A tale of a fateful trip

Talk about a milestone for us-much-maligned-by-Attytood-commenters Baby Boomers! Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of that era's epic television shows "Gilligan's Island" (that's Schwartz at center with the cast; director Jack Arnold is in the enviable slot nexc to Tina Louise) AND "The Brady Bunch," has died at the ripe old age of 94:

TV critics hooted at "Gilligan's Island" as gag-ridden corn. Audiences adored its far-out comedy. Schwartz insisted that the show had social meaning along with the laughs: "I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications."

He argued that his sitcoms didn't rely on cheap laughs. "I think writers have become hypnotized by the number of jokes on the page at the expense of character," Schwartz said in a 2000 Associated Press interview.

"When you say the name Gilligan, you know who that is. If a show is good, if it's written well, you should be able to erase the names of the characters saying the lines and still be able to know who said it. If you can't do that, the show will fail."

Exactly! Schwartz' America in 1964 was a place where where you could get some yucks from out-of-touch millionaires like Thurston Howell III and his wife "Lovey," but the idea of them socializing with proletariats like Gilligan and the Skipper wasn't all that far-fetched. In 2011, Howell would be busy pushing to get the lefty Professor denied tenure and replaced with a course on Ayn Rand.

Ironically, posting will be light today as I finish a story on...millionaires and inequality in America.

So sit right back and you'll hear a tale....