Gilligan's Island

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Gilligan's Island
Genre	Comedy
Starring	Bob Denver Alan Hale, Jr. Russell Johnson Jim Backus Natalie Schafer Tina Louise Dawn Wells
Opening theme	The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	98 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 0:30 (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Picture format	Black-and-white (1964–1965), Color (1965–1967); NTSC
Audio format	Monaural sound
Original run	September 26, 1964 – September 4, 1967
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

For the NES video game, see Gilligan's Island (video game).

For the Puerto Rican island, see Cayos de Caña Gorda.

Gilligan's Island was an American TV sitcom originally produced by United Artists Television which aired for three seasons on the CBS network from September 26, 1964 to September 4, 1967; it was sponsored by Philip Morris & Company and Procter & Gamble. The show followed the comic adventures of seven castaways, a representative microcosm of American society, as they attempted to escape from a previously uninhabited island where they were shipwrecked and stranded.

Gilligan's Island ran for a total of 98 episodes. The first 36 episodes in season one were filmed and shown in black-and-white (later colorized in syndication) with the remaining 62 episodes throughout the next two seasons and three sequels filmed in color. Enjoying solid ratings during its original run, the show grew enormously in popularity during decades of syndication. Today the title character of Gilligan is widely recognized as a comedic American popular culture icon, ranked for example at 122nd place in the July 2003 list of 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons compiled by VH-1 and People Magazine.

The show's theme song, "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle" (written by George Wyle and Sherwood Schwartz), is a well-known example of ballad meter, and it begins:

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip that started from this tropic port abord this tiny ship. The mate was a mighty sailing man, the Skipper brave and sure. Five passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour... a three hour tour. The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed, if not for the courage of the fearless crew the Minnow would be lost. The ship struck ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle. With Gilligan, The Skipper too. The millionaire, and his wife. The movie star, the Professor and Mary Ann, Here on Gilligan's Isle.

The song was written to give new viewers a capsule summary of the unusual situation in which the castaways find themselves. Another verse was played over the closing credits, after the invariably unsuccessful attempts of the castaways to leave the island.

The last episode of the show, "Gilligan the Goddess" (prod. no. 1625-0502), aired on April 17, 1967, and ended just like the rest: with the castaways never succeeding in leaving the island. Under a wave of public pressure to reverse the threatened cancellation of Gunsmoke, which had been airing late on Saturday nights, CBS rescheduled the western to an earlier time slot on Monday evenings. This had been Gilligan's Island's timeslot in its third season. (The show ran on Saturdays in its debut season, before moving to Thursdays in season two.) Since Gilligan's Island's ratings had slumped from 24.7 (18th) to 22.1 (22nd) out of the top 25 (possibly as the result of two timeslot shifts in two years), the series was deemed expendable by CBS brass.

[edit] Cast

The cast of Gilligan's Island. (From Left to Right) Back row: Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III, Natalie Schafer as Lovey Howell, Tina Louise as Ginger Grant. Front row: Russell Johnson as the Professor, Bob Denver as Gilligan, Alan Hale, Jr. as the Skipper, Dawn Wells as Mary Ann Summers

Gilligan, of the show's title, was the hapless first mate of the S.S. Minnow. Other characters are The Skipper (referred to as Jonas Grumby in the first broadcast episode), the Professor (referred to twice as Roy Hinkley), the millionaire Thurston J. Howell III and his wife Eunice, nicknamed Lovey, movie star Ginger Grant, and Kansas farm girl Mary Ann Summers.

Bob Denver was not the first choice to play Gilligan. Actor Jerry Van Dyke was offered the role, but he turned it down, believing that the show would never make it. He chose instead to play the lead in My Mother the Car, which premiered one season later. The producers then looked to the lovable beatnik, Maynard G. Krebs, from the The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Denver embraced the role.

Alan Hale, Jr. both embodied and relished the role of the Skipper. A long time actor in B-westerns, Hale so loved his role as the Skipper, that long after the show was off the air, he would still appear in character in his Hollywood restaurant. Although the Skipper was a father figure to Gilligan, Hale was only 14 years older than Denver.

Jim Backus was well known by the time he took the role of the Millionaire, Thurston Howell, III. He was perhaps best known as the voice of the cartoon character Mr. Magoo. He used some of the voice inflections and mannerisms of Magoo in the role of the Millionaire. He was well known for his ad-libs on the set.

Natalie Schafer had it written into her contract that there were to be no close-ups of her during filming. This was perhaps due to her advanced age. Schafer was 62 when the pilot was shot although, reportedly, no one on the set or in the cast knew her real age, and she refused to divulge that information. Originally she only accepted the role because the pilot was filmed on location in Hawaii, and she looked at the job as nothing more than a free vacation as she was convinced that a show this silly would never get on the air.

Tina Louise, as the character of Ginger Grant, created a version of the quintessential Hollywood star and even her name, an amalgam of Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant, was an homage to Hollywood's past. When regular shooting began, Louise clashed with producers, because she believed she was the main focus of the show, despite its being titled "Gilligan's Island". In addition, her character was originally written as a sarcastic and sharp-tongued temptress but Louise argued that this type of character was too extreme and refused to play it as written. A compromise was reached and Louise agreed to play her as a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Lucille Ball. The evening gowns and hair style used were designed to recreate the look of Myrna Loy. Louise continued to clash with producers and was the only cast member who refused to return for any of the TV movies that followed the series cancellation, saying that the role had destroyed her career as a serious actress. However, after the series ended she did appear in a reunion of the cast on a late night TV talk show in 1988, on an episode of Roseanne in 1995, and as the mistress of J.R. Ewing in five episodes of Dallas.

Dawn Wells was a former Miss Nevada when she auditioned for the role of Mary Ann. Her competition included Raquel Welch. She was part of the replacement cast that was hired after the pilot was shot and the network wanted the roles of the professor and the two girls recast.

Russell Johnson took over the role of the Professor from John Gabriel. The network thought Gabriel looked too young to have all the degrees attributed to the professor. Ironically "the Professor" was in reality just a high school science teacher, not a university professor.

Charles Maxwell was the uncredited voice of the "Radio Announcer", whose plot-advancing radio bulletins were eagerly tuned in to by the castaways in many episodes.

[edit] Pilot vs. first broadcast episode

The first episode broadcast is often wrongly referred to as the series' pilot. This episode begins with the characters on the beach, immediately after they were shipwrecked, listening to a radio news report about their disappearance. This is the scene which reveals that the Skipper's name is Jonas Grumby and the Professor's name is Roy Hinkley.

In fact, there was an entirely different episode from this one that actually served as the show's pilot or marketing prototype. That episode dealt more with the characters' background and how they came to be shipwrecked. However, there were significant cast and character changes made after the pilot. The part of the Professor (originally played by John Gabriel) was re-cast with Russell Johnson. The parts of the two secretaries, Ginger (played by Kit Smythe) and Bunny (played by Nancy McCarthy), were changed to a movie star, Ginger Grant, and a Kansas farm girl, Mary Ann Summers, and re-cast respectively with Tina Louise and Dawn Wells. These changes meant that when the show was finally broadcast, the original pilot could not be used as its first broadcast episode.

Rather than re-shoot the same pilot story for broadcast, the show just proceeded on, and the series would begin broadcasting with what otherwise would have been the show's second episode—the episode beginning in the immediate aftermath of the shipwreck. In recognition of the fact that by doing this, the audience would have lost all of the background that the pilot episode provided, the scene with the castaways listening to the radio broadcast was added to provide that background as succinctly as possible.

The plot for the pilot episode would eventually be recycled into that season's Christmas episode, "Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk", in which the story from the pilot is related via a series of flashbacks. Some of the scenes from the pilot episode were reshot using the current actors, while other scenes (the ones involving only Denver, Hale, Backus, and Schafer) were simply reused as they were.

[edit] Episode list

Main article: List of Gilligan's Island episodes

[edit] Typical plots

The show's plots seem to be centered on one of three primary themes. The first theme is a show about life on the island (example episode 1.06 - "President Gilligan", or episode 2.16 - "Not Guilty"). The second theme involved some contrived visitor to the "uncharted" island. The third common theme was the use of dream sequences, in which one of the castaways would "dream" themselves as some character that relates to that week's storyline (example: Gilligan dreams he is Dracula after being bitten by a bat). All of the castaways would appear as characters within the dream, as was done in The Wizard of Oz, with the exception of a dream had by Mr. Howell (episode 2.05 - "The Sweepstakes") in which Mrs. Howell was not present.

The majority of episodes involved some failed attempt to get off the deserted island where they were shipwrecked. Often the failure of that week's rescue attempt was due to some bumbling error committed by Gilligan. Gilligan's bumbling of the rescue plan would often result in his having saved the others from some unforeseen impending catastrophe. For example, in episode 3.22 - "Splashdown", where an unmanned space capsule with sensitive technology landed in the lagoon, Gilligan allowed the other castaways to talk over him, failing to tell them in time that the capsule was floating away. As the group criticized Gilligan, the capsule was blown up by NASA via remote control. Another example is in episode 1.08 ("Goodbye Island"); when while looking for tree sap for Mary Ann's pancakes, Gilligan discovers a glue like substance that the Professor believes will repair the damage to the Minnow. However, the substance is temporary and dries off. Just a few minutes before they're to cast off, Gilligan tries to warn everyone, but no one will listen. Suddenly, the boat starts to break apart until it is completely destroyed. (Despite this, the ship was still prominently presented in the opening titles for the rest of the series' run.)

However, one episode (episode 1.09 - "The Big Gold Strike"), in which the castaways discover a rich vein of gold on the island, is notable in that Gilligan was *not* responsible for the failed escape attempt: the other castaways, having agreed to leave the gold behind, each smuggle bags of gold onto a makeshift raft; the combined weight of all the gold sinks the raft to the bottom of the lagoon. Gilligan is the only one who does not smuggle any gold, and even comments that he is glad that it's not his fault this time.

[edit] Visitors to the uncharted island

One challenge to a viewer's suspension of disbelief is the frequency with which the supposedly uncharted island is visited by people who do nothing to help the castaways get rescued. Some have ulterior motives for not helping to rescue the castaways; some are simply unable to help, as detailed below. Also the island is home to an unusual assortment of animal life, some of it native, some just visiting. In various episodes they are encountered by:

• Various natives, visiting the island from supposedly "nearby" islands in no less than eight different episodes. (With so many nearby islands, how can this one be uncharted?) Many are "headhunters" with less than honorable intentions, and most seem to be of Polynesian descent, although French Polynesia is about 2,500 miles from Hawaii.
• Daffy aviator "Wrong-Way Feldman" (played by Hans Conried and obviously based on the real-life story of "Wrong Way" Corrigan), who appears in two episodes. In the first, he is discovered to have been living on the island for many years. His plane is called The Spirit of the Bronx, a spoof of the Spirit of St. Louis. He was already known to the Howells. Many years before he vanished, he flew for Howell Airlines. Mr Howell tells how he made the first non-stop flight from Chicago to New Orleans – he was supposed to fly to Minneapolis. In his second appearance, he returns to the serenity of the island to escape the hustle and bustle of civilization.
• A Japanese (Vito Scotti) submariner (complete with mini-sub) convinced that World War II was still in progress.
• A gangster, on the lam from the law, played by Larry Storch, of F Troop fame.
• A jungle boy, played by Kurt Russell, whom the castaways actually send to Hawaii in a homemade helium balloon.
• A famous fictional surfer named Duke Williams, played by Denny Miller, who surfs onto the island on a tsunami and leaves on a "reverse tsunami".
• A famous painter, Dubov (played by Harold Stone), who comes to the island to escape the rigors of civilization. He is convinced to return when the castaways set up Gilligan as a rival artist.
• An exiled Latin American dictator Nehemia Persoff, El Presidente Rodrigues, who was left on the island after a revolution overthrew him. He leaves the island and returns home to Ecuarico, after a counter-revolution reinstates him.
• Soviet cosmonauts, who land on the island.
• A rock and roll band, The Mosquitoes (portrayed by The Wellingtons, the group that performed the theme song in the first year). They are driven away when they do not find the peace and quiet they sought, a refuge from their legion of female fans. The members were named Bingo, Bango, Bongo and Irving. Gilligan utters the famous line "You don't have to introduce yourself, everyone knows the Mosquitoes, that's Bingo, Bango, Bongo and Irving"
• A Hungarian countess and prominent well-to-do socialite, Erika Tiffany Smith, played by Zsa-Zsa Gabor.
• A Soviet agent who disguises himself as a ghost to scare the castaways off the island. He provides them with a self-destructing boat.
• A mad scientist (Vito Scotti) who wants to do mind-swapping experiments on the castaways. In a second visit in the third season, he returns to the island with mind-control rings in an attempt to turn them into robots who will assist him in robbing Fort Knox.
• A Hollywood producer, Harold Hekuba (portrayed by Phil Silvers), who comes to the island for a vacation. The castaways stage a musical production of Hamlet in order to convince him to return to society.
• A world famous butterfly collector, Lord Beasley, played by John McGiver. Lord Beasley is searching for the elusive Pussycat Swallowtail butterfly and will not leave until he finds it.
• A kidnapper, played by Don Rickles, who comes to the island and begins kidnapping the castaways one by one.
• A radio game show contestant, George Barkley, played by Strother Martin is exiled on the island, to survive alone for one week. If he does, he will win $10,000.
• A big-game hunter, Jonathon Kinkaid, played by Rory Calhoun, comes to island to hunt big game. Finding none, he decides to hunt the ultimate game, Gilligan.
• An out-of-work actor (played by Denny Miller), who is trying to land the role of Tongo the apeman. He comes to island to practice his character and upon finding the castaways, he decides that if he can convince them that he is a true apeman, then he is certain to land the role of Tongo. Ironically, Miller had already played Tarzan in the 1959 feature Tarzan, the Ape Man.
• A Mr. Howell imposter, who is shipwrecked while on a cruise spending Thurston's money.
• A foreign (presumably Russian) spy disguised as Gilligan, who believed the castaways were on a secret American base.
• A suicidal librarian, Eva Grubb (played by Tina Louise), who resembled Ginger Grant. Attempting to befriend the ungroomed woman, Ginger tutors her in cosmetics, poise, and general glamor. Grubb returns to civilization intending to impersonate Grant (and so has no motive to arrange for the real Grant's rescue).

[edit] Dream sequences

Another common story format had the castaways confront a problem and one of the castaways, usually Gilligan, has a silly dream that relates to the problem in question. Almost all of the castaways in later interviews and memoirs have stated that the dream episodes were among their personal favorites.

• Gilligan dreams he is a Wild West sheriff who protects a duck everyone wants to eat.
• Each of the men has a dream about being an object of adoration to women: Gilligan dreams he is a matador, Skipper's dream is that he is a Sultan with a harem, Mr. Howell dreams he is being pampered, and the Professor imagines himself as a dashing film star.
• Skipper hits his head and suffers amnesia. The professor hypnotizes him to try to cure him. Under hypnosis, the Skipper sees the other castaways as childhood classmates, then in another hypnotic session he sees them as Japanese soldiers from World War II.
• Gilligan dreams he is a spoiled prince of the Royal Howells, who only wants to be a "normal" boy.
• Gilligan dreams he is a puppet (literally) ruler of a country, where he must promise the people "dis, dat and de udder ting"[sic].
• Thurston Howell dreams he is a prospector who strikes it rich, but gets into debt and trouble.
• Mary Ann dreams she is a patient in a hospital everyone wants to pronounce terminal.
• Gilligan dreams his own version of Jack and the Beanstalk where the Giant is hoarding oranges.
• Gilligan dreams he and the other castaways are all doddering old fogeys celebrating their fiftieth anniversary of being shipwrecked (the radio announcer's voice also sounds extremely like a very old man!).
• Gilligan dreams he is a vampire who battles Inspector Sherlock (The Professor) and Colonel Watney (Skipper).
• Gilligan dreams he is Secret Agent 014 ("twice as good as 007") charged with delivering an attaché case with most of the other castaways being assassins.
• Gilligan dreams he is Henry Jekyll on trial with Mary Poppins (Mrs. Howell) as his counsel. It is revealed by a witness called "The Lady in Red" (Tina Louise) that Gilligan turns into Mr. Hyde when he hears people talk about food.
• Gilligan dreams he is Lord Admiral Gilligan battling pirates on his ship.
• Lovey Howell stars in her own dream version of Cinderella with Gilligan as her Fairy Godfather.
• Gilligan dreams that the castaways are cave people following a map to get to the other side of the island.

[edit] Theme song

The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle is the proper name for the theme song for Gilligan’s Island. The music and lyrics were written by Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle.

There were two versions of the theme during the run of the show, one for the first season and another for the second and third seasons. The lyrics were slightly altered in the second season to add direct mention of the Professor (Russell Johnson) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) in the opening credits. According to Schwartz, as the show evolved, the Professor and Mary Ann grew into more important characters than were originally planned.

The first season version was recorded by the The Wellingtons and had a more folk music sound. It starts with an acoustic guitar strumming for two bars before the lyrics start. The instrumentation, which includes a slide guitar, is subdued and very Hawaiian sounding.

The second and third season version was not credited to a particular group in the credits, but according to Russell Johnson in his book Here on Gilligan's Isle, it was performed by a group called The Eligibles. It begins with a mini-fanfare, and has a more traditional pop music sound but with some almost reggae-like underpinnings. The instrumentation is much more prominent in this version, and does not have any slide guitar.

The show's original pilot episode featured a calypso theme song with different lyrics. Notably, the original length of the voyage was "a six-hour ride", not "a three-hour tour."^[1][2]

[edit] "And the rest"

In the first season theme song, the Professor and Mary Ann were not mentioned by name or role, but rather referred to as "and the rest". Actors Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells were originally considered "second-billed co-stars", but with the growing popularity of their characters, their names were inserted into the later-season lyrics.^{[3] [4] [5]} Dawn Wells tells the story that it was Bob Denver who went to the studio execs and said that Johnson and Wells' names should be in the opening credits. The execs originally refused, stating that it would cost too much to reshoot and rescore the opening. So Denver pointed out that, as the show's star, it was in his contract to have his name anywhere he wanted in the credits, so they could put his name in the end credits with Johnson and Wells'. The studio felt itself obligated to have Denver's name appear in the opening, so they capitulated, granting The Professor and Mary Ann a place in the opening credits. Wells said that Denver never mentioned this to anyone in the cast, and she didn't find out until years after the show ended what he had done for them.

[edit] Gilligan's full name

Gilligan's full name has been a subject of debate among fans of the series for decades, a debate resolved by the release of Gilligan's Island — The Complete First Season on DVD in 2004. In a documentary called "Before the Three Hour Tour", excerpts from Sherwood Schwartz's original treatment for the series reveal that Gilligan's full name was Willy Gilligan, a name which Bob Denver had sometimes given during talk show interviews. Bob Denver stated on KDKA radio interview in May 1989, that Gil Eggan was his choice for the character's name. Denver reasoned that since everyone yelled at him, it came out as Gilligan. However, no first name is used in any of the three seasons, films or animated series. The documentary also reveals that Schwartz found the name "Gilligan" by opening the phone book to a random page.

[edit] Location of the island

The actual filming of the show took place at the CBS' Radford Studios complex in Studio City, California, identifiable as user-defined landmark in Google Earth. The lagoon was drained and used as a parking lot during the show's off-season, and was the last remaining element of the show until it was demolished in 1997 as part of an expansion project.

• In episode 3.28, titled "The Pigeon", the note pinned on a pigeon's leg by the castaways says the island is located approximately 300 miles southeast of Hawaii.

• In episode 1.18, entitled "X Marks the Spot", viewers were informed that the Pentagon had decided to test a new warhead just above the equator at 140 degrees latitude and 10 degrees longitude. This is inaccurate, as latitude is measured north and south of the equator to the poles and only ranges from 0 to 90 degrees. If the coordinates were simply reversed — 140 degrees longitude and 10 degrees north latitude — then this would place the island approximately 1200 miles southeast of Hawaii.

A common question is how the castaways were able to determine their location, given that the island itself was supposedly not on any of the Skipper's nautical charts. Their latitude is the angle of the North Star above the horizon, and their longitude is the difference between "noon" at their location and "noon" on their watch (in minutes), divided by four, and added to the known longitude of Hawaii.

[edit] Things they made out of "bamboo"

What many people consider one of the most enjoyable aspects of Gilligan's Island was the vast array of things that the castaways were able to fashion from bamboo and other local material. Some were simple everyday things, some were real stretches of the imagination. These inventions also made it seem very unlikely that the castaways were never able to construct a vessel to sail to the mainland, though many fans still willfully suspended their disbelief and accepted this running gag as part of the show's general silliness. For the production crew's part, Russell Johnson noted in his autobiography that they enjoyed the challenge of building the creations.

• Bamboo framed huts with thatched grass sides and roofs, strong enough to withstand hurricane force winds and rain.
• Communal dining table, and chairs
• Dishes carved out of wood
• Skipper and Gilligan slept in hammocks, but the other five castaways all had beds made from bamboo.
• All the huts had bamboo closets
• Scientific distillery made from bamboo piping and gourds for liquid containers
• Bamboo bowling alley
• Bamboo Geiger counter to measure radiation from a meteor that crashes to the island.
• A bamboo pedal-powered automobile used as a taxi for the Howells
• A bamboo pipe for Gilligan's hot water pipes
• A bamboo pipe to supply Gilligan and the Skipper with air
• A bamboo bike to charge batteries
• A replacement leg for a NASA space probe which was supposed to have landed on Mars
• A bamboo bike to wash clothes
• Bamboo cages for whenever anyone is locked up
• Many kinds of weapons, including spears, clubs, and helmets
• A stage used mainly for Ginger's performances
• A safe made from wood and bamboo
• Barbells made with a length of bamboo connecting boulders
• Shovel with handle and spade made out of bamboo
• A broom
• Sledge hammer with a bamboo handle
• Bamboo spigot used to get syrup out of a tree for pancakes
• Divining rod for finding fresh water was made with bamboo
• Jail with bamboo bars
• Golf clubs made of bamboo and shells
• Butterfly net
• Go-cart
• A guillotine
• A lie-detector with a fog horn from the S.S. Minnow
• A pair of wings with wild bird feathers that Gilligan temporarily flys with
• A room fan in the Howell's hut
• A telephone using a phone-line that washed up in the lagoon
• A hot air balloon inflated by a natural helium spring
• A raft that is later eaten by sharks
• A seismograph used to measure tremors on the other side of the island
• A shower featuring running hot water
• A guitar and drum set
• A record player
• An oxygen line for scuba-diving in the lagoon
• A laboratory used by the Professor
• A life sized model of the S.S. Minnow used in a reenactment of the Minnow's shipwreck
• A lightning rod
• An injection needle used for administering anti-histamines
• A stethoscope
• A scale/balance
• A floating wedding chapel used in the re-marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Howell
• A turtle raceway
• A film Projector
• An Umbrella
• A polo pony
• A set of Picture frames
• A Funeral Pyre
• A pair of lawn chairs
• A giant mirror on wheels
• A bird cage
• A bird treadmill used in the exercise of Walter the pigeon
• A thermometer
• A Ping-pong table
• A bath tub and toy boats
• A fishing pole
• A plow
• A flame thrower filled with natural gas from a spring on the island
• A lobster trap
• A set of badminton equipment
• A pool table
• A set of tribal chief costumes
• A rocking chair
• A set of repair parts for an airplane
• A reclining dentist chair and dental tools including a moving drill
• A set of drinking straws
• A clothesline
• A handheld wheel-barrow for supporting a bowling ball inseparably connected to Gilligan's hand
• A Christmas tree
• A highball glass
• A pair of stilts

[edit] Spin-offs

The success of Gilligan's Island spawned a number of spin-offs:

• The New Adventures of Gilligan was a successful Filmation-produced animated remake that aired on ABC Saturday (and Sunday) Morning from September 7, 1974 to September 4, 1977 for 24 episodes (16 installments airing in 1974-75 and 8 new ones combined with repeats in 1975-76). The voices were done by the original cast except for Ginger and Mary Ann, voiced by Jane Webb. An additional character was Stubby the Monkey, voiced by Lou Scheimer.
• In a successful 1978 made-for-TV movie, Rescue From Gilligan's Island, the castaways did successfully leave the island, but had difficulty reintegrating into society. During a reunion cruise at the first Christmas after their rescue, fate intervened and the group found themselves marooned on the exact same island. It starred the original cast except for Tina Louise, who refused to participate and was replaced as Ginger by Judith Baldwin (who seemed much too young for the role, compared to the other actors). The plot of the movie involved Soviet agents seeking a memory disc from a spy satellite that landed on the island and facilitated their rescue.
• In a 1979 sequel, The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, they were rescued once again, and the Howells converted the island into a getaway resort, with the other five castaways as "silent partners". (Ginger was again played by Judith Baldwin.) This sequel was intended as a pilot for a possible new series in which the castaways would host new groups of tourists each week, using the all-star cast anthology format made popular by The Love Boat. The series never materialized, though the premise was the basis of a short-lived 1981 series titled Aloha Paradise.
• In a second sequel, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981), some villains (played by Martin Landau and then-wife Barbara Bain, who also appeared together on Mission: Impossible and Space: 1999) try to take over the island to gain access to a valuable but unknown substance. (Ginger was played by Constance Forslund.) They are thwarted by the timely intervention of the Harlem Globetrotters. Jim Backus, who was in poor health at the time, only appeared at the very end of the episode, arriving back on the island. David Ruprecht played the role of Thurston Howell IV. This is odd, because it was established in the series that the Howells were childless (though historically, adoption has been considered a perfectly valid method of securing an heir).
• Gilligan's Planet was an animated science fiction version produced by Filmation and starring the voices of the Gilligan's Island cast save for Tina Louise (Dawn Wells played the voices of both Mary Ann and Ginger). They escape from the island by building a spaceship, and get shipwrecked on a distant planet. Only 12 episodes aired on CBS (Gilligan's old network) between September 18, 1982 and September 3, 1983. In one episode, they travel to an island, get shipwrecked there, and Gilligan observes, "First we were stranded on an island, then we were stranded on a planet, and now we're stranded on an island on a planet."
• Gilligan's Island: The Musical First produced in the early 1990s, script by Lloyd Sherwood, Sherwood Schwartz's son, with songs by Sherwood Schwartz's daughter and son-in-law, Hope and Laurence Juber. After extensive revisions since 2001 it has been produced at various theaters around the U.S.
• Gilligan's Island: Underneath the Grass Skirt (1999)
• Gilligan's Island: The E! True Hollywood Story (2000), a backstage history of the show, featuring interviews with some of the stars or their widows.
• Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History (2001) was a docudrama where Bob Denver, Dawn Wells, and Russell Johnson reminisce about the show.
• On November 30, 2004, the TBS network launched a reality series entitled The Real Gilligan's Island which placed two groups of people on an island, leaving them to fend for themselves a la Survivor — the catch being that each islander matched a character type established in the original series (a klutz, a sea captain, a movie star, a millionaire's wife, etc.). While heavily marketed by TBS, the show turned out to be a flop with a very "Survivor"-like feel, but little of the Survivor success. A second season began June 8, 2005 with two-hour episodes for four weeks. TBS announced in July 2005 that a third season of the show would not be produced.

[edit] Television and video distribution

United Artists Television originally produced the series (in association with Phil Silvers' Gladysya Productions and CBS) and subsequently distributed it in syndication. In 1986, the series was sold to Turner Entertainment as part of a package that included the classic MGM/WB/RKO film and television library, with half the interests sold to the Silvers estate (both Turner and the Silvers family now share the show's copyright). Some years later, after Turner merged with Time Warner, Warner Bros. Television became responsible for the show's distribution, and continues to do so today. The entire series has been released on DVD through corporate sibling Warner Home Video, and online via AOL's IN2TV service.

[edit] DVD Releases

All three seasons of Gilligan's Island have been released on DVD in Region 1 by Warner Home Video.

Cover Art	DVD Name	Ep #	Region 1	Additional features
	The Complete 1st Season	37	February 3, 2004	Includes the rare pilot episode Commentary by creator Sherwood Schwartz on the pilot episode Tropical Tidbits trivia for the premiere episode "Two on a Raft" Gilligan's Island Survival Guide "Before The Three-Hour Tour" featurette
	The Complete 2nd Season	32	January 11, 2005	Introduction to Season Two by Sherwood Schwartz and Russell Johnson Commentary by creator Sherwood Schwartz on "The Little Dictator"
	The Complete 3rd Season	30	July 26, 2005	Introduction to Season Three by Sherwood Schwartz and Russell Johnson Commentary by creator Sherwood Schwartz on "The Producer" Documentary: "Gilligan's Island: A Pop Culture Phenomenon"

[edit] Trivia

• In the Jack and the Beanstalk dream sequence of the episode "V for Vitamins", the smaller version of Gilligan, running from the Giant Skipper, is played by Bob Denver's real life son, Patrick Denver. [1]
• The show was filmed what is today the CBS Studio Center in Studio City, California. [2] The same stage used by the show would later be used by The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Roseanne.
• Bob Denver, Jim Backus, and Tina Louise each had feature episodes where look-alikes came to the island (who were, of course, played by themselves).
• The opening scene of the Minnow in a storm was reused in an episode of The Wild Wild West in which several persons are trapped on an island.
• Alan Hale Jr guest starred on The Wild Wild West. At the end he remarks he is going on a vaction to a "desert Island" {An in-joke reference to "Gilligan's Island"!}
• Four different boats played the part of the SS Minnow in the show. One was used in the opening credits and rented in Honolulu Harbor. Another was used in the opening credits in the second season, and eventually turned up for sale on Vancouver Island in August 2006 after running aground on a reef in the Hecate Strait on the way south from Alaska. One boat was used for beach scenes after being towed to Kauai in Hawaii and another Minnow was built on the CBS Studios set in the second season.^[6]
• In "You've Been Disconnected", Lovey Howell claims to speak fluent French, while in "All About Eva", she claims she cannot speak any French.
• When the castaways are kidnapped to a mad scientist's lab in the episode "The Friendly Physician," they succeed in physically getting off the island for the only time in the series.
• According to Here on Gilligan's Isle by Russell Johnson and Steve Cox, many shots from the opening credits from the first season were filmed on November 22, 1963, the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. A clue to this is a panned shot early in the sequence in which an American flag is clearly at half staff.
• The show's theme song is written in common meter, meaning that poems written in this fashion can be sung to it. This includes many Emily Dickinson poems and, ironically, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
• Unusually for such a successful American television series, the programme is virtually unknown in the United Kingdom — only thirteen episodes were ever shown there.^[7]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Gilligan's Island

• Rescue from Gilligan's Island (1978) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Castaways on Gilligan's Island (1979) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981) at the Internet Movie Database
• Gilligan's Planet (1982) at the Internet Movie Database
• Gilligan's Island: Underneath the Grass Skirt (1999 documentary) at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Gilligan's Island Fan Club
• Bob Denver's Gilligan's Island Fan Club (includes obituary)
• Gilligan's real last name revealed!
• Classic TV - Gilligan's Island
• CTVA US Comedy - Gilligan's Island (1964-67) Bob Denver
• Gilligan's Island: the Musical
• Tim's TV Showcase - Gilligan's Island
• The Seven Deadly Sins of Gilligan's Island
• TV Series Finale - Details on series cancellation, reunions, cameos, actors post-series, trivia, and podcast