Episode 52 – Phil Silvers Takes the Island: Hecuba and Hamlet on Gilligan’s Island

We’re marshalling right along to number 56 with a back-to-back Phil Silvers double feature! This week, Silvers swaps out his stripes from The Phil Silvers Show to guest star as egotistical Hollywood producer Harold Hecuba on Gilligan’s Island.

After Hecuba’s plane crash-lands on the most conveniently hard-to-find island in the Pacific, he’s not exactly impressed. Not with the survivors (a tour group straight out of central casting), not with their luxurious-for-a-three-hour-cruise wardrobes, and definitely not with the acting chops of the island’s resident movie star. The solution? The castaways stage a musical version of Hamlet, because… obviously.

Take a fun detour back to 1966 when TV didn’t have to be prestige to be perfect. Nobody tuned in to Gilligan’s Island for gravitas—we tuned in because it was pure, campy joy. So hit play and join our hosts as they break down why this episode made the cut for TV Guide’s 100 Greatest and whether they think it deserves the honor.

And hey—while you're reliving the coconut-fueled chaos, don’t forget to leave us five stars and a review. It helps more than a bamboo transmitter!

Visit raisedontelevision.com to learn more about the legendary Sherwood Schwartz, the mastermind behind the mayhem!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Raised on Television…

It’s 1955, and we’re diving fork-first into one of the earliest sitcom classics: The Phil Silvers Show!

In this episode, Company B—perpetual underdogs in everything from inspections to softball—finally sees a glimmer of hope in an unlikely arena: an eating contest.

Their secret weapon? The legendary Ed "The Stomach" Honnegan, a man whose appetite is as bottomless as his stomach is boundless.

But when Bilko’s involved, you know there’s going to be a twist—or three.

Will Company B finally taste victory? Or is this just another classic setup for a spectacular (and hilarious) flameout?

Hit play to find out ... and decide for yourself whether this episode earns its place on TV Guide’s 100 Best Episodes of All Time,

or if our hosts’ takes left you hungrier for something else.

Don’t forget to feed our egos: tap those five stars, leave a quick review, and share us with your fellow classic TV lovers!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sooooo ... sometimes relationships are complicated. Sometimes our friends let us down. Sometimes we have to remember the "before we found some things out" time. Not talking about anything in particular, just saying.

Today our hosts dive head first into the 1980's! The then-wildy popular Cosby Show was a prime time juggernaut for NBC and helped to raise ratings for the shows around it. This particular episode, number three of season two, celebrates grandparents Russell and Anna's 49th wedding anniversary with a portrait of them as newlyweds and ends with a family lip-synch of a Ray Charles classic.

Hit play and see what our hosts think about this week's entry!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s a two-fer kind of week, and we’re serving it up retro-style!

First on the lineup: a show you probably haven’t heard of—heck, even we hadn’t. It’s On the Air, a delightfully oddball ABC sitcom from the summer of ’92 that ran for a grand total of seven episodes—four of which didn’t even air in the U.S. (which feels like the TV equivalent of being ghosted mid-season).

Then we hit rewind for something truly timeless: The Burns and Allen Show, featuring the original comedy power couple, George Burns and Gracie Allen. Here’s the thing about us Gen X’ers—we grew up watching legends like George Burns, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Karen Carpenter, and Mary Tyler Moore (usually on a gigantic wood-paneled Zenith TV with only a 20-inch screen). We didn’t always know how great they were—we just knew they were popular with our parents and until we developed our own tastes, we liked what they liked and some of what they liked never left us

.

So join us as we unpack the forgotten weirdness of On the Air... and celebrate the enduring genius of George and Gracie, who could still teach modern sitcoms a thing or two.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's a two-fer! So we've been off for a few weeks as Spring has been blowing us around, but we're back and with a vengence. Okay, so there's no vengence, just a gentleman farmer, two pigs (okay, one pig and one slob), a particularly prickly housemate, and Eva Gabor for comic relief!

So sit down, tune in, and see if one, both, or neither of these shows should be on the list!

And guess what? NEXT WEEK IS A TWO-FER, TOO, so stay tuned!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re back — and hitting number 60 on the list with a bang:

After a short break, we return with Murder One, Steven Bochco’s ambitious legal drama that broke the mold with

its single-season arc centered around the high-profile murder of a 15-year-old girl.

While each episode sprinkles in standalone legal cases, the real hook was the slow-burn, week-to-week unraveling of the

central mystery — and episode one wastes no time building tension.

Join us as we revisit this bold experiment in storytelling. Does Murder One still hold up almost thirty years later?

Should it be this high on the list? And how did it change the way we think about serialized TV?

Tune in to hear our thoughts, share yours, and as always — thanks for listening. If you like what you hear, please consider

giving us a 5-star rating, and don’t forget to visit us online at raisedontelevision.com!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever wondered where entry #100 was on the TV Guide list of the 100 Best Episodes of Television, it actually premiered on aNodPod as a back door pilot waaaay back in May of 2023. And while we had a lot of fun with aNodPod, one of our first podcasts, it's run its course but Raised on Television hasn't - so, you've asked for it and we've delivered ... ENTRY NUMBER 100 IS FINALLY HERE - so enjoy your midweek respite and listen in to see if this episode deserves to be on the list and if so, whether it is appropriately place!

And please, we're dying for your approval, so how about giving us a five star rating and then heading over to raisedontelevision.com and checking out the blog? Please? Pretty please? Seriously, would it kill you to show a little love in the month of the Valentine??

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.