Thoughts on the passing of Bob Denver

I had intended to blog yesterday about the death (in Winston-Salem, NC) of the actor who played Gilligan on Gilligan's Island. But school deadlines and other pressing matters kept me from doing so.

Today I saw an article by Paul Farhi in the Washington Post which sums up how I feel about the actor and the show.

"Thanks to its unending repeats, "Gilligan" has wormed into the popular culture like mildew inside wallpaper, ever-present and permanent. It has inspired evocative catchphrases that never seem to fade for two generations. A three-hour tour. Little Buddy. An uncharted desert isle."

More interestingly, Farhi pointed out something I have noticed a few years back about the show.

"Gilligan was ageless. He could have been 17 or 50 -- it was never clear. He was also basically sexless. Even on a desert island with two young and beautiful single women, he never got any action. Or even a hint of action."

Think about this. The plot of this TV show includes three single guys on a deserted island with two young women and the issue of sexuality never came up at all. Compare this to some of the other programs that are streamed into our living rooms today where very often the dialogue is laced with sexual innuendos, the scenes are filled with scantily dressed women, and the characters find themselves in endless combinations of awkward sexual situations.

The article made me realize that the passing of Bob Denver is about more than the passing of an actor and the television show he came to personify, but the slow and gradual evolution ("evolution" is a poor choice of words because it implies progress) of our culture from what it used to be to what we are heading toward today.