Watch This TV Show If You Miss Gilligan's Island
We here at /Film have written extensively about Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island," and it makes sense, given the show's lasting cultural clout. Schwartz himself felt that the series — as seen through his favorite episode — was more than just an unrealistic slapstick farce, but a serious political microcosm of American society. Schwartz saw "Gillgan's Island" as a group of disparate people, all hailing from different classes — millionaires, the intelligentsia, the Hollywood elite, the working class — being thrust into a survival situation together and learning to, well, get along. Despite a lot of bickering, there are no serious conflicts between the characters on "Gilligan's Island," and survival is never a real issue. They have all the water and food they need, and they're all surviving just swimmingly.
Of course, when it comes to watching actual episodes of "Gilligan's Island," one doesn't really absorb any kind of political treatise or cultural fulcrum. Right on the surface, the series is just a goofy, kid-friendly sitcom with simple slapstick jokes and very broad character types. It's not too far away from being animated. There's a reason why "Gilligan's Island" was so popular: it was accessible. Kids loved it, and it made island survival seem like something kids could do. But, you know, without descending into "Lord of the Flies"-style savagery.
And if that's the case, there is at least one kid-centered "stranded-on-a-deserted-island" TV series that you can tune into if you miss "Gilligan's Island." It's not terribly well-known, so it's likely many of you are well-poised to discover "Flight 29 Down." It originally ran on Discovery Kids in 2005, but is now available on Tubi. It's essentially "Gilligan's Island" for teens.
Flight 29 Down was a teen version of Gilligan's Island
The makers of "Flight 29 Down" were likely not thinking of "Gilligan's Island" when they developed their show. It's more likely they were trying to emulate the success of the recent hit series "Lost" that had debuted just the year before. Both "Flight 29 Down" and "Lost" follow a group of plane crash survivors who have to find a new life for themselves on an uncharted desert isle. But while "Lost" was an eerie show about unknowable supernatural whatchamacallits, "Flight 29 Down" was a more grounded series about the teen experience.
The premise of the show is pretty simple. A group of teenagers, on their way to an exo-tourism camping excursion to Palau, get caught in a storm and crash land on a random island in the Micronesian chain. The teens have to learn basic things like finding water and building fire but luckily, because they were on a camping trip, they all packed the necessary temporary shelters. They also have a solar-powered camera device, and that allows each of them to record video diaries about their experiences. The solar-powered camera was no doubt incorporated to make the series resemble "Survivor," the then-recent hit game show about being stranded on a tropical island.
Like "Gilligan's Island," the cast included a well-rounded cross-section of archetypes. There was Allen Alvarado as Lex, the youngest and smartest of the group. There was Lex's stepsister Daley (Hallee Hirsh), the arrogant one. There was Melissa (Kristy Wu), the quiet, sensitive one. There was the Boy Scout naturalist Nathan (Corbin Bleu), the comedic slacker Eric (Jeremy Kissner), the spoiled rich girl Taylor (Lauren Storm), and the leader, Cody (Johnny Pacar). One might see Gilligan in Lex, Mary Ann in Melissa, the Professor in Nathan, etc.
Flight 29 Down was also a spin on Lost and Survivor
It's likely that "Flight 29 Down" didn't take off in the public consciousness because it was too derivative of what was already on TV at the time. Between "Lost" and "Survivor," audiences likely had enough tropical island survival drama to go around. This is a pity, though, because the tone of "Flight 29" was lighter and more friendly than its adult counterparts. It should be noted that the series also incorporated its own long-form intrigue. There were actually 10 teen survivors, and not just the seven listed above. Three other characters trekked into the woods with the plane's surviving captain, played by John Kapelos. Those characters, however, became lost and didn't return to the series except periodically.
"Flight 29 Down" ran for two seasons and 26 episodes, and most of the episodes involved mere survival. When the campers begin to run out of food, for instance, they have to get used to the idea of hunting and fishing. Other plot points are sitcom-ready; one camper blackmails another into doing all their work for them. In another, Lex builds a fun obstacle course to make sure morale remains high. That kind of stuff. The second season ended with a schism between the campers, with half of the cast moving to a different part of the island. That story was resolved in the final "Flight 29" TV movie, which aired in 2007. The movie also revealed the fate of the John Kapelos character.
Despite all the drama, the tone of "Flight 29 Down" wasn't ever terribly heavy. It's heavier than "Gilligan's Island," though, and it takes its drama and its characters quite seriously. It's no mere "Lost" knockoff. The series isn't well-known, but it's about time it was rediscovered.