Schwartz wrote the theme song wrote with George Wyle. It was sung by a folk group called The Wellingtons. After the 1st season, the growing popularity of the characters not mentioned in the lyrics except as "the rest" led to a rewrite, and also a new recording, by a rock group called The Eligibles. It lays out the basic premise, although it calls the setting "Gilligan's Isle," rather than "Gilligan's Island":
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 sailing man
that started from this tropic port
aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailing man
the skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day
for a three-hour tour
Five passengers set sail that day
for a three-hour tour
a three-hour tour.
The weather started getting rough.
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 Minnow would be lost.
The ship set ground on the shore
The ship set ground on the shore
of this uncharted desert isle
with Gilligan
the Skipper too
the millionaire
with Gilligan
the Skipper too
the millionaire
and his wife
the movie star
the Professor
the movie star
the Professor
and Mary Ann
here on Gilligan's Isle.
The show's opening shows their voyage and its ruin. As each character is mentioned, their portrayer is shown in the credits:
* Willy Gilligan (played by Bob Denver), the first mate of the SS Minnow. A nice enough guy, but an idiot. His first name is mentioned only in the pilot.
* Jonas Grumby (Alan Hale Jr., son of a famous actor), the captain, or "Skipper," of the Minnow, which he'd guided out of Honolulu for a trip around the Hawaiian Islands before the storm hit. His real name was mentioned in the pilot, and only occasionally thereafter: Everybody just called him "Skipper." When he's not angry at Gilligan, the Skipper calls him "Little Buddy." But he's frequently angry at Gilligan, with considerable justification.
* Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus, then doing double duty as the voice of cartoon character Mr. Magoo), a millionaire who made his money on Wall Street. Pardon the pun, but, in a place where his money is useless, he is a fish out of water.
* Eunice Howell (Natalie Schafer), Howell's wife. He calls her "Lovey." The Howells were devoted to each other, but that's all the good that can be said about them.
* Ginger Grant (Tina Louise), an actress. It's never clear whether "Ginger Grant" is her real name: She had red hair, which explains "Ginger," and while her first name uses the soft G and her last name the hard G, it still looks like alliteration, like Marilyn Monroe. Before the Minnow set sail, she'd had a singing gig at a Waikiki hotel. Because she also sang, her character may have been based on fellow redhead Ann-Margret.
* Dr. Roy Hinkley (Russell Johnson), a high school science teacher from Cleveland. Despite the fact that he teaches below college level, everyone calls him "Professor." The character's real name may have been a play on words, a combination of the names of the anchors of NBC News at the time: Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. Thurston did once mistakenly call him "Huntley," and, when corrected by the Professor, get it wrong again, as "Brinkley."
* Mary Ann Summers (Dawn Wells), a farm girl from Winfield, Kansas (a real place, about 40 miles southeast of Wichita), who won the trip to Hawaii and the excursion on the Minnow in a contest.
There is one other character, heard but never seen: The never-named radio announcer, voiced by Charles Maxwell.
1. Pride: The Professor has several university degrees, and is resourceful enough that he can make a ham radio out of some wire and two coconuts, so he has a right to have some pride. But, as comedian Jerry Seinfeld, 10 years old when the show premiered, pointed out in his act, he still couldn't fix a hole in the boat. Thus proving the Bible's book of Proverbs, Chapter 16, Verse 18: "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." (This is usually shortened to, "Pride goes before a fall.")
2. Envy: Mary Ann looked really good, and certainly showed her body off. But she was never as popular with the guys -- on the island and watching on TV -- as Ginger. Which brings us to...
3. Lust: Ginger, the movie star. (Although, as her name, or perhaps it was a nickname, suggested, she was a redhead, not a "blonde bombshell.")
4. Greed: Why did Howell take all that money on what was intended as a 3-hour trip on a dinghy?
5. Sloth: Mrs. Howell never did anything.
Here is where the theory gets stretched a bit: The remaining characters are Gilligan and the Skipper. But Gilligan represents neither Wrath nor Gluttony. The Skipper, however, does:
6. Wrath: The Skipper is always angry, although this is usually inspired by Gilligan. And:
7. Gluttony: The Skipper is the only character who can be called "fat."
So the theory forces the Skipper to represent 2 of the 7. So what does Gilligan represent? Well, these 6 people are trapped by their sins in what must seem like Hell to them. And why can't they get out? Why can't they get off the island? Who keeps keeping them there, due to his apparent incompetence? Gilligan.
There is an old saying, known as Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Certainly, Gilligan is stupid, and that stupidity harms the others. But what if it's not unconscious incompetence? What if he's keeping them there by active work? No, Gilligan isn't lonely, and treating those around him that way because he has a deep need for family: That's Michael Scott (Steve Carell) on The Office, 40 years later.
According to the theory, the reason Gilligan is keeping the sinners on the island is that he's in charge: He's the Devil. This also dovetails with the Star Wars theory that the apparently well-meaning, but idiotic, Jar Jar Binks is actually a Sith Lord, undermining the cause.
Ridiculous? Well, Gilligan does wear red...
Jerry Seinfeld's routine about Gilligan's Island also mocks the fact that they had an awful lot of clothes for a three-hour tour. He also wondered why neither Gilligan nor the Skipper made a move on Ginger or Mary Ann: "I'm starting to wonder about this 'Little Buddy' business!"
Another New York-based comedian, Vic DiBitetto, likes to talk about the whacked-out TV shows of the 1960s. But he points out that some of these shows, you knew they were fantasy, like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, My Mother the Car, The Flying Nun, The Munsters and The Addams Family, and the sci-fi-influenced My Favorite Martian.
"But Gilligan's Island was not fantasy," he says. He calls it "the most fucked-up show ever created!" Like Jerry, Vic doesn't understand why they had so much luggage on "a three-hour tour." He compares their trip around the Hawaiian Islands to the Circle Line, the tour boat around Manhattan Island.
He admits that, as characters, Gilligan and the Skipper make sense: They're needed to run the SS Minnow. Mary Ann sort-of makes sense: The tourist who won the trip in a contest. And the Professor makes sense: Maybe he's studying the waves, the vegetation, the volcanoes, the stars when they're unencumbered by city lights and smog. What doesn't make sense to Vic is why either one of them is on the trip alone. Neither is mentioned as having a love interest back home.
But with Ginger, Vic says, "Here is where the show goes completely off the rails." He makes the Marilyn connection: Ginger would not have been alone. At the very least, she would have had a bodyguard, a publicist, or even a date with her. (And there's no indication that she was dating the Professor, in a Marilyn and Arthur Miller type of thing.)
And why would the Howells go on this three-hour tour? With their fortune, they can do it themselves on a yacht. If anything, they should have hired the Skipper and Gilligan for their yacht, with everybody else as their guests. The yacht probably would have been bigger than the Minnow, and better able to withstand the storm. They might have gotten knocked around a bit, but they probably would've gotten back to Honolulu with the boat intact and no major injuries.
One final point: None of the characters was Italian. Vic says, "If I'm on that island, I'm whackin' Gilligan, so he can't fuck up, and I'm gettin' off that island!"
For its 2nd season, in 1965, as did most U.S. TV shows that had not already done so, the show switched from black & white to color. It was always filmed, never videotaped. It ran for 3 seasons, its last first-run episode airing on April 17, 1967. It was already filmed before the cast found out that the show had been canceled. And since this was before most TV shows had a planned finale that wrapped everything up, they didn't, and so there's no finale showing them escaping from the island. (The Fugitive pioneered the planned finale, 4 months later.)
In 1975, Bob Denver did another separated-from-civilization show, with comedian Chuck McCann, for kids-show producers Sid and Marty Krofft: Far Out Space Nuts.
From 1974 to 1977, ABC aired the Filmation-produced cartoon The New Adventures of Gilligan. Tina Louise and Dawn Wells were working on other projects, so Jane Webb voiced both characters. Otherwise, the original cast took up their roles. In the 1982-83 season, CBS aired Gilligan's Planet: Somehow, the Professor built a spaceship that allowed them to escape from the island, but they went too far, literally, and ended up on a distant planet. On one of its islands. Most fans of the original series don't consider either of these shows to be canon.
In 1978, 14 years after the pilot, NBC aired Rescue from Gilligan's Island. Tina Louise was in a dispute with the producers, and so Ginger was played by Judith Baldwin; while the rest of the cast resumed their roles. They finally get back home, but have difficulty reintegrating into society. On the first anniversary of their rescue, they take a reunion cruise, and history repeats itself, and they end up on the same island.
In 1979, NBC aired The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, with Baldwin again playing Ginger. The film starts mere days after the previous movie ends: The castaways are rescued, and the Howells convert the island into a getaway resort, with the other 5 as "silent partners."
There was one more sequel, in 1981, also on NBC: The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island. This time, Ginger was played by Constance Forslund. Jim Backus was too ill to participate, so it was written into the script that he was back on the mainland, tending to Howell Industries.
David Ruprecht played Thurston Howell IV, son of Thurston and Lovey, who was now managing the resort. He later hosted the game show Supermarket Sweep, co-hosted an early reality-TV show titled Real People, was the voice of the captain of the doomed space freighter Kobayashi Maru in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and played Phillip Dawson, who married Joyce DeWitt's character Janet Wood on the last episode of Three's Company in 1984.
Being a sports nut, and knowing about the Globetrotters, the legendary all-black basketball team, but not a fan of the show, I was not aware that the characters could now come and go from the island as they pleased, so I wondered: Did the Trotters get off the island? If so, why didn't the castaways? Well, they did.
Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, married in real life, and heroes on the TV shows Mission: Impossible and Space: 1999, played villains this time. (I guess they needed a colon in the title to play good guys.) They want the island for themselves, due to the presence of a valuable fictional element. The Trotters assist the former castaways in stopping them.
In 2008, noting the many other classic TV series that had been adapted into movies, Sherwood Schwartz said he wanted to adapt Gilligan's Island for the big screen, with Michael Cera as Gilligan and Beyoncé Knowles as Ginger. So far, no such adaptation has ever been green-lit.
Jim Backus died in 1989, Alan Hale in 1990, Natalie Schafer in 1991, Charles Maxwell in 1993, George Wyle in 2003, Bob Denver in 2005, Sherwood Schwartz in 2011, Russell Johnson in 2014, and Dawn Wells in 2020. As of September 26, 2022, Tina Louise is still alive, and had reconciled with the people behind the show. Judith Baldwin and Constance Forslund, the later Gingers, are also still alive. So is David Ruprecht.
*
September 26, 1964 was a Saturday. Dave Martinez, who managed the Washington Nationals to win the 2019 World Series, was born on this day.
These baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 7-0 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (D.C. Stadium was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) Mel Stottlemyre pitched a 2-hit shutout, and helped his own cause by going 5-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Joe Pepitone hit a home run. Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris both went 0-for-4.
* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 6-1 at Shea Stadium. The Reds won despite Frank Robinson going 0-for-5, although Pete Rose went 2-for-5.
* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. This was the 6th game in the Phils' infamous 10-game losing streak that cost them the National League Pennant.
They led 4-0 after 2 innings, and 4-3 going into the 9th. But Bobby Shantz, the former Philadelphia Athletics ace back in his hometown, couldn't hold the lead, due in part to an error by 2nd baseman Tony Taylor, and Rico Carty hit a bases-loaded triple. It was Shantz's 39th birthday, and he made only 1 more big-league appearance, 3 days later. Hank Aaron went 2-for-5. Joe Torre went 3-for-4.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell and Russ Snyder hit home runs.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-6 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 1-for-4. For the Red Sox, rookie Tony Conigliaro hit a home run, and Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 5-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels groundshared until their Anaheim stadium could open. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3 with a walk.
* The Chicago Cubs and the San Francisco Giants got rained out at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Cubs swept, 4-1 and 4-2. Over the 2 games, Ernie Banks went 2-for-7 with a home run, a walk, and 4 RBIs. Willie Mays went 2-for-8.
* And the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Colt .45s (who renamed themselves the Astros the year before) were not scheduled.
*
Two days before, the Number 7 college football team in the nation, the University of Washington, beat Baylor University, 35-14 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Among the college football games played on September 26 were these:
* The top 2 teams in the country were both upset. Kentucky beat Number 1 Mississippi, 27-21 at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson. And the University of Southern California beat Number 2 Oklahoma, 40-14 at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma. This was also the day that Oklahoma debuted its mobile mascot, a horse-drawn covered wagon known as the Sooner Schooner.
* Number 3 Illinois beat California, 20-14 at California Memorial Stadium in Berkley.
* Number 4 Texas beat Texas Tech, 23-0 at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.
* Number 5 Ohio State beat Southern Methodist, 27-8 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.
* Number 6 Alabama beat Tulane, 36-6 at Ladd Stadium in Mobile, Alabama.
* Number 8 Auburn beat Tennessee, 3-0 at Cliff Hare Stadium (later Jordan-Hare Stadium) in Auburn, Alabama. Yes, that's football, not baseball.
* Number 9 Syracuse beat Kansas, 38-6 at Archbold Stadium in Syracuse, New York.
* Notre Dame beat Wisconsin, 31-7 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.
* Among the service academies: Army beat Boston College, 19-13 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; Navy beat William & Mary, 35-6 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland; and Air Force lost to Michigan, 24-7 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
* In New York City, Columbia beat Colgate, 21-14 at Baker Field.
* And in New Jersey, Princeton beat Rutgers, 10-7 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.
In New Jersey high school football, my eventual Alma Mater, East Brunswick, beat Woodbridge, 20-6 at Woodbridge Stadium, later renamed Nicholas A. Priscoe Stadium for the school's most successful coach.
And in English soccer, Arsenal lost to West London team Chelsea, 3-1 at Highbury in North London.
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