Why did the Howells ever come aboard the Minnow in "Gilligan’s Island?"
listen to me here Why did the Howells ever go aboard The Minnow in “Gilligan’s Island”?
Now, before you just shrug the question off like it doesn’t make sense, there’s actually a backstory here. And it is quite juicy.
Mr. Howell was a billionaire and one of the richest men in the world thanks to the money he had inherited from his father. Confused? Sure. But loaded to the gills with disposable income.
The affable Mr. Howell met his wife “Lovey” at Harvard and married her in 1944. That was the day Consolidated General jumped 17 points. And while we’re told that they’ve been married for almost 20 years, we’re also told that the last 4 or 5 of those years weren’t all that happy.
Now, knowing that money was NOT an issue for the Howells on September 26, 1964, when the show first aired, why would they ever hit the slums and head to the docks for a ride? in The Minnow, which had to be smaller? than any Howell boat.
Has no sense. Or if?
As it turns out, dear friends, The Minnow was named after Mr. Newton Minnow, then Chairman of the FCC. And it was widely known that Mr Minnow had repeatedly called television a ‘vast wasteland’. Hmm.
Was this creator and executive producer, Sherwood Schwartz, the way he dealt a big blow to the FCC?
Did he deliberately put these two billionaires (with a ‘b’) on The Minnow to show that TV wasn’t a wasteland? What demanded respect? That he commanded the respect of everyone no matter how much money or power they had?
Is that why Mr. Schwartz did that?
Gilligan’s Island is the longest continuously running show syndication after only 98 episodes. Its operation was from September 1964 until a very sad April 17, 1967.
But by putting Howell’s on The Minnow, did putting Howell’s on The Minnow leave us all with timeless TV lessons?
