Wednesday, September 07, 2005

 

GOOD BYE MAYNARD G. KREBS

I realized today how old I have gotten. A bunch of guys were sitting around the post office this morning and the subject of Bob Denver's passing came up. I said "man, Maynard G. Krebs is gone?" They all looked at me like I was from another planet. These guys only knew Denver as Gilligan. It was then I realized how old I have gotten. The kids among you may always think of Denver as Gilligan, but to those of us of a certain a age, he will always be the lovable beatnik with the work allergy, and best friend of Dobie Gillis.

THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS was a ground breaking show in that it was the first to show teens going through growing pains and having serious issues, rather than show them as just dolts good for comic fodder. The show revolved around Dobie's (Dwayne Hickman) inability to catch a dream girl, Zelda Gilroy's (Sheila James) inability to catch Dobie, and Maynard G. Krebs ability to shirk work and screw things up.

Hickman, Denver, and James were brilliant together, Hickman the perfect foil for Denver's pratfalls and James sarcastic one liners. The show ran from 1959-63, when Hickman left to pursue other offers. A spinoff, ZELDA, was planned and four episodes filmed, but word of James lesbianism began to circulate, and the project was cancelled.

Hickman went on to star in a number of successful summer "beach" movies, then landed the role of a career... in the Oscar winning CAT BALLOU. He then decided to work on the other side of the camera, and for twenty years worked as a producer and director at CBS. He retired to work at his first love, art, and today, at age 71, is a successful artist living in southern CA.

Sheila James experience with ZELDA inspired her to go to law school. She became one of the leading feminist lawyers in the country. Today she is a California State Senator, re-elected in a landslide in 2004.

The year after DOBIE went off the air, Bob Denver landed the role he will forever be identified with, Gilligan. But the influence of Maynard lived on, inspiring the character "Shaggy" in the Scooby Doo cartoons and movies. In his later years, Denver owned a number of radio stations, and until the week before he died of cancer, did a regular Saturday morning radio show.

Hickman and Denver remained close friends for over fifty years, till Denver's death. Read Hickman's tribute to Denver HERE

Attention America: Maynard G. Krebs has finally gone home to feed his Iguana!

************************************************************************************

You knew I couldn't make it through a whole post without mentioning the Hurricane Katrina disaster. So here is my question:

How is it that our government couldn't get any rescue personnel into New Orleans till Saturday, but the CANADIAN government managed to get 45 urban search and rescue experts from Vancouver into New Orleans early on the previous Wednesday? Just curious!










Comments:
I reckon Gilligan has gone to that big island in the sky. At least if the weather along the way didn't get rough, and his tiny ship was tossed about.
Of course if he was a bad boy, he's probably doing time in New Orleans.
 
After reading your link I like the Maynard face MUCH better! Thanks GWB. I did an update to the punkin' post for Mr. Denver.

Like it's Maynard
 
Wanda: As long as Ginger and Maryann are there with him, he's happy.. ;-)
 
Hi, I've put a link to your blog on my blog. Very interesting stuff. Thanks for the heads up about Vancouver being among the first responders. Because of you I went to search for other first responders and found a memo from Michael Brown (Homeland Sec. & FEMA) telling first responders NOT to respond, dated August 29th. Check it out on my blog:

http://www.vancouvercalling.blogspot.com

Click on the "Smoking Gun" post.
 
I just saw that Gilligan passed on when my kids were watching Little House on the Prarie on TVLand.
The station mentioned in their tribute that they remembered him fondly in the Dobie Gilis show and the world will always remember him with the red shirt and white hat.
 
Gilligan - Happy Days!

As to your disaster question, Great White Bear, I have one four-letter word..."B_S_"!
 
I remember Maynard G. Krebs. He was the coolest guy on TV at that time. Pre-hippy, the beatnik era. I haven't read Hickman's tribute yet, but thanks for the link.

I heard somewhere that our illustrious leader only had faith-based groups on the disaster at first. I don't have anything to back that up. Do you know anything about that? I do know that Canada offered help right away and it took days before it was accepted. I also heard that Castro offered doctors and medical help which was, for political reasons, turned down.
 
I saw a list the other day of the charities the administration was encouraging people to contribute to. All but one (American Red Cross) were religious charities.

I also saw a memo from FEMA director Michael Brown on the site Vancouver Calling
(http://vancouvercalling.blogspot.com/) rrequesting that states NOT send any help until it was requested by FEMA. I am planning on posting it tommorrow!
 
Go Canada! I read an article in the Vancouver Sun about that group that went down. They just returned on Tuesday or Wednesday and have some awful stories to tell.

The BC government dispatched them, I believe, not the feds. Not that it mattered, but I have heard some rumblings about who's going to fund it now and that the BC gov't will ask the feds to pay a large chunk of it. Good luck, Gordo, that's all I have to say (Gordo being the premier of this fine province and a fascist to boot).

It's interesing how the soft wood lumber dispute is playing into this. I saw something on the CTV about how they'll need our lumber in the southern states now to rebuild, but that the US is going to have to do something about the tariffs to make it easier for themselves to get the lumber in. So what the WTO couldn't accomplish, a natural disaster may have come to the rescue.
 
RE. Squirl's comment: Yeah, God help y'all if you accept aid from a bunch of communists. Good grief! Bush should be grateful Cuba's got enough goodwill towards the US to offer such aid.
 
I thought I posted on this earlier, on well.. sorry
 
Krebs and Gillis were temporarily the head coaches of my fantasy baseball team this year. They were terrible coaches, as we went 0-4 on their watch.
Everyone else in my league is approximately my age (33), and I don't think anyone in the group knew who my coaches were. It's a shame.
 
dave... Maynard and Dobie managing baseball, better yet, girls softball, would have been a great story line. A pair of lovable losers!
 
I never knew what happened to Zelda. That's sooo cool!
My kids never got it when I'd compare Dobie Gillis to Scooby Doo.
 
Great article you got here. It would be great to read a bit more about this matter. Thanx for posting that info.
Joan Stepsen
Cyprus girls
 
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