"drewdawg" ) writes:

While this thread is still alive I remember when Gilligan's head became a
radio and the skipper mentioned that if there were two of him they could
have stereo. This was years before Kahn am-stereo. Hmmmm :-\



I'm sure that was a joke about stereo, but I seem to recall one of
Gilligan's fillings was acting as a rectifier, in effect a simple crystal
radio. Though how there'd be a signal strong enough to be rectified by
that, no antenna after all, way off on that isolated island, I have no idea.

A similar thing happened on The Partridge Family. Laurie gets braces,
and suddenly she is picking up radio signals.

The explanation was a bit off, because it only happened when some guy
with a transistor radio (one that fit in your palm) was nearby with
the radio playing. The braces might have worked as a rectifier, but
only in the presence of a strong radio signal. The radio would at most
be radiating a weak signal, and the local oscillator which would be
more likely to radiate than the IF would not convey modulation whichis
what Laurie was picking.

The kid with the transistor portable was played by Mark Hamill.

Michael