The radio from Gilligan's Island

 I mentioned the radio from Gilligan's Island previously:

https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/05/fallout-shelter.html

It was almost another character on the show.  And as mentioned, the prop guy put the telescoping antenna and the handle on the radio.

Here the Skipper and Gilligan are listening to the radio, the Skipper charging those wacky coconut shell batteries using the DYNAMO - the Professor could do anything :)

The Packard Bell insignia has been obscured.

The Skipper and Gilligan discuss what they've heard on the radio.

Mary-Ann listens to her favorite soap: Old Doctor Young

This was from Season 2, episode 18, per the wiki this was broadcast January 20, 1966 so I would have been 10 years old.  Although I knew what a soap opera was (my Mom was crazy about General Hospital) I'd never heard one on the radio.

I'm sure that the writers:

were of an age (Herbert Finn was 55) that they had heard radio soap operas like Ma Perkins or Mary Noble, Backstage Wife.  But by 1966 the soap opera shows were gone from radio.

Gilligan's Island was a decent show, it kind of got driven into the ground for me by all the reruns though.  And as with all CBS shows, the color episodes weren't as good as the black and white episodes.  But the radio was an integral part of the show - and being relatively large, it was more photogenic than the small transistor radios that were popular then.  Maybe if there had been a 4th season the radio would have been credited after the Professor and Mary-ann during the Ballad of Gilligan's Island :)

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm