HURLEY'S ISLAND

Fifty years ago, American television debuted a new show called Gilligan's Island. The premise was simple: several passengers get on a charter boat for a three hour cruise. But the ship gets caught up in a violent storm. It is shipwrecked on an uncharted island. The survivors have to learn to make do with coconuts, palm leaves and goofy comedy.

Gilligan's Island represents the basic shipwreck story, but in a comedy as the first mate, Gilligan, is a hapless buffoon who keeps getting the group in trouble. In some ways, the success of this episodic series showed that this premise could work on prime time television.

It was never suggested that LOST should have been a reboot of Gilligan's Island. Until now.

The original cast featured the ship's captain, first mate Gilligan, a professor, a model Ginger, a farm girl Mary Ann and a rich couple, the Howells. We can re-cast the main characters of LOST into these roles.

There was only one married couple on the island. Rose and Bernard would be the Howells. However, they would not be the flamboyant multimillionaires, but a quiet retired couple searching for peace.

The farm girl would be played by Kate because she grew up in rural Iowa, and acts like a tomboy. She would probably be more aggressive than Mary Ann.

The model would be played by Shannon, because she grew up as a spoiled, jet set brat. She would probably be more snooty than Ginger.

The professor would be played by Sayid, since he had the encyclopedic knowledge of all things electrical and mechanical. He would mirror the professor's role of finding impossible ways to make machines out of nothing.

The goofy guy that always gets in trouble would fall to Charlie. Charlie never fit in with any group except with his best bud, Hurley. Charlie was never that strong, he never led on missions, and he had personal demons he needed to keep secret. He was insecure and lonely. He tried too hard to be a part of a group.

So this leads the heavyset skipper role to Hurley, which in some ways fits into LOST because Hurley winds up as the island guardian. As the skipper, Hurley would be a reluctant leader with a sense of humor. Like on the LOST island, Hurley would be the glue that keeps the group together because of his even demeanor and kind outlook.

Taking parts of LOST's cast to re-imagine Gilligan's Island is not that hard.