Thoughts From the Gilligan's Island Episode The Postman Cometh (1966)

Synopsis: After a radio broadcast reveals Mary Ann's (Dawn Wells) boyfriend is marrying another woman, the three bachelors are persuaded to romance her in an effort to soften the blow. However, Mary Ann misreads their intentions and believes they are only being nice to her because she is about to die.

My Thoughts:

When I first saw Mary Ann sending messages via bottles my first thought was, once again, "if they can do that, then why won't a raft work?" However, not wanting to sound like a broken record, I am instead going to ask, "where did those bottles come from?" It would be one thing if it was a one-time correspondence, but she was apparently sending the message on a regular basis, and I find it very hard to believe there were that many empty bottles on board the Minnow.

On that same note, just how selfish is Mary Ann? If they did have a supply of glass bottles, it seems like it would be better to send messages in an effort to get rescued. Instead, she was wasting a limited resource writing what turned out to be a fake boyfriend. Maybe it's just me, but I'd be kind of mad about that.

This is one of the few episodes where the men seemed to have more common sense than the women. The men wanted to take the direct approach, something that seemed like a sound plan even before the truth about Mary Ann's boyfriend was revealed. Even when Ginger (Tina Louise) suggests the whole romance thing, their initial responses were fairly spot on with the Professor (Russell Johnson) mentioning he had never shown Mary Ann any interest before and the Skipper (Alan Hale, Jr) talking about how he had always acted like her big brother. So, obviously, the red flags were kind of obvious.

On the flip side of that, what if the plan would have worked? None of the men had any actual romantic feelings toward Mary Ann so if she would have fallen for their ruse, she would have gotten hurt anyway. Either that or one of the men would be stuck in a relationship built on a lie. 

The dream sequence in this episode remains one of my favorites. I absolutely love how the dream/nightmare combines Mary Ann's confusion with her love of radio medical dramas, especially the part about Gilligan (Bob Denver), Skipper and the Professor as surgeons. The fact she wakes from the dream surrounded by her close friends showing genuine concern only adds to that, though it also once again proves the men were right and they should have just told her the truth from the start.

Final Opinion: It's a bit over the top as far as the "romance" is concerned and does rely heavily on Mary Ann drawing a wrong conclusion rather than asking what was happening but I like the way the episode sets up her dream sequence and, overall, it still manages to be funny.

My Grade: B