It is difficult to believe it has been 50 years since Gilligan’s Island first appeared on TV, or that I am old enough to have seen it when it first started. Back then it was in black and white, with a peppy theme song that gets stuck in your head. As a kid, it was a show that I could hardly wait for it to come on in the afternoons. Summer boredom was made easier thanks to the show’s reruns.  

Imagination ran amuck thinking about what it would be like to be stranded on an island. Of course, on Gilligan’s Island there were a lot of things going on that did not happen on the island of Tom Hanks’ Cast Away. There were many visitors to Gilligan’s Island even a return visitor in Wrongway Feldman.

The fun things from that show always gave me good memories. I took advantage of one of my characters in my book Canyon Riddle to relive a favorite childhood memory and a real life opportunity to “touch” a part of Gilligan’s Island.

Over the past 50 years my taste in television programs has changed, but given an opportunity to watch a Gilligan’s Island episode (didn’t care for the movies) and I will sit back and watch the adventures of a 3-hour cruise mishap.