Live HistoricSee what matters.

Series · CBS · 1964

Pass it on

Gilligan's Island

30Leave it.

A hit, and a loop. Nobody changes, and the island is not a life.

Take controlThis scores 30. Gilligan's Island cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

A boat tour goes wrong and seven people are stuck. Each week someone invents a way off the island and the first mate ruins it. The country watched in large numbers for three seasons. The watchability is the theme song and the certainty that nothing will stick. Nobody learns the ruinous habit. Nobody is in real danger. The millionaire keeps his money as a personality, and the women keep their costumes as personalities.

I will not call a harmless loop a good evening. Harmless is not the same as worth the hour. A small child will not be wounded. A small child will also not be given anyone to become. If it is on in the background, let it be background. Do not defend it as a classic of the decade because the song is still in your head. The song is an advertisement for staying the same.

Journal

Keep Gilligan's Island in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 30. Yours can differ.

The glance

Industry and Household and Piety and Courage and Republic and Temperance and Truth and Stewardship are the thin ones.

Does anyone here do a real job, and does that job matter?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

Saturday Night Live

39 instead of 30

Saturday Night Live is still a comedy show, and it scores 39 instead of 30. What you gain is industry: Live television is a craft with a deadline.

The eight

2
Industry
The professor builds things. The things never do the one job, which is leaving.
4
Household
Seven strangers become a kind of house, and the show is too thin to mean it.
2
Piety
No reverence. A skipper's temper is the highest authority on the sand.
3
Courage
The risks are slapstick. Nobody is brave because nothing is quite real.
3
Republic
They owe each other rescue. The show owes them a joke instead, every week.
4
Temperance
The appetite is comfort and a coconut. It neither grows nor is judged.
3
Truth
The lie is that they are trying to escape. The show needs them not to.
3
Stewardship
A child inherits a loop: try, fail, laugh, never leave, never learn.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Gilligan's Island · 30IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Series · NBC · 1989

Pass it on

Seinfeld

30Leave it.

The selfishness is the joke and the confession. Famous, and not a model. Adults.

Take controlThis scores 30. Seinfeld cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

The finale years of this show were a national appointment, and the appointment was to watch four people fail every test of neighborliness and be applauded for the wording. The wording is often brilliant. A small social truth — the double dip, the close talker, the reserved car — is seen clearly.

Clarity about pettiness is not the same as a life. Adults can love a line and still refuse to live in the apartment. Do not let a young person take it as a personality. The show's own last judgment, that they were terrible, is the one it earned.

Journal

Keep Seinfeld in the record.