V for Vitamins

"V" For Vitamins is the thirtieth episode of the second season of Gilligan's Island. It first aired April 14, 1966.

Synopsis
When the Skipper finds himself too weak to lift firewood which Gilligan and the Professor carry off, he asks for advice from the Professor, who gives him a physical. The Professor's finding is that a lack of Vitamin C from citrus fruits in the Castaways' diet will cause them to grow weaker by size. When Gilligan turns out to have an orange that will give them the vitamin they need, everyone wants it. He eventually decides to split it between everyone, but the Professor realizes this is just a temporary fix, and they all start fighting over it again. Meanwhile, the orange dries up from the heat, and no one gets it, but the Professor still sees a chance to save themselves by planting the seeds. That night, Gilligan is left in charge to keep the seeds warm enough to prevent freezing at night, but he falls asleep anyway and dreams he is the title character in "Jack and the Beanstalk." Mrs. Howell is his mother who gives him the family jewels to buy oranges, but Mr. Howell is the con-man who gets him to give up the family jewels for magic seeds. Upset over what he has done, Mrs. Howell tosses the seeds out the window and they grow into a beanstalk. Gilligan climbs it to the top and meets Mary Ann, the housekeeper of the Skipper as a giant. After freeing Ginger and the Professor, the giant's captives, Gilligan steals the giant's goose that lays oranges, but he gets caught and wakes up from the dream. While he's dreaming, the Professor has explored the other side of the island and found lemon and grapefruit trees. It seems Gilligan knew about them all along, but didn't know they were citrus fruit. Gilligan then opens a lemonade stand, but now that lemonade isn't in demand, he has no choice but to shut it down.



Message

 * "People usually fail to appreciate important things in life until they're gone."

Highlights

 * Coming up

Credits
Main Cast
 * Bob Denver as Gilligan
 * Alan Hale Jr. as The Skipper
 * Jim Backus as Mr. Howell
 * Natalie Schafer as Mrs. Howell
 * Tina Louise as Ginger
 * Dawn Wells as Mary Ann
 * Russell Johnson as The Professor

Guest Cast
 * Patrick Denver as Dream Gilligan (uncredited)

Trivia

 * The Professor's scientific expertise is once again called into question when he fails to realize that pineapples contain Vitamin C.
 * It is incredibly unlikely the Professor could detect a deficiency of any type without the proper chemicals or equipment. Furthermore, Vitamin C deficiency does not affect people by weight.
 * The Professor claims that Mrs. Howell would go from the deficiency before Ginger or Mary Ann, but she should be far lighter than Mary Ann in weight.
 * The Howell's Hut is mistakenly used as the exterior of the Boy's Hut; this same error pops up in Mr. and Mrs. ???.
 * As the orange dries up in the sun, it goes from evenly-colored to spotted and back to evenly-colored.
 * Mary Ann remarks that the farmer solution for growing fruit is 1-part sunshine, 2-parts water and 3-parts prayer; the Professor while reading his facts book on how to grow fruit is astonished to read that if the regular formula doesn't work to rely on 1-part sunshine, 2-parts water and 3-parts prayer.
 * The Professor says they have about a week to live while orange trees need at least a year to grow.
 * According to his dream, Gilligan sees Mrs. Howell as his mother, Mr. Howell as a hustler and the Skipper as intimidating. Furthermore, the fact that he denies having a brother in the dream after mentioning he had one in Smile, You're on Mars Camera suggests deeply-rooted subconscious conflict.
 * Bob Denver's four-year-old son Patrick plays little Jack in scenes with Alan Hale as the Giant.
 * At the end after the Professor finds more citrus fruit in the jungle and the Skipper remarks on how he'd like a steak, Gilligan remarks where he can find it in Hawaii! This is too much, the Professor takes off Gilligan's hat and the Skipper bonks Gilligan with his cap.
 * Syndicated versions of the episode omit the last scene where Gilligan has a lemonade stand and marks down the price of his drinks to free.
 * It is extremely unlikely that freezing temperatures would be experienced on a tropical island that has mature palm trees growing on it.

Quotes

 * Mr. Howell - "Gilligan, you outwitted a Howell!"

Mary Ann -"I'm a member of the 4-H." Skipper - "I'm a veteran!" Ginger - "I'm a movie star!" Mrs. Howell - "I do charity work!" Mr. Howell - "I'm Thurston Howell III! Anyone want to top that!!"
 * Professor - "Please, please, please, let's all remember that although this is a crisis, let's all remember that we're all friends. I'm sure we all have reasons for believing we deserve the orange."

Gilligan - "Not everything..." Skipper - "Yes, Gilligan, everything. Oranges frown from orange seeds, apples grow from apple seeds and watermelons grow from watermelon seeds!" Gilligan - "Yes, but birds don't grow from bird seeds!"
 * Skipper - "Why didn't we think of that? Everything grows from seeds?"


 * Ginger - "All I know about oranges is that there are people in Florida who grow them to send to people in California who grow them to send to people in Florida."

Mr. Howell - "What was that?" Mrs. Howell - "Only Gilligan. Gilligan - "Two o'clock and one minute and all's well!" Mr. Howell - "If he crows when the sun comes up, so help me, I'll kill him!"
 * Gilligan - "Two o'clock and all's well!"


 * Gilligan - "This hero business isn't what it's cracked up to be."

Old Man/Professor - "No, I'm not... but it will teach you not to believe everything you hear, girlie!"
 * Giant's Housekeeper/Mary Ann - "Oh, you're not a prince!"