Feel free to treat this as a running thread, but the initial question is: It was from either the 80's or very early 90's (I'm leaning towards the former; I'm remembering Big 80's Hairâ„¢) Short run, cheeseball American comedy show. It concerned a group of people stranded on an island, and NO it's not Gilligan's Island or Lost. One episode revolves around them finding a stash of differently colored twist ties, which they then proceed to use as money, with all the resultant problems of hoarding, wealth inequality, etc. At one point one of the female actors in the show becomes de facto queen of the island because she's got all the twist ties.
Yep, that's it! Thank you! I was totally off about the desert island part. Episode 3 is the twist tie episode. How did you find it?