Gilligan's Island: Big Man on a Little Stick

Splendor in the sand.

Gilligan's Island: Big Man on a Little Stick
CBS
February 20, 1965
Sitcom
DVD
B

Talk about a shipping shift!  When slang-talking, muscular surfer Duke Williams (Denny Miller) arrives, the girls fall for him, and it's mutual.  Then he comes on too strong, even for Ginger, who apparently prefers to do the seducing.  And Duke won't leave the island on a reverse tsunami (don't ask), so Mrs. Howell comes up with a scheme (which her husband takes credit for) that worked to discourage one of her old suitors.  The Professor & Ginger pretend to be a couple, as do Gilligan & Mary Ann.  I don't think Ginger has to pretend to be impressed by the Professor's big words, and he's pretty cooperative when she kisses him.  However, Gilligan, whom the Skipper plans to tell about the birds & the bees later, doesn't seem to know how to respond to Mary Ann's kisses.  (We see her lipstick on his face.)  He does seem jealous of the attention the girls pay Duke earlier, but as if he's not really conscious what he's feeling.  Still, it's fair to say that he has entered a new phase in his very, very slow sexual development.

This is Lou Houston's only GI script, but Charles Tannen's third, while Tony Leader would direct some more episodes.

Sometimes who's on top makes a difference.