Every State, Ranked by Its Food. (via Digg)
Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (via Metafilter)
15 Thanksgiving Dinner Disasters (And How to Avoid Them). We learn from our mistakes, but it's less painful to learn from other people's mistakes.
How far into the horrific past will 2017 regress?
The Lucrative Business of Prescribing Booze During Prohibition. Medicinal liquor was a legal loophole that everyone wanted to use.
How Nick Offerman Is Using Woodworking to Help Americans in Need. Would Works is a nonprofit organization that pays homeless people for helping in a woodworking shop.
Mangilaluk’s Highway. The story of an Inuit boy who ran away from residential school illustrates the problems of an entire region.
The Underrated Charm of Ice Fishing. Looking at vintage photographs of the pastime is quite charming, as long as we can stay warm inside while we do it.
12 Terrible Pieces of Advice for Pregnant Women. When in doubt, ask your doctor.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnd when the lyrics were reworked from "and the rest" to "the Professor and Mary Ann", it was because Gilligan himself (Bob Denver) had gone to bat for them. Depending on which story you believe, Tina Louise's contract specified that she would get not just a billing and character mention in the opening, but the desirable position of 'last mention' as well (yes, their position in the credits is of real concern to actors, even today, and I guess being either first-billed or last-billed are the two choicest spots; no, I don't know why as I am not an actor myself).
ReplyDeleteDenver's contract, however, gave him the privilege to decide where he wanted to be billed, and after season one he threatened to demand the last position for himself — or even to be left off the opening completely and appear only in the closing credits — unless Johnson and Wells were included more prominently in the opening credits. Since the name of the show WAS "Gilligan's Island" it wouldn't do for him to have anything but top billing, so Louise's contract was reworked and the "Gilligan's Island Theme 2.0" was rewritten to include both the Professor and Mary Ann's names.
The other explanation that sometimes makes the rounds is that Bob Denver had told the producers that he would not renew his own contract at all unless Wells and Johnson got equal consideration and mention in the opening. Again, this would never do, so the end result was the same — in order to keep Denver happy, "the Professor and Mary Ann" were in, the lyrics and billing were reworked, and Louise was forced to accept the changes.