Gilligan's Island: The Complete Third Season

My experience with Amazon has been positive. It is great to sit down and watch a show be it from the past however no nudity, profanity and violence. Great wholesome family entertainment.

Just sit right back and you'll here a tale. For Gilligan fans the three hour tour has finally come to an end. The final hilarious season of "Gilligan's Island" contains the remaining 30 episodes of this classic show in amazing color. Just like seasons one and two the video is really amazing, the colors are sharp and vibrant and the sound is clean and crisp. Once again all 30 episodes and bonus features are crammed onto 3 double sided discs but the quality is really consistent.

As for the bonus features, I didn't really care for them. Sadly Bob Denver passed away in September 2005 and he will definitely be missed by fans of the show. However thanks to these DVD season sets he will live on as the loveable goofball Gilligan forever. Why didn't the studio include any DVD interviews with Bob Denver or the remaining aging cast of this classic show? Any interview from Bob Denver about working with Alan Hale or the cast would have been nice or a where are they now featurette would have been even better.

I wonder if the cast knew the show was quickly coming to an end, because the episodes got even funnier in the final season. It's too bad that the made for TV movies were not included as bonus features for the DVD sets, then the series would truly be complete. Good clean fun and pure entertainment for the entire family, what more could you want? As for the question Ginger or Mary Ann, I would definitely take Mary Ann. She was easy on the eyes and could cook and bake up a storm, when you're marooned on an Island a man's still got to eat.

Disc 1, Side A
-Up at Bat
-Gilligan vs. Gilligan
-Pass the Vegetables, Please
-The Producer
-Voodoo
-Where There's a Will
*(Special Features)
-Gilligan's Island: Season 3 Introduction
-The Producer Commentary by Creator/Producer Sherwood Schwartz

Disc 1, Side B
-Man With a Net
-Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
-Ring Around Gilligan
-Topsy-Turvy
-The Invasion
-The Kidnapper

Disc 2, Side A
-And Then There Were None
-All About Eva
-Gilligan Goes Gung Ho
-Take a Dare
-Court-Martial
-The Hunter

Disc 2, Side B
-Lovey's Secret Admirer
-Our Vines Have Tender Apes
-Gilligan's Personal Magnetism
-Splashdown
-High Man on the Totem Pole
-The Second Ginger Grant

Disc 3
-The Secret of Gilligan's Island
-Slave Girl
-It's a Bird, It's a Plane
-The Pigeon
-Bang! Bang! Bang!
-Gilligan, the Goddess

Special Features:
-Gilligan's Island: A Pop Culture Phenomenon

This is the final and third season of Gilligan's Island,from /66-/67.Gilligan's Island was never a shining or bright moment in the history of television by any stretch,but it has since taken on a life of its own and has lived a good re-activated life in syndication.It's appeal? It is simply plain and innocent fun.Creator Schwartz never set out to harm anyone nor to make a statement.It was just the funny antics of seven stranded individuals trying to cope and get along on a tiny island until rescue came.
The eps in this season are really not much different in tone and execution than the others except instead of keeping most eps pinned to island endeavours,this season finds more and more eps taking place in dream like states allowing the cast to stretch a bit more.There are also seemingly more visitors to the island this season than last,but none alas ever effect a rescue.There is one ep however called "The Hunt" in this season that has to be given the "most bizarre" award for any comedy show,let alone Gilligan.It starred TV and screen actor Rory Calhoun as a hunter who arrives on the island.He doesn't hunt wild game but human beings and Gilligan becomes his main target.If there is any humour in it it is of the very,very dark variety.It belonged more on a Sci-Fi show than on a lighthearted show such as this.Truly strange.
As with other seasons also Laurel and Hardy are certainly in the house as Bob Denver and Alan Hale Jr. do their best imitations of the legendary team.Hale especially successfully channels Oliver Hardy right down to the camera looks,the body language and finger movements.The professor is absolutely amazing with the inventions he comes up with this season(and they couldn't make it off the island?)and the rest of the cast are,well,themselves as usual.
This season looks the best of them all as they are quite clear and crisp and there is an opening intro by creator Schwartz and a featurette on the series.The set contains three dreaded two-sided DVDs.I know companies do this for strictly financial reasons,but they are the worst way to go as they are terribly prone to scratching.Also the last disc here has only one operating side to it which begs the question:Why was it not made a single disc?
Wherever your feelings may fall about this series place in television history good or bad,Warner Brothers has at least done the series proud and done a good job of transferring them to DVD.It took me a long time to get an entire set of the series(season by season)that wasn't plagued by scratches and scuff marks mind you,but it finally came together.I hope you have better luck than I did little buddy!