story with historical fiction. I have read many historical novels in my life, and I've enjoyed most of them. I'm an amateur historian, I suppose. It was my minor in both college and graduate school, and it's always been an interest of mine.

Perhaps that is why I have always liked "Death Comes as the End."

The fact that she didn't write more historical fiction doesn't surprise me. Good historical fiction is tougher to write than ordinary fiction. It demands a lot of research to make it plausible — almost as much research as a good term paper or thesis will require.

And, as I say, in this novel, as in "And Then There Were None," there were many deaths. The first was a woman who had married the patriarch of an affluent Egyptian family. The new wife antagonized everyone — and turned up dead just when anyone would be a likely suspect.

But she wasn't the last to die. And when the identity of the murderer was revealed, it was about as surprising as the revelation in "And Then There Were None,"

I've heard it said that Christie was inspired to write "Death Comes as the End" after working with her archeologist husband in the Middle East. Makes sense to me. Christie found inspiration in her life's experiences — as all writers do. Why not an archeological dig?