Bob Denver Movies

ALF's fondness for the old sitcom Gilligan's Island has turned into an obsession, culminating with ALF reconstructing the seven castaways' familiar lagoon in the Tanners' backyard. This inevitably leads to a dream sequence in which ALF meets the Gilligan's Island cast--and learns the hard way that there's a wide gap between sitcom life and real life. Recreating their roles as Gilligan, The Skipper, The Professor and Mary Ann are Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sci-fi film, a journalist uses her new powers to find the guilty parties behind a million-dollar art theft. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Michael J. Fox is among the young sitcom stars enlisted for this made-for-TV teen film, about a battle between the rich, popular kids and their average counterparts. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Following the astonishing (and, to some, appalling) success of the 1978 TV movie Rescue From Gilligan's Island, most of the cast of the popular 1960s sitcom Gilligan's Island were hired for two additional "reunion" films. The second, Castaways on Gilligan's Island, finds Gilligan (Bob Denver), the Skipper, too (Alan Hale Sr.) the millionaire (Jim Backus) and his wife (Natalie Schafer), the movie star (Judith Baldwin, subbing for a recalcitrant Tina Louise), the Professor (Russell Johnson) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) back on the flyspeck island whence they had recently been rescued. This time, the castaways decide to turn their tiny isle into a tourist resort. This leaves the door wide open for guest stars Tom Bosley and Marcia Wallace as a straitlaced vacationing couple. The Castaways on Gilligan's Island blew its network competition out of the water on the occasion of its debut on May 3, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comical western chronicles the silly adventures of a bumbling wagonmaster and his clutzy assistant as they attempt to take seven passengers across the prairie. Among the passengers are two wealthy Bostonians, an aspiring showgirl, a teacher, and bachelor. The story is adapted from Dusty's Trail, a television sitcom. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When a NASA spaceship is inadvertently launched, two crewman are taken for the ride of their lives. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

After registering well in supporting roles in such Bob Hope farces as Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number and Eight on the Lam, raucous comedienne Phyllis Diller attempted to carry a picture all by herself. Alas, Did You Hear the One About the Travelling Saleslady? proved to be as bad as its title. Borrowing elements previously utilized in Joan Davis' Travelling Saleswoman (1950) and the Ginger Rogers-Carol Channing vehicle The First Travelling Saleslady (1956), the film casts Diller as a player-piano saleslady, dispatched to the Wild West. TV-sitcom perennials Bob Denver and Joe Flynn offer their usual overplayed support; at times they're funnier than Diller, though that's not saying much. The film's highlight is a cattle stampede, which should give you some idea. Did You Hear the One... was scripted by John Fenton Murray, soon to be a mainstay of such Sid & Marty Krofft kiddie fare as The Bugaloos and Lidsville; compared to the Diller film, the Krofft stuff was a step upward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Harry Lucas (Jim Hutton) is a U.S. Mint employee who scrambles to recover $50,000 he accidentally destroyed in this underrated comedy of errors. After he mistakenly throws the money down the garbage disposal, a frantic Harry recruits retired mint employee Pop Gillis (Walter Brennan) to cook up a hot new batch of cold cash. The two have to hire a bunch of colorful crooks to pull off the caper. Soon the money paid out far exceeds the total of the original loss. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Gilligan's Island enters its second season with two small but significant changes: the series, previously filmed in black and white, is now in color, and regulars Russell Johnson (the Professor) and Dawn Wells (Mary Ann), have been promoted to full starring status, right along with top-billed Bob Denver (Gilligan), Alan Hale Jr. (the Skipper, too), Jim Backus (the Millionaire), Natalie Schafer (and his wife), and Tina Louise (the movie star). Otherwise, it's business as usual, with the seven castaways industriously making a home-away-from-home of their tropical island prison, but never tiring of seeking various ways and means of returning home to civilization. As before, although the seven principals seem to be permanently marooned, a number of guest stars manage to find their way on and off the island. This years' crop of "visitors" includes Nehemiah Persoff as deposed Latin American dictator Pancho Rodriguez, Richard Kiel as a towering ghost, Vito Scotti (who showed up in the previous season as a Japanese soldier) in the role of mad scientist Dr. Boris Balinkoff, and the singing group the Wellingtons (who, of course, also perform the ballad that opens each episode) as three members of a mop-topped rock quartet called "the Mosquitoes." Gilligan's Island also becomes a family affair from time to time during season two, with regular Jim Backus' wife, Henny Backus, and star Bob Denver's son Patrick Denver making cameo appearances. ~ All Movie Guide

No one liked Gilligan's Island but the public. Roundly condemned by critics as the worst sitcom in TV history when it first signed on the CBS schedule in the fall of 1964, the weekly half-hour series nonetheless struck a responsive chord with the viewing public, who were thoroughly amused and delighted by the premise of seven diverse personalities shipwrecked on an uncharted tropical island, managing to make the best of things while never giving up hope of being rescued. The series' premise was laid out each and every week by the theme song "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island," co-written by producer Sherwood Schwartz and performed by the singing group the Wellingtons. Caught in a sudden storm at sea, the S.S. Minnow, a tiny charter boat manned by "Skipper" Jonas Grumby (Alan Hale Jr.) and his daffy first mate, Gilligan (Bob Denver), was washed up on the shore of a flyspeck island somewhere in the South Pacific. Marooned along with Gilligan and the Skipper were five tourist passengers: voluptuous movie star Ginger Grant (Tina Louise); multimillionaire Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus) and his wife, Lovey (Natalie Schafer); high-school teacher Roy Hinkley (Russell Johnson), better known as "The Professor"; and wholesomely sexy secretary Mary Ann Summers (Dawn Wells). With the Minnow damaged beyond repair, the seven castaways resourcefully transformed their island into a home away from home, replete with solid shelters, handmade eating and kitchen utensils, jerry-built furniture, and even a farming and irrigation system. Even so, our heroes and heroines yearned to go back to civilization, but they never quite managed to make it, usually thanks to the ineptitude of the feckless Gilligan.

Although the seven principals were more or less trapped in their environment, quite a few guest stars managed to find their way on -- and off -- the island, including Hans Conried as klutzy pilot Wrong-Way Feldman, Vito Scotti as mad scientist Boris Balinkoff, and Phil Silvers (who owned a piece of Gilligan's Island in real life) as Hollywood mogul Harold Hecuba. The fact that, for all his brilliance, "The Professor" was never able to figure out how to build a new boat or notify the authorities of the castaways' whereabouts was only a part of the farcical fun; Gilligan's Island was, to overstate the obvious, not exactly like real life. A prime example of good, clean, harmless slapstick, Gilligan's Island confounded its many detractors by remaining on CBS for three seasons, then enjoying a spectacularly successful afterlife in rerun form -- not to mention its many feature-length TV "sequels" (such as The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island), two separate TV-cartoon spin-offs, and a multitude of latter-day video retrospectives. It's difficult to argue with that kind of success. ~ All Movie Guide

In this generation gap movie of the early 1960s, Sandra Dee is Mollie Michaelson, a teenage rebel enamored with long-haired hippies and radical anti-nuclear political causes. Her involvement in such activities sends her ultra-conservative father Frank (James Stewart) into a tizzy. His reassuring wife is played by Audrey Meadows. Frank's furor deepens when Mollie is sent to Paris on an art scholarship. Back at home, Frank picks up a popular magazine and finds that his daughter has posed on the cover for a radical artist, Henri Bonnet (Philippe Forquet). He pursues her to save her from further degradation, but he ends up in a café in the wrong part of Paris just as it is raided by police. They arrest him on trumped-up and erroneous charges, and he struggles to prove that he's not guilty. This film was based on a play by Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide