Here on Gilligan’s Isle
Posted: May 13th, 2010 | Filed under: Pop Culture | 118 Comments »
OK, so my daughters have fallen under the spell of Gilligan’s Island. The hypnotic powers of Sherwood Schwartz. At first, they were not sure they were going to like it … with the first season being black and white and all. But in the end there’s just something timelessly stupid about Gilligan’s Island, something that even in black and white reaches across generations. My daughters may be growing up in a world of iPads* and Wii game systems and 3D televisions and cars that park themselves, but they like children of my time are helpless against the comedic genius of coconuts falling on the Skipper’s head.
*My extensive iPad review is still coming, but for now I do think it’s worth answering one question that I have received from several brilliant readers: “What’s the big deal about the iPad?”
OK, so we all know the iPad is smaller than a Sports Illustrated magazine and thinner than the Swimsuit Issue. And here are some of the things I did with it yesterday:
1. Watch innings of several baseball games on television.
2. Listen to innings of several baseball games on radio.
3. Watch NBA playoff highlights.
4. Read a section of Bill James’ Historical Abstract and part of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography.
5. Listen to the latest weather reports as wind howled outside.
6. Scan the Internet for news about Stephen Strasburg.
7. Play pinball.
8. Sample the new Keane album.
9. Update and check my calendar.
10. Respond to several emails.
11. Put together a couple of outline charts for upcoming stories.
12. Write sections of upcoming stories.
13. Shop at Amazon.
14. Play a Justin Bieber video for daughters.
15. Read an interactive Toy Story book to youngest daughter.
16. Play this addictive diner game.
17. Score the first couple of innings of the Royals-Indians game.
18. Watch snippets of a couple of ABC shows.
19. Instant message a friend who was gone.
20. Look up Tina Louise on the amazing IMDB app.
21. Scan the New York Times and Kansas City Star.
22. Instantly look up words I wasn’t entirely sure about.
23. Make a list of story ideas I’d like to do in the next couple of months.
24. Do some soccer study for the upcoming World Cup.
25. Check to see if there were any new fun apps. Download this silly app that allows me to make Zen Gardens out of sand and stone.
26. Make several Zen Gardens out of sand and stone.
27. Check out Entertainment Weekly’s Ten Things to Watch.
That’s a pretty typical day, honestly. I did these things in a restaurant, in a coffee shop, in bed, while sitting in my recliner and watching television. Some days I do more work on it. Some days I watch a movie. Now, we have become conditioned to technology, many of us, and so the list might not impress you. You can do most, maybe even all, these things on the iPhone or on your mobile device. Certainly on your computer. Most of the iPad reviews I read talk a lot about what the iPad does not do — play Flash, have a camera, run multiple apps at once and so on. All true.
But I’m not a technology writer. I’m just a guy who grew up in the 1970s. And I like to look at it another way — we’re living in the Jetsons. I can WATCH ANY BASEBALL GAME on this little folder-sized television that I carry around with me? And read books on it (and it’s a much better reading experience than the computer — night and day better). And listen to music on it? And watch movies? And send letters to people that reaches them instantly? And get letters back from the in return? And do my work on it? And shop on it? And play games on it? And so on and so on and so on and every single day it gets better because someone invents some new app that pushes its limits. This all happens later in the same life when “Merlin”** was the cutting edge of technology.
**Where’s Merlin now?/He’s not there/He’s out with Billy/playing Magic Square.
I’m not saying you want an iPad or need one (or any of the upcoming tablets) — I don’t get commission. I’m just saying, what’s the big deal? It’s a computer and television and radio and newspaper and book and magazine and game console and Internet the size of a piece of paper and the width of a Mitch Albom book. It’s freaking amazing, that’s the big deal.
Anyway … in the process of my daughters discovering Gilligan’s Island (on DVD from the Library!), I have learned quite a few things about the show, things I did not know or was unclear about. I’m sure I could have found many of these facts on Wikipedia, but the urge to check out the Gilligan’s Island Wikipedia page has never struck me. So here are a bunch of things you may or may not have known — but certainly did not care about — regarding Gilligan’s Island.
1. Sherwood Schwartz, creator of the show (and also The Brady Bunch) explains in his commentary that he saw Gilligan’s Island as a “social microcosm.” He wanted the show to explore how different people with different backgrounds and different strengths could get along. To him the show represented the world, and the castaways represented different cultures. To be blunt about it, hearing Schwartz talk about the social commentary of Gilligan’s Island is funnier than just about anything I ever heard on the show.
2. Bob Denver was not Schwartz’s original choice to play Gilligan. He wanted Jerry Van Dyke … but Schwartz said that Jerry Van Dyke and his agent felt that they would have more success with the show “My Mother The Car.” You probably know that was a show about an attorney who buys a car which has the voice and soul of his dead mother. “My Mother the Car” is worthy of its own post. Maybe consider it the worst show ever to appear on television, but it was co-written by James L. Brooks, one of the driving forces of television, a 20-time Emmy winner, the creative power behind “The Mary Tyler Moore” show and the man who hired Matt Groenig to do “The Simpsons.” In any case, Jerry Van Dyke has the rare distinction of being offered the lead role in Gilligan’s Island … and then — think of the odds! — actually going out and choosing a worse show.
3. In the original pilot, the Professor was a high school teacher and played by an actor named John Gabriel, who basically spent the first episode walking around with his shirt unbuttoned. Everyone apparently felt Gabriel looked too young for the part, and Schwartz also felt that they needed the Professor to be more than a high school teacher, he needed to be a super-genius capable of doing every scientific miracle imaginable except, of course, fix holes in a boat despite a seemingly inexhaustible supply of wood. The new professor was played by Russell Johnson, who refused to take off his shirt but still got the part. The professor’s name, you probably know, was Roy Hinkley.
4. In the original pilot, Ginger was a secretary and played by an actress named Kit Smythe. She was apparently deemed not quite glamorous enough for the role of Ginger the movie star. Kit would get a few bit roles through the years. Meanwhile, Tina Louise — a singer and actress who apparently had studied with Lee Strasburg — was given the role after Hollywood icon Jayne Mansfield turned it down. In the pilot that actually appeared on television, it’s said that Ginger was working in a nightclub the night before when, for reasons that are not made clear, she decided on a whim to take the three-hour tour still wearing the gown she wore for her performance. I can only imagine what must have happened that night. Anyway, the gown was “destroyed” in that pilot, but fortunately there were plenty of other gowns for Tina Louise to wear. Louise reportedly hated the role and felt like it typecast her forever … probably a fair point.
5. Alan Hale, who played the Skipper, apparently liked wearing his Skipper outfits everywhere he went. He was the son of a legendary character actor, Alan Hale Sr., who played in more than a dozen movies with Errol Flynn and played Little John in three different versions of Robin Hood. Schwartz believes that playing the Skipper helped Alan Hale Jr. believe he was his own man, and he tells a touching story of a time when Hale was visiting a sick child in the hospital and said “It’s OK son, the Skipper’s here,” sparking a boost in recovery. While the Skipper served in the Navy, Alan Hale Jr. served in the Coast Guard.
6. Mary Ann was originally named Bunny and was supposed to be a ditzy blond secretary. She was played by Nancy McCarthy, who, like the original Ginger, kind of disappeared into the acting ether. Even many years later Sherwood Schwartz called himself “stupid” for originally casting the two women on the show as secretaries — how was THAT supposed to be funny? Could you imagine the question: Which secretary would your choose, Ginger or Bunny?
Mary Ann was from Winfield, Kansas — which happens to be the town where my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are moving. If you happen to live in Winfield, please say hello. I hear they have one heck of a bluegrass festival there. Dawn Wells the actress was actually from Reno — she was Miss Nevada. There’s a rumor that she beat out Raquel Welch for the role, but Sherwood Schwartz does not mention it.
7. Sherwood Schwartz says that the personality of Lovie — Mrs. Howell — is basically the personality of actress Natalie Schafer. Throughout her life, Schaefer refused to divulge her age … later it was discovered that she was 13 years older than Jim Backus who played Thurston. Schwartz says that Schafer insisted that he write her some funny lines to counter Backus. There are some who say the Schafer left her entire fortune to Dawn Wells when she died in 1991, but it is not mentioned in any of the material I’ve seen.
8. The original theme song to Gilligan’s Island was this calypso number that honestly seemed to go on for about 10 days. The song was apparently extremely important to getting Gilligan’s Island on the air — the big worry for CBS was that each week they would have to find a new way to explain to viewers why these people were stuck on a desert island. Eventually, of course, Schwartz wrote the lyrics to Gilligan’s Island which, if you think about it, are a model of concise story telling.
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship
The mate was a mighty sailor man
The skipper brave and sure
Five passengers set sail that day
On a three-hour tour.
A three-hour tour.
The weather started getting rough
The tiny ship was tossed
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The Minnow would be lost
The Minnow would be lost
The ship set ground on the shore of this
Uncharted desert isle
With Gilligan
The Skipper Too
The Millionaire
And his Wife
The Movie Star
The Professor And
Mary Ann
Here on Gilligan’s Isle
There are going away lyrics too — “Like Robinson Crusoe/It’s primitive as can be!” — but the point is you have to admire how in four short verses they’re able to sum up such a ridiculous story. In the original calypso version, Schwartz does make fun of the Howell’s for bringing so much luggage on a three-hour tour — this was apparently an original part of the gag. But he could not squeeze it into the official Gilligan’s Island theme.
9. Gillian was originally supposed to be a Navy cook and not a mighty sailor man.
10. Gilligan’s full name is … Willy Gilligan.
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Congrats on using your iPad for stuff that anyone with a computer can do!
The Professor could circle me with a teleprompter made out of coconuts and sea water.
So I read all you did with your Ipad… and I still don’t get it. I mean, Which one of those 27 tasks was not possible to do with your old laptop?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Joe Posnanski, Dave Leeder. Dave Leeder said: it's incredible the ease with which @JPosnanski is able to sell me (a skeptic from the start) on the iPad …. http://bit.ly/bFLqvS [...]
almost all of those things you did with your ipad are functions of the internet and not of the device that you use to access the internet. just say no to proprietary devices.
Strong work as usual, Joe.
iPad: I think Edwin said it best: your “old” laptop. That’s the point. This is a NEW laptop. Lap pad. Way smaller thing than any old laptop. Whatever.
AND – both Edwin and Adam are leaving out the touchscreen aspect. No laptop (pre-iPad) that I ever heard of had a touch screen. The mouse is dead. Touch screen monitors for non-Apple computers are here. When the iPad detractors talk about it, they usually leave this part out. It’s evolution. When Edwin and Adam are using a touchscreen in a few years, they’ll understand.
I enjoy using my iPad while I glide effortlessly on my Segway sipping a New Coke.
Gilligan? That takes me back. IIRC, the SS Minnow was named after the FCC bigwig who called TV a vast wasteland.
Loved the Thurston Howell character.
It’s true about Alan Hale dressing as the Skipper everywhere he went, at least in my very limited experience. When I was in grade school in the 1970s (Joe, you and I are almost exactly the same age), my school booked a personal appearance by Mr. Hale and he showed up dressed exactly as the Skipper although he was not in character at all.
He talked awhile about stuff I don’t recall and then he opened it up to questions. My kid brother got to ask a true, in-the-know source that eternal, ageless question: Ginger or Mary Ann? He didn’t phrase it that way, of course and he said “Who is prettier, Ginger or Mary Ann?” Hale, just cracked up and said he’d never been asked that question before. I think my brother may have been the one that started the whole debate.
By the way, Hale never answered.
@CJ
Maybe you’re right and in the future when I’m using an Ipad I’ll understand. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just to old to keep up with all this technology changes. But that is not my point. When the iPhone came up, I was impressed and I acknowledged that that was *THE* smartphone. With the Ipad… I still don’t understand where is the revolutionary part.
You need to read this. Seriously:
http://www.sff.net/people/adam-troy/Random/theories.htm
My God I love this post. It’s perfectly Posnanski.
Love this article. I watched “Rescue From Gilligan’s Island” with my 6-year old daughter just this weekend on Netflix (It’s the only Gilligan title available streaming), and read the wiki on my iPad.
When it looked as if Gilligan didn’t make it, she was Bambi’s mother sad about it.
weird family. your brother-in-law and sister-in-law (the spouses of your brother and sister I presume) are both moving to the same town in Kansas. That’s got to raise an eyebrow.
how sad is it that you would rather write about Gilligan’s Island than the royals? they do have a lot in common tho. Both stuck and can’t get going no matter how hard they try. They both make me laugh. If only the royals had Mary Ann like figure on their team
Did you know that you can also sing the lyrics to “Gilligan’s Island” to the tune of “Amazing Grace,” and (of course) vice versa?
Friend of mine cracked me up with that years ago.
@6 CJ, the tablet laptops have been around for ages and some/all had touch screens. Ahead of their time. Required Apple to pick up an existing technology tweek it and wrap it in Apple mist to mainstream it again.
Thanks for the concise summation of the iPad. I think I now get what the big deal is.
I think the iPad must be extremely useful to journalists who travel a lot, need to keep up with current events, and need to keep in contact with numerous people at all times. If journalists in general are enamored with the device, there’s a good chance you’ll hear a lot about it.
@16 Tim S., you can also use the melody from the Mickey Mouse Club theme or “House of the Rising Sun.” All these tunes have a similar rhythm.
Joe – Great post. I was thinking the same thing yesterday while waiting for my iPad to arrive. (Thinking about what the iPad can do, not Gilligan’s Island).
The MLB app is incredible. I’m actually working on a couple apps of my own. I’ll have to make sure you get a preview! Hope all is well.
Hearing about the ipad is exactly as interesting as hearing somebody talk about the functions on their new microwave.
There will likely always be shows that can only be called “bad” when viewed through an objective eye but which nonetheless are successful and even sometimes icons.
Gilligan’s Isle is certainly one of those shows, one which may have been extremely predictable but still funny. A show where you can marvel that the professor can do anything but fix the boat, laugh at and with jim backus and bob denver and at the skipper, and get to ogle ginger (and for me also mary ann).
BTW my answer to the question is “Either, any time” and if I get the gun pressed to my head question I change it slightly to “Both.”
Maybe it is just me but since I also watched denver as maynard g krebs, I got many laughs imagining krebs on the island instead of gilligan.
It’s funny that the people who are anti-iPad seem to actively resent the people who own them and love them.
Why does it bother you that Poz willingly spent money on an iPad and loves using it? I’m sure he already has a laptop and an iPhone, yet he clearly prefers his iPad for certain things. Are you saying he’s wrong to feel that way?
If you don’t want one, don’t buy one. That’s fine. But it seems petty to try to convince people who already have them that they are stupid for liking them.
I remember when the first gen of tablet PCs came out. The cooler ones had a screen you could swivel, so you could open it like a standard laptop or spin the screen around, close it, and use it as a tablet (i.e., pretty much as an iPad). Even in the new iPad world, that STILL seems cool.
I bet it’s in Apple’s roadmap for planned obsolescence to unveil a similar Macbook/iPad hybrid inside of 2 years.
@14: That’s what I thought at first too, but I realized it must be Joe’s wife’s brother/sister and that person’s spouse.
Don’t get the iPad hype. It seems totally superfluous. Less portable than a smartphone, less powerful than a computer/laptop. For Mets fans out there, the iPad seems to me like a Daniel Murphy. Corner glove, up the middle bat.
One big difference between Gilligan’s Island and the Royals, is that Gilligan’s Island is above water.
The best thing about the Gilligan’s Island theme song is that it was composed by “Johnny Williams,” who is now famous for composing music for a few flicks you might have heard of. Like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Superman, etc.
Wouldn’t Greinke be that Mary Ann like figure for the Royals?
There used to be a guy with the surname Gilligan who hung out at Baseball Think Factory (Primer.)
Lil’ Buddy was a flame warrior from hell. Eventually got banned from the site.
Did you also know that Charles Grodin turned down the lead in The Graduate before it was offered to Dustin Hoffman??
Just think about how insanely different popular culutre would be today if Grodin had taken that role…I mean, can you imagine a world without “Beethoven,” or “Beethoven’s 2nd”??
Or *gasp* Clifford??
Thank God for Dustin Hoffman
/shudders
@Jason – that’s awesome. I won’t be able to watch Gilligan’s Island now without mentally mashing up the dialogue with stuff from the movies Williams scored.
Also, picturing Mary Ann in the gold bikini, but I already had that problem.
I met Bob Denver before he died — a nice man.
It was forever before I realized that Lovey was really Mrs. Howell’s first name and not just a term of endearment used by Mr. Howell.
When I read the title of this post, I was sure this was going to be a post about how the Royals are stuck in an endless loop of losing games/seasons where hope pops up (like a #1 draft choice, or Cy Young winning pitcher) and always dissolves by the end of the game/season. Just like the plot of a Gillagan’s Isle episode. We few remaining Royals fans are shipwrecked and we can’t figure out how to get off the island.
@7- perfect.
You left out the most interesting fact. Bob Denver, who earlier had played beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the adventures of Dobie Gillis, was busted for selling pot to Dawn Wells, aka Mary Ann (henceforth known as Mary Jane). The chronic on Gilligan’s Island explains an awful lot about the show.
And don’t get me started about the Professor’s meth lab…
Perfectly JoPo. Love it.
For all the haters – I’ve not heard one iPad owner yet complain that it’s “just like my old laptop” or anything similar. I own one and it rarely leaves my side. It’s not like a laptop and it’s not just the Internet. My 67 year old father thinks so – and new within minutes of watching me use mine that it was a game changer. But the joy of owning one really lies in watching others who don’t own one sit and discuss how “just like their computer” it really is. It’s JUST like it indeed.
Cooper, I don’t think it bothers them “that Poz willingly spent money on an iPad and loves using it”. The way I read it, they were mocking him.
In the 70s there was no such thing as baseball highlights, outside of a few minutes on “This Week in baseball” each saturday. We got to watch one game a week — whichever game NBC happened to pick for it’s Game of the Week telecast. If you wanted to know about an out of town team or get any sort of rudimentary coverage of their players, you had to wait for the Sporting News to arrive each week… and by then their news and notes were ten days old. Player stats? That required a trip to the library and flipping through a musty (often out of date) copy of the Baseball Encyclopedia. For those of us who grew up as baseball fans in the 1970s, listenign to games on the radio and using baseball cards to paint an image in our mind, the amount of access we have to baseball now is simply astounding.
While at lunch, it occurred to me that a lot of TV from that era was unrealistic. We’re discussing “Gilligan’s Island” and “My Mother The Car”, but that’s just scratching the surface. There’s also “Mr. Ed”, “I Dream of Jeannie”, “Bewitched”, and “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” to name only a few. Forget the hippies. What where the Mad Men smoking back then?
The theme song the first year had a slightly different ending:
Gilligan
The Skipper too
The Millionaire
and his wife
The movie star
And the rest
Are here on Gilligan’s Island!
And one question that my kid brain at the time always had:
How many times would it take for Gilligan to mess up a rescue before the rest of the islanders would have torn him limb from limb?
Just sayin
@Gavin
I find it hard to believe that the Ginger vs. Mary Anne question was started by your brother years after the series had gone off the air.
Maybe nobody had ever asked Alan Hale, or maybe he was humoring your brother, but I am sure that someone somewhere would have compared two pretty actresses who shared a lot of screentime years earlier.
Joe – You realize that you are now required by law to put up a Ginger or Mary Ann poll.
@35—”beatnik Maynard G. Krebs”
Anyone seen a beatnik lately? Did anyone used to be a beatnik?
@40
That original version always bugged. I mean, “the rest” refers to all of two people in a cast of seven. Was it just lazy songwriting? Or an attempt to tier the billing? Long have I struggled with this….
And with regard to the great G vs. MA debate, the backlash candidate is clearly Ginger now, so that’s who I’m going with. Maryann has reached “so underrated she’s overrated” status — someone is going to give her a max contract, and I’ll sit back and exploit the market inefficiency that is Ginger appreciation.
The term ‘Beatnik” is classic ’50s/early ’60s jargon that one hardly ever hears. #43 wonders if there were ever really “beatniks” – Damn right there were. Otherwise, Maynard G. Krebs would not have been cast as one.
@14Frog
Uhhh he’s probably talking about a sibling of his wife, and that sibling’s spouse.
@#43 – the term for a modern day beatnik is hipster or swpl.
for some reason, mainstream media doesnt make fun of the kids the way they used to
Well, there were no talking horses, but Mr. Ed portrayed one. However, beatniks did exist from what I hear. They were just a little before my time.
Biff Buttocks(?!),
Yeah, I know, but it seems as though a lot of the iPad bashers get personally offended when anyone says anything good about them.
The vast majority of iPad haters do not own one (naturally), but I think that most of them also have never used one for more than a few minutes. Most people who actually try them are pleasantly surprised. (I don’t own one myself, but have played around with them extensively at the store and at a friend’s house. It exceeded my expectations.)
People dismiss the iPad as a “big iPod Touch,” without understanding that a “big iPod Touch” is a pretty great thing. When cable modems came out, people didn’t dismiss them as “faster phone modems,” because that speed made a big difference. It opened up all kinds of new opportunities (online video, for one). You would be silly to say, “Why do you need a cable modem? It’s just the Internet. You can watch video over your phone line too.”
What’s the biggest limitation to the iPod Touch? Probably the size of the screen. Yeah, you can read books and watch TV and play pinball on it, but it’s not a great experience. You can do a lot more things with a 10″ screen than a 4″ screen, and the iPad is still as portable as a hardcover book. (Less portable than an iPod, more portable than a laptop.)
They’re not for everyone, but the people who like them are not necessarily silly techno-morons who have been suckered by Apple’s marketing. The iPad is a legitimately useful — and un-substitutable — product for a lot of people.
If someone doesn’t want one, that’s fine, but mocking other people for liking them more than their iPods or laptops is kinda ridiculous. That’s like mocking someone for liking ice cream better than pizza.
Count me in the group who doesn’t understand the iPad. I own an iPhone and love everything it can do. I think this is primarily why I don’t understand the purpose of the iPad. It’s too limited to replace a laptop and does less than an iPhone. So who is it for?
Joe’s argument doesn’t really hold as its been pointed out multiple times already that everything in his list can be accomplished on any laptop or computer, and most of it on the iPhone which he already owns. Its not like he’s new to internet video or email.
I guess my point is, what does the iPad do that can’t be accomplished equally or better by a separate machine?
@44
Thank god you remember it that way also. I think we both need to get out more.
Like most people have said, pretty much everything that Joe listed is a function of the internet, not the iPad. Devices like the iPad exist, and are cheaper. I mean, the 16 GB (which is a pathetic amount of memory, IMO) iPad is $499. Ok, fine. But the 64 GB iPad is. . .$699? An extra $200 for 48 GB of memory? That’s lunacy. Apple isn’t even hiding how much they’re ripping you off. To me, waiting for and buying Apple products is like listening to the radio for new music. Sure, the iPad may be great, but similar stuff has existed and probably better stuff does exist. You just need to look around instead of waiting for Apple to show you the way.
Speaking of lunacy, this post reminds me of the documentary “We Live in Public”. The creepy main guy is obsessed with Gilligan’s Island.
Trey Hillman just got fired. Ned Yost is the new manager.
The dude who might as well have torn Ben Sheets’s ligaments by hand?
Good hire.
My go-to for technology comparison isn’t the Jetsons, it’s the original Star Trek (probably because I’m a nerd, but also because the Jetson was a cartoon and ST was supposed to be ‘real’ in the distant future). And think of what smart phones and laptops and touchscreen computers can do that the show creators never even though of.
In some ways we’re not advanced like SciFi, with flying cars and meals of pills, but in lots of very real and immediate ways we’re so far beyond their technology imaginations that it’s absurd.
The fact that everything he did can be duplicated on another platform hammers that home. Ain’t technology grand?
With regard to your poll. I don’t need someone to tell me how bad the Royals are, or even how to fix them (this is impossible). I need a writer who can somehow, some way, help me enjoy the little snippets of sunshine that appear every now and then. I’m willing to pay for sports editorials that make me happier, I’m not willing to pay (or click on) ones that lead me deeper into dispair.
Now, sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a Royals club,
They were good in George Brett’s days
but now they’re all just scrubs.
They are run by a big shot man,
A fellow by the name of Moore
The twenty-five man roster moves,
Were perplexing for sure,
Were perplexing for sure.
The season started pretty rough,
Some even said “It’s toast”
Despite the laughs from Milwaukee,
Moore went and hired Yost.
He went and hired Yost.
Joe, how do you diddle away that much time on the iPad and still manage to hold down a job and pump out this most excellent blog? Do you sleep?
And the Royals axed Hillman today. Did your iPad deliver the news?
Dear Zack Greinke,
Here, face David Huff. Enjoy your first win.
Cheers,
The Cleveland Indians
One vote for MMTC – I loved it, never missed an episode. I guess age 7-8 was the proper demographic group, though.
Worst.Show.Ever.
I liked when Weird Al matched the Brady Bunch theme perfectly to the tune of “The Safety Dance.”
There’s been touch screen tablet PCs for at least 5 years and book-sized netbooks for 3 that can do all these things, but hey! This one has – get this! – an Apple logo!
I never could understand why my mother hated We Kids watching Gilligan’s Island. Then I grew up and understood perfectly. Sorry, mom!
Mary Ann.
That is all.
Oh, and Jim Backus was hilarious.
I believe I like the IPad most because it pushes other developers to keep up.
Just think….a multiple finger touch screen (does anyone else do that?) that still has the best response in the biz, an app store full to the brim of anything you can think of that dwarfs all other company’s combined, a marketing campaign that brings products to the public’s eye like no other, and finally, and most importantly, making the technology ACCESSIBLE to the average layman, making it easy to use. That’s the big thing. They take the scare out of doing something new.
having studied popular culture in grad school, you would not believe the number of academic papers written on “gilligan’s island.”*
gilligan’s island as post-apocalyptic world and so on…
* To be fair, I once wrote a paper on “f-troop” and gave a conference paper on Sportscenter (the Olbermann/Patrick years), which actually got mentioned in THE BIG SHOW book.
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@LAprGuy – lesser known is Wierd Al’s “(Gilligan’s) Isle Thing” from the UHF soundtrack. Not as funny, either. But that album also had “Beverly Hillbillies” to the tune of “Money for Nothing,” and “Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota,” so yeah, I forgive him.
Instead of say “The Professor and Mary Ann,” the original original version that played on-air at least a few times went:
“the movie star
“AND THE REST
“here on Gilligan’s Isle.”
Too tough to actually name the perfesser and Mary Ann, apparently.
The Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas is held the 3rd weekend in Sept every year and it is most certainly one heck of a bluegrass festival. It’s about a three hour drive. Do it.
So basically the iPad is a device that, while being a rethinking of the concept of personal computing, connects me to every form of old-school media outlet in one convenient little money-making device.
@#50: Cooper Nielson:
‘People dismiss the iPad as a “big iPod Touch,” without understanding that a “big iPod Touch” is a pretty great thing.’
The best comparison I heard was that the iPad is only a big iPod Touch just like a swimming pool is only a big bathtub.
I doubt that you can play a Zen Garden game designed for iPad without, well, owning iPad.
I love mine – I take it everywhere and really enjoy easy accessibility of the web on a lightweight device. Sure, I could use iPhone, but then I would have a tough time easing tiny type or pinching and squeezing constantly.
The real bonus of the device, though, is that its tactile feel is a lot of fun. If you don’t think your computer is fun, and you want it to be, you’ll love iPad. If you think a computer is just for work, and that it should be all business, then iPad will baffle you completely, and that’s probably how it should be.
D
Written on my iPad.
How is the iPad different from a laptop or iPhone? I’ll tell you.
– Larger screen than an iPod and faster.
– Boots faster than an iPod and there is no comparison between boot times versus a laptop.
- I’ve been getting 10 hours of battery life without have to shut down features to do it. I have a WiFi model.
- Ever try using a laptop in the driver’s seat of a parked car? I have, it is awkward at best. The keyboard versus steering wheel problem means you have to turn sideways an put the laptop on the center armrest or passenger seat. That gets uncomfortable pretty darn quick. The iPad can easily be propped against the steering wheel for a perfect reading angle.
- Media consumption, iPhone? Okay in a pinch but too small. Laptop? There is that keyboard again. Not necessary for reading a book or watching video, just gets in the way.
Sure you CAN do all the stuff listed on a laptop that you can do on an iPad, but you can also drive nails with the heel of your shoe. I’d rather use a hammer.
I believe John Williams wrote the theme for the original pilot, which wasn’t aired until the early ’90s. George Wyle wrote the Gilligan’s Island theme we all know and love…
All I had to see was the book reader on the iPad and I ordered one (actually two). There’s no comparison to tablet PCs, laptops, netbooks, or even the iPhone.
‘People dismiss the iPad as a “big iPod Touch,” without understanding that a “big iPod Touch” is a pretty great thing.’
The best comparison I heard was that the iPad is only a big iPod Touch just like a swimming pool is only a big bathtub.
I like these two comments. The other point I think people miss is to take the analogy the other way. Imagine taking your computer (desktop or laptop) and trying to do everything on a 4 inch screen. How easy would extensive photoshop, spreadsheets, or even writing text, editing, and formatting large amounts of text be? Even though you’d have the same power and the same apps, you lose so much functionality that it’s a fundamentally different product. The simple fact is, the form and size matter. To say you can accomplish the same things on a laptop or iPhone is missing the point. It would be like saying, “Why do I need a pool at my house if I have a bathtub and the ocean is just 10 minutes away?”
I would challenge any of the iPad haters to step into their local Best Buy or Apple store and play with one for 10 minutes before they post another thing about it. That 10 minutes will likely change your perception significantly.
To those who say the things he mentioned could all be done with a laptop or computer:
Yes. Of course. You missed the point. My take is that someone had to point out the fact THAT WE CAN DO ALL THOSE THINGS. We for forget what is was like in the dark ages–when if you weren’t home when it was on TV, you missed it, when the closest thing to the Internet out there was a public library, when there was no easy way to find out how what else Tina Louise did after Gilligan’s Island.
As for the iPad–sure, there are other things that can many of the same things and more. But the question is not WHAT it does, it is HOW it does it. I can go to Harbor Freight and buy a circular saw for a fraction of what I would pay for Bosch or DeWalt. But there is such a thing as industrial design, and Apple is a master of it, and how well something is designed is very important, especially if it is something I am going to spend a lot of time using.
And people, really–the question isn’t Ginger vs. MaryAnn. You have to take it to the next round–MaryAnn vs. Bailey Quarters (WKRP in Cincinatti)
@16 Tim S. & @19 GGC:
And you can recite all of Emily Dickinson’s poems to “The Yellow Rose of Texas”.
I said that to a friend once while waiting on line at a Barnes & Noble, and added — in a singing voice — “Because I would not stop for death/He kindly stopped for me.” I thought the woman behind me was going to choke to death from laughing so hard.
The commenters who say that everything you can do on an iPad you could already do on a personal computer are missing the point.
Let’s turn the question around. What can you do on your PC that you couldn’t do before on something else? Before PCs, we had calculators, record players, TVs, mainframes, etc. But a PC let you do those things in different ways and places. Ditto for the iPad. It’s not the “what.” It’s the “how” and the “where” and the “when.”
you pc/laptop defenders are missing the point. a tablet is better for most tasks because it *isnt* a laptop or pc. its far, far more natural to use it on a sofa, laying on your side, passing over to friends to quickly look at something, etc.. there is no wall-in-front-of-yer-face as w/ a laptop, and youre not stuck in the corner of the room tethered to a mouse.
its casual mobile computing for the rest of us. i have access to more computers than god, and i sure as hell dont need one to share photos & vids with friends in the living room.
The thing that stands out, in your list, is that virtually all of these things are you the consumer consuming what someone else has done. Watch others play sports, read what others have written, listen to music others played, read about what TV shows to watch (meta-consumerism?).
My technology geek friend, who has every gadget imaginable including the iPad, put it bluntly: this is the ultimate *consumer* technology device. You feel like a “consumer” in every sense of the word. (Even he still carries a laptop for *creating* things.) It’s like TV on steroids.
I don’t see any way in which my life would be better if there were more places I could get the internet. If anything, I want fewer such places.
As someone who grew up with computers (starting with a C=64), this is completely uninteresting to me. Yes, it would let me live like the Jetsons. Of all the shows I’ve ever seen on TV, I’ve never once wished to live like the Jetsons.
The fatal flaw in these anti-iPad arguments is that they can be used to in virtually any situation for virtually any product.
Why buy a new laptop? It doesn’t do anything more than your old one, it’s just faster a little faster.
Why buy a car if you already have a bike? They both get you from point a to point B. For that matter, why get a bike when you can walk?
Why buy a microwave? All it does is cook and food. An oven? Who needs that when you have fire?
In most situations you already have something that can accomplish whatever task you wish to perform. What matters more is how that task is accomplished.
What good does a laptop do if you don’t have it with you? Sure, you’ve got your iPhone, but are you *comfortable* reading novels on it? Or doing real work?
The point of iPad is it fits between those extremes. Not as functional as a full laptop, but more likely to be available and easier to use. Not as portable as a phone, but does a lot more than a phone and can be used for real work.
Great review.
I can’t figure out why people are anti-iPad. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it or use it. Why be a hater? Are you mad at someone because of the brand car they drive? How does their choice effect you in any way? No one is forcing you to buy one!
I think that “Willy Gilligan” thing is a myth. From what I remember reading, it was one of those false facts that authors of trivia books put in so they know if other authors are stealing their content.
I love the fact that all the pro-iPad think everyone is missing the point while they’re all glossing over the fact that other tablets exist, are cheaper, and don’t rape you when it comes to the upgrades. No one responded to my point about essentially adding 48 GB of memory costing you TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS more. You can buy 1 TERABYTE external HDs for under $100. Also, where are the USB ports? Where’s the camera? Hmm?
Yes, but can it take pictures or shoot video?
I mean, there’s a gap under the bezel that’s perfectly sized for a nice little camera..
… and you can listen to this podcast on your iPad (also available in iTunes).
“I love the fact that all the pro-iPad think everyone is missing the point while they’re all glossing over the fact that other tablets exist, are cheaper, and don’t rape you when it comes to the upgrades. No one responded to my point about essentially adding 48 GB of memory costing you TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS more. You can buy 1 TERABYTE external HDs for under $100. Also, where are the USB ports? Where’s the camera? Hmm?”
You do miss the point. Yes, other tablets exist. They’re probably cheaper too. But they run inferior operating systems. They don’t work well.
Upgrades? Upgrades? It’s a frickin’ appliance. You don’t upgrade your cell phone, do you? Your digital camera?
It’s not a notebook computer, you don’t want/need an external HD. Camera? Really? You want to use something the size of an iPad as a camera? Picture yourself using your notebook computer with built in camera to take landscape photos. Would you do it? No.
Like I said, you, and others, just don’t “get it”. It’s a different paradigm. It’s a new class of device.
Sorry, this podcast: http://www.tankriot.com/2010/091/
On the show, the skipper’s name was Jonas Grumpy. And somehow, there was an ape on the island named Gladys (a chimp, if I recall correctly). Does anyone know whether Mary Ann’s last name was Frobisher or Summers?
Rather than argue with any anti-iPad comments, I’ll simply quote General Chuck Yeager. “What the Spitfire could do for 45 minutes, a Mustang could do for eight hours.” Think about that the next time you carry your desktop onto an airplane, or fire up your netbook to watch movies on that 11 hour flight to New Zealand.
[...] Original source : http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2010/05/13/here-on…; [...]
Detractors of the iPad be gone. The glory of it cannot be described. Flaws and all, it is the most badass thing ever. The experience of it, it is at a new scale. It is at the beginning of the future, this is the only way to describe it. You cannot describe it by lists of functions or activities. I don’t even like talking about it because the detractors bore me with cynicism and a lack of sentimental adventure. I feel, perhaps, as a believer must feel about a skeptic. Thus to say, I am not necessarily rigtt, but that it is not about being right.
Of course, there’s nothing you can do with an iPad that you cannot do with a laptop. That is if you don’t mind lugging a 5lb boat anchor with a 30 year old UI and a 20 year old form factor around your house.
Folks could get from a to b on with their horse and buggy, too.
There’s a public golf course called Hoylake- it’s just across a railway from the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, where Tiger won The Open a few years ago.
At Hoylake, I was amazed when my playing partner referred to a very small island beside about the 15th as “Gilligan’s Island”. It was the first time I’d heard that name for 20 years or more.
It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that the other golfer was born around 1960.
[...] That’s a pretty typical day, honestly. I did these things in a restaurant, in a coffee shop, in bed, while sitting in my recliner and watching television. Some days I do more work on it. Some days I watch a movie. Now, we have become conditioned to technology, many of us, and so the list might not impress you. You can do most, maybe even all, these things on the iPhone or on your mobile device. Certainly on your computer. Most of the iPad reviews I read talk a lot about what the iPad does not do — play Flash, have a camera, run multiple apps at once and so on. All true. via joeposnanski.com [...]
Regarding the Ginger vs. Mary Ann debate…
Dawn Wells definitely aged better than Tina Louise. I saw her on TV back in the 90s when she and Russell Johnson hosted something for a local station in Philly. She was still smokin’ hot even 30 years after the series ended.
http://gizmodo.com/5515612/the-cleverest-ipad-book-yet
@Stephen
You posted:
“I love the fact that all the pro-iPad think everyone is missing the point while they’re all glossing over the fact that other tablets exist, are cheaper, and don’t rape you when it comes to the upgrades. No one responded to my point about essentially adding 48 GB of memory costing you TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS more. You can buy 1 TERABYTE external HDs for under $100. Also, where are the USB ports? Where’s the camera? Hmm?”
What tablets that have a touch interface are
you referring? The JooJoo? The HP Slate? The Archos? Go ahead and use those if you want. Good luck with that. I will enjoy the simplicity and functionality of my iPad. Plus you reference the cost of the extra storage. I use only the 16 gb model and have no problem with the storage size. With the streaming options of Netflix and ABC I do not see the need to keep a lot of video on the iPad. Go ahead and use the
Merlin. Wow, I hadn’t thought about Merlin in years. That was THE BOMB, as unimaginative people would say. I owe my prowess as a Tic-Tac-Toe player to Merlin.
Can’t believe Stairway to Gilligan’s Island hasn’t come up yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTCYLbFxTpI
[...] – Joe Posnanski on the iPad [...]
You iPad types are great. As if the only choice is a big laptop or a tiny iPhone! I’m typing this on a netbook in my easy chair. It’s sitting on my chest and is insanely comfortable. Too comfortable. I have the entire internet in front of me. I can watch TV, movies, surf, type on a REAL keyboard, and install whatever I choose – hell, whatever OS I choose (I use Linux).
It boots quick, gets great battery life, and get this – it cost a bit over $300 a year and a half ago!
I’m glad you like your iPads but when my cheap, able-to-do-whatever-i-want-with-it netbook is around (which is always, as it is very small and light, fits in my jacket pocket – no lie!) I can do all that iPad can do, much much cheaper.
I am not entirely certain that finding another way to entertain yourself really makes this a better world. We’re entertaining ourselves to death.
A serious question for the Ipad fans out there. What’s it like for typing, say, an email, with the touch-screen? I use a PC tablet for school (it’s really handy to grade student work that way), but I couldn’t imagine composing emails using a touch-screen. Can one actually “type” on the thing (two hands, with speed and accuracy), or is it just hunt and peck like you would on a smartphone?
Joe,
Can’t believe you left out the wikipedia stuff about the 7 Deadly Sins connection to the castaway personalities. Also, if you ever see a terrible Japanese film entitled Attack of the Mushroom People, (or Matango), you may notice some resemblance in plot and characters to G.I., which came after it.
@92
Wow, Doggo, it’s like you didn’t even read my post.
-Other tablets “run inferior operating systems” and “don’t work well”? You sure about that?
-And the “upgrades” I mentioned are APPLE’S upgrades. I’m not lamenting a lack of upgrades, I’m complaining about the exorbitant price of those upgrades, which you completely did not address.
-You’re going to tell me what I want? If I’m using a notebook or tablet or PC, I WANT more memory and storage. I don’t care if you don’t, I do. Or, at least I’d want one USB port so I have the OPTION. Also, external HDs are not just for storage, they’re for transferring files, too. Do I have to buy an adapter just to use a jump drive? Sheer lunacy in 2010.
And yes, it should absolutely have a camera. Ever heard of Skype? Video conferencing? If you’re carrying around the iPad anyway, why not give it photo-taking capabilities?
The iPad isn’t a “new paradigm”. I’ll say it again, other tablets exist, they can do as much or more, and are cheaper. Open your eyes and look around.
[...] paper and the width of a Mitch Albom book. It’s freaking amazing, that’s the big deal. —Here on Gilligan’s Isle (via Gruber) var ready = 0; jQuery(document).ready(function($) { var status = [...]
@82 – tossing in Bailey is interesting but not quite analogous to me. Because I never thought Loni was as attractive; frankly I am not even sure her boobs were bigger – just seriously emphasized.
But I would be just fine with a Bailey or Ginger or Mary Ann question.
And my answer would still be either or all three
@11 – that’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever read. Seriously, anyone reading my comment who hasn’t clicked that link, scroll up and click it RIGHT NOW.
A similarly enlightening theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZFdz2vwU20&feature=related
[...] read from Joe Posnanski’s blog. OK, so we all know the iPad is smaller than a Sports Illustrated magazine and thinner than the [...]
[...] add. More or less at random, I really liked the brief rant Joe Posnanski added in the middle of an otherwise-unrelated blog post, and Charles Stross’ typically complete take. Right now, I just would add that I still use it [...]
[...] Joe Posnanski » Blog Archive » Here on Gilligan’s Isle the iPad. it’s really quite good. ok? [...]