Remember Gilligan’s Island?
Tacked on at the end of the theme was “the Professor and MaryAnn…” They were both so insignificant (apparently) that the original version didn’t even include them at then end of that song! I couldn’t have disagreed more. These two were far from insignificant and quickly became my favorite characters. You see, I’m a bit of a MaryAnn . . . As a child I was the dark haired girl in the background. Just like Maryann. My sister Sandi was tall, beautiful, voluptuous, and strawberry-blond. She was our Ginger. My oldest brother JR wasn’t fat, but he was our natural leader, our Skipper. And Mike had a big funny bone, so he was a natural fit for Gilligan.
When my father acquired a broken boat from Lakeside Amusement Park he dug a hole in our backyard and sunk the ‘ship’ into the ground. We played a lot of Gilligan, the four of us and that old boat. Nobody cared about the Howell’s in our backyard. We didn’t need them. They were old. But somebody had to play the professor now and again. After all, he got to solve an awful lot of problems. He and the Skipper were the most important people on that island. Without them the rest of the folks would have died of starvation or exposure. As the youngest of our own cast, I would flip characters. Professor — Maryann — Professor — Maryann. It was kind of schizo. I might have looked like Maryann on the outside, but inside . . . well, I was all professor.
I guess those backyard shipwrecks had a big impact on me. Today I’m still the professor and Maryann. I went to school, got educated off the deep end, and actually became a professor. And I still look like Maryann.
Maybe Maryann was a writer.
Mad
