The castaways have lost another beloved member of their crew. Actor Russell Johnson, who became known to generations of TV fans as "The Professor," the fix-it man who kept his fellow Gilligan's Island castaways supplied with gadgets, has died. Johnson died Thursday morning (Jan. 16, 2014) at his home in Washington State of natural causes, said his agent, Mike Eisenstadt. Before Gilligan's Island, Johnson had appeared in dozens of films and television shows. His TV credits included 77 Sunset Strip, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Wagon Train, The Lone Ranger, The Twilight Zone, Ben Casey, Hawaiian Eye and Death Valley Days. Although he didn't work as often after Gilligan's Island, Johnson remained active into the late 1990s, appearing on such shows as ALF, The Jeffersons, My Two Dads, Dynasty and Newhart.
During its three-season run on CBS, critics repeatedly lambasted Gilligan's Island as insipid. But after its cancellation in 1967, it found generations of new fans in reruns and reunion movies in the '70s and '80s (Rescue from Gilligan's Island, The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island, and animated series Gilligan's Planet). One of the most recent of the reunion films was 2001's Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three-Hour Tour in History, in which other actors portrayed the original seven-member cast while Johnson and two other surviving cast members narrated and reminisced.
As far as TV marathon tributes, The MeTV Network will pay tribute to Russell Johnson by featuring four episodes prominently featuring the character Professor Roy Hinkley. Part one aired last night from 8:00- 9:00pm ET/PT (episodes: "Pass the Vegetables, Please" and "Forget Me Not") and part two will air Sunday morning from 11:00am-12:00pm ET/PT (episodes: "Ship Ahoax" and "V For Vitamins"). We will let you know if anything else comes up, as TV Land coincidentally just started airing the series again after a decade. Mr. Johnson will be deeply missed and now we are down to two Gilligan's Island cast members: Dawn Wells and Tina Louise. Mr. Johnson was 89.
During its three-season run on CBS, critics repeatedly lambasted Gilligan's Island as insipid. But after its cancellation in 1967, it found generations of new fans in reruns and reunion movies in the '70s and '80s (Rescue from Gilligan's Island, The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island, and animated series Gilligan's Planet). One of the most recent of the reunion films was 2001's Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three-Hour Tour in History, in which other actors portrayed the original seven-member cast while Johnson and two other surviving cast members narrated and reminisced.
As far as TV marathon tributes, The MeTV Network will pay tribute to Russell Johnson by featuring four episodes prominently featuring the character Professor Roy Hinkley. Part one aired last night from 8:00- 9:00pm ET/PT (episodes: "Pass the Vegetables, Please" and "Forget Me Not") and part two will air Sunday morning from 11:00am-12:00pm ET/PT (episodes: "Ship Ahoax" and "V For Vitamins"). We will let you know if anything else comes up, as TV Land coincidentally just started airing the series again after a decade. Mr. Johnson will be deeply missed and now we are down to two Gilligan's Island cast members: Dawn Wells and Tina Louise. Mr. Johnson was 89.
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