August 22, 2025 • 6 mins
Bob Denver would never in a million years have thought of himself as an icon, but on this 60th anniversary year of his most famous television series, "Gilligan's Island," his wife, Dreama Denver, begs to differ. The fact that "Gilligan's Island" is still airing somewhere on the planet 60 years after its 1964 debut proves that not only is the show iconic, but the man who played the title role is also. Anytime you see someone wearing a red shirt and a white hat, what's the first thought that comes to mind? If you're old enough, you think GILLIGAN!She has compiled a Bob Denver memory album from their memorabilia and his mother's scrapbooks to honor her husband and his career. Bob Denver and Gilligan's Island are still loved and cherished by fans worldwide.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How are you doing this morning?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I am doing so great. Arrow.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I love your name, thank you so much. Was it
was created by my wife and I for her book
back in nineteen eighty one, and I thought, wow, why
am I not using that as a radio name so
I can become the actor? Which I think that even
Bob Denver would probably say, because he had to become
Gilligan that gave him that character.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Right, wow, fright, he had to make it up on
the fly. There.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Before we even get started, I got to tell you
how your pages have really touched my soul, and to
read about how you and Bob put family first, especially
in those early days when when family struggled with autism,
because my grandmother wanted to put my brother in an
institution and my mom said no, and my brother became
a great man because of that solid no. And then
to read it in your life, Oh my god, it
(00:50):
just opens my heart.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Oh, thank you so much. We were told the same
thing by the doctors originally was to institutionalize Colin, and
Bob and I just looks at each other and went
there that.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
That will never happen. Yep, it will never happen. And
even though Bob's been gone for twenty years.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I still have my son and he's doing actually lately,
he's doing really really well.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So it's so weird that. And I've written about this
so much and talked about it on iHeartRadio about how
we always say that, oh, well, so and so is gone.
But I've got my me TV, I've got my we TV,
Mydobe Gillis, my Gilligan's Island. I mean, it's still very
much there. And even though I've seen each episode a
million times, huh, it's brand new.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
That's it. You know. I'm one of those people. I'm
like you, I can watch them.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
If I love things, I can watch them over and
over and over again.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
They never get old to me. So yeah, you know,
Bob is he's just he never thought of.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Himself as an icon at all, not even a tiny bit.
But the truth of the matter is, in television terms,
he really is an icon in that business. And you know,
what a great career he had, and the new book
shows that the very different aspects of his career that
(02:07):
people don't know about, the.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Films that he did, the movies he did, the other
he had five TV series altogether. People think of Gilligan
and that's all. That's as far as they go.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
And I wanted them to get a real well rounded
look at his career and this new.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Book they absolutely do. And what's great about this new
book is that it's that we can't it's not about
going to get clickbait on the Internet anymore or the
National Inquirer. You're giving us the real, honest to God's
story and we're seeing the man, yes.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Exactly, and that you know, people don't again they think
of him as the character and I totally understand that.
But Bob was as a human being. He was not
perfect none none of us are perfect. But he was
an amazing father. He and I had an autistic son.
He set aside the last twenty years of his life
to stay with me and take care of our son,
(02:58):
which is so commendable. I think we started a nonprofit
radio station called Little Buddy Radio that is still on
the air today twenty one years later. Yes, and that
owns The Denver Foundation owns and operates the radio station.
The Denver Foundation was set up in honor of our
(03:19):
son to try to in our little corner of the world,
help of their families dealing with special needs. And then
after Bob passed away something that I did that I
know he would be proud of that. He wasn't here
to experience himself. Was I started or founded the first
Honor Flight program in the state of West Virginia.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
For people who don't.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Know, that's a national program that honors our World War Two,
Korea and Vietnam veterans with free trips to Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
To see the memorials.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I started that in twenty eleven under the umbrella of
the Denver Foundation. And I know Bob would be proud
of that. He would love that because on his own,
on his own dime, and on his own time. Back
in nineteen sixty eight, he went to Vietnam to visit
with the troops and stayed there for six weeks. Wow,
So I know he would be and see people don't
(04:13):
know that about Those are things that he never hes
just never oh gosh, what's the word. He never blew
his own horn.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, which came.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
To those kinds of things, you know, So I'm going
to blow it for him.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I decided, please do not move. There's more with Dream
of Denver coming up next. The name of the book
is Island to Icon. The many lives of Bob Denver.
We're back with Dream of Denver. The thing that I've
learned about it through all of the all of the
pages is the fact of how giving you guys are.
You didn't really take, you were always giving.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well we try, you know, I mean, I don't I
don't want to sound like Pollyanna or anything, but truly,
if we all lived our lives that way, the world
would be, I think, a simpler and easier place if
we were all looking out for each other and trying
to do good work.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And so that's what you know.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I've wanted to honor him and keep his memory alive.
It's been such an honor for me to be able
to do that. He left me this legacy of love
with all the fans who loved the show and loved him,
that they are willing to accept me.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So with that love, I wanted to try to do you.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Know, positive things in the world. Believe me, I Bob
and I knew because of our son and the challenges
we face there. We you know, people think if you're
a celebrity and you're well known, that everything's easy and
you never have a challenge in life. Well that's not true,
we had plenty of them, and I had certainly a
huge one when Bob passed away to be left alone
(05:49):
with at that time our twenty year old son, all
that responsibility being mine and mine alone. It felt like
it was very so you know the thing I have
found honestly in my life. And it sounds cliche, but
it's true. When you're doing something for others, you don't
have so much time to worry about your own self.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So true, that's so true. Please come back to this
show anytime in the future. The door is always going
to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Oh er, thank you. I would love to come back sometime.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Excellent. Will you be brilliant today? Okay, okay, you too,
Thank you, Thanks Harry, thank you, buddy.
How are you doing this morning?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I am doing so great. Arrow.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I love your name, thank you so much. Was it
was created by my wife and I for her book
back in nineteen eighty one, and I thought, wow, why
am I not using that as a radio name so
I can become the actor? Which I think that even
Bob Denver would probably say, because he had to become
Gilligan that gave him that character.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Right, wow, fright, he had to make it up on
the fly. There.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Before we even get started, I got to tell you
how your pages have really touched my soul, and to
read about how you and Bob put family first, especially
in those early days when when family struggled with autism,
because my grandmother wanted to put my brother in an
institution and my mom said no, and my brother became
a great man because of that solid no. And then
to read it in your life, Oh my god, it
(00:50):
just opens my heart.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Oh, thank you so much. We were told the same
thing by the doctors originally was to institutionalize Colin, and
Bob and I just looks at each other and went
there that.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
That will never happen. Yep, it will never happen. And
even though Bob's been gone for twenty years.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I still have my son and he's doing actually lately,
he's doing really really well.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So it's so weird that. And I've written about this
so much and talked about it on iHeartRadio about how
we always say that, oh, well, so and so is gone.
But I've got my me TV, I've got my we TV,
Mydobe Gillis, my Gilligan's Island. I mean, it's still very
much there. And even though I've seen each episode a
million times, huh, it's brand new.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
That's it. You know. I'm one of those people. I'm
like you, I can watch them.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
If I love things, I can watch them over and
over and over again.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
They never get old to me. So yeah, you know,
Bob is he's just he never thought of.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Himself as an icon at all, not even a tiny bit.
But the truth of the matter is, in television terms,
he really is an icon in that business. And you know,
what a great career he had, and the new book
shows that the very different aspects of his career that
(02:07):
people don't know about, the.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Films that he did, the movies he did, the other
he had five TV series altogether. People think of Gilligan
and that's all. That's as far as they go.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
And I wanted them to get a real well rounded
look at his career and this new.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Book they absolutely do. And what's great about this new
book is that it's that we can't it's not about
going to get clickbait on the Internet anymore or the
National Inquirer. You're giving us the real, honest to God's
story and we're seeing the man, yes.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Exactly, and that you know, people don't again they think
of him as the character and I totally understand that.
But Bob was as a human being. He was not
perfect none none of us are perfect. But he was
an amazing father. He and I had an autistic son.
He set aside the last twenty years of his life
to stay with me and take care of our son,
(02:58):
which is so commendable. I think we started a nonprofit
radio station called Little Buddy Radio that is still on
the air today twenty one years later. Yes, and that
owns The Denver Foundation owns and operates the radio station.
The Denver Foundation was set up in honor of our
(03:19):
son to try to in our little corner of the world,
help of their families dealing with special needs. And then
after Bob passed away something that I did that I
know he would be proud of that. He wasn't here
to experience himself. Was I started or founded the first
Honor Flight program in the state of West Virginia.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
For people who don't.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Know, that's a national program that honors our World War Two,
Korea and Vietnam veterans with free trips to Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
To see the memorials.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I started that in twenty eleven under the umbrella of
the Denver Foundation. And I know Bob would be proud
of that. He would love that because on his own,
on his own dime, and on his own time. Back
in nineteen sixty eight, he went to Vietnam to visit
with the troops and stayed there for six weeks. Wow,
So I know he would be and see people don't
(04:13):
know that about Those are things that he never hes
just never oh gosh, what's the word. He never blew
his own horn.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, which came.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
To those kinds of things, you know, So I'm going
to blow it for him.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I decided, please do not move. There's more with Dream
of Denver coming up next. The name of the book
is Island to Icon. The many lives of Bob Denver.
We're back with Dream of Denver. The thing that I've
learned about it through all of the all of the
pages is the fact of how giving you guys are.
You didn't really take, you were always giving.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well we try, you know, I mean, I don't I
don't want to sound like Pollyanna or anything, but truly,
if we all lived our lives that way, the world
would be, I think, a simpler and easier place if
we were all looking out for each other and trying
to do good work.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And so that's what you know.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I've wanted to honor him and keep his memory alive.
It's been such an honor for me to be able
to do that. He left me this legacy of love
with all the fans who loved the show and loved him,
that they are willing to accept me.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So with that love, I wanted to try to do you.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Know, positive things in the world. Believe me, I Bob
and I knew because of our son and the challenges
we face there. We you know, people think if you're
a celebrity and you're well known, that everything's easy and
you never have a challenge in life. Well that's not true,
we had plenty of them, and I had certainly a
huge one when Bob passed away to be left alone
(05:49):
with at that time our twenty year old son, all
that responsibility being mine and mine alone. It felt like
it was very so you know the thing I have
found honestly in my life. And it sounds cliche, but
it's true. When you're doing something for others, you don't
have so much time to worry about your own self.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So true, that's so true. Please come back to this
show anytime in the future. The door is always going
to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Oh er, thank you. I would love to come back sometime.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Excellent. Will you be brilliant today? Okay, okay, you too,
Thank you, Thanks Harry, thank you, buddy.
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