The Gilligan Factor

Gilligan's Island is an American TV sitcom originally produced by United Artists Television. It aired for three seasons on the CBS network, from September 26, 1964 to September 4, 1967. It was sponsored by Phillip Morris & Company and Proctor and Gamble. The show followed the comic adventures of seven castaways as they attempted to survive and ultimately escape from a previously uninhabited island where they were shipwrecked.
Gilligan's Island ran for a total of 98 episodes. The first season (consisting of 36 episodes) was filmed in black-and-white though they were colorized in later syndication. However, the next two seasons (62 episodes) and three TV movie sequels were filmed in color.
Enjoying solid ratings during its original run, the show grew in popularity during decades of syndication. Today, the title character of Gilligan is widely recognized as a comedic American pop culture icon.

Executive producer Sherwood Schwartz believed in avoiding exposition, and so he composed the sea shanty-style theme song, "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle", as a capsule summary of the castaways' predicament. This was done so that first time viewers would instantly understand the premise. He took the same approach with the themes to "The Brady Bunch" and "It's About Time".

Quoted from Wickepedia

Gilligan's Island almost never made it past the first pilot episode. The shows creators had latched onto a great concept and had produced the show well, the character development was there but the audience was not drawn in and the early audience tests floundered. The key to the success of Gilligan's Island lay in the theme song. The producers discovered that the audience needed to be oriented each time the show aired so that they could have that 60 second explaination to allow themselves to be transported to the remote desert island. Without that psychological push, the audience could not make the emotional journey to join with the castaways. Without the theme song, the show began too abruptly and the audience could not get settled into the plot.

When Sesame Street was getting ready to air, the producers and consultants felt strongly that the puppet elements should be separated from the 'real' street and human elements of the show because the child psychologists who were involved with the concept felt strongly that mixing these two elements would confuse the child viewers. As Malcolm Gladwell details in his book, 'Blink' with only six weeks to the air date of the first show and with six episodes of Sesame Street already taped, their early testing was disappointing. Children would tune into the program when the puppets came on and would become disinterested when they saw only children and adults interacting.

These are not just stories about television shows, they are also a reflection of how humans engage and are brought together to experience a common idea. Teachers, doctors, parents, police officers, social workers and all of us who work fundamentally in the communications business, in direct contact with people as caregivers and communicators need to pay attention to finding the key that unlocks the message for the audience. For doctors, finding that key element to communicate the standards of health care to our patient makes the difference in the health of the patient. Empathy, active listening and compassion are part of this rapid communication strategy. Using the space within the treatment room, recognizing and disarming patients' preconceptions and biases are also keys to the success of a good communicator.

If it had not been for the theme song, audiences may never have been drawn to Gilligan's Island. If the puppet elements had been left off of Sesame Street and large, interactive puppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch had not appeared on the same set as the human cast, then the empire that would become the Children's Television Workshop might never have happened. Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood relied on close intimacy to join with the small children who constituted his audience. Fred Rogers was a gifted communicator and visually utilized the space within his home to physically stay close to the ground (where children spend most of their time) so as to appear less threatening. If you watch tapes of the show you see that he values direct eye contact and brings himself up to his full height physically when he is proud of something or wants to convey a message of the importance of self esteem and self worth.

Sometimes when I am speaking with a child I recall the demeanor of Mr. Rogers. There are times when I am trying to find ways to communicate with a difficult patient, I think of the creativity of the Sesame Street producers.

(I'm still pondering the many facets of Gilligan's Island.....)