Re: The Galaxy Tales v1-3 by Dirk B.
This week's episode of Gilligan's Island involved quite a few quirks. First, Ginger was cutting the Skipper's hair. He had on one of those capes to keep hair off his clothes. More interesting, though, was that Ginger was wearing a barber's jacket that fit her perfectly. The shit they carried on that boat never ceases to amaze me.
This week was all about oranges. The Skipper was surprised to discover he was so weak he couldn't lift a log that Gilligan could lift with one hand. The professor ran some tests using an island-crafted version of a stethoscope and blood pressure monitor. He eventually diagnoses vitamin C deficiency due to insufficient citrus fruit. Apparently, because the Skipper was the biggest person on the island, he was most affected. Turns out, the bigger you are, the more quickly you're affected. I'll let Amy deal with that one. In what was impeccable timing, Gilligan shows up with the last orange on the island. It's also the first orange seen in the show. As they stand around arguing about who should get it, the sun dries it out until all that remains is the skin and the seeds.
Their solution is to plant the seeds and grow orange trees. They set up two-foot-high torches to keep the seeds warm in the ground. I never knew torches could warm the ground from two feet up. Perhaps they should have relied on the fact that it's 90+ degrees on the island. They made a big show how cold it was at night.
Gilligan stands watch to keep the torches lit. You would think they'd learned after 2+ years that Gilligan should never be on watch. Naturally, he falls asleep and they act out Jack & the Beanstalk in his dream. The beanstalk is actually an orange tree. The Skipper is the giant, and he had crates full of oranges in his castle, along with a goose that lays oranges. In a cute scene, the Skipper chases a "tiny" Gilligan around the stacks of oranges. They used a really young boy dressed as Gilligan, so the Skipper would look much bigger. If I remember correctly, the boy was Bob Denver's (Gilligan's) four or five-year-old son.
Eventually, Gilligan wakes up, the torches had gone out, and the orange seeds were ruined. Shocking! Fortunately, the Professor shows up with a large supply of grapefruits and lemons that he found on the island. Like the oranges, none of these fruits ever appeared on the island outside of that episode. Turns out Gilligan knew about the grapefruits and lemons all along. He just didn't know they were citrus fruits.
A fun episode, actually.
