At the start, the interviewer brings up to Denver that the re-run longevity is due in part to it being perfect after-school fodder. That’s certainly how I saw it, along with that other Sherwood Schwartz syndication monster, The Brady Bunch. Every. Damn. Day. Which in itself is enough of a cultural touchstone that the ultimate school nostalgia movie, Dazed and Confused, opens with the kids trying to list every Gilligan’s Island episode on the blackboard from memory, then segues into the girls giving it a feminist critique in the ladies room.
I guess back when there were 3 networks you could make a show for the mental level of a child and the family as a whole would agree to watch it in prime-time, but it’s actually difficult for me to believe that these Schwartz shows ever aired in the evening because they’re soooo stupid. I can barely watch them any more yet I totally love them because they were fairly excellent kids’ programming when I was on that level.
