Several years have now passed since the television series Survivor first debuted to become a summer ratings sensation. The concept was simple: place a group of individuals with diverse backgrounds, skills, and personalities into close proximity with a common purpose, namely survival on a deserted island, and let the audience watch as their relationships develop, or fall apart.

This, of course, is not to be confused with a much earlier comedy series based on the "seven stranded castaways" of Gilligan's Island. The Survivor contestants were to live similarly, with "no lights, no phone, no motorcars — not a single luxury," but unlike the Sherwood Schwartz series, the basic theme is competition, and someone gets booted off the island each week.

Like a hybrid version of the old daytime drama …