| "Topsy-Turvy" | |
|---|---|
| Season 3, Episode 10 | |
| |
| A knock to the head hampers Gilligan's vision at the same time angry natives land on the island. | |
| Basic Info | |
| Air Date: | November 14, 1966 |
| Written By: | Elroy Schwartz |
| Directed By: | Gary Nelson |
| Guest Cast: | Eddie Little Sky, Allen Jaffe and Roman Gabriel as Natives |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous | Next |
| Ring Around Gilligan | The Invasion |
Topsy-Turvy is the 78th episode of Gilligan's Island and the tenth episode of the third season. It first aired November 14, 1966.
Synopsis[]
Head-hunters land on the Island pounding their war drums, and the Professor seeks out a cave to hide everyone until they leave. Unfortunately, Gilligan runs straight into a tree, and the blow to his head flips his vision upside-down. The Professor thinks he can fix his vision with the curative powers of the keptiburra berry growing on the island, but the Castaways are afraid to enter the jungle with the added fear of the threat from the Natives. Even Mary Ann is too afraid to look for them with the pounding drums from the jungle. However, Gilligan notices the sounds have stopped, unaware the head-hunters are still on the island despite their broken drum, and the Castaways run a search for the berries, each of them just missing or evading capture by just luck and timing. Ginger and Mary Ann search the island for the berries unaware the head-hunters are still prowling around and trying to capture them. At the compound, one of them tries to attack Gilligan, but he is scared away by the approaching Howells. After the Professor creates extract from the berries, the berries succeed in flipping Gilligan's vision back, but it also doubles it so Gilligan sees two of everything. The Professor meanwhile warns Gilligan his skewed vision might result in hallucinations, and later, when he starts actually seeing the head-hunters, he thinks they're hallucinations. However, the head-hunters start getting frustrated with their failed attempts to capture Gilligan. They finally capture both the Howells and the girls, and after the Professor fixes Gilligan's vision with water to dilute the strength of the berries, both he and the Skipper get captured. Gilligan manages to escape by fleeing into the jungle chased by one of the head-hunters and soon eludes them, but realizing he's out-numbered, he returns with the keptiburra extract to trick them into thinking they're out-numbered. He comes to rescue everyone, pretending to drink the extract, which the head-hunters take away from him to drink themselves. As the extract takes effect, Gilligan frees everyone, and they appear as an hallucinogenic army to the head-hunters, terrifying them off the island. Afterward, everyone is so appreciative of his clever heroism that they give him gifts. Mary Ann gives him a coconut cream pie, but Gilligan is so excited that he drinks the extract again so it looks like five pies. However, this makes it hard for him to take the one pie to eat it. When he pounds the table in frustration, it causes the pie to smack the Skipper in the face.
Message[]
- "The darkest of clouds sometimes has a silver lining."
Highlights[]
- The Natives grousing over breaking the drum.
- The captions translating the Native talk.
- Ginger calling Mary Ann "Mary Poppins."
- Eddie Little Sky's "comment" about Gilligan "having nine lives."
- Gilligan surprisingly being smart for once and rescuing the castaways.
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
- Eddie Little Sky as Native Warrior #1
- Allen Jaffe as Native Warrior #2
- Roman Gabriel as Native Warrior #3
Trivia[]
- Eddie Little Sky's return. This would be his last appearance in the series; he also appeared as the Witch Doctor in Voodoo and as Haruki in Gilligan's Mother-in-Law.
- Like several episodes in the series, the episode starts out with just the Skipper, Gilligan and the Professor.
- There is no way a blow to the head could flip a person's vision upside down.
- There is no such thing as keptiburra berries.
- Even with his vision flipped or doubled, Gilligan should have been able to adapt to his skewed vision within a few minutes.
- The Professor's captibora extract reacts remarkably fast; it barely enters Gilligan's bloodstream before he starts feeling its effects. Realistically, Gilligan would have to wait at least a few hours or overnight.
- The natives are possibly Kupaki natives last seen in High Man on the Totem Pole.
- Mr. Howell shows off his fencing uniform; he last wore it in Gilligan's Mother-in-Law.
- When Eddie little Sky chops into a tree with his machete, the break can be seen in it before it falls over to the ground. This tree prop also appears in Bang! Bang! Bang!
- One of the Natives (Eddie Little Sky) calls Gilligan a cat. Even if his tribe owned cats, it is unlikely they would be familiar with the superstition.
- Ginger calls Mary Ann "Mary Poppins," the eponymous character from the 1964 Disney film. She repeats it in The Hunter.
- The exterior shot with the Castaways escaping the Head-hunters cage reveals that it's missing two walls.
- As a reward, the Howells give Gilligan $100, Ginger gives him a kiss, the Professor gives him a magnifying glass and Mary Ann makes him a banana cream pie that ends up in the Skipper's face.
- This episode has the fewest costume changes for Mr. Howell and the girls with Mrs. Howell's attire changing only two times.
- The TV Land syndicated version omits the ending where Gilligan drinks the potion and sees five pies instead of one, which only results in the Skipper getting a pie in the face.
- Dawn Wells’ yellow pants fail to hide her navel in this episode.
Quotes[]
- Skipper - "Gilligan, you don't have to knock your own head off... those natives will do it for you."
- Gilligan - "One Skipper, two Skipper, three Professor four...."
Skipper - "Five Professor, six Professor, seven Professor more..."
- Mr. Howell - "Lovey, you reason with men at the Harvard club, not with men who carry clubs!"
- Native #1 - "Not make drums like they used to."
Native #2 - "Now not collect heads."
Native #1 - "Why not?"
Native #3 - "Tradition!"
- Professor - "There's one thing you can do to make this experiment a big success."
Skipper - "What's that?"
Professor - "Take Gilligan out of here."
- Skipper - "Mr. Howell, a little hard work never hurt anyone."
Mr. Howell - "But it never helped anyone either!"
- Native #1 - "Skinny one must be cat - Has nine lives!"
- Ginger - "You're not Mary Ann, you're Mary Poppins!"