User Reviews

The castaways are trying to repair the SS Minnow which has been beached since the beginning of the season. While the Professor's attempts to make nails is going nowhere fast, Gilligan helps Mary Ann with her pancake dinner by draining the sap from a tree.

The sap turns out to be a powerful glue that allows the castaways to repair the Minnow and set sail for home. But Gilligan makes a terrible discovery about his glue and tries to warn the others before it is too late.

An interesting plot that seemingly should have directly followed the second episode, "Home Sweet Hut" but instead did not appear until the eighth in the season. It is rather befuddling why CBS decided to air this so late, especially since the castaways have not interacted with their beached vessel at least on-screen since the first episode.

The laughs are plentiful however, highlighted by Gilligan stepping in the glue, then sticking himself and eventually the Skipper to the Minnow. Other highlights include the Howell's subsequent mistaking of Gilligan and the Skipper's predicament as a game of charades, Ginger mistaking the Professor's inquisitive nature about her perfume, and finally Gilligan's attempt to save the Minnow.

All in all, this is actually a pretty decent, entertaining episode that has some good laughs.

• It's rather obvious that in practically all the outdoor scenes, the dialog is ADRed or replaced in the studio. In some cases, the audio is out of sync or even added when the characters do not speak.

• The Skipper's statement about the high tide being perhaps the last chance to get off the island makes little sense and is never explained. After all, high tides happen with some regularity, so if they miss this round, another should follow at some point.

• It's tough to catch, but Mrs. Howell makes the statement that it was Mr. Howell's idea to repair the Minnow in the scene just before they spot Mary Ann "kissing" a tree. This may be an explanation as to why it took them so long to try and repair the Minnow.

• The Minnow itself was little mentioned in the seven episodes that preceded this one, save for the "Wrongway Feldman" episode where it was stated that some parts were salvaged to help fix Wrongway's plane. This could mean that the Minnow has no operating motor and would only drift in the ocean.

• In some ways, this may be one of the most surreal episodes of the first season. Besides what happens to the Minnow, Gilligan's little discussion with himself at the lagoon is kinda out there.

• Of course, the final fate of the Minnow seems beyond silly considering the effects of the glue would not have that kind of result. But hey, it's a TV show and it's Gilligan's Island no less....

Here is another mixed bag of an episode. It contains an interesting plot, good character moments for our lead and some really surprisingly good special effects for a show with a limited budget. But it is also uneven, suffers from slow pacing, ineffective gags, and a really goofy ending.

In the opening act, the Professor is gamely trying to repair the Minnow. Apparently for the last several episodes, he has been trying to develop usable nails to hammer boards over the boat's extensive holes.

In this outing, he's uncovered an element known as ferrous oxide to help him out. But the nails he develops still can't do the job. He and the Skipper quickly tire of Gilligan's wry commentary on both attempts and pass him off to the girls, who are working on making pancakes for the evening meal.

A lovely scene develops where our lead pairs up with Mary Ann to find edible tree sap that will double for maple syrup. Gilligan cuts a hole in each tree and Mary Ann tastes the sap. The first sample is too bitter; the second is too dry; but the third is just right. Seriously, though, the scene is too short, and ends with a lame gag where the Howells mistakenly think the two have invented the sport of tree kissing and decide to try it themselves.

They use the sap for their pancake surprise, which leads to some really clever and realistic-looking effects where the sap causes the pancakes to stick to the dishes. The Professor catches on that the miracle sap bonds like glue and he can use it to patch the Minnow's holes. Not for the first time, our lead is celebrated as a hero.

After those fine scenes, the first act runs short on imagination and humor. We get an extended sequence where the Skipper and Gilligan get themselves hopelessly attached to the Minnow. It's an obvious homage to the routines of Laurel and Hardy, but it develops too slowly and goes on too long to work. It drags on so long, in fact, that the resolution is rushed and happens off-camera.

The second act gets the episode back on the beam. Gilligan is overjoyed at shedding his Charlie Brown rep and being a success for once, but is then horrified to learn the sap bonds only temporarily. He races to the lagoon to warn the others before they board the Minnow.

The Skipper doesn't believe Gilligan's story and claims his ship is as steady as a rock. A ridiculous and very funny sequence follows where all the paneling of the Minnow starts to unravel, and Gilligan rushes aboard in a futile attempt to save it. Soon the ship is quite literally a shell of its former self.

But, hey, Gilligan did save the wheel, so there is a happy ending.

COCONOTES

In this episode we have our answer as to why the Professor is never able to build a boat.

Writer Burt Styler was a veteran television and film writer who later worked on All in the Family, M*A*S*H, and the Carol Burnett Show. He wrote the episode Edith's Problem, which netted actress Jean Stapleton an Emmy.

He and co-writer Albert Lewin inch the castaways ever closer to relationships. In the opening Ginger causes the Professor to perspire for the second time when she is around him. She suggests innocently it must be the heat. Indeed.

And Gilligan and Mary Ann, as already noted, are paired up to sample trees. "Sweet...just like you, Gilligan." Sigh.

The Howells are real dullards in this one. First they mistake what Gilligan and Mary Ann are doing in the jungle, then they think Gilligan and the Skipper are playing charades while stuck to a boat. Yeah, real dullards.

One of the issues that the six other characters of "Gilligan's Island" faced was their refusal to listen to Gilligan when he had something truly important to say. Often it was something that would potentially save their lives, and in the case of this episode, keep them grounded. This episode is the last appearance of the S.S. Minnow as it literally is ripped to shreds in front of the audience's eyes with a very funny conclusion that proves that all that holds everything together is not glue, or in this case sap, which is initially used as syrup, but proves to be a great (if temporary) adhesive. They decide to put the minnow back together, but Gilligan discovers just as they are about to take off that the tree sap is only a temporary glue and would literally take them down to Davey Jones' locker.

Of course, he is ignored, but at the last moment, reality takes over as planks from the Minnow began to literally fly everywhere (even if the glue didn't touch it) resulting in Gilligan rushing inside to try to save it. Of course, one thing does remain from the Minnow which will continue to be seen in every episode. This amusing episode shows a growing camaraderie between Mary Ann and Gilligan, gives an indication to the eccentricity of the Howell's, and shows how smart Gilligan really was in spite of everybody else's insistence that every disaster on the island was caused by him. More than once, he was responsible for saving their lives, and this shows the flaws in the other characters for not giving Gilligan a chance to speak. One of the funniest moments has Gilligan and the Skipper finding different ways to get stuck to the glue (and each other), but somehow before the conclusion manage to get unstuck rather than be a permanent game of twister.