Saturday, May 1, 2010

Could the Cast from My Name is Earl take over Gilligan's Island?

This Cast photo of My Name is Earl reminds me the 60's TV show Gilligan's Island. The actors from My Name is Earl could probably do a bang up job as the new cast of a Gilligan's Island tv show re make.
(Photo above is property of the TV Show My Name is Earl).
(Photo above is property of the TV Show Gilligan's Island)

At first glance, Earl Hickey (Jason Lee) could be Gilligan, Randy Hickey (Ethan Suplee) would be the skipper, Joy Turner (Jaime Pressly) would be Ginger "Snaps", Catalina (Nadine Velazquez) would play Mary Ann, Darnell Turner (Eddie Steeples) would be the Professor.

This leaves the casting for millionaire Thurston Howell the Third and his wife "Lovey". I could see Beau Bridges (Earl's father on the show, Carl Hickey) and Nancy Lenehan (Earl's mother on the show, Kay Hickey) playing the eccentric millionaire couple.

I would consider switching roles of Darnell Turner and Earl Hickey, Turner switching from the Professor to Gilligan, and Earl Hickey from Gilligan to the Professor. However since Gilligan is the lead, I doubt such a switch would be on the table for a Gilligan's Island's remake since it would be considered a step down for Earl (Jason Lee) to play a supporting cast member when he has already been the lead in My Name is Earl. Plus making Gilligan look silly as the original did might be considered racist nowadays if an african american actor (Eddie Steeples) played the part.

On the other hand, I think Eddie Steeples would somehow elevate the roll of Gilligan into more than a screw up, and I'm guessing Steeples could do physical comedy well, whereas Jason Lee could bring authenticity to the professor's part. Maybe a running gag could be that the Professor and Gilligan occasionally accidentally knock heads and each becomes the other one.

I think a remake of Gilligan's Island updated to present times could be kind of funny if it could comedically be shown that they can't be found or rescued through a series of really ironic and boneheaded things going wrong. Kind of like what happens on "LOST". (ha ha)

It would probably be a real challenge to write the scripts as the actors would probably all have to be played as more enlightened overall than the original Gilligan's Island. The more enlightened the characters are, the less likely they would be to do some of the dumb things they did do that kept them on the island the first time around.

On the other hand, what if all of their electronic gadgets kept them so pre-occupied that they weren't as motivated to leave the island. Maybe the geo navigational readings are somehow misdirected so when they leave messages nobody can find them. Maybe nobody really misses them because of email and messaging. Maybe somebody offers them a million dollars each if they can stay lost for a year.

Maybe they are stranded on the island as a stunt gone wrong. They agree to stay on the island to raise money for global warming, and agree to stay as long as a certain amount of money is raised each year. Of course, the running gag is every they find out that they have raised more than the amount that keeps them on the Island. (This could lead to a really funny series finale when we find out just who wanted to make sure they stayed on the island).

Maybe in during the course of the show, they demonstrate real life situations that prove global warming may be happening???

I'm not clamoring for a Gilligan's island remake, but if one were done, it would be kind of funny if the cast of Earl was used to make it happen.


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