The Seven Deadly Sins on One Island...

Gilligan's Island is an old television show that played in the 1960's. Its reruns continued years after the show ended. They also made some TV movies to remake the short lived series. I was reminiscing about this show with someone the other day and they pointed out the most interesting thing I have heard in a while. The Seven Deadly Sins. He mentioned how this television show in particular, discretely had each character represent one sin. When I looked into the show more and watched some old episodes I realized he had a very good point and decided to share it with you. To refresh those of you who don't remember or who don't know, the seven sins are;


1. Pride: is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individuals recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise.

2. Envy: is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.

3. Gluttony: is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

4. Lust: is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

5. Wrath: is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. Also known as Anger.

6. Greed: is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual.

7. Sloth: is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

After going through the list of characters we matched them to each sin we saw best fit to them.

Ginger represented Lust. She was the "temptress", she was always wanted by the other men and desired to be wanted by them. She was very flirtatious in the series.

Mrs. Howell a.k.a. "Lovely" represents Gluttony. She always wanted more than she could have because she was so materialistic and obsessed with power.

Mr. Howell represented Greed. He always bragged of his riches. He was known as the millionaire on the show.

Skipper represented Wrath. He was always angry and rude to mostly Gilligan through out the series.

The Professor represented Pride. He was "always right" during the show. He didn't usually take others opinions because he thought of himself as being smarter then every one else.

Gilligan represented Sloth. He was very lazy through out the series. He barely ever wanted to help do work to get them off the island.

Mary Anne represented Envy. She desired to be Ginger "a real movie star".

There is a possibility that the director of this show began to see the sins in people all around him. With the growing economy in his time period he may have began to realize how people started to change. Many people don't appreciate what they have or the opportunities they were given. I think the director was trying to show that through this series. By making a show that had a person represent each sin gave people the opportunity to compare themselves to someone on the show. When people begin comparing others to the characters in the show it allows them to see how almost everyone they know runs mainly off one sin, even themselves. Do you think this show was trying to pass a message to the public?

Being Positive and Successful Can Happen!!!

Recently in class we discussed all of the talk shows on television that are so negative, but try to say they are helping people. Shows such as Oprah, Jerry Springer, Dr. Phil, and so on. The networks say that the drama of these shows pull people in to watching it, creating their revenue of money. But, I want to point someone out that is positive on every show and still makes a very good amount of money, Ellen DeGeneres. In my opinion she is more interesting to watch opposed to all of the drama shows that discuss horrible life situations of the guests and the talk show hosts. Ellen uses a lot of comedy on each of her shows, allows of lot of children to show off their talents and interacts with her crowd a lot. She makes fun of a lot of infomercials and people doing things for attention. She points out most of the stupidity and laziness of a majority of America. For example; she had an episode where she ordered the Hawaiian Chair, it is a chair that supposedly works your abdominal muscles while you are being sedentary at work. She got someone out of the audience to ask their opinion of the chair as well and they sat in it trying to function, but had a pretty hard time doing so. She was discretely pointing out how it was a very unintelligent idea. Watch the video and see for yourself.



Another show that I watched of hers that really caught my attention was when she sang in the bathroom with the singer Pink. They were making fun of two girls that call themselves "Rin on the Rox", that started making home videos of themselves singing in the bathroom. Even though they are not bad singers, you wonder why they may be wasting their time singing in the bathroom!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK-D3CFqQlY

Even though Ellen made fun of them she eventually invited them to come on the show. My main point to this blog is to make people see that funny and non-dramatic television shows can be successful. You do not have to include negative and depressing stories on just so people will watch the show. Do you feel that drama is the only thing that attracts the audience or is it something else?