Just Sit Right Back and You’ll Uncover Secrets About ‘Gilligan’s Island’
Sometimes it’s difficult to define what makes a classic TV show, but one that has entertained generations of viewers, not with the goal of changing the world, but just inspiring some laughs for half an hour, has to qualify. And with that in mind, how do you not consider Gilligan’s Island a TV classic? The show made its debut 54 years ago and only ran for three seasons (1964-67), yet it’s never been forgotten. Along the way, it turned its characters and the actors who played them into TV icons who will no doubt live on for decades to come. It also gave us one of television’s great theme songs. It’s a legendary tune.
The premise of the show is that a three-hour boat tour (which instantly raises the question of why the passengers had so many outfits with them, but we digress) runs into a violent storm and is washed ashore an uninhabited island. There the seven passengers have to survive and learn to get along with each other with the knowledge they have no way to get home. It all sounds so Lord of the Flies or Lost, but obviously it’s not. This is a comedy, and oftentimes a slapstick one at that, starring Bob Denver (Gilligan), Alan Hale, Jr. (The Skipper), Jim Backus (Thurston Howell III, aka “The Millionaire”), Natalie Schafer (Mrs. Lovey Howell, aka “His Wife”), Tina Louise (Ginger Grant, aka “The Movie Star”), Russell Johnson (Professor Roy Hinkley, aka “The Professor”) and Dawn Wells (Mary Ann without the aka).
Created by Sherwood Schwartz (who would go on to create another gem of classic TV in the form of The Brady Bunch), it was a concept that he fought to get on the air, but never could he have imagined it having the enduring success that it has enjoyed. So to celebrate all things Gilligan, we’re exploring some of the bigger secrets of the island those seven stranded castaways all called home.
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The show was almost going to be Gilligan’s Travels.
After the concept for the show had been pitched, one of the CBS executives felt that the idea of them ending up on a deserted island was a good plot…for the first episode. But wouldn’t it be great if, in each episode after that, The Skipper and Gilligan, aboard in a repaired boat, took different people to different destinations? In a word, no. Besides, would you want to get on a boat with these guys?
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The Gilligan's Island theme song is so simple for a reason.
The theme song for Gilligan’s Island is one of the great ones in TV history, and it came about because the network thought coming to the island each week would (somehow) be too confusing for the nimrods in the television audience. Sherwood Schwartz offered up a solution with a song that would describe the set-up at the start of every episode. Obviously it worked like gangbusters, and led the writer/producer to pen one song people don’t remember that well (for his show It’s About Time) and one they’ll never forget, The Brady Bunch.
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Jerry Van Dyke was actually the original choice to play Gilligan.
Bob Denver, the actor who will forever be known as Gilligan, pointed out in an interview with Montreal’s CJAD 800 AM that Dick Van Dyke’s brother, Jerry, was Sherwood Schwartz’s original casting choice for Gilligan. But on the advice of his agent, he turned it down.
Then Bob and Sherwood met and the rest is history.
"I had a meeting with Sherwood Schwartz, the producer, writer and creator. And when he and I got done talking, I was on the floor laughing when he told me the premises of some and the guest stars and things, I said, 'Are you sure the network is going to let you do this?' And he said, 'Yeah, I have permission to shoot the pilot,' and I said, 'Well fine, it would be great.' So we shook hands and that was the deal," Bob said. "Then we shot the pilot on the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian string there. I still couldn't believe it when I was in Hawaii for two weeks shooting a half hour situation comedy that was so stupid and silly. And then I figured, well, if it didn't sell at least I got a nice, you know, two weeks. I stayed an extra two weeks so I had a month on the island. Then of course it sold and became a hit." If he’d known just how big a hit, he added, "I would have made a better deal."
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The idea for Gilligan’s Island began in the classroom.
While attending New York University, Sherwood Schwartz was in a class where the professor (no, not that Professor) posed the class with the question of the one thing they would bring with them on a desert island (excluding the all-male class from suggesting a way of escape or a woman). Most of the students suggested a radio, mostly to keep up with the news of the world. One, however, suggested a daily delivery of The New York Times, because he would learn the news of the day, but also be able to use the newspaper in a way he never could a radio (think about it). Sherwood admits that that response actually played a role in the creation of Gilligan’s Island.
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The concept of the show has a pretty deep meaning behind it.
"A social microcosm" were the words that Sherwood Schwartz used to describe Gilligan’s Island to former CBS Chairman of the Board, William Paley, who was confused, noting that he thought the show being pitched was a comedy. Schwartz offered that it was a "funny microcosm." The idea was to have seven people from very different lives learning how to live together and survive, though obviously, played for laughs rather than drama. What he wanted to deal with was the idea of modern man having to cope with living a primitive life on an uninhabited island, and the conflict between people as they have to get used to each other.
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Some viewers actually thought what was happening on the show was real.
You look at Gilligan’s Island, and you know it’s a sitcom, right? The laugh track alone should give that away. But there were people who were watching the seven stranded castaways who grew increasingly concerned, and they started to contact the Coast Guard to find out why they weren’t helping those poor people!
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The early versions of the beloved characters were a tad bit different.
Among those seven stranded castaways was Russell Johnson as the Professor, Dawn Wells as Mary Ann, and Tina Louise as Ginger. Well, in the original pilot produced for CBS, the Professor was played by John Gabriel, Mary Ann was played by Nancy McCarthy and had the name Buffy (no, she didn't slay vampires), and Kit Smythe played Ginger, who, rather than being a movie star, was a secretary.
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The Skipper actually had a name.
Everyone may have referred to him as "Skipper", but the character was actually born Jonas Grumby. The site alanhale.com offers a a nice tribute to both actor and character. In regards to the latter, we're told that he and Gilligan served together in World War II, and Gilligan even saved his life by shoving him away from a depth charge that had broken loose. Following the war, he bought the S.S. Minnow with his commission and, with Gilligan as his mate, started offering three-hour tours from Honolulu Harbor. Well, we all know the rest of that story.
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"…And the rest"
In the opening credits of season one, everyone is identified in the iconic theme song except for the Professor and Mary Ann, who are summed up "as the rest." Why? Two reasons that seem to have come together for that. First, Tina Louise, coming off of a Broadway role, contractually had last placement in the credits. Second, both Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells were the last to be signed, replacing actors who had played their characters in the original pilot. The change in the song and titles took place in season two, because Bob Denver told CBS he would have his lead credit moved to the end titles if things weren’t adjusted (and apparently Tina went along with it).
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The character of Mary Ann helped soldiers in Vietnam.
Hey, that’s what Dawn Wells revealed to Forbes in an interview. "Many vets from Vietnam have said that Mary Ann kept them going, helped them make it through, kept them positive and focused on returning safely. They kept my picture in their helmets. I have the utmost respect for what it takes to be one of America’s finest, and am very thankful for what they do," she said. Who knew?!
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The name of the boat that brought them to the island is a nod to the roots of television.
The S.S. Minnow was the name of the boat that embarked on that three-hour tour that didn’t end so well. The name was actually inspired by former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Newton Minow, who had proclaimed television a "vast wasteland."
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Where was Gilligan’s Island located?
The island was supposed to be situated close enough to Hawaii to receive radio signals from there, and while some sequences for the first episode were shot on location, the real location was the CBS Radford Studios in Studio City, California. That same stage would later be used for both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Roseanne. The lagoon was actually a parking lot that would be filled with water during the season.
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So how did Gilligan’s Island end?
There wasn’t actually an ending for the show. First of all, back in the 1960s, there were very few series that actually did have endings, the belief being that doing so would somehow destroy interest in reruns (nope, doesn’t make sense to us either). The other thing is that series creator Sherwood Schwartz and the cast were told and believed that they would be coming back for year four, but the network went back on its word.
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Wasn’t there a Gilligan’s Island cartoon series?
Yes and in fact, there were two. The New Adventures of Gilligan aired from 1974-75. Gilligan's Island ran for three seasons from 1964-67, and this show could easily be considered the fourth. Same island, same actors voicing their characters (Bob Denver and Alan Hale, Jr. among them, though Dawn Wells voiced both Mary Ann and Ginger), and same silly situations as Gilligan inadvertently messes things up for the others while they work on a way of getting off the island. Flash forward to the 1982-83 TV season, and we got the Saturday morning series Gilligan’s Planet. In it, the Professor manages to build a rocket ship(?) to get everyone off the island, but, instead of heading to the mainland, they soar through the stratosphere and end up crashing on an alien planet. So they're stranded there, encountering the locals and working to get back home. They don’t.
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The characters did get rescued from the island at one point, though.
In 1978, the seven stranded castaways (though Ginger had transformed from Tina Louise to Judith Baldwin, Tina believing the show had derailed her acting career) finally were rescued. Most of this two-part TV movie, Rescue From Gilligan’s Island, dealt with them getting used to the idea of modern society. At the same time, the Skipper is trying to get insurance money for the Minnow, but to do so has to get each of the castaways to sign a waiver stating that he wasn’t responsible for what happened to them. He and Gilligan go from person to person, interact with them (oftentimes helping them out with a problem) and get the signature. In the end, the Skipper gets his money, which he uses to purchase the Minnow II; all seven of them go out on a reunion tour, they sail right into a storm (thanks to Gilligan accidentally breaking the ship’s compass) and find themselves shipwrecked back on the same exact island they were originally stranded. Is that what The Lion King meant by the circle of life?
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And the success of the first TV movie, led to another.
Due to the ratings success of the first film, a year later came the follow-up, The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island, in which they find a previously hidden base of operations for the Army Air Corps that was used during World War II — as well as a pair of planes. The Professor (of course) is able to combine parts from both planes to fly them off the island (even MacGyver would be impressed by that one!), but when Gilligan accidentally falls off and has to parachute back to the island, they elect to go after him, despite knowing they won’t be able to take off again. They land and the engine falls off, which would have happened mid-flight if they’d stayed in the air much longer — meaning that Gilligan has inadvertently saved them all. The good news is they’re rescued by the U.S. Navy. First thing, the island is charted. Second, Mr. Howell buys the island and has it turned into a tropical resort, and this becomes the pilot for a potential new series that would see guest stars coming to Gilligan’s Island (think of it as a variation of The Love Boat). It didn’t go. However…
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There was a third TV movie.
Two years later, we did get a third TV movie, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island. But it was a pretty silly affair: bad guys played by Martin Landau and Barbara Bain come to the island and attempt a take-over so that they can get their hands on a valuable element known as "supremium." Coming to the rescue is the basketball troupe, the Harlem Globetrotters. This time, Ginger was played by Constance Forslund, and Jim Backus (due to poor health) only made a short appearance at the end of the film. Instead, most of the material intended for him was given to David Ruprecht as Thurston Howell IV.
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There was even a reality-TV show version of the sitcom.
The Real Gilligan’s Island aired on TBS from 2004-05. Shot in the Mexican Caribbean, it had contestants participate in challenges that were inspired by plots from the television series. In a sense, it became a cross between Survivor and Gilligan’s Island.
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Will there be a Gilligan’s Island reboot?
There have been many rumblings over the years about a new movie version, beginning in March of 2012. The most recent word is that Josh Gad has co-written the script for a movie and that he will be playing the role of Gilligan.
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Saying goodbye to the fateful trip.
To wrap things up, it feels appropriate to present the lyrics to the song that closed off each episode of the original series: "So this is the tale of our castaways, They're here for a long long time. They'll have to make the best of things, It's an uphill climb. The first mate and his Skipper too, Will do their very best, To make the others comf'terble In their tropic island nest. No phone, no lights, no motor car, Not a single luxury; Like Robinson Crusoe, It's primitive as can be. So join us here each week my friends, You're sure to get a smile, From seven stranded castaways, Here on Gilligan's Isle!"
We’ve been getting those smiles for over half a century. Thanks for the laughs, guys. We'll be sure to check in and see how you're doing.