Today I would say I am not much of a fan of Gilligan’s Island. However, when I was a kid I watched the show every weekday when I got home from school, while eating some snacks and waiting for the other neighborhood kids to get home so we could gather and play. In the 1970’s it had become what used to be called a rerun, meaning it had already been broadcast on network TV, then syndicated. My favorite episodes involved someone accidentally finding the formerly deserted island and the castaways. The Mosquitoes was a (somewhat) fictional band modeled on The Beatles/Monkees/Byrds, who ended up on the island, and the rest of the plot doesn’t matter. The point of all this is watching that episode might be the earliest I remember being exposed to parody, understanding what that was, and thinking it was funny.
Side Note: The Mosquitoes episode also created The Gnats and The Honeybees, bands made up of the castaways.
Off The Back Porch 