Gilligan's Island: Erika Tiffany Smith to the Rescue

Gilligan's Island: Erika Tiffany Smith to the Rescue
CBS
December 30, 1965
Sitcom
DVD
B

This is the last of the five GI scripts David P. Harmon wrote and easily his best.  Zsa Zsa Gabor stars as Mrs. Smith (I'm guessing she's a widow or divorcee, although I guess she could be a single heiress through her parents) and she impacts all of the castaways.  She and Lovey have a catty rivalry, while Thurston hopes to profit from her plans to make the island a resort.  (He'd himself turn it into a resort in the middle TV-movie.)  She ignores Mary Ann and condescends to Gilligan, but she flatters and flirts with first the Skipper and then the Professor.  The Skipper is like a little boy with a crush, but she's drawn to the Professor's looks, although she soon tires of his interest in science, breaking off the engagement that he accidentally got into.  She doesn't encounter Ginger, but the movie star gives both men romantic advice, telling the Skipper to recite poetry to Erika, although we never actually see this happen.

With the Professor, Ginger happily gives him kissing lessons, again, as in their movie love scene, having him lie on a table as she kisses from above.  He's initially uninterested in romance, but he proves to be an eager pupil.  And it is after this, not after Erika seems bored by his lecture, that he decides to break off the engagement.  Erika meanwhile sends Mr. Howell to tell the Professor she wants to end it. And despite the title, she does not actually rescue anyone.

Thus ends 1965 in my TV collection, a year full of change.  (This is also the 100th episode I've reviewed, over half of them Gilligan's Island.)