Russell Johnson, whose name may not be readily household, but the character of The Professor he played on the hapless castaway sitcom Gilligan’s Island certainly was, has died at the age of 89 of natural causes at his home in Washington.
To massive amounts of generations who found Gilligan’s Island in syndication a few years after its cancellation as a mildly successful CBS program during its original run from 1964-1967, The Professor was one of the few level-headed and conscientious characters on the show, which already had thrown logic and any sense of reality out the window. Its basic premise was a group of travelers going on a three-hour tour by way of a boat ride wind up in inclement weather, so bad that the boat capsizes, and all aboard are somehow washed aboard a remote island, one that seemingly is immune to anyone else coming there to rescue its new inhabitants.
...continue reading »
