Today, we look at how Beatlemania spread all the way to Gilligan’s Island.
This is “My Name It is Nothin’,” a look at when movies and TV shows feature celebrities, characters and/or famous people without featuring the actual celebrity/famous people. You know, changing the names so that you can tell the story without legal issues.
May is a Month of My Name it is Nothin’ (or perhaps May Name it is Nothin’)!
I’m not going to say that I won’t repeat celebrities over time, but I’ll say that at least for this month, I’ll keep it to just one celebrity, so this will be our only Beatles riff this month! And if I’m only going to do one Beatles riff, you better believe it’s going to be The Mosquitoes!
“Don’t Bug the Mosquitoes” was from the second season of Gilligan’s Island. The Mosquitos are basically The Beatles, and they have come to the island to get away from the pressures of their fame as the top rock band in the world.
Amusingly, this was only a year before the actual Beatles decided to stop touring so that THEY could get away from the pressures of their fame as the top rock band in the world.
There’s lots of various jokes about the Beatles and their haircuts. The Mosquitoes were made up Les Brown Jr. as the lead singer, Bingo, and then the other three members of the group (Bango, Bongo and Irving) were played by the folk singing group, The Wellingtons, who, amusingly enough, performed the theme song for Gilligan’s Island in its first season (they were replaced by a knockoff group in Season 2)…
Naturally, the castaways stuck on this deserted island want to be saved by the Mosquitoes, but their various plans to use this band to get off of the island goes poorly, especially when, in one of the most iconic moments in the show’s history, the girls form a group called The Honey Bees, which make the Mosquitoes think that they’ll outperform them with the listening public, so they just leave the island and stick the castaways there! Booo!
Bill Walko sent me some ideas for this month, but not The Mosquitoes, I guess he assumed I’d do it anyways!
If anyone else has a suggestion for a future My Name It Ain’t Nuthin’, drop me a line at brian@poprefs.com!
