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For a situation comedy as derided by critics as Gilligan’s Island, there were a lot of actors vying to be shipwrecked among the castaways. Perhaps those grouchy TV reviewers would have enjoyed the sitcom better if ‘60s sex symbol Raquel Welch had won the part for which she auditioned.

Aha, you might be thinking, Welch would have been a natural for sultry movie star Ginger Grant. Except that’s not the role producers had in mind for Welch. Instead, she auditioned for farmgirl-next-door Mary Ann. While Welch was “a wonderful lady,” producer Sherwood Schwartz told Retrocrush, “she was just too sophisticated for the role.”

Gilligan’s Island’s history is littered with other casting what-ifs. For the show’s main character, Sherwood Schwartz had Dick Van Dyke’s brother, Jerry, in mind. “Jerry seemed just right as Gilligan,” Schwartz wrote in his book, Inside Gilligan’s Island. But Van Dyke’s...

Sherwood Schwartz earned his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by dreaming up two sitcoms that ran forever in syndication, inspiring decades’ worth of spin-offs, reboots and TV movies. But those two mega-successful creations — Gilligan’s Island and Brady Bunch — existed in two separate Nick at Nite universes, never crossing paths into a single sitcom reality.

At least, not until 2007. When the quasi-crossover finally happened, it was thanks to Schwartz’s genius at milking cash out of new iterations of old hits. In addition to Saturday morning cartoons like Gilligan’s Planet, TV movies like The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island and a reality show called The Real Gilligan’s Island, Schwartz collaborated with his son Lloyd, daughter Hope and son-in-law Laurence Juber (former guitarist with Paul McCartney and Wings!) on the stage show, Gilligan’s Island: The Musical.

If you run a local community theater, you can still license the show,...

Who could get mad at TV Guide?

The long-running magazine mostly consisted of program listings — What time? What channel? — and fluff pieces about whatever sitcom, variety show or hospital drama was currently atop the Nielsen ratings. Inoffensive stuff, right?

But TV Guide did manage to royally piss off Bob Denver, the actor who played the titular character on Gilligan’s Island. Dawn Wells, who played sweet Mary Ann, probably wasn’t nuts about the magazine either.

Some said Denver was “a monster” for refusing to pose with Tina “Ginger” Louise over the years, according to Russell “The Professor” Johnson in his memoir, Here on Gilligan’s Isle. However, Johnson says there’s more to the story, and the blame lies entirely with TV Guide.

The magazine wanted to do a cover shoot with Denver and Louise, “possibly attempting to add some romantic undertone to the show,” hypothesized Johnson. Given that...

Gilligan’s Island sparked one of the great television comedy debates of all time: Who would you rather date, Ginger or Mary Ann?

While Ginger was the show’s designated sex symbol, a Hollywood starlet who oozed glamour and allure, a surprising majority of fans were in love with Mary Ann. According to Russell “The Professor” Johnson, Dawn Wells received more fan mail than any of the other cast members. In his book Here on Gilligan’s Isle, Johnson quotes another writer about the Ginger versus Mary Ann debate: “Ginger Grant could make men swoon — a perfumed beauty in slinky gowns. But Mary Ann was a breath of fresh air in sporty short shorts. The girl next door.”

Those sporty short shorts were a problem, according to Wells. “There were network censors back in those days, and they were really strict,” she told People in 2018. “They had to make sure that...

Dawn Wells and Russell Johnson had a special connection from the start of Gilligan’s Island. While the five other characters stranded on that uncharted desert isle were called out individually during the show’s theme song, the Professor and Mary Ann were initially lumped into a lyrical afterthought (“And the rest!”). In the second season, “The Professor and Mary Ann” were officially added to the song, but Wells still sent Johnson holiday cards signed, “Love, The Rest.”

There was another connection as well. Wells confessed to Oprah in 2016 that she had a crush on Johnson, per SlashFilm. Both actors were married, however, and Wells wasn’t the type to go after a married co-star. “If either one of us had been single or both of us had been single, there would have been some chemistry,” Wells told Oprah. “He had the best sense of humor. He was the funniest.

As most "Gilligan's Island" fans can tell you, the show's original pilot episode, "Marooned," was quite a bit different from the show the public eventually saw. Most notably, three of the show's cast members were different. The characters of Ginger and Mary Ann, for instance, started as a pair of secretaries named Ginger and Bunny, played by actresses Kit Smythe and Nancy McCarthy. The Professor was preceded by a more studly high school teacher played by John Gabriel. After the pilot tested poorly, show creator Sherwood Schwartz re-tooled the series, replacing those three characters with the versions we all know and love today. The seven-person ensemble — Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Tina Louise, Russell Johnson, and Dawn Wells — now seems eternal and immutable.

"Gilligan's Island" fans also likely know of the show's original calypso-inflected theme song, famously penned by John Williams. That theme was ultimately rejected and...

Before Sherwood Schwartz's sitcom "Gilligan's Island" took to the airwaves in 1964, Jim Backus was probably the cast's biggest star. Backus had already appeared in the moving 1955 James Dean flick "Rebel Without a Cause" and had been voicing the amusing animated character Mr. Magoo since 1949. He also had a prolific film career, having racked up dozens of high profile credits working for notable directors like William Castle, Jose Ferrer, and Stanley Kramer. "Gilligan's Island" needed Backus more than Backus needed "Gilligan's Island."

The rest of the cast all came from different career paths but had their share of experience. Bob Denver was remembered for playing Maynard Krebbs on the hit sitcom "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," while Alan Hale, Jr. had already snagged dozens and dozens of supporting roles in a bunch of B-comedies and genre pictures. Russell Johnson, in comparison, had mostly starred in Westerns and spy movies,...

For a silly sitcom that frequently dabbled in nonsense, "Gilligan's Island" has proven remarkably enduring. Sherwood Schwartz's seminal sitcom only ran for three seasons between 1964 and 67, but it has since displayed a unique staying power, becoming ingrained in the cultural fabric due to syndication deals and an ongoing love for the sitcom among the generation who grew up on its ridiculous antics. That's pretty impressive for any series, but especially so considering "Gilligan's Island" started off enduring some serious ratings woes.

Despite its initial struggle, the show endured, and today its influence can be seen in the sheer number of revisits that have occurred ever since its 1967 finale. There was the time the "Gilligan's Island" cast appeared on an '80s sci-fi sitcom that returned the castaways to the island, as well as the 1992 "Baywatch" episode that featured Gilligan (Bob Denver) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) in-character. Then, there was the weird,...

"The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle" is surely one of the most significant TV themes of all time, and not just due to its widespread popularity. For some reason the beloved theme has endured multiple music-related debacles and courted controversy ever since the moment show creator Sherwood Schwartz and songwriter George Wyle brought it into existence.

First off, recording the "Gilligan's Island" theme song was as slapstick as the show itself, with a hurried studio session at director Melville Shavelson's house which took place at the same time he and his wife were hosting a large charity event. "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle" then underwent an overhaul for the second season of the CBS sitcom. Whereas the first season featured a version of the tune performed by folk group the Wellingtons and which omitted the names of the Professor (Russell Johnson) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells), the second season debuted with a brand new iteration,...

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In the opening credits for the first season of "Gilligan's Island," the Professor (Russell Johnson) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) were infamously unnamed. All the other characters were introduced by name or characteristic, but the final two characters were just listed as "and the rest." This was because of a stipulation in Tina Louise's contract that stated her character gets to be listed last on the show's credit role. Louise played "the movie star" Ginger, so her co-stars were left unnamed. It wasn't until Gilligan actor Bob Denver pulled rank and threatened to put his own credit after Louise's that she demurred. For the second and third seasons of "Island," Wells and Johnson were finally named as "The Professor and Mary Ann."

This weird quirk of the credits subconsciously linked Wells and Johnson in the public's mind. Not only...

Throughout its history, there has been a push-and-pull between the critical consensus on "Gilligan's Island" and its overwhelming popularity among audiences. Few step forward to defend the show's quality, with even its defenders agreeing that it is mostly childish, slapstick nonsense. Yet "Gilligan's Island" has remained popular for decades. It was a hit pretty early during its initial run in 1964, and was re-discovered time and again by several new generations, all thanks to years and years of reruns. 

The "Gilligan's Island" cast was startled by the popularity of the series, but seem to know why it was popular. In the mid-1960s, when America had just seen its president assassinated and a subsequent rise of civil rights battles, "Gilligan's Island" provided a frivolous, meaningless salve. On "Gilligan's Island," everything is silly, no one is hurt, and -- most importantly -- everyone gets along. 

It certainly didn't hurt that the cast were so appealing overall,...

As many TV historians can tell you, Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island" was as popular as it was reviled. Critics dismissed "Gilligan" as cartoonish, unrealistic, and frivolous, an estimation that stuck to the series for generations. Even into the 1980s, when "Gilligan's Island" was merely surviving on reruns, some critics considered it the nadir of culture. At the same time, however, "Gilligan's Island" was always popular, fetching huge numbers throughout its initial three seasons and drawing new generations of fans throughout its eternal syndication. It may have been the nadir of culture, but no one turned it off.

However one judges "Gilligan's Island," it has left an unwashable gravy stain on the tablecloth of the American consciousness. The seven stranded castaways have become new archetypes in a 20th-century American version of Commedia dell'arte, and the theme song can now be considered just as vital an American standard as "Rhapsody in Blue.

If you are a main cast member of a long-running network television show in 2025 (i.e. a series that runs somewhere in the neighborhood of 22 episodes per season), you should be set for life financially once the syndication deal kicks in. This is the dream for many working actors, who, if they so choose, can use the freedom they've earned from a successful series to work on less lucrative projects that satisfy their artistic cravings.

If you're wondering about how this all worked back in the day, network television gigs have always been pretty cushy gigs. For the most part. So when you watch old episodes of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Andy Griffith Show," and "My Mother the Car," you can be fairly certain the folks in front of the camera are pulling down a very comfortable wage. There are, however, exceptions.

Though it would wind up becoming...

On Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island," every character represented a different American class, and each one served a vital social function. The Skipper (Alan Hale), for instance, could be seen as a representative of the American military, while his sailing know-how provided the Island with a better understanding of their surroundings. Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) was a working-class character with knowledge of farming, but she was also a barometer of the Island's general mood. If she was happy, then things were going well. Gilligan (Bob Denver), meanwhile, was the innocent of the island, providing a plucky spirit of survival, while also offering something like a childlike perspective to the plight of the castaways.

The itinerant actress Ginger (Tina Louise) was weirdly vital. Many feel that Ginger, because she was so glamorous, provided mere sex appeal to "Gilligan's Island," but one can see that she also served as something of a morale officer.

"Gilligan's Island" only aired for three seasons on CBS, but it became a rerun sensation when it hit syndication after getting canceled in 1967. Kids in the market for a relentlessly silly sitcom to watch after school while they were neglecting their homework and chores couldn't do better than this aggressively formulaic show about seven castaways shipwrecked on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Just about every episode revolved around the characters' inevitably thwarted attempts to return to civilization, and this familiarity bred nary a hint of contempt.

The key reason the show never got old for its undemanding target audience was the cast. Bob Denver (Gilligan), Alan Hale Jr. (Skipper), Jim Backus (Thurston Howe), Natalie Schafer (Lovie Howe), Russell Johnson (Professor Roy Hinkley), Dawn Wells (Mary Ann), and Tina Louise (Ginger) formed a perfectly balanced ensemble that understood precisely what was expected of them. You couldn't imagine anyone else playing these roles.

In the United States, the last time any of the extant cast members of "Gilligan's Island" were united on screen, specifically to reprise their characters from the show, was for a 1992 episode of "Baywatch." The episode, titled "Now Sit Right Back and You'll Hear a Tale," saw some of the Baywatch lifeguards finding a small island off the coast of California where Gilligan (Bob Denver) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) had been stranded for a few years. They explained that they left their original island in a daring escape, only to become equally stranded on another island. Sadly, by the end of "Now Sit Right Back," it was revealed that Gilligan and Mary Ann weren't real, and that the events of the episode were all a dream.

By 1992, Alan Hale, Jr., Jim Backus, and Natalie Schafer had already passed away, and it seems that Russell Johnson and Tina Louise didn't want to,...

In the "Alf" episode "Somewhere Over the Rerun," also alternately titled as "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island", the furry little alien Alf (voiced by Paul Fusco), becomes obsessed with watching reruns of "Gilligan's Island" on TV. Alf dreams of living with the castaways of Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom, feeling them to be delightfully funny and living in a tropical paradise. What could be better? He begins dressing in Hawaiian shirts and ordering bamboo furniture, hoping to turn the ordinarily unassuming Tanner household into something more interesting. 

Alf's obsession with "Gilligan's Island" leads him into the Tanners' backyard, where he begins digging up all the grass, hoping to create a tropical lagoon just like on his favorite show. This causes Willie (Max Wright) to become furious, and he demands that Alf fill in all the dirt he dug up. While filling the yard back in, Alf falls asleep and begins to dream.

On a recent ranking of the seven main characters on "Gilligan's Island," /Film ranked Mary Ann at only #5. This is not to say that she was an insignificant character, though. Indeed, all seven of the characters on "Gilligan's Island" were invaluable members of the ensemble, and removing any one of them would irreparably damage the established comedic dynamic. Mary Ann ranked low merely because she was given so few stories of her own. Her function, however, was key. Mary Ann was something of an innocent character, and her happiness was a sign that all was well on the island. You knew things were bad when Mary Ann became upset. 

Also, actress Dawn Wells embodied the character perfectly. Indeed, the characters on "Gilligan's Island" have become comedic archetypes for the ages, so deeply ingrained in the American subconscious that they are practically Jungian. It would be hard to imagine "Gilligan's Island...

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On "Gilligan's Island," romance always ran at a low ebb. Apart from Mr. and Mrs. Howell (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer), there were no couples on the island, and none seemed to form over the course of the show. Indeed, several of the characters seemed too silly or childish to form anything approaching a real-life affair. Gilligan (Bob Denver) was too innocent, and the Skipper (Alan Hale) was more often thinking of engineering and survival than being charming. Ginger (Tina Louise) was often dressed in pretty gowns, and was certainly presented as a sex symbol, but was more concerned with fame and acting than flirting with any of the men or women around her. 

The two "normal" characters on the island were Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) and the Professor (Russell Johnson), who often served as the show's "straight man" characters...

Sherwood Schwartz's sitcom "Gilligan's Island" debuted in 1964, and it was, for the bulk of its three-season run, a pretty big hit. Critics notoriously disliked the show for being too lightweight, disposable, and disconnected from reality, but audiences loved the show's broad slapstick, archetypal characterizations, and overall silliness. The show, as many know, struck a sweet syndication deal after it was canceled, allowing it to be rerun in perpetuity. "Gilligan's Island" reruns remained on the air for decades, allowing the show to seep deep into the public consciousness. The characters became new Jungian archetypes, and the theme song became a national anthem of sorts. Several generations of kids were raised on "Gilligan's Island" without their parents intending it. The show just made its way into our eyeballs.

Those same generations came of age watching the seven "Gilligan's Island" actors, and at least one of them was likely a Boomer — or a Gen-Xer's — first crush.

The "Roseanne" episode "Sherwood Schwartz: A Loving Tribute" was, as the title implies, a tribute to one of the most successful sitcom creators to play the game. Schwartz, of course, is the mastermind behind both "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch," and he worked as a writer on shows like "My Favorite Martian," "The Red Skelton Show," and "I Married Joan." Schwartz is a giant of the televised medium, and many TV shows owe him a debt; he provided several generations of goofy comedians with inspiration.

"Gilligan's Island" was particularly well-known among the public, partly because of its indelibly dumb humor, and partly because of endless reruns that continued through the 1980s. Every American knew the premise of "Gilligan's Island" and every sitcom writer wanted to emulate its success. It stood to reason that the makers of "Roseanne" — a blue-collar sitcom — would want to pay it, and Sherwood Schwartz, homage.

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Fans of "Gilligan's Island" are likely intimately familiar with the show's original pilot, which was shot in 1963, but not aired to the public until 1992. The pilot, called "Marooned," featured Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Jim Backus, and Natalie Schafer, but also starred three rudimentary characters that didn't carry over into the completed series. The Professor was originally a high school teacher played by John Gabriel. The Mary Ann character was a secretary named Bunny (Nancy McCarthy), and Ginger was still named Ginger but was ... another secretary. She was played by Kit Smythe.

Eventually, the show was reworked, and creator Sherwood Schwartz wrote a tighter, better pilot with the Professor (Russell Johnson), Mary Ann (Dawn Wells), and Ginger (Tina Louise) that we all know and love today. 

In Schwartz's biography "Inside Gilligan's Island: From Creation to Syndication," he mentioned that Louise...

The arc of Sherwood Schwartz's sitcom "Gilligan's Island," which first debuted in 1964, is well documented by TV historians. Because it was so broad, unrealistic, and silly, the series garnered some pretty negative reviews from critics. "Gilligan's Island," after all, takes place in a slapstick universe where none of the characters have to wrestle with survival; their food and water supplies seem to be well taken care of, and all of the characters more or less get along. The only terrible fate the castaways faced was the ever-sinking reality that they would never return to civilization. Which, from the look of it, wasn't too awful a thing to ponder, as they had a bottomless supply of clean water and fruit salads. 

Audiences seemed to latch onto the show's generally nonthreatening tone, however, and the show was almost an instant success. After three seasons, "Gilligan's Island" was folded into a near-perfect...

Ruben Östlund's 2022 film "Triangle of Sadness" was an unlikely Oscar darling, earning nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. It didn't win, but it was odd to see the Academy Awards recognize a movie with an extended ship-wide vomit sequence. The premise of "Triangle of Sadness" was simple and wicked. A group of wealthy know-nothings -- including Instagram influencers, Russian oligarchs, and other ancillary money-hoarders -- gathered on a luxury yacht for an anything-goes-type pleasure cruise. The ship's staff have shifted into "the customer is always right" mode, and have to entertain each of the oligarch's weird whims (Swim party! Whee!), even if it interrupts the natural flow of the ship's operations.

The weather starts getting rough. The yacht lurches through the ocean waves. During a fancy dinner party, all the guests become queasy. Despite the courage of the fearless crew, the cookies all were tossed.

In the "Baywatch" episode "Now Sit Right Back and You'll Hear a Tale", Eddie (Billy Warlock) and Shauni (Erika Eleniak) are out in the ocean trying to rescue a beleaguered jet skier, when they discover an island that they hadn't ever noticed before. Going ashore, they find that two people have been living on this island, stranded far from shore, for decades. They are Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) and Gilligan (Bob Denver), the same characters seen on the 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island." 

Wait, what? Aren't those fictional characters? Gilligan and Mary Ann explain that their experiences being stranded on the uncharted desert isle are very much real. Shauni marvels, "I thought you were just a TV show!" But everyone sort of lets the unreality of the situation slip past. No further questions are asked about how Gilligan and Mary Ann were filmed or how their footage was converted into a 1964 CBS comedy series.

To the eyes of this author, there are four perfect TV theme songs in the history of the medium. For instrumentals, the two best themes are Jack Marshall's surf-like monster music he composed for "The Munsters" and Danny Elfman's Platonic-ideal-of-a-haunted-house music for "Tales from the Crypt."

For theme songs with lyrics, the two best of all time were, not coincidentally, written by Sherwood Schwartz. He and Frank de Vol composed the handy, catchy theme for Schwartz's own sitcom "The Brady Bunch," while Schwartz teamed with George Wyle to compose "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle." These two theme songs, each only about 60 seconds, managed to explain -- in rhyme -- the premise of their respective shows succinctly while also introducing each of the characters. Additionally, the songs are catchy earworms that burrow deep into the brains of listeners, latching onto the memory and never letting go. When I'm in my 90s,...

Thanks to the earworm that is "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island," most audiences know how Gilligan (Bob Denver) and the other castaways became stranded. Gilligan and the Skipper (Alan Hale) took five passengers on an intended three-hour tour of the Hawai'ian islands when they hit rough weather and were thrown off-course. The ship set ground on the shore of an uncharted desert isle, and the seven castaways had to learn to survive. Because "Gilligan's Island" was broad and cartoonish, however, the survival was never harrowing or even particularly difficult. There were rarely food or water shortages, and everyone brought huge amounts of clothes and supplies. Life actually seemed okay on Gilligan's Island, the utter isolation notwithstanding.

Series creator Sherwood Schwartz said that he intended "Gilligan's Island" to be an idealized microcosm of a well-functioning American democracy. Seven character, all from different classes, are forced to live together by extreme circumstances,...

Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island" is simultaneously hopeful and hopeless. It is hopeful in that seven ostensible strangers, all from different classes and walks of life, became stranded on a remote tropical island, and managed to survive and thrive, living together in harmony and often working together to achieve common goals. Even though there are rich people and poor people on the island, all sense of class has been erased. On Gilligan's Island, everyone is equal. Democracy works.  

The show is hopeless, however, because the seven stranded castaways seem to be eternally trapped on that island. Every time an opportunity for escape presents itself -- a hot air balloon, a new signaling device, etc. -- Gilligan (Bob Denver) fouls it up for everyone. Gilligan, a friendly, gentle, clumsy idiot, bumbles his way through life, often ripping hope from his compatriots. 

More viewers likely see "Gilligan's Island" in its former context,...

Behind every cheerful, carefree franchise, there's a fan theory hypothesizing that someone was dead the whole time. Despite having aired decades before fans began sharing viral theories that the castaways on "Lost," musical teens in "Grease," and even the old sweetie pie in "Up" somehow died before the opening credits rolled, "Gilligan's Island" has nonetheless gotten swept up in a grim fan theory like a ship in a monsoon.

Generally, these weirdly dark non-canonical fan theories titillate some people while making others (myself included) respond with a big ol', "Who cares?" In the case of the tale of Gilligan's isle, though, the depressing theories are based on a real part of the show — an inconsistency in the theme song that becomes more and more noticeable each time you throw on an episode.

The "Gilligan's Island" theme song, brought to us by series creator Sherwood Schwartz and prolific composer and songwriter George Wyle,...

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The seven lead characters in Sherwood Schwartz's 1960s sitcom "Gilligan's Island" have become an indelible part of the world's pop consciousness, emerging as a new canon of distinctly American Commedia del'arte archetypes. The Professor (Russell Johnson) is the updated version of Il Dottore. Mr. Howell (Jim Backus) is the new Pantolone. The Skipper (Alan Hale) is clearly a modern Scaramuccia, and Gilligan (Bob Denver), well, he's Arlecchino. Additionally, Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) is likely Colombiana, Ginger (Tina Louise) is Gianduja, and Mrs. Howell (Natalie Schafer) is ... I guess another Pantolone.

It's hard to imagine a world where the seven stock "Gilligan's Island" characters were dramatically altered, as the seven characters audiences saw were downright perfect. One could always predict how one character might interact with any of the others.

Of course, it took a little trial and error to get the characters right.

"The Ballad of Gilligan's Island," in case it needs repeating, is the single best TV theme song of all time. In addition to explicitly explaining the premise of the classic show, "Ballad" introduces every single one of its seven main characters by name. It also helps that it's one of the most insidious earworms this side of "Yellow Submarine"; once you get "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island" stuck in your head, it will never leave. Your mind will be as lost as the Minnow.

In the original pilot episode for "Gilligan's Island," back before the final cast had been selected, the theme song was a calypso number composed by John Williams. That song, however, wasn't exactly what show creator Sherwood Schwartz wanted, so he and songwriter George Wyle wrote a second, better theme.. His and Schwartz's "Ballad" was written as a sea shanty, and no one can hear its...

The S.S. Minnow from Gilligan's Island is as famous as its first mate, and there's an interesting story behind the doomed ship's name. Younger viewers may best know Gilligan's Island because of the season 2 episode of The Office, "Booze Cruise", when Michael Scott (Steve Carell) sings the theme song and dubs each member of Dunder Mifflin by a different character's name. For everyone else, Gilligan's Island is one of the classics of '60s TV as well as colorized '70s and '80s television when it entered syndication.

While not everything in Gilligan's Island has aged the best, there is still plenty to love. From the incredible cast in Gilligan's Island to the coconut and bamboo inventions, there's a lot to enjoy about the series. Of course, the S.S. Minnow needs to be mentioned. It's the S.S. Minnow that brings Gilligan and his passengers to the uncharted island in the first place.

The premise of Sherwood Schwartz's popular 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island" is handily explained in its theme song: five passengers check into a three-hour boat tour, run by the skipper and first mate of a tiny tourist boat called the S.S. Minnow. The ship hits some bad weather and is thrown miles off course, landing on an uncharted desert isle. The seven tourists become seven stranded castaways. No phones, no lights, no motorcars, not a single luxury. Like "Robinson Crusoe," it's as primitive as can be. The septet have to learn to live together, usually to comedic effect. 

Gilligan (Bob Denver) was the above-mentioned first mate, and his innocent cluelessness and tendency to bumble often thwarted the castaways' ability to escape. He shared the island with his Skipper (Alan Hale), a professor (Russell Johnson), a pair of married millionaires (Natalie Schafer and Jim Backus), a farmer (Dawn Wells), and a...

60 years ago, "Gilligan's Island" blessed the world with an ensemble seemingly fashioned by the gods. Bob Denver as Gilligan, Alan Hale Jr. as the Skipper, Russell Johnson as the Professor, Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III, Natalie Schafer as Eunice Howell, Dawn Wells as Mary Ann, and Tina Louise as Ginger. They are immortalized in the theme song, and ironclad comedic types thanks to the reinforcement of syndication. "Gilligan's Island" was always meant to be, and we must consider ourselves fortunate that we lived to behold its goofball majesty.

So prepare to be shocked. When the "Gilligan's Island" pilot went before cameras, Sherwood Schwartz hadn't yet fully communed with the comedy gods. In terms of the castaways, he had five out of seven figured out. Where he'd yet to strike gold was with the young female characters. Schwartz had a very different notion of how to give the show the...

For many years, fans of "Gilligan's Island" heard the rumors that actress Tina Louise, who played the glamorous movie star Ginger on the series, openly hated the show. These rumors were founded mostly on the fact that Louise, after "Gilligan's Island" went off the air in 1967, refused to reunite with her old co-stars for any of the follow-up TV movies or animated spinoffs. Everyone else returned for those projects, but Louise stayed far away. 

Additionally, stories from the set detailed a strained working relationship between Louise and star Bob Denver. Some might know the story about how Louise signed a contract allowing her to be listed last in the credits, forcing the writers of the "Gilligan's Island" theme song to refer to the Professor and Mary Ann as "and the rest!" It wouldn't be until Bob Denver pulled rank and theatened to put his own starring credit last that Louise...

When it comes to classic sitcoms, few shows have had the staying power of CBSs Gilligans Island. Having survived cancellation and avoided being rebooted, the tale of the S.S. Minow and its iconic castaways continues to delight long-time fans while gaining new ones. The shows success can, in no small way, be attributed to its wonderful cast. From Gilligan himself (Bob Denver) to the Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) and Ginger (Tina Louise), the ensemble remains one of TVs best. However, one member didnt always share the same love for the show. Despite being one of the series most popular players, Tina Louises relationship with the beloved Ginger was complex.

In the first season of Sherwood Schwartz's "Gilligan's Island," the opening theme song infamously left out character descriptors for Dawn Wells and Russell Johnson. It listed Gilligan, the Skipper too, the millionaire and his wife, the Movie Star, but then merely described Wells and Johnson as "And the rest." This was certainly unfair, as all seven members of the show's ensemble were equally important, each one bringing something valuable to the overall character dynamic. 

As many "Gilligan's" fans know, the reason Wells and Johnson weren't described was because of a stipulation in co-star Tina Louise's contract. Louise, who played Ginger the Movie Star, required that she be named last on any opening credits roll. Title star Bob Denver, however, felt that Wells and Johnson deserved more, and pulled rank on Louise. It seemed that he, too, had a contract stipulation allowing him to be listed in the credits wherever he wanted.

In the realm of television, shooting a pilot is by no means a guarantee of going to series. The broadcast landscape is littered with failed one-and-done ventures like "Heat Vision and Jack," "Lookwell" and the "Beverly Hills Cop" series starring Brandon T. Jackson. If network executives don't like the way a promising concept plays once its up on its feet and before a camera, they'll nix it without a second thought. So it's important for show creators to put their best foot forward with that pilot, lest they join those aforementioned shows and hundreds of others on the scrap heap.

Amazingly, some shows can slap together a disastrous pilot and still make it to series. "Game of Thrones" famously stumbled out of the gate (forcing the producers to recast Daenerys Targaryen). Meanwhile, on the other end of the tonal spectrum, "Gilligan's Island" encountered choppy waters on its way to smooth...

"Gilligan's Island" was as rigidly formulaic a sitcom as ever existed, and this was very much by design. When Sherwood Schwartz wrote the pilot (in debilitating pain), he envisioned a series that could be enjoyed by all members of the family, provided they weren't too demanding. The continuing misadventures of the S.S. Minnow's seven castaways were mostly centered on getting off that confounded island in the Pacific Ocean, but sometimes Schwartz and his writers zagged, concocting a story that finds Gilligan and the gang facing some unexpected danger.

The most memorable of these episodes often involved dream sequences, a secret weapon for the show that allowed it to break up the tedium of the island-all-the-time setting. Sometimes they'd wind up in the Old West or some other long-ago, far-flung destination. One such instance found the cast traveling to Jolly Old England in the 1800s to try Gilligan for literally monstrous...

There are some sitcoms that simply don't work if you're down so much as a single cast member. Could you imagine an episode of "Cheers" without Sam, Carla, Cliff and Norm? The series' producers and writers couldn't, which is why they never missed an episode. The same was true on a much larger scale for "The Brady Bunch," where every single member of the family (and their live-in housekeeper Alice) reported for duty on all 117 episodes.

This kind of consistency was evidently key to a successful Sherwood Schwartz sitcom. The writer/producer who created "The Brady Bunch" was also the mastermind behind "Gilligan's Island," the CBS joker about seven castaways who wash up on the shore of an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The key to the show's success was its shamelessness: from the pilot to the series finale (which arrived a little sooner than expected thanks to...

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The writers of "Gilligan's Island" were typically careful to retain storytelling clarity by pairing two of seven stranded castaways for their stories. Most typically, the bumbling Gilligan (Bob Denver) was paired with the short-tempered Skipper and their explosive relationship would unfold naturally. Mr. and Mrs. Howell (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer) tended to move as a unit, and many felt that there was romantic chemistry between Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) and the Professor (Russell Johnson). Mary Ann was also often paired with Ginger (Tina Louise) as they were the only two unmarried women on the island and they bunked together.

Seen less often was the pairing of Mary Ann and Gilligan, which is a bit of a head-scratcher. Gilligan was the slapstick buffoon, while Mary Ann was the optimistic farm girl, both possessed of a disarming friendliness and an appealing naïveté.

Prior to "Gilligan's Island" in 1964, Tina Louise was already a long-working actress. Indeed, Louise worked her first modeling gig at the age of two, appearing in an ad campaign for her father's candy store. In high school, she started studying acting, and landed her first professional gig in 1956, appearing in an episode of the TV series "Studio One." She made her feature film debut in Anthony Mann's celebrated drama "God's Little Acre," in which Louise played Griselda, the wife of a character played by Jack Lord. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. 

Louise went on to star in other high-profile film projects, including Michael Curtiz's "The Hangman," and the 1960 Italian historical epic "The Siege of Syracuse," in which she played three different roles. Louise also played the poet Sappho in a film called "The Warrior Empress." In 1964, she appeared in a film called "For Those Who Think Young,...

The overarching story of "Gilligan's Island" is, upon a moment of reflection, surprisingly nihilistic. Sherwood Schwartz's whimsical 1964 sitcom may take place in a cartoon-like universe where no one is really desperate, starving, or unclean, but it also takes place in a world where hope cannot thrive. At the beginning of every episode, the seven stranded castaways are presented with the opportunity to escape the island and return home. They become joyous and hopeful. Then a cataclysm occurs, usually at the bumbling hands of the clueless Gilligan (Bob Denver), and their opportunity is squandered. The castaways are stranded for another week, their prison sentence essentially extended. Hope becomes despair, again and again, creeping into this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time.

Sisyphus would relate.

"Gilligan's Island," however, offsets its despair with an unshakeable sense of whimsy. The show's characters may have eternally been pushing a boulder uphill,...

Considering that so many sitcom contemporaries of Gilligan’s Island — The Brady Bunch, Bewitched, Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart, The Addams Family — were made into feature films, it’s kinda weird that the show’s exotic locales and inherent live-or-die stakes didn’t get the same treatment. As it turns out, it wasn’t for lack of trying.

There have been multiple attempts to bring Gilligan and pals to the big screen, but like the S.S. Minnow, every one of them crashed into the rocks. For example, when the show’s creator, Sherwood Schwartz, was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Hall of Fame in 2008, he announced that he and his son Lloyd had just inked a deal for a Gilligan’s Island feature film. The agreement “just happened in the last 48 hours,” Schwartz told TV Guide. “I can’t take this much excitement at my age.”

Maybe because the elder...

It's hard to think of a sitcom that typecast its actors more severely than "Gilligan's Island." Even though it only aired for three seasons, the slapstick comedy series about seven castaways marooned on a desert island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean proved inescapable professionally for its entire ensemble.

This was partly due to the albatross of syndication. After its cancellation, "Gilligan's Island" quickly became a favorite with undiscriminating couch potatoes, who got off on the show's laughably simple formula, inane gags, and colorful locale. They loved watching Bob Denver's blundering Gilligan repeatedly sabotage every single effort to get off the island, Ginger doing just about anything, and the Howells somehow living in the lap of bamboo luxury.

The show's enduring popularity was understandably bad news for the future endeavors of its younger performers, particularly Denver, Tina Louise, and Dawn Wells, all three of whom lacked a strong enough pre-...

In the "Gilligan's Island" episode "The Kidnapper", the castaways are found, but not in the most helpful way. A rogue kidnapper named Norbert Wiley (Don Rickles) has found his way to the island, and he begins to ply his trade immediately. He kidnaps Lovey Howell (Natalie Schafer) and demands the castaways pay $10,000. Mrs. Howell manages to give her kidnapper the slip, but he manages to kidnap Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) in exchange, now demanding $20,000. The cycle repeats itself again when Mary Ann escapes, and Norbert kidnaps Ginger (Tina Louise), demanding $30,000. 

Eventually, the castaways capture Norbert using Gilligan (Bob Denver) as the ultimate bait. In a bamboo cage, Norbert explains that kidnapping is a compulsion for him and that he cannot be reformed. Ginger takes it upon herself to psychoanalyze him and reform him, while the Skipper and the Professor (Russell Johnson) repair the boat that brought him to the island.

Alan Hale, Jr. became a performer as part of his family's legacy. His mother was actress Gretchen Hartman who appeared in dozens of films in the 1910s, while his father, Alan Hale (real name: Rufus Edward MacKahan) racked up hundreds of credits in the silent era, typically as a reliable sidekick to Errol Flynn. Hartman retired from acting in 1929, and Hale, Sr. continued to work until his death in 1950. Alan Hale, Jr. first appeared on the screen as an infant, "starring" opposite his mother. Hale made his Broadway debut in 1931, when he was only 10, appearing in a very, very short-lived show called "Caught Wet" (it opened and closed in the same month). In 1933, Hale played uncredited role in William Wellman's Depression-era drama "Wild Boys of the Road," and it may be the first movie a casual observer would recognize him in. 

Staring in 1941, Hale began his acting career in earnest,...

Fans of Gilligan’s Island love to joke about the earliest version of the show’s theme song, which shouts out most of the cast before resorting to an “And the rest!” lyric to refer to the Professor and Mary Ann. In fact, it didn’t change until star Bob Denver lobbied for it to include everyone.

One cast member, however, would have preferred to keep it the original way — Tina Louise, the “Movie Star” who closed out the original version of the credits. “Part of Louise’s dissatisfaction with the series was that she had expected to be the star of the show,” according to a 1965 issue of TV Guide, as reported by MeTV.

TV Guide wasn’t much of a gossip rag but even the publication responsible for channel listings couldn’t ignore the bad blood between Louise and everyone else in the cast. Denver, who played Gilligan, “will...

Alan Hale Jr. was a showbiz veteran before he could speak. The son of Alan Hale, a popular character actor best known for his portrayal of Little John in Michael Curtiz' classic "The Adventures of Robin Hood," Hale Jr. appeared in silent films as a baby and made a few war movies as a young man before serving in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. Once the war was over, Hale Jr. worked steadily in film and television, turning up on episodes of "Gunsmoke," "Mister Ed," and "Lassie" while landing supporting roles in movies starring John Wayne, Gregory Peck, and Randolph Scott.

Hale Jr. would be castigated as a nepobaby today, but while being literally born to the business didn't hurt his cause, he was a natural in front of the camera and a welcome presence in just about everything. So, it's no surprise that, after a difficult casting process,...

After Sherwood Schwartz's hit sitcom "Gilligan's Island" wrapped in 1967, actress Tina Louise, who played the glamorous movie star Ginger Grant, was finished. While most of Louise's co-stars would return for "Gilligan's Island" TV movies and spinoffs, she would stay away from the franchise, pursuing other film and TV projects as her whims dictated. Louise's refusal to make more "Gilligan's Island" after 1967 led to persistent rumors that she hated the show and didn't enjoy her time on it. While Louise might have been a little cold to her co-stars, she has revealed that she never resented them for any reason, and actually very much enjoyed her time on "Gilligan's Island."

After "Gilligan's Island," Louise starred in several high-profile films, including the Matt Helm spy spoof "The Wrecking Crew," the sci-fi horror film "The Stepford Wives," and the made-for-tv sequel "Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby." Her most recent performance came...