 The show received solid ratings during its original run, then grew in popularity during decades of syndication, especially in the 1970s and 1980s when many markets ran the show in the late afternoon.Today, the title character of Gilligan is widely recognized as an American cultural icon.The two-man crew of the charter boat SS "Minnow" and five passengers on a "three-hour tour" from Honolulu run into a typhoon and are shipwrecked on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.