When I was a kid, my after-school routine after walking or riding my bike home from Geyer Springs Elementary in Little Rock included catching “Gilligan’s Island.” The show originally premiered before I was born and had ended by the time I was approaching my second birthday, but Channel 7’s weekday reruns entertained my young mind for a half-hour each afternoon in that break between the end of school and dinner, homework and getting ready for bed.

There was something lovable and laughable about that wacky collection of castaways who made the show funny and endearing nearly a decade after its prime-time run had ended. It told the story of an odd collection of people who went for a “three-hour tour” from a tropic island on the S.S. Minnow.

There was Gilligan; the skipper, too; the millionaire, and his wife; the movie star; the professor and Mary Ann, all there on Gilligan’s isle.

Russell Johnson, the actor who played Professor Roy Hinkley (usually just “the Professor”) died last week at 89.

In the cast of lovable characters, the Professor is the one who kept the shipwrecked misfits alive with his fantastically creative methods of coming up with just the right tool at the right time (except for a way to repair the boat and get them off the island).

The castaways used a stationary bicycle built from bamboo to recharge the batteries on the small radio that kept them informed about the rest of the world. The Professor always had ideas about how to approach a problem.

The show infiltrated the nation’s culture despite its brief run. As recently as the Romney-Obama presidential contest, one prominent political commentator used “the millionaire” Thurston Howell in a description of Mitt Romney.

I’m not so sure much about today’s political climate can be compared to the folks on that most populous of deserted islands. To me, it’s more of a contrast.

The people on that three-hour tour couldn’t have been more different. Thurston Howell and his wife as well as the Hollywood starlet Ginger clearly came from wealth. Mary Ann was a farm girl. The professor was as academic as they come. The Skipper and Gilligan were working stiffs, not always the most astute observers of conditions but always ready to do the work necessary to help the entire shipwrecked group not just survive, but thrive.

In today’s political world, our lawmaking bodies are made up of people just as disparate as our castaways, but rather than pulling together in the face of adversity, there’s a lot of blame, name-calling and selfish maneuvering. Just imagine if a new boat on a three-hour tour hosted President Barack Obama, Harry Reid, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Bachmann aboard.

Would they survive 15 years on a island if they were shipwrecked, or would they devour each other? Would it be the unity of “Gilligan’s Island” or the win-at-all-costs skulduggery of “Survivor?”

Johnson, in an interview in his later years about the show, recalled with fondness going to work every day with the other actors involved in the slapstick TV comedy.

“The wonderful thing about this cast was the chemistry; it worked,” Johnson said.

Chemistry has been missing in much of government leadership for a while now. It’s not that everyone ever completely agreed with each other in the past. It’s just that they seemed more in tune with keeping their eyes on the rescue of the nation from its challenges rather than contributing to the causes of the shipwreck.

There was an episode of “Gilligan’s Island” in which the main character approaches the professor.

“Hiya, Professor. What are you doing?” Gilligan says.

“I’m making notes for a book. It’s to be a chronicle of our adventures on the island … I think it’s a book people will want to buy, don’t you?,” the Professor responds.

Gilligan responds, “Sure, I’ll buy one. I’m dying to find out what happens to us.”

Yeah, I’d buy a copy of a book like that, too.

GREG HARTON IS OPINION PAGE EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.