With less than a week to go in 2020, one of the most horrible years in American history dealt us one more devastating blow: Dawn Wells, who played the wholesome Mary Ann among a motley crew of shipwrecked castaways on the classic 1960s sitcom “Gilligan’s Island, died from COVID-19.

Tina Louise who played Ginger the movie star is now the last surviving member from the cast, who made a “three-hour tour” a solid hit during its original three-year run and a decades-long favorite in syndication.

Mary Ann was the only member of the ensemble cast that I wouldn’t mind keeping me company for three days or three decades in a deserted island.

Gilligan was a hapless moron and I would have choked him to death within an hour of being shipwrecked. The Skipper had one default expression, his mouth agape at the shenanigans of his little buddy, Gilligan. His open mouth would have been an irresistible invitation for me to reach down his throat and rip his heart out.  I would have rifled through the luggage of the wealthy passengers Thurston and the Lovey Howell, and if I didn’t find any loot, I would have quickly dispatched them to the great mansion in the sky. The Professor was a bore and it wouldn’t have taken much effort to bash his egghead flat as a pancake. Ginger was eye candy, but she was too self-absorbed to notice a schmuck like me, even if we were the only two persons on the deserted island.

So, to answer the decades long debate, I would choose the wholesome cutie Mary Ann over the hot movie star Ginger. Rest in Peace Mary Ann, a nation grieves.