Elroy Schwartz, the man with imagination, wrote this classic episode, perhaps the best of the second season. Atleast the most outrageous.
Who else but versatile Vito Scotti plays Dr. Boris Balinkoff (sounding like Karloff, ya think?) who happens to be residing on a neighboring island?
He visits the castaways in his large boat and brings them to his haunted house and laboratory. Just like that!
This is lots of fun, of course with a bunch of unexplained questions! Again, who's keeping tabs.
The best gag here, aside from the spooky, cobwebbed house with lots of secret doors, is the mad doctor's mind transfer machine which switches everybody's personality. I agree with the last reviewer that this was also used in THE MONKEES tv show, and of course Vito Scotti dropped by as yet another crazy scientist.
The personality tranfers are hilarious, top honors going to Mrs. Howell now talking like the skipper and Ginger sounding like the doctor's hulking bodyguard, Igor (played by the great Mike Mazurki). A must, must see and hear. As usual, you can tell the cast is having a blast.
Question though; couldn't the gang still have gotten help and finally gotten off the island in the end??? Guess not. You be the judge.
Look for Higgins, the famous dog. Higgins was actually found in a pet shelter in Burbank and was raised to become one of the most popular of tv dogs. He was the dog in PETTICOAT JUNCTION for many years, later to become BENJI the movie star.
Sit back and enjoy. From SEASON 2 restored dvd box set.