The Return of Wrongway Feldman

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"The Return of Wrongway Feldman"
Season 1, Episode 24
WWF2.jpg
Basic Info
Air Date: 3/13/65
Written By: Lawrence J. Cohen and Fred Freeman
Directed By: Ida Lupino
Guest Cast: Hans Conried as Wrongway Feldman
Episode guide
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The Return Of Wrongway Feldman is the Twenty-Fourth episode of the First Season. It aired March 13, 1965.

Synopsis[edit]

Incompetent World War I aviator Wrongway Feldman returns to the island by chance after flying around lost and reveals he can't stand modern civilization and refuses to go back to civilization. Furthermore, he upsets several castaways with news from back home. He tells Mr. Howell that his New York rents are the lowest during a money making bonanza and Ginger that her former roommate became a famous Broadway actress. With the two of them upset, the Skipper and Professor try to trick Feldman into going home by making him believe that Gilligan is sick and needs a doctor. However, when Wrongway returns to the island after going for a "doctor," he reveals that he got the medicine with out anyone seeing him. The Castaways now decide to ruin paradise for Feldman by giving him a taste of the noise, grief and over-crowding he's avoiding from back home. In addition to the aggravation, they have Wrongway do all the work on the island as they try to "civilize" it in hopes that he will become disgruntled enough to fly off and they can be rescued. The plan eventually works, and Wrongway subsequently flees the Island to get away from them. Watching him fly off, the Skipper reveals he filled the plane up with charts and maps back to the Island to get them rescued. Unfortunately, these plans never come to fruition. A few days later, Gilligan finds a bottle with a message from Wrongway reporting that he flew off for Hawaii but got lost and ended up on another island he considers paradise, unaware that the island he landed up on is Hawaii.

Message[edit]

  • "Everyone has his own idea of paradise."

Highlights[edit]

  • Wrongway Feldman returns

Credits[edit]

Main Cast

Guest Cast

Trivia[edit]

  • Hans Conried reprises the role of Wrongway Feldman from the episode with the same name.
  • At the end of Wrongway Feldman, Gilligan says he has Wrongway's wings, but Wrongway must have got new ones because he returns wearing new ones.
  • When Wrongway is talking to the Skipper, he tries several times to hang his shirt on a nail, but it keeps falling down. When it finally stays up, he yanks it and throws it to the ground.
  • This episode has the first and only appearance of the spyglass on the hill.
  • The Skipper and Gilligan's hammocks in their hut are suspiciously side by side in order to eventually harass Wrongway from sleeping.
  • When the Skipper and Gilligan start snacking in their huts, Gilligan pulls the vegetables out of a brown paper grocery bag.
  • The Skipper and Gilligan munch on apples, carrots and celery. Parts of which probably come from Mary Ann's garden of wild vegetables (seen in They're Off and Running), but the presence of the apple is unrevealed unless there are apple trees on the island.
  • It seems a little convenient that Wrongway's message in a bottle actually ends up with the Castaways and just a few days after he had left them.

Quotes[edit]

  • Skipper - (crying) "Wrongway.... Tell me about that steak again?"

  • Mrs. Howell - "You mean you would give him one of our oil wells?"
    Mr. Howell - "I didn't say give; I said promise. There is a difference!"

  • Mr. Howell - "I don't even think about money."
    Wrongway - Why? Have we gone off the gold standard?"

  • Professor - "Well, I tried talking to him, but he's determined to stay here."
    Skipper - "Well, one thing is for sure; he hasn't been good on the morale here. Ginger is still crying, and Mr. Howell is still threatening to jump off his steamer trunk."

  • Ginger - "I can't wait to see my name up in lights. "Ginger Guggenheimer.""
    Gilligan - "Isn't your name, Ginger Grant?"
    Ginger - "Yeah, but if my name's gonna be in lights, I want as many lights as I can get."

  • Wrongway - "This is the life. Earth, trees, grass, nature."
    Skipper - "But when we get back you can go live in Yellowstone Park."
    Wrongway - "I tried that already. Even the bears are civilized. They wear Boy Scout Uniforms, put out fires."

  • Skipper - "Remember the symptoms. You've got to make him think that you're got Bola Bola fever. Dry mouth, stomach ache, dizziness, ringing ears, sore head."
    Gilligan - "Yeah, I hope I look bad enough."
    Skipper - "Don't worry, Gilligan. Just be yourself."

  • Professor - "Where is he now?"
    Skipper - "He's probably down at the lagoon. I haven't let him wash in three days."
    Mr. Howell - "Well, I hope he's down there."

  • Wrongway - "With the serious Bola-Bola, you get nose bleeds."
    Skipper - (tugging Gilligan away) "We'll be right back!!"


  • Professor - "I could use a little of that myself... Saturday night at the library... The hustle and bustle of the reference desk."

  • Wrongway - "It's the first time I've been in a six-day clay race."

  • Mrs. Howell - "Oh, darling, how marvelous! We haven't finished the freeway, and we've already had our first accident."

  • Mr. Howell - "Oh, that crazy wonderful fool. I'll still give him that oil well... even if it is a dry one."