Bob Denver, better known as Gilligan on the hit TV show Gilligan’s Island, died today. He was 70.

Many of my generation grew up watching re-runs of Gilligan’s Island. The show was good, clean fun, though some have speculated wildly that the TV series was much more. One theory posits that the show was a socialist commentary where Gilligan was the worker class while Thurston Howell III was the capitalist, the Captain was the military, etc., etc. Another theory holds that the 7 castaways represented the deadly sins. Oy. Who cares?

To me, Gilligan’s Island was representative of a Hollywood that had a little restraint and common sense/decency. Obviously, that is now not true for most of the “mainstream” traditional and cable networks.

Perversion, ultra-voilence, sexually explicit content, and hurting other people with innuendo or physical threats, is how Hollywood now defines “entertainment.” There are just a few outposts of good television left, like TV Land and yes, PBS.

“What?” you say. A guy who has been accused of causing Hurricane Katrina (because he voted for and still supports Bush) likes left-wing PBS? Besides its political slant, which incidentally has gotten much better of late, public TV is still very clean. Its children’s’ programming is unsurpassed, giving kids a positive message without being preachy. For example, Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, where pigs with Scottish accents go on merry adventures, is thoughtful, creative, precious and hilarious. But this type of TV does not garner ratings. (Yes, I still watch cartoons.)

Rest in peace, Gilligan. And do me a favor and please haunt some sense into Hollywood’s hypocrites.