Gilligan's Island: Our Vines Have Tender Apes

Gilligan's Island: Our Vines Have Tender Apes
CBS
January 30, 1967
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Both Denny Miller and Janos Prohaska return in this second collaboration between Sidney A. Mandel and Roy Kammerman.  This time Miller is an actor pretending to be Tongo the Ape-Man, while Prohaska is again an Ape, although this costume looks more like an orangutan than the gorilla the script claims it is.  I find it a bit much for Tongo to be carrying around a tape recorder in his simple costume, although I guess it's supposed to clue in the audience more easily than if he had a diary.  And he has to leave something behind to give away that he speaks English.

Gilligan's Island: Forward March

Gilligan's Island: Forward March
CBS
February 17, 1966
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Except for Ginger singing "It Had to Be You" to Gilligan and vamping the Skipper to prove she'd make a good spy, this episode, the first of two written by Jack Raymond and the first of seven directed by Jerry Hopper, is pretty forgettable and gives a sense of de ja vu.  Janos Prohaska again plays an ape, or gorilla.

Gilligan's Island: Diamonds Are an Ape's Best Friend

Gilligan's Island: Diamonds Are an Ape's Best Friend
CBS
February 27, 1965
Sitcom
DVD
C+

This is the first of Janos Prohaska's appearances as an ape on GI.  (He was Clyde in Bikini Beach and often portrayed animals.)  His impression and costume are pretty good by the special effects standards of the show.  (The Kurt Russell episode had a lot of really obvious wire-work.)  But I have to say that the whole thing of an ape choosing Mrs. Howell, and then a perfume-soaked Gilligan as his mate, is pretty twisted, even for the time.  When the Professor urges decoy Ginger to be "sexier" for the ape, it's even more bizarre.  I do like how Mr. Howell puts his love for Lovey above his love for money.  ($10,000 is left sitting on the table and no one takes it, despite their sometime greed.)