More than fifty years ago, television in the US was settling into the mechanism and methodology that would last, with little variation, until the present day. It had gone through the 1950's as 'The Golden Age of Television' with a good deal of hope and promise only to clank into the Sitcoms, [police, medical, law, firefighter / emt] dramas and all the rest of the junk we still have, in a format dotted with commercials to pay for it in the 1960's. The head of FCC at the time, showing extreme disappointment in what television was becoming, or more correctly, was being used to broadcast, gave a speech in which he claimed people tuning in to television at the current time (9 May, 1961) would see a "vast wasteland" among other derogatory observances. As the legend goes, more than 100,000 people called and wrote to the FCC asking the time and network on which "Vast Wasteland" aired. Legend or not, the truth that amuses me is that a particularly successful producer, making a fortune in mindless sitcoms, was offended by those remarks.
The head of the FCC, the man who called Television broadcasts a "Vast Wasteland" was Nelson Minnow (still alive today, coming up on 92 years of age). The man who was offended was Sherwood Schwartz (who died in 2011, at 94 years of age), who brought us such gems as Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch and others of that ilk. As a swipe at Nelson Minnow, and still a bit cranky about the "Vast Wastland" speech, Schwartz named the boat on Gilligan's Island the S.S. Minnow as a gesture toward Mr. Minnow.
Brian