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Gilligan's Island

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For the NES video game, see Gilligan's Island (video game).
Gilligan's Island was an American TV sitcom which aired for three seasons on the CBS network from September 26 1964 to September 4 1967. It was a comedy that was loved and watched by many people. It ran for a total of 98 episodes. The first 36 episodes were filmed and shown in black-and-white (they were later colorized in syndication); the remaining 62 episodes and the three sequels were filmed in color.

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...
The song was written to give new viewers a capsule summary of the unusual situation the castaways find themselves in. 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. 1098-670417), aired on April 17 1967, and ended with the castaways never succeeding in leaving the island. Under a wave of pressure to reverse the threatened cancellation of Gunsmoke, which aired late on Saturday nights, CBS cancelled Gilligan's Island to open up early air time on Monday evenings, despite the sitcom's solid ratings.

Contents

Cast

Bob Denver –   Willy Gilligan (Gilligan)
Alan Hale –   Skipper Jonas Grumby (Skipper)
Russell Johnson –   Dr. Roy Hinkley (Professor)
Jim Backus –   Thurston J. Howell III (Mr. Howell)
Natalie Schafer –   Eunice "Lovey" Wentworth Howell (Mrs. Howell)
Tina Louise –   Ginger Grant (Ginger)
Dawn Wells   –   Mary Ann Summers (Mary Ann)

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. She was 62 when the pilot was shot. 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 a homage to Hollywood's past. When regular shooting began, Tina Louise clashed with producers, because she believed she was the main focus of the show, despite it 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 was 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 series cast on a late night TV talk show in 1988 and on an episode of Roseanne in 1995.

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.

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 to 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 to 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 again 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.

Episode list

For the full list of episodes, see List of Gilligan's Island episodes

Typical plots

The show's plots seem to be centered around 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.

Almost every episode involved some failed attempt to get off the deserted island where they have been shipwrecked. Most often the failure of that week's rescue attempt was due to some bumbling error committed by Gilligan. Every so often, Gilligan's bumbling of the rescue plan results in his having saved the others from some unforseen impending catastrophe. For example, in the episode where an unmanned space capsule lands on the island, Gilligan lets the capsule drift free while the rest of the group argues on the shore about who should get to go aboard. Thus he foils the potential rescue. As the group realizes that the capsule is gone, it is blown up by NASA via remote control. Once again, Gilligan's error has saved their lives.

Visitors to the uncharted island

One challenge to a viewer's suspension of disbelief is the frequency with which the presumably 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 :

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 memiors have stated that the dream episodes were among their personal favorites.

Theme song

The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle is 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 Anne (Dawn Wells) in the opening credits. According to Schwartz, as the show evolved, the Professor and Mary Anne grew into more important characters than were originally planned. On the annotated first episode on Gilligan’s Island: The Complete First Season, it was reported that Bob Denver insisted that the opening credits be changed to feature all seven actors.

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 was presumably recorded under the direction of Gerald Fried, the music supervisor. 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.

Lyrics

Gilligan's Island Theme Song
During opening credits:

 First season:

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
:a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from this tropic port
:aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailin' 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 Minnow would be lost.
The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle
:with Gilligan, the Skipper, too,
:the Millionaire, and his Wife,
:the Movie Star,
:and the rest
:are here on Gilligan's Isle.
Second and third seasons (The final verse changed to):

:with Gilligan, the Skipper, too,
:the Millionaire, and his Wife,
:the Movie Star,
:the Professor and Mary Ann,
:here on Gilligan's Isle.
 During closing credits:

Now 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 comfortable
:in a tropic island nest.
No phone, no lights, no motor cars,
:not a single luxury.
Like Robinson Crusoe, (pronounced like Caruso)
: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.

\"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.*

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'. Obviously the studio HAD to have their stars 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.

Gilligan's first 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 DVDs in 2004. The DVD includes a documentary called "Before the Three Hour Tour" in which Sherwood Schwartz confirms that Gilligan's full name would have been Willy Gilligan, had he needed to ever use the full name. As it turned out, however, this name was never used on the show or any of the films or animated series. This is the same name that Bob Denver mentioned on a talk show.

Suggested alternatives

Location of the island

A common question is how the castaways, presumably the Professor in particular, were able to determine their location, given that the island itself was supposedly not on any of the Skipper's nautical charts. It is a simple thing to determine one's latitude simply by measuring the angle of the North Star, Polaris, above the horizon at night. Determining longitude is considerably more difficult. They would need to measure the difference between the time of "noon" at their location, and "noon" of some known position, presumably Honolulu. However, if they are indeed only 300 miles to the southeast of Hawaii, the time difference between their "noon" and Honolulu's "noon" would only be about 12 minutes. Such a small differential would be extremely difficult to measure by observation alone, but not necessarily impossible.

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 out bamboo and other local material. Some were simple everyday things, some were real stretches of the imagination.

Spin-offs

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

Tributes

This is a list of shows that were either similar in content to Gilligan’s Island or spoofed it in a particular episode:

Cultural allusions to Gilligan's Island

Trivia

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Goofs

References

External links

 

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