GILLIGAN'S ISLAND - DVD SEASON & SERIES SETS (2004-2012) - Pros, Cons, Incongruities & Imponderables (2 Viewers)

[David Deeb]

The complete series in HD is on sale @ iTunes for $39.99. Down from the standard $75.

I'm considering. Anyone ever seen it go any lower?

 

[Tony Bensley]

I would've liked the option of the first season colorized..

Anyone have opinion on quality of this release?

Also another flaw -

For me, viewing this iconic series in its entirety has been very much an on again-off again affair, several years in the making.

Today, I've finally reached the last GI Episode produced in its 3 year run, which consists of 98 Episodes for the series proper, and 99 counting the Pilot Episode.

Considering "It's A Bird, It's A Plane" was the final episode produced, I can't help but think the subtitled dialogue below is something more than a mere coincidence:

Perhaps notably, Mr. Howell does not count 100.

The previously noted missing 8 seconds of Gilligan riding the Jet-pack doesn't seem a big issue, having viewed the edited scene fresh. Perhaps, it was edited for time, and/or was deemed a bit too long?

CHEERS!

 

[dstrong]

Are some of the episodes slightly edited? I noticed many run under 25 minutes, when shows of that era were at least 25 to 25:30 in length.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Are some of the episodes slightly edited? I noticed many run under 25 minutes, when shows of that era were at least 25 to 25:30 in length.

That's a good question. I'd have to check, but I don't think very many GI episodes are under 25 minutes on the DVDs, and I believe those are of the over 24:30 variety. There has been some speculation that such slightly shorter episodes from the mid to late '60s could also be due to preplanned night of broadcast edits that were made for a variety of reasons, such as special TV promos, etc.

Apart from the reported and confirmed missing 8 seconds from the Season 3 "It's A Bird, It's A Plane" episode (Also the last GI episode produced, though not the last one aired!), other edits seem to be of the previously reported out of sequence variety. Thankfully, these are of the mistakenly inserting the episode prologues after the GI opening (Which include the two final aired Season 3 episodes!), rather than before, so at least the within episode scenes still make sense! These prologues are identifiable by the appearance of the "Gilligan's Island" title superimposed, which is my understanding should precede the usual opening credit sequence, rather than follow it.

CHEERS!

 

[Wiseguy]

It's one thing to provide Black & White/Colorized options for individual Films, but for entire Television Seasons, it would ultimately require doubling up on the number of discs, which unfortunately, just isn't practical!

I've bought both BEWITCHED and I DREAM OF JEANNIE "All Color" Series sets (The only option for the Sony DVD sets. In my opinion, Sony should have also offered the Series sets with the original B&W seasons!) for my wife, so I do understand your frustration, regarding that!

CHEERS!

For what it's worth, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the colorized Gilligan's Island episodes. They need to be redone using today's technology.

 

[Wiseguy]

... I decided to look up Nehemiah Persoff, who did his only ever comedic turn on this GILLIGAN'S ISLAND episode...

CHEERS!

Recently I just happened to turn on MeTV and there on The Facts of Life was Nehemiah Persoff. Never knew he was on that series. But being a regular watcher of Barney Miller I knew he appeared a few times, twice in the recurring role of a Hassidic Jew.

 

[Tony Bensley]

On a low note, we did finally lose Nehemiah Persoff a little while back! I think he was like 102, so Mr. Persoff certainly lived a long life and got to enjoy retirement for more than 2 decades after he last worked in acting in 1999, I believe.

On a much brighter note, on YouTube of all places, I did learn some rather valuable information regarding "The Eligibles," who of course recorded the GILLIGAN'S ISLAND Season 2 and Season 3 themes! The lead singer's niece Kate Humrich confirmed that at 84, her Uncle Ron Hicklin is enjoying retirement with his wife in their 2 retirement homes in Arizona and Hawaii. This seems so apt to me (Especially the latter!), and I have no doubt, well deserved!

Anyway, to avoid a Zsa Zsa "Turn left at the lily pad" scenario, according to his niece, the other singers in Ron Hicklin's "The Eligibles" group were Stan Farber, Ron Rolla and Bob Zwirn, and they recorded for thousands of other TV shows, commercials and also did background vocals for many pop rock groups.

This is the YouTube clip where I found Kate's first comment to which I posted and she very kindly replied :


CHEERS!

 

[SuperClark]

I have all 3 seasons in HD on amazon prime.Someone asked me the popular question...Ginger or Mary Anne. For me easy answer is the latter.She is more fun,down to earth.not preoccupied with herself.and cute) She seems to be much more popular.
As for Jeannie and Samantha? They are both good but Jeannie is more appealing and full of life.
Morticia -Adams family or Lilly Munster? the former.Love her hair and eyes)

 

[Emcee]

My wife bought me this box set of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND this past weekend.

She's hiding though until my birthday... which isn't until October!!!

 

[David Deeb]

The complete series in HD is on sale at iTunes for $29.99. It looks fantastic. The HD color episodes in particular are a revelation. It's a blast revisiting old series like this in HD. Why are there not more classic series available in digital HD? They are also a lot more fun to watch than slogging through cumbersome DVD menus too.

The animated Gilligan's Planet is also on sale should you need to burn through $9.99 real quickly. But has anyone ever actually watched that thing?

 

[Desslar]

The animated Gilligan's Planet is also on sale should you need to burn through $9.99 real quickly. But has anyone ever actually watched that thing?

A little bit. Big Gilligan fans may find the occasional smile (several original cast members are on hand), but, as tends to be the case for Filmation productions, the animation and music are fairly low rent. Passable but certainly not essential.

 

[Likecats]

I rebought the series at my local Walmart. My old season two set had problems on the episode Smile, Your on Mars Camera. It was freezing around when the scientists were looking at the island and Gilligan tripped over the camera. It would keep freezing in spots up until they were looking for the camera lens, the rest of the episode played.

 

[seanrt]

The complete series in HD is on sale at iTunes for $29.99. It looks fantastic. The HD color episodes in particular are a revelation. It's a blast revisiting old series like this in HD. Why are there not more classic series available in digital HD? They are also a lot more fun to watch than slogging through cumbersome DVD menus too.

The animated Gilligan's Planet is also on sale should you need to burn through $9.99 real quickly. But has anyone ever actually watched that thing?

I actually love both animated Gilligan series. New Adventures is my favorite. It has quite a few laugh out loud bits on many episodes. Planet is such a weird trip with the familiar Castaways on a pink planet and bright colors everywhere.

I don’t mind Filmation’s limited animation. Their character designs, especially when they were basing them on real people, were always so well done to me. Though not Filmation, Return to the Planet of the Apes taught me you can have limited to no animation and still make a fun cartoon.

 

[Desslar]

I actually love both animated Gilligan series. New Adventures is my favorite. It has quite a few laugh out loud bits on many episodes. Planet is such a weird trip with the familiar Castaways on a pink planet and bright colors everywhere.

I don’t mind Filmation’s limited animation. Their character designs, especially when they were basing them on real people, were always so well done to me. Though not Filmation, Return to the Planet of the Apes taught me you can have limited to no animation and still make a fun cartoon.

Return to the Planet of the Apes (Depatie-Freleng) has some of the most limited animation I have ever seen. It really is low effort. But you're right, the stories are surprisingly good and relatively mature for a Saturday morning cartoon. If the animation were any good I'd pick up the disc for sure.

What confused me was why the Ape army had a full arsenal of WWII era weapons and vehicles. That seems to come out of nowhere. Maybe recycled footage from a difference show.

 

[84lion]

Don’t know how I got onto this thread, but I thought, well, Gilligan, now there’s a show that might be fun.
The box set is currently just under $24 at Amazon…not bad. The problem here is that Season 1 is in black and white.
For Season 1, this site:
https://classictvshop.net/products/gilligans-island-season-1-colorized-edition-4-blu-ray-set
Has the colorized version on a 5-disc Blu Ray (!) for a grand total of $45 before tax and shipping. They are very open about these discs containing episodes that have the MeTV bug on them (they show screen caps). To me, it’s a little pricey when I can just set my Tivo to record them.
So I checked the Tivo. MeTV has their Gilligan hour on Sunday, and IFC (!) has Gilligan on late-night (or early morning) during the week. Sundance also has Gilligan, but we have Comcast and don’t get Sundance except in SD…and it’s picture-framed, so that’s out.
I’m going to set the Tivo to record both the MeTV and IFC versions. I’m curious to see how the IFC version looks, as we can get IFC in HD. Crossing my fingers that the IFC version is in color. It looks like IFC is re-starting the series at S1E1 week after next. MeTV is just a port-over of an OTA subchannel, so it’s SD. It would probably be “acceptable” but not desirable.
I am hoping the IFC versions look good and aren’t too badly butchered. If they’re OK, I’ll just go ahead and record them. I might still spring for the Gilligan DVD set, given that it’s quite reasonable at under $24 for the set, and is apparently largely intact. Worst case scenario, if both MeTV and IFC don’t work out, is that I close my eyes, swallow hard, and buy the bootleg BR set so I can watch Season 1 in living fake color!

 

[Desslar]

Don’t know how I got onto this thread, but I thought, well, Gilligan, now there’s a show that might be fun.
The box set is currently just under $24 at Amazon…not bad. The problem here is that Season 1 is in black and white.
For Season 1, this site:
https://classictvshop.net/products/gilligans-island-season-1-colorized-edition-4-blu-ray-set
Has the colorized version on a 5-disc Blu Ray (!) for a grand total of $45 before tax and shipping. They are very open about these discs containing episodes that have the MeTV bug on them (they show screen caps). To me, it’s a little pricey when I can just set my Tivo to record them.
So I checked the Tivo. MeTV has their Gilligan hour on Sunday, and IFC (!) has Gilligan on late-night (or early morning) during the week. Sundance also has Gilligan, but we have Comcast and don’t get Sundance except in SD…and it’s picture-framed, so that’s out.
I’m going to set the Tivo to record both the MeTV and IFC versions. I’m curious to see how the IFC version looks, as we can get IFC in HD. Crossing my fingers that the IFC version is in color. It looks like IFC is re-starting the series at S1E1 week after next. MeTV is just a port-over of an OTA subchannel, so it’s SD. It would probably be “acceptable” but not desirable.
I am hoping the IFC versions look good and aren’t too badly butchered. If they’re OK, I’ll just go ahead and record them. I might still spring for the Gilligan DVD set, given that it’s quite reasonable at under $24 for the set, and is apparently largely intact. Worst case scenario, if both MeTV and IFC don’t work out, is that I close my eyes, swallow hard, and buy the bootleg BR set so I can watch Season 1 in living fake color!

Having the first season in black and white isn’t so bad, is it?

 

[Robert Saccone]

Don’t know how I got onto this thread, but I thought, well, Gilligan, now there’s a show that might be fun.
The box set is currently just under $24 at Amazon…not bad. The problem here is that Season 1 is in black and white.
For Season 1, this site:
https://classictvshop.net/products/gilligans-island-season-1-colorized-edition-4-blu-ray-set
Has the colorized version on a 5-disc Blu Ray (!) for a grand total of $45 before tax and shipping. They are very open about these discs containing episodes that have the MeTV bug on them (they show screen caps). To me, it’s a little pricey when I can just set my Tivo to record them.
So I checked the Tivo. MeTV has their Gilligan hour on Sunday, and IFC (!) has Gilligan on late-night (or early morning) during the week. Sundance also has Gilligan, but we have Comcast and don’t get Sundance except in SD…and it’s picture-framed, so that’s out.
I’m going to set the Tivo to record both the MeTV and IFC versions. I’m curious to see how the IFC version looks, as we can get IFC in HD. Crossing my fingers that the IFC version is in color. It looks like IFC is re-starting the series at S1E1 week after next. MeTV is just a port-over of an OTA subchannel, so it’s SD. It would probably be “acceptable” but not desirable.
I am hoping the IFC versions look good and aren’t too badly butchered. If they’re OK, I’ll just go ahead and record them. I might still spring for the Gilligan DVD set, given that it’s quite reasonable at under $24 for the set, and is apparently largely intact. Worst case scenario, if both MeTV and IFC don’t work out, is that I close my eyes, swallow hard, and buy the bootleg BR set so I can watch Season 1 in living fake color!

The first season was originally shown in B&W. The colorization came much much later (Ted Turner?)

 

[Ron Lee Green]

The old 1980s colorization looks bad compared to today's modern attempts like the more recent Lucy/Dick Van Dyke specials. The technique has improved. Plus now, the show can be seen in HD.

They didn't have a variety of colors to choose from back then. Plus its in standard definition. The colors lack vibrancy, and are dull compared to the other screen capture from the second season. Gilligan's shirt should be bright red, and the Skipper's shirt is too dark shade of blue

T

 

[84lion]

Having the first season in black and white isn’t so bad, is it?

I'd rather watch something less than perfect in color than something in black and white!

I was watching an episode of Space 1999 not too long ago, and the old black and white TV monitors and "communicators" really date the show. Heck, even Star Trek TOS used color monitors!

The old 1980s colorization looks bad compared to today's modern attempts like the more recent Lucy/Dick Van Dyke specials. The technique has improved. Plus now, the show can be seen in HD.

They didn't have a variety of colors to choose from back then. Plus its in standard definition. The colors lack vibrancy, and are dull compared to the other screen capture from the second season. Gilligan's shirt should be bright red, and the Skipper's shirt is too dark shade of blue
View attachment 214037 View attachment 214039
T

You know, it's funny, I actually prefer the muted colors! The other colors are obviously more accurate, but they really seem garish to me. Of course, that's typical for the 1960s - shows like Batman and Wild Wild West had vibrant colors - after all, that's what people wanted to see if they were watching a color show!
I guess my thought is, is the colorization more distracting than watching the show in B&W (which is very distracting to me as I'm not used to it)?
I would love to see shows like Gilligan, Wild Wild West, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, and Man From Uncle get a nice modern color treatment so that the first season of all these shows could be better integrated into reruns of the shows.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

Youngsters! Lulz!! I never saw any show consistently in color until 1980. Our folks kept the only color tv in their bedroom and we had the Zenith b&w console in the main sitting room.

For Gilligan, I had the whole colorized 1st series on archive dot org, alongside the unedited vhs releases until about last month-- they got taken down for copyright. The color was lacking but definitely better on the cassettes than what got broadcast.

Me? I prefer the b&w for series 1. Gilligan glowing after drinking The Professor's "shiny junk"? Black-and-white trick photography at its finest (for Gilligan, anyways)!