Gilligan's Island
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Sherwood Schwartz
Starring	Bob Denver Alan Hale, Jr. Jim Backus Natalie Schafer Tina Louise Russell Johnson Dawn Wells
Opening theme	"The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle"
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	98 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 30 minutes
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

Gilligan's Island is an American television situation comedy originally produced by United Artists Television. It aired for three seasons on the CBS network, from September 26, 1964 to September 4, 1967. It was originally sponsored by Philip Morris & Company and Procter & Gamble. The show followed the comic adventures of seven castaways as they attempted to survive and ultimately escape from a previously uninhabited island where they were shipwrecked. In 2002, Gilligan's Island came back as a reality show, similar to Survivor, in which seven contestants were shipwrecked on an island. They then had to re-create the original Gilligan's Island sitcom with costumes and props.

Gilligan's Island ran for a total of 98 episodes. The first season (consisting of 36 episodes) was filmed in black-and-white, though colorized in later syndication. However, the next two seasons (62 episodes) and three television movie sequels were filmed in color.

Enjoying solid ratings during its original run, the show grew in popularity during decades of syndication. Today, the title character of Gilligan is widely recognized as a comedic American popular culture icon.

Contents 1 Premise 2 Cast 3 Episodes 3.1 Pilot vs. first broadcast episode 3.2 Last episode 4 Typical plots 5 The island's characteristics 6 Theme song 7 Production 8 Cancellation 9 Reunion films, clones and spin-offs 10 Television and video distribution 11 DVD releases 12 Film remake 13 Ginger or Mary Ann? 14 Notes 15 References 16 External links

[edit] Premise

The two-man crew of the charter boat S. S. Minnow and five passengers on a "three-hour tour" run into a tropical storm and are shipwrecked on an uncharted, uninhabited island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The episode "The Pigeon" places the island approximately 300 miles (480 km) southeast of Hawaii, while the episode "X Marks the Spot" gives a location near 140° longitude, 10° latitude, which puts it about 1,200 miles (1,900 km) to the southeast. In the episode "Big Man On a Little Stick," however, the Professor gives the position as "approximately 110° longitude and 10° latitude". Executive producer Sherwood Schwartz believed in avoiding exposition, and so he composed the sea shanty-style theme song, "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle," as a capsule summary of the castaways' predicament. This was done so that first-time viewers would instantly understand the premise (studio executives were reportedly afraid that viewers would be confused about the show's concept without some form of explanation). He took the same approach with the themes to The Brady Bunch and It's About Time.

[edit] Cast

• Bob Denver as Gilligan, the bumbling, dimwitted, accident-prone crewman of the S.S. Minnow. 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 be successful. He chose instead to play the lead in the notoriously unsuccessful My Mother the Car, which premiered the following year and was cancelled after one season. The producers then looked to Bob Denver, the actor who played lovable beatnik Maynard G. Krebs in the The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. None of the show's episodes ever specified Gilligan's full name, nor clearly indicated whether "Gilligan" was the character's first name or his last. In the DVD collection, Sherwood Schwartz states that he preferred the full name of "Willie Gilligan" for the character. Denver himself, on various television/radio interviews (The Pat Sajak Show; KDKA radio), said that "Gil Eggan" was his choice. The actor reasoned that because everyone yelled at the first mate, it ran together as "Gilligan." In the (unaired) pilot episode, it has been debated whether Lovey Howell refers to Gilligan as "Stewart," or steward. On Rescue from Gilligan's Island, the writers artfully dodge the recitation of Gilligan's full name, when the other names are announced.

• Alan Hale, Jr. as Jonas Grumby, the "Skipper." A longtime actor in B-westerns and the lookalike son of Alan Hale, Sr., a legendary movie character actor, Hale so loved his role that, long after the show went off the air, he would still appear in character in his Los Angeles restaurant, Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel.^[1] Although the Skipper was a father figure to Gilligan, Hale was only 14 years older than Denver. It is alluded in one episode that Gilligan pushed the Skipper out of the way of a loose depth-charge when they were both serving in the United States Navy.

• Jim Backus as Thurston Howell, III, the millionaire. Backus was already a well-known actor when he took the part. He was perhaps best known as the voice of the cartoon character Mr. Magoo. He reused some of the voice inflections and mannerisms of Magoo in the role. He was well known for his ad-libs on the set. The origin of the super-rich Howell character dates back to 1949 radio when Backus portrayed "Hubert Updike III" on The Alan Young Show.

• Natalie Schafer as Eunice "Lovey" Wentworth Howell, Thurston's wife. Schafer had it written into her contract that there were to be no close-ups of her, perhaps because of her advanced age. Schafer was 63 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 it. Originally, she only accepted the role because the pilot was filmed on location in Hawaii. She looked at the job as nothing more than a free vacation, as she was convinced that a show this silly would "never go."^[2]

• Tina Louise as Ginger Grant, the movie star. When regular shooting began, Louise clashed with the producers, because she believed that she was to be the main focus of the show (despite its title). Her character was originally written as a sarcastic and sharp-tongued temptress, but Louise argued that this was too extreme and refused to play it as written. A compromise was reached; Louise agreed to play her as a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Lucille Ball. The evening gowns and hairstyle used were designed to re-create 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, and the fourth season, which was later canceled to make room for Gunsmoke, saying that the role had destroyed her career as a serious actress. However, she did appear in a reunion of the cast on a late night television talk show in 1988 and on an episode of Roseanne in 1995. In the first season, Ginger often wore gowns that looked as if they were tailored from S.S. Minnow tarpaulins or similar ersatz cloth (some had the name of the vessel stenciled on them). Later on, she wore regular evening gowns with high heels, though it was never explained why she brought so many changes of clothing on a "three-hour tour". In the pilot episode, the character of Ginger (a secretary) was played by actress Kit Smythe.

• Russell Johnson as Roy Hinkley (The Professor). John Gabriel was originally cast, but the network thought he looked too young to have all the degrees attributed to the Professor. Incongruously, "the Professor" was in fact a high school science teacher, not a university professor. In the first episode, the radio announcer described him as a research scientist and well-known Scoutmaster. Johnson stated that he had some difficulty remembering his more technically oriented lines. In one episode the Professor claims the only sports he took was the "chess Club"; yet in another he claims to have been a scuba diver.

• Dawn Wells as Mary Ann Summers. Wells was a former Miss Nevada when she auditioned for the role. Her competition included Raquel Welch and Pat Priest. The pilot episode had a different character ("Bunny") played by actress Nancy McCarthy. After it was shot, the network decided to recast the roles of the Professor and the two young women. She wrote The Gilligans Island Cookbook and starred as Lovey Howell in the musical stage adaption of the show.

• 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. He would often pause between sentences, allowing the characters to react to his news and sometimes even responding to their comments.

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Pilot vs. first broadcast episode

The pilot episode was not broadcast, because of casting changes and restructuring of characters. In the pilot, the part of the Professor was played by John Gabriel. Instead of the movie star and the Kansas farm girl, the pilot had two secretaries: Ginger, a practical redhead played by Kit Smythe, and Bunny, portrayed by Nancy McCarthy as a cheerful, stereotypical "dumb blonde."

The pilot had a different theme song, by the young not-yet-famous John Williams, with a Calypso beat and singer and a slightly longer opening credits, including brief shots of Gilligan carrying the Howells' luggage to the boat, and spilling coffee on the Skipper during the storm. The episode proper begins with the castaways waking up on the beached boat, and deals mostly with practical problems: exploring the island, trying to fix the transmitter, building huts and finding food. Contrary to some descriptions, there are no detailed accounts of the characters' backgrounds.

The first episode actually broadcast, "Two on a Raft," is sometimes wrongly referred to as the series pilot. This episode begins with the same scene of Gilligan and the Skipper awakening on the boat as in the pilot (cut slightly differently to eliminate most shots of the departed actors), and continues with the characters sitting on the beach, listening to a radio news report about their disappearance. There is no equivalent scene or background information in the pilot, except for the description of the passengers in the original theme song. Rather than re-shooting the rest of the pilot story for broadcast, the show just proceeded on. The plot thus skips over the topics of the pilot; the bulk of the episode tells of Gilligan and the Skipper setting off on a raft to try to bring help, but unknowingly landing back on the other side of the same island.

The scene with the radio report is one of two scenes that reveal the names of the Skipper (Jonas Grumby) and the Professor (Roy Hinkley); the names are used in a similar radio report early in the series. The name Jonas Grumby appears nowhere else in the series except for an episode in which the Maritime Board of Review blames the Skipper for the loss of the ship. The name Roy Hinkley is used one other time when Mr. Howell introduces the Professor as Roy Huntley and the professor corrects him, to which Mr. Howell replies, "Brinkley, Brinkley."

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 of the pilot episode, concerning the practical problems on landing, is related through a series of flashbacks. Some of the scenes from the pilot were re-shot using the current actors, while other scenes including only Denver, Hale, Backus, and Schafer were simply reused.

[edit] Last episode

The last episode of the show, "Gilligan the Goddess," aired on April 17, 1967, and ended just like the rest, with the castaways still stranded on the island. It was not known at the time that it was the last episode, as a fourth season was expected, but never happened.^[3]

In its last year Gilligan's Island was the lead-in program for the CBS Monday night schedule. It was followed for the first sixteen weeks by the sitcom Run, Buddy, Run. The time slot from 7:30 to 8:30 Eastern was filled in the 1967-1968 season by Gunsmoke, moved from its traditional Saturday 10 p.m. time slot.

[edit] Typical plots

The shipwrecked castaways want to leave the remote island and various opportunities present themselves. They typically fail owing to some bumbling error committed by Gilligan. Sometimes this would result in his saving the others from some unforeseen flaw in their plan, as in the episode "Splashdown," wherein an unmanned space capsule with sensitive technology lands in the lagoon, Gilligan allows the other castaways to talk over him, failing to tell them in time that the capsule is floating away. As the group yells at Gilligan for his "error," the capsule is blown up by NASA by remote control. Another example is in episode "Goodbye Island"; while looking for tree sap for Mary Ann's pancakes, Gilligan discovers a very strong gluelike material that the Professor believes, because it is strong and waterproof, is permanent, and therefore can be used to repair the damage to the Minnow. However, Gilligan later discovers that the substance is not permanent at all; when the crew do not heed his warnings, the boat starts to break apart humorously until it is completely destroyed. Despite this, the ship was still prominently presented in the opening titles for the rest of the series' run.

One episode ("The Big Gold Strike") in which the castaways discover a rich vein of gold on the island, is notable in that Gilligan is not responsible for the failed escape: 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 points out the irony of the situation.

When the castaways are kidnapped and taken to a mad scientist's laboratory in the episode "The Friendly Physician", they succeed in leaving the island and reaching another piece of dry land for the only time in the series. The scientist returns for another episode.

Recurring elements centered on one of three primary themes. The first deals with life on the island. A running gag is the castaways' ability to fashion a vast array of useful objects from bamboo and other local material. Some were simple everyday things, while others were stretches of the imagination. Russell Johnson noted in his autobiography that the production crew enjoyed the challenge of building these props. Some bamboo items included framed huts with thatched grass sides and roofs, along with bamboo closets strong enough to withstand hurricane-force winds and rain; the communal dining table and chairs, pipes for Gilligan's hot water, a stethoscope, and a pedal-powered car. Naturally, despite their obvious skill and inventiveness, the castaways never quite managed to put together a functional raft out of bamboo, although in the television movie Rescue from Gilligan's Island they do end up tying their 3 huts together and using that as a raft for escape.

The second theme involves visitors to the "uncharted" island. One challenge to a viewer's suspension of disbelief is the frequency with which the castaways are visited by people who do nothing to assist them. Some have hidden motives for not assisting the castaways. Others are simply unable to help, incompetent, or are prevented from sending messages by Gilligan. Bob Denver, Jim Backus, and Tina Louise each had feature episodes in which look-alikes come to the island (who were, of course, played by themselves in dual roles). The island itself is also home to an unusual assortment of animal life, some native, some visiting.

The third recurring theme is the use of dream sequences in which one of the castaways "dreams" he or she is some character related to that week's storyline. For example, after being bitten by a bat, Gilligan dreams he is Dracula. All of the castaways would appear as other characters within the dream, as was done in The Wizard of Oz. The only exception is in Mr. Howell's dream in the episode "The Sweepstakes," in which Mrs. Howell is not present. In later interviews and memoirs, almost all of the actors stated that the dream episodes were among their personal favorites.

[edit] The island's characteristics

Gilligan's Island is not intended to depict a particular locale, but is a backdrop for plots. Variously, the island has caves, a volcano (in episode "Operation: Steam Heat"), and a gold mine (in episode "The Big Gold Strike"). The lagoon is a regular feature, pragmatically, on account of it being an available studio location.^{[citation needed]} For live action filming, the lagoon substitutes for a seashore.

It is home to a number of fictitious plants and animals, such as the wasubi berry (in episode "Agonized Labor") and the mantis khani (in episode "Gilligan Gets Bugged"). Some, such as a chimpanzee and a gorilla, are African and therefore out of place in the South Pacific.

The island, which is said to be uncharted, is not named in the series. In "The Little Dictator" episode, President Rodríguez, a deposed dictator from the fictional South American nation of Ecuarico, asks the name of the island. Mr. Howell says that "Howell Hills" has been suggested. Rodriguez declares the island will be called "Ecuarico West."

In Rescue from Gilligan's Island it is stated that the island was a base of operations for the Army Air Corps during the Second World War.

[edit] Theme song

The music and lyrics for the theme song, "The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle," were written by Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle. One version was used for the first season and another for the second and third. In the original song, the Professor and Mary Ann were 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 lyrics.^[4][5][6] Wells has stated that it was Denver who went to the studio executives to get them added to the opening credits.^[7] The studio originally refused, stating that it would cost too much to re-shoot and re-score the opening. Denver pointed out that it was in his contract that he could have his name anywhere he wanted in the credits, so they could move it to the end credits along with Johnson and Wells. The studio capitulated. Wells said that Denver never mentioned this to anyone in the cast, and she did not find out about it until years after the show ended.

The first season version was recorded by The Wellingtons and had a 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 later 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 spaghetti western-like underpinnings. The instrumentation is much more prominent in this version, and it does not have any slide guitar.

The show's original pilot episode featured a calypso theme song by John Williams with different lyrics. Notably, the original length of the voyage was "a six-hour ride", not "a three-hour tour".^[8] John Williams (or Johnny Williams as he was often listed in the show credits), also composed the incidental music for the show and is most famous for having gone on to score such blockbuster films as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark and all of the Star Wars films.

The band Little Roger and the Goosebumps recorded a parody of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", substituting the words to the Gilligan's Island theme song. "Weird Al" Yankovic used the lyrics from the closing theme in "Amish Paradise," a parody of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise." The song has also been covered by many bands, most notably Bowling for Soup for the TBS show The Real Gilligan's Island.

[edit] Production

Filming of the show took place at the CBS's Radford Studios complex in Studio City, California.^[9] The same stage would later be used by The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Roseanne (which featured Gilligan's Island prominently on one episode). The lagoon was drained and used as a parking lot during the show's off-season, and was the last surviving element of the show when it was demolished in 1997 as part of an expansion project.

Cave scenes were shot in Newport Beach, California, across from the southern tip of the Balboa Peninsula, in a park just off Ocean Boulevard. The rock jetties at the entrance of Newport Bay can be seen during the opening theme during the line "A 3-Hour Tour" as the Minnow heads out to sea.

Four different boats played the part of the S.S. Minnow. One was used in the opening credits and rented in Ala Wai Yacht Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. Another boat, the Bluejacket, was used in the opening credits shown during the second and third 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. The fourth Minnow was built on the CBS Studios set in the second season.^[10] The Minnow got its name in an ironic joke. It was named for Newton Minow, chairman of the U.S. FCC, who was most famous for describing television as "a vast wasteland".^[11]

According to Here on Gilligan's Isle by Russell Johnson and Steve Cox, many shots from the first season opening credits were filmed the week after the November 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A clue to this is a panned shot early in the sequence in which an American flag is clearly at half staff.

[edit] Cancellation

Under pressure from the network president, William S. Paley and his wife Babe, as well as many network affiliates and longtime fans of Gunsmoke (which had been airing late on Saturday nights), to reverse its threatened cancellation, CBS rescheduled the Western to an earlier time slot on Monday evenings as a favor to Babe Paley. 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.) Though 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 still profitable. Nevertheless, it was cancelled at practically the last minute even though the cast members were all on vacation. Some of the cast had bought houses based on Sherwood Schwartz's news of verbal confirmation that the series would be renewed for a fourth season.^[12]

[edit] Reunion films, clones and spin-offs

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

• Dusty's Trail was a 1973-1974 syndicated television series by Sherwood Schwartz starring Bob Denver as "Dusty" and Forrest Tucker as "Mr. Callahan", the assistant to the leader of a wagon train and his irascible boss. Its cast was made up of nearly identical character roles as Gilligan's Island.
• The New Adventures of Gilligan was a 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, voiced by Jane Webb, and Mary Ann, voiced by Jane Edwards. An additional character was Snubby the Monkey, voiced by Lou Scheimer.
• In a 1978 made-for-television movie, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, the castaways did successfully leave the island, but had difficulty reintegrating into society. During a reunion cruise on the first Christmas after their rescue, fate intervened and they found themselves wrecked on the same island at the end of the film. It starred the original cast except for Tina Louise, who refused to participate and was replaced as Ginger by Judith Baldwin. The plot involved Soviet agents seeking a memory disc from a spy satellite that landed on the island and facilitated their rescue. Gilligan and the Skipper "rescue" Mary Ann right as she is to marry her longtime fiancé, which contradicts the series where it was established that Mary Ann had no boyfriend after having made up a story about a boyfriend to keep the others from feeling sorry for her.
• 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 "Fantasy Island" and "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), 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 vein of Supremium, a valuable but volatile element. This time, 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, which is odd, since it was established in the series that the Howells were childless (though he may have been adopted).
• 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."
• ALF featured an episode in 1987 called The Ballad of Gilligan's Island in which the alien dreams he is on the island. Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Dawn Wells, and Russell Johnson portray darkly skewed versions of their characters after being stuck on the island for 20 years. The missing castaways are explained as having set up a camp on the other side of the island.
• The original cast members (along with Sherwood Schwartz) reunited on television only once, on a 1988 episode of The Late Show with Ross Shafer.
• Gilligan's Island: The Musical was first produced in the early 1990s, with a script by Lloyd Sherwood, Sherwood Schwartz's son, and songs by 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).
• In 1989 Denver and Hale filmed several short clips for TBS in their Gilligan and Skipper outfits, to promote reruns of the show on that network. Hale's ill health and weight loss in these clips, filmed the year before his death, are apparent.
• Roseanne saw an episode titled "Sherwood Schwartz: A Loving Tribute". Part of the episode is a fantasy sequence parodying this series. Most of the regular/recurring Roseanne cast portrayed the Gilligan's Island characters:
  
  • Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) / Gilligan
    
  • Dan (John Goodman) / The Skipper
    
  • Leon (Martin Mull) / Thurston
    
  • Bev (Estelle Parsons) / Lovey
    
  • Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) / Ginger
    
  • Mark (Glenn Quinn) / The Professor
    
  • Darlene (Sara Gilbert) / Mary Anne
    
  • During the end credits, Bob Denver, Tina Louise, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells appeared as the appropriate Roseanne characters. Also, in both sequences, David (Johnny Galecki) appears to break the fourth wall and acknowledge the craziness of it all.
• 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 in which Bob Denver, Dawn Wells, and Russell Johnson reminisce about the show.
• On November 30, 2004, the TBS network launched a reality series titled The Real Gilligan's Island, which placed two groups of people on an island, leaving them to fend for themselves à 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 its 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's Gladysya Productions and CBS) and subsequently distributed it in syndication. UATV became MGM/UA Television in 1981 after United Artists merged with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

In 1986, Turner Broadcasting System attempted to purchase MGM/UA, but after amassing huge debt, sold most of the acquisition back, but kept the company's considerable library. This library, which would be managed by Turner Entertainment included the pre-1986 MGM film and television library, the pre-1950^[13][14] Warner Bros. films and short subjects, and US rights to much of the RKO Pictures library — in addition to this series.

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 Silvers estate (successor-in-interest to Gladysya) retained its share of ownership (both Turner and the Silvers family now share the show's copyright).

The entire series has been released on DVD through corporate sibling Warner Home Video, and online via AOL's IN2TV service. The program is virtually unknown in the United Kingdom — only thirteen episodes were ever shown there.

[edit] DVD releases

Warner Home Video released all three seasons of Gilligan's Island on DVD in Region 1 between 2004-2005. The releases feature commentary by creator Sherwood Schwartz and cast members as well as trivia and featurettes. Warner Home Video has also released a Complete Series Box Set, gathering the individual seasons together in one package.

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"
The Complete Series Collection	99	November 6, 2007	Includes all features from the three seasons.

[edit] Film remake

Rights to the series were purchased, with an eye towards creating a movie scheduled for a July 2011 release.^[15] When Sherwood Schwartz, creator of Gilligan's Island, signed a deal giving all rights to the movie, he reportedly said, "[It] just happened in the last 48 hours. I can’t take this much excitement at my age." Sherwood Schwartz also said he would love to see Michael Cera as Gilligan and Beyoncé Knowles as Ginger.^[16] There is a small chance that Russell Johnson, Tina Louise, or Dawn Wells will make an appearance.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Ginger or Mary Ann?

The question of which one men prefer, and to a lesser extent, whom women view themselves to be more like, has endured long after the end of the series.^[17][18] It has inspired videos, essays,^[19] a 1993 Budweiser beer commercial,^[20] and even the occasional sermon.^[21] By most accounts, the wholesome, low-maintenance Mary Ann has consistently outpolled the glamorous but demanding Ginger since the very beginning.^[17][18]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gilligan's Island

• Gilligan's Island at the Internet Movie Database
• Gilligan's Island at TV.com
• Gilligan's Island: Underneath the Grass Skirt (1999 documentary) at the Internet Movie Database

• TV Series Finale - Details on series cancellation, reunions, cameos, actors post-series, trivia, and podcast
• [2]

v • d • e Gilligan's Island List of episodes Cast Bob Denver (Gilligan) · Alan Hale Jr. (The Skipper) · Russell Johnson (The Professor) · Tina Louise (Ginger Grant) · Dawn Wells (Mary Ann) · Jim Backus (Thurston Howell, III) · Natalie Schafer (Lovey Howell) TV Movies Rescue from Gilligan's Island · The Castaways on Gilligan's Island · The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island Cartoons The New Adventures of Gilligan · Gilligan's Planet Other S. S. Minnow · The Adventures of Gilligan's Island (video game) · Gilligan's Island (pinball) · The Real Gilligan's Island · Gilligan's Wake Crew Sherwood Schwartz · Jack Arnold · William Froug · Gerald Fried · Richard Donner

v • d • e Television series produced or created by Sherwood Schwartz Gilligan's Island • It's About Time • The Brady Bunch • Dusty's Trail • Big John, Little John • The Brady Bunch Hour • The Brady Brides • Harper Valley PTA • Together We Stand • The Bradys • The Real Gilligan's Island