Gilligan's Island (TV Series) Angel on the Island (1964) User Reviews

Everybody wants to Be a Star...

[kmcelhaney005 · 6/10 · 28 July 2013]

Ginger is heartbroken because she missed her Broadway debut, but the rest of the castaways manage to cheer her up when they re-stage the play on the island with Mr. Howell promising to take it to Broadway. However, Mrs. Howell slyly convinces her husband to let her take over the lead and Ginger is once again heartbroken.

Will Ginger get back the lead to her own play? Well, it's no surprise that the answer is a big "YES", but it's still a decently fun trip along the way.

Highlights include the Skipper and Gilligan testing out the Professor's new phone system, Gilligan's failed attempt to cheer up Ginger, Mr. Howell's rather enthusiastic direction of the rehearsals, the Skipper's earnest attempt at remembering his lines, and the play itself which solves the problem of the minor roles by apparently giving them all to Gilligan.

While it has its moments, I had a great deal of difficulty believing that Mrs. Howell was (apparently) completely unaware of why the play was being produced in the first place. However, this unawareness is central to the plot, otherwise her action of taking over the lead is entirely selfish, mean spirited and out of character...rather than just being entirely selfish which would be the case if she was unaware.

Because of that, this episode suffers somewhat and is a little uncomfortable for me to watch. A shame, since the story is actually rather interesting. Overall, a fair-to-good show that might have been better.

• As with many things that are created on the island, the Professor's phone system is never seen or mentioned again after this episode.

• It seems rather strange that the rest of the castaways continue on with the play after Ginger is replaced as Cleopatra. Even Mary Ann is still in costume and she was furious.

• Mrs. Howell's difficulty with the cup (a nice physical bit) seems to have plagued Gilligan as well, thus the neat solution as we see in the play.

• Funny that the Professor has no part in the play (we never see him in costume) given the number of parts that are present. In fact, the Professor is barely in this episode at all, having only a single scene with Gilligan and appearing silently with the cast in the rest of the episode.

• The climactic scene has an unusual ending as we get an "iris-in" on the Skipper and Gilligan (shading out the rest of the cast) so we can apparently focus on the ball being dropped on the Skipper's foot.

A star is torn

[kevinolzak · 7/10 · 5 June 2016]

"Angel on the Island" was the first showcase for Tina Louise, with Mr. Howell directing Ginger's Broadway debut as Cleopatra, until Mrs. Howell objects to being reduced to playing the maid and taking over the starring role. Mr. Howell remembers their wedding day quite well: "that was the day Consolidated General jumped 17 points!" A heartbroken Ginger has the loyal Gilligan sticking up for her, though Skipper takes his role as Marc Antony seriously. Eventually, Mrs. Howell sees the error of her ways, faking laryngitis so that the star can return to play Cleopatra, poor Gilligan playing all the other roles in rapid succession. It's not as famous as the one produced by Phil Silvers as Harold Hecuba, but Tina shines as the fetching queen.

Gilligan goes off-Broadway and the plot goes off-kilter.

[Ralphkram · 6/10 · 3 April 2017]

Up until this episode the series centered on the Big Three of Gilligan, the Skipper, and Mr. Howell. Now the glamorous Ginger Grant seems primed to make her star turn, but it only lasts for half an act. A shift in focus, coupled with gaps in logic and an over-reliance on slapstick, make this installment below average.

The opening tease focuses on the movie star, who has been, ahem, acting strangely for several days and is now missing. Ginger is first seen in the jungle weeping over being marooned on the very day she was to make her Broadway debut. Gilligan scans her script, proclaims it a certain success, and suggests Mr. Howell back it whenever they get rescued.

Mr. Howell takes to this idea like a Swiss bank account and agrees to finance her play, thus becoming a backer, known as an angel in Broadway lingo, and this opens the door to the shift in focus.

But first the castaways, as usual, go all in on helping Ginger, and that's where the gaps in logic begin. It's not enough for them to read lines with her or do a little scene study. Oh no. They have to build a stage, a very permanent-looking one, with a curtain made out of their spare clothes. They create props, build scenery, design costumes, assign parts, tap their backer as director, and, in a blink, put on immediate rehearsals to perform Ginger's play.

Ginger's joy is short-lived. Director Howell throws one too many compliments in her direction, and Mrs. Howell, stuck in the minor role of a maid, turns jealous. She persuades him to make a casting change, and he announces in front of everyone his wife is now the new lead.

So now the movie star, who the episode should be about, disappears, and the focus is shifted to the Howells. The majority of the second act is spent on the angel's enthusiastic direction and his wife trying gamely to fill Ginger's shoes. Even though the others are furious at him, they continue with the rehearsals, apparently forgetting that the whole reason they are putting on the play is to boost the movie star's spirits.

It's up to our lead to get the episode back on track. A nice scene follows which passes for character development, where Gilligan reminds Mrs. Howell how important it is to Ginger's fragile psyche for her to star as Cleopatra and appeals to her humanity. Mrs. Howell reciprocates with a noble moment of her own, so her husband has to return Ginger to the starring role and set up what should be a rousing finale.

The play itself is slipshod and anticlimactic. There is a lot of hammy acting by Ginger in scenes more at home in a burlesque show. Gilligan goes through an array of costume changes that gets old fast, and he ad libs and slapsticks his way through short vaudeville-style sketches that are more dizzying than funny. The whole thing ends with an odd Looney Tunes fade out on our lead and the Skip.

And that's all folks.

COCONOTES

There was an excellent chance for Ginger to undergo some real character development, but it's lost in the shift to the Howell's putting on the show for their own ego. Guess writers Dinehart and Finn wanted to stick to the known and popular commodities of the Big Three, so Ginger gets short shrift.

It's cruelly ironic that the situation Ginger finds herself in mirrors the real-life situation of Tina Louise. She also left a Broadway role in Fade Out-Fade In with Carol Burnett to be stranded on the series.

Best part of the episode is watching the crazy, temperamental direction of Mr. Howell. Love his crying meltdown.

Major blooper: The S.S. Minnow, dismantled in Goodbye, Island, appears in an establishing shot. This happens quite a bit the rest of the season.

Alan Hale's right ear was injured in the scene where he walked through the bamboo ladder.

A Howell playing a maid? Oh raylly!

[mark.waltz · 9/10 · 1 September 2020]

A jealous Mrs. Howell demands stepping in to the role of Cleopatra in an off off off Broadway production of the play that Ginger was supposed to star in on the legitimate stage, canceled by her shipboard mayhem. Even if there wasn't going to be anybody in the audience, Ginger is heartbroken by this, having wanted at least the opportunity to be on a stage, even if it is made out of bamboo and palm leaves. This production of Cleopatra couldn't even leave the lagoon without sinking because everybody overacts, and Natalie Schafer in her Cleopatra outfit looks closer to what Flora Robson looked like as Vivian Leigh's slave in Caesar and Cleopatra. Then there's the skipper as Marc Anthony, looking closer to Nero then the great lover that betrayed his own country.

One interesting thing of note is that the holes have a typewriter in their hut, and Mrs. Howell can't even type. There are plenty of pratfalls thanks to Gilligan's efforts to make it perfect and try to right things with Ginger. Every time she shouts that she sees a ship, Gilligan comes in thinking that it's real. Howell as the producer is delightfully over-the-top, giving Jim Backus a chance to show off his fabulous talent for comedy and pretentiousness.

Even though part of the episode has her as being rather self-centered, Mrs. Howell ends up saving the day thanks to Gilligan's interference. Gilligan is very funny as he has to do quick changes to play a variety of roles, male and female, and the use of a sped up camera makes it work all the more. The island stage would make several more appearances, and of course eventually be the subject of a big Broadway bound musical.