During the 1960s, Sherwood Schwartz wrote and produced a number of hit television shows. One of the most popular shows was Gilligan's Island, a comedy about a handful of pleasure cruise passengers who found themselves shipwrecked on a desert island. Every episode featured the castaways of the S.S. Minnow facing a wacky new adventure. The show was an immediate hit of the 1964 season. Each week, a lot of otherwise thoughtful, intelligent television viewers tuned in to hear the Skipper say, "Gilligan, drop those coconuts!"

Schwartz says only six episodes had gone on the air when a commander of the United States Coast Guard marched into his office. The commander handed over a stack of about two dozen telegrams he had received. Each telegram basically said the same thing: "For several weeks no…