Islands that Never Really Were, 3rd Archipelago Quiz

Answer: Gilligan's Island

"Gilligan's Island" ran three seasons on CBS (1964-1967) and was primed to run a fourth when it was canceled. The first 36 episodes, which were shot in black and white, were later colourized for syndication. The premise was that the SS Minnow left Honolulu for a three-hour tour but was carried away by a tropical storm.

The uncharted island was so located that the castaways were able to receive AM radio broadcasts from Hawaii. The Minnow was named in honour of FCC commissioner Newton Minnow who was highly critical of American television programming which he described as "a vast wasteland".

Answer: The Isle of Naboombu

Charlie, Carrie, and Paul are sent far away from London to protect them from the Blitz. They are on the cusp of learning how to fly magically when they learn that the last part of the spell is concealed in a medallion. They travel to the Isle of Naboombu where the king, a lion named Leonidas, is found wearing the medallion. Based on children's stories by Mary Norton, the film starred Angela Lansbury.

It was the last film released before Walt Disney's brother Roy died.

Answer: Pescepada Island

"The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is an American comedy by Wes Anderson. It stars Bill Murray. The entire film is a paean to Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997). The script was conceived over a series of lunches at an Italian Greenwich Village restaurant called Bar Pitti. The producers named the island Pescespada because there was swordfish on the menu and the Italian word for swordfish is pescespada.

Answer: Santa Marta

Belafonte plays a young black politician who upsets the dominant white society on a Caribbean island politically and upset some American audiences by an interracial on-screen romance with Joan Fontaine. Their passionate kiss in the film prompted hundreds of hate letters to Fontaine. Based on Alec Waugh's 1955 best-seller, the film did well in theatres.

The fictitious island is named Santa Marta; the island scenes were filmed on Barbados and Grenada. The title song by Belafonte and Irving Burgie says "Oh, island in the sun, willed to me by my father's hand, all my days I will sing in praise of your forest, waters, your shining sand."

Answer: Plato

An island nation called Atlantis is mentioned in two of Plato's works -- "Timaeus" and "Critias" -- but less as a geographic report than as an element in an allegory about modes of government and the use of naval power. Plato's mention serves to legitimate myriad whacky ideas about Atlantis modernly. The idea of Atlantis is so entertaining that it appears in Doctor Who, in "DuckTales", in "The Man from Atlantis" and in both "Star Trek" and "Star Gate" on television.

Answer: Spidermonkey Island

In "The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle" (1923), the doctor, Tommy Stubbins, Jip the dog and Polynesia the parrot travel to Spidermonkey Island. He finds Long Arrow imprisoned in a cave and frees him. He settled a war between the Popsipetels and the Bag-jagderags.

He prevented the floating island from drifting to Antarctica (with the help of some friendly whales). Riding in an air pocket inside the shell of a giant Pink Sea Snail, the party returns to England. The book won the Newbery Award in 1923.

Answer: Leshp

Most of the time, Leshp is underwater. When it breaks to the surface, it becomes an uninhabited island (or small continent) over which nations are willing to fight. In the 21st novel in the Discworld series, "Jingo" (1997), the nations of Ankh-Morpork and Klatch go to war over Leshp. While underwater, it is the domain of Curious squid.

Answer: Shutter Island

U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a woman from a criminal psychiatric hospital there. Martin Scorsese directed this adaptation of Dennis Lehane's 2003 novel. Portions of the film were shot on real-life Peddock's Island.

Answer: San Piedro Island

David Guterson was a school teacher (and the son of a prominent criminal defense attorney) when he wrote "Snow Falling on Cedars." The murder and the trial in the book take place on San Piedro Island, a fictitious location in Washington State. The book jacket review of the novel calls San Piedro "a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies."

Answer: Mypos

The premise of "Perfect Strangers" is that distant cousin Balki Bartokomous (played by Bronson Pinchot) comes to America to live with mild quiet photographer Larry Appleton (played by Mark Linn-Baker). His homeland is the fictitious Greek island of Mypos where Balki was a shepherd. Balki's immediate supervisor in the mail room where he works called him "the Mypiot" and seeks to have him fired.