An "ape man" wreaks havoc on the island and frightens the castaways, who don't realize that he is actually a Hollywood actor preparing for a role.An "ape man" wreaks havoc on the island and frightens the castaways, who don't realize that he is actually a Hollywood actor preparing for a role.An "ape man" wreaks havoc on the island and frightens the castaways, who don't realize that he is actually a Hollywood actor preparing for a role.
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Did you know
- TriviaThe second of two appearances by Denny Miller on Our Vines Have Tender Apes (1967). The first one was two years earlier of a surfer brought to the island by a storm in Big Man on a Little Stick (1965).
- GoofsSince Tongo obviously didn't know there was anyone on the island, why exactly did he fly there in the first place?
- Quotes
Mrs. Lovey Howell: If he eats with the fork in his left hand, it indicates a European background. If in his right, he's American.
[Tongo drops fork and knife and stuffs pie in his face]
Thurston Howell III: Heavens! A YALE MAN !
- ConnectionsReferenced in Shrek the Third (2007)
- SoundtracksThe Ballad of Gilligan's Isle
Words and Music by George Wyle and Sherwood Schwartz
Featured review
Denny Miller as a Tarzan clone
"Our Vines Have Tender Apes" marks the return of former Tarzan Denny Miller (from the 1959 remake of "Tarzan the Ape Man"), previously a champion surfer in "Big Man on a Little Stick," here playing a facsimile of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Ape Man as the leopard skin-clad Tongo, discovered sleeping in Gilligan's hammock. All of the castaways in turn are menaced by the inarticulate brute, until a scheme is hatched to trap him in a cage big enough to hold him. Once he's left alone, Tongo takes out a tape recorder, keeping track of his exploits on this third night on the island, just an actor playing a part that he hopes will make him a star. The castaways are amazed at how easily he adjusts to their teachings, though Mr. Howell's attempt at culture, believing Tongo's grunt to be a sign that he's from Harvard, concludes with his exclamation that the messy eater must be a Yale man! The appearance of a genuine ape (Janos Prohaska) reveals Tongo to be a coward of the first order, leaving behind the tape recorder to show how he made fools of the castaways. This time the intruder escapes by helicopter, unwilling to rescue the islanders for fear that they might spill the beans about his poor performance with the real ape. Denny Miller never again donned the savage outfit, but continued to play rugged types in scores of comedy shows like I DREAM OF JEANNIE and Sherwood Schwartz's own THE BRADY BUNCH. Janos Prohaska played apes, gorillas, and other strange creatures in a number of science fiction shows, particularly on STAR TREK, playing the Horta in "The Devil in the Dark" and the Mugato in "A Private Little War."
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- kevinolzak
- Jun 10, 2016
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![Tina Louise, Denny Miller, and Dawn Wells in Gilligan's Island (1964)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDdhNjY5MmUtNzY1MC00ZjdjLWEyZTgtMWE3ODM0ZDE2NmE5XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_QL75_UY133_CR44,0,90,133_.jpg)