What If? Gilligans Island Renewed?

Watching All in the Family reruns today makes me wonder if some of their topics might be too edgy for today's PC world. I've seen a couple episodes where Archie drops the "N" word. Not sure how that would fly today.

The "N" word probably would cause a problem but it may depend I don't know. I wonder if some of the race issues they talked about than still be worth discussing now. I think they may have delved into affirmative action which would still be relevant today just outdated. I don't know I was only a kid when it was showing
 
I wonder if it is possible one of the actors or actresses on Gilligans Island would've ended up as a "break out" star.

Obviously not Bob Denver as he had already had a pretty big shot on Doby Gillis and Alan Hale Jr. was too old. Jim Backus was already as big a star as he was ever going to get.

What about Dawn Wells? Young, pretty, former beauty queen?

One of her problems was that she was not known for much in the way of talent. Reportedly she couldn't even sing Happy Birthday on the show because she was always so out of tune and had no harmony whatsoever.
 
I wonder if it is possible one of the actors or actresses on Gilligans Island would've ended up as a "break out" star.

Obviously not Bob Denver as he had already had a pretty big shot on Doby Gillis and Alan Hale Jr. was too old. Jim Backus was already as big a star as he was ever going to get.

What about Dawn Wells? Young, pretty, former beauty queen?

One of her problems was that she was not known for much in the way of talent. Reportedly she couldn't even sing Happy Birthday on the show because she was always so out of tune and had no harmony whatsoever.

Would an extra season or two have made a difference? They were already on the air for three years giving all the network executives a good look at them.
 
The "N" word probably would cause a problem but it may depend I don't know. I wonder if some of the race issues they talked about than still be worth discussing now. I think they may have delved into affirmative action which would still be relevant today just outdated. I don't know I was only a kid when it was showing

One thing I noticed about the 1980s show Family Ties is that it rarely, if ever, touched on racial issues, despite the critics touting Alex P. Keaton as "the Archie Bunker of the 80s". I surmise this is because that would neccessitate Alex expressing right-wing views on blacks, which would be considered racist by liberal standards. And that wouldn't really fit in with the lovable image the show tried to impart to the character.
 
One thing I noticed about the 1980s show Family Ties is that it rarely, if ever, touched on racial issues, despite the critics touting Alex P. Keaton as "the Archie Bunker of the 80s". I surmise this is because that would neccessitate Alex expressing right-wing views on blacks, which would be considered racist by liberal standards. And that wouldn't really fit in with the lovable image the show tried to impart to the character.

Good point. Michael J. Fox was the absolute breakout star on Family Ties so they were not going to have him say much controversial.
 
One thing I noticed about the 1980s show Family Ties is that it rarely, if ever, touched on racial issues, despite the critics touting Alex P. Keaton as "the Archie Bunker of the 80s". I surmise this is because that would neccessitate Alex expressing right-wing views on blacks, which would be considered racist by liberal standards. And that wouldn't really fit in with the lovable image the show tried to impart to the character.

I don't think the show producers wanted to go in the racial direction because it took away from the theme of the show which was Alex's perceived greed and love of wall street and Republicans vs his parents 1960's like liberalism. Note how that family still got along and loved each other regardless of political affiliation, something we can learn from
 
I don't think the show producers wanted to go in the racial direction because it took away from the theme of the show which was Alex's perceived greed and love of wall street and Republicans vs his parents 1960's like liberalism. Note how that family still got along and loved each other regardless of political affiliation, something we can learn from

Yeah, it would have been difficult to get all sentimental about the love between Alex and his parents if the guy had been carrying on like Archie Bunker!

And, to the extent that 80s Wall Street yuppies were really a "thing", they probably weren't as obsessed with race as the early 70s hardhats were. Still, it probably did come up a few times in their discourses, especially as it touched on economic issues(eg. government spending on minority projects, etc).
 
Yeah, it would have been difficult to get all sentimental about the love between Alex and his parents if the guy had been carrying on like Archie Bunker!

And, to the extent that 80s Wall Street yuppies were really a "thing", they probably weren't as obsessed with race as the early 70s hardhats were. Still, it probably did come up a few times in their discourses, especially as it touched on economic issues(eg. government spending on minority projects, etc).

If race was brought up it would probably revolve around Reagan's tax cuts and how it affected social programs in low income areas that are mainly black. Alex loved Reagan and blacks considered Reagan a horrible president for them.
 
If race was brought up it would probably revolve around Reagan's tax cuts and how it affected social programs in low income areas that are mainly black. Alex loved Reagan and blacks considered Reagan a horrible president for them.

In all fairness that was about the time that the Democrats began playing the race card nonstop.
 
The way the Archie Bunker character was developed and portrayed was actually pretty amazing. He was basically discriminatory towards everyone, racist against blacks, hispanics, poles, italians, etc. antisemetic, anti-catholic, homophobic, anti-hippie/counterculture movement.

But he was developed into a sympathetic character who had all those flaws not out of deep hatred but ignorance. I remember some episodes where they would address Archie's upbringing to show where his outlook on the world came from.

On the other hand Alex Keaton grew up in a middle class family and was portrayed as being quite smart. So if he was portrayed as racist he would have come off as a very hated character.
 
The way the Archie Bunker character was developed and portrayed was actually pretty amazing. He was basically discriminatory towards everyone, racist against blacks, hispanics, poles, italians, etc. antisemetic, anti-catholic, homophobic, anti-hippie/counterculture movement.

But he was developed into a sympathetic character who had all those flaws not out of deep hatred but ignorance. I remember some episodes where they would address Archie's upbringing to show where his outlook on the world came from.

On the other hand Alex Keaton grew up in a middle class family and was portrayed as being quite smart. So if he was portrayed as racist he would have come off as a very hated character.
I watched Family Ties and I couldn't see Alex as racist. He was just a portrayal of what liberals thought was wrong with the economic policies if the '80's brought on by Reagan. He was supposed to make people believe that Reaganomics was bad.
 
I watched Family Ties and I couldn't see Alex as racist. He was just a portrayal of what liberals thought was wrong with the economic policies if the '80's brought on by Reagan. He was supposed to make people believe that Reaganomics was bad.

Agreed, if Alex Keaton acted like Archie Bunker he would have been thoroughly hated by just about everyone. Definitely not what the producers were going for when they were making a family sitcom.
 
It should also be noted that they deliberately placed Archie Bunker in the position of "teaming up" with people he was supposed to hate against a third party.

More than one time he ended up arguing against then along side the brother of his neighbor George Jefferson.

One example when George's brother came to Archie's to complain but then George's son Lionel came shortly thereafter to complain to his uncle about George.

Lionel and his uncle get into an argument upon which Archie jumps in and says to Lionel

"You can't talk to your uncle like that! He's a hard working man!"
 
It should also be noted that they deliberately placed Archie Bunker in the position of "teaming up" with people he was supposed to hate against a third party.

More than one time he ended up arguing against then along side the brother of his neighbor George Jefferson.

One example when George's brother came to Archie's to complain but then George's son Lionel came shortly thereafter to complain to his uncle about George.

Lionel and his uncle get into an argument upon which Archie jumps in and says to Lionel

"You can't talk to your uncle like that! He's a hard working man!"

And there was an episode where Archie is circulating a petition to keep a minority family out of the neighbourhood, and Mr. Jefferson(can't recall which one) is outraged, until he finds that the new family is hispanic, at which point he and Bunker become allies.

Also, the time where someone paints a swastike on Archie's door, and he hires the "Hebrew Defense Association" to protect him. I think that must be the only episode of an American sitcom that dealt witht the JDL, and one of the rare times when a Jewish character, acting in the interests of Jews, is portrayed in a negative light.
 
Sit Right Back and you will hear a Terrifying Tale . . .

I recall reading the theory that the passengers and crew of the SS Minnow actually had died in the storm and the island was actually Hell and thus no escape.

Each of the castaways represented a deadly sin

Gilligan - Sloth - Being too slow or lazy at doing something.
The Skipper - Gluttony - Similar to greed, but gluttony is the action of taking too much of something in.
Mr. Howell - Greed - Wanting too much of something.
Mrs. Howell - Wrath - Vindictive anger; angry revenge.
Ginger - Lust - The need to fulfill unspiritual desires (not just sexual desires, but this is usually what lust is associated with.)
The Professor - Pride - Being too self-satisfied
Maryanne - Envy - Jealousy; wanting to have what someone has.

Can you imagine if they had went with this storyline for season four and onward?

My favorite reaction to the series is, of course, that of the aliens from Galaxy Quest
 
Wasn't Gilligans Island intended to end up in Space or something weird eventually?

Filmmation eventually made two Gilligan's Island animated series of one season each IIRC.

The first was a mere continuation of Gilligan's Island.

The second was called "Gilligan's Planet" and relocated the castaways using their own crude spacecraft to an alien planet.
 
One thing I noticed about the 1980s show Family Ties is that it rarely, if ever, touched on racial issues, despite the critics touting Alex P. Keaton as "the Archie Bunker of the 80s". I surmise this is because that would neccessitate Alex expressing right-wing views on blacks, which would be considered racist by liberal standards. And that wouldn't really fit in with the lovable image the show tried to impart to the character.

I remember one episode of Family Ties where the father actually uses the N-word. He was talking about Mark Twain and how some people wanted to ban Huck Finn for using it. I think the episode may have been about censorship, but I can't really recall. It only stands out to me because it was the first time I had heard the word on television, and on TVLand of all places.

Another episode had Alex going to a club that did not allow Jewish members. There was some conflict about it between him and his mother, but I think at the end he ended up going regardless( I think a date was taking him there, has been quite awhile) So race was touched on now and then on Family Ties, even if to a much lighter extent.
 
I remember one episode of Family Ties where the father actually uses the N-word. He was talking about Mark Twain and how some people wanted to ban Huck Finn for using it. I think the episode may have been about censorship, but I can't really recall. It only stands out to me because it was the first time I had heard the word on television, and on TVLand of all places.

Another episode had Alex going to a club that did not allow Jewish members. There was some conflict about it between him and his mother, but I think at the end he ended up going regardless( I think a date was taking him there, has been quite awhile) So race was touched on now and then on Family Ties, even if to a much lighter extent.

There was also the episode that aired toward the end of the series (in the last season to be exact, I binge watched "Family Ties" on Netflix a few months ago) where Black friends of theirs moved into their neighborhood and the others in the neighborhood were afraid of falling property and home values, and as a result, the black family's home is vandalized, although the family did end up staying there as all the others felt bad that an act of racism was committed and helped them clean up the vandalism.
 
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