Gilligan's Island ran for a total of 98 episodes. The first season (comprising 36 episodes) was filmed in black-and-white (later colorized in syndication) and the remaining 62 episodes throughout the next two seasons and three TV movie sequels were filmed in color.
Enjoying solid ratings during its original run, the show grew enormously in popularity during decades of syndication. Today, the title character of Gilligan is widely recognized as a comedic American popular culture icon, ranked, for example, at 122nd place in the July 2003 list of 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons compiled by VH-1 and People Magazine.
The show's theme song, "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle", was written in a sea shanty style to give new viewers a capsule summary of the castaways' predicament. When the show was first presented, executives were concerned that new viewers, tuning in for the first time, might not understand the premise of the show, so the song was written specifically for that purpose. Although the Professor and Mary Ann were in every episode in the first season, their names weren’t added to the opening theme song until the second season. Until then they were simply referred to as “the rest”.
Cast
Bob Denver as Gilligan, the bumbling, 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 My Mother the Car, which
premiered one season later. The producers then looked to Bob Denver, the actor
who played lovable beatnik Maynard G. Krebs in the The Many Loves of Dobie
Gillis. Like Lieutenant Columbo, Gilligan's first name is never mentioned
in any episode or TV movie. Creator/producer Sherwood Schwartz said he had
intended the character's name to be "Willy". Bob Denver stated playfully
on some interviews, such as a May 16, 1989 KDKA radio interview, that his
name choice would have been "Gil Eggan". Denver reasoned that since
everyone yelled at him, it came out as Gilligan.
Alan Hale, Jr. as Jonas Grumby, the "Skipper". A longtime actor
in B-westerns, 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. 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 greedy 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.
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 due to her advanced age. Schafer was 62 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 that information. 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 get on the air
Tina Louise as Ginger Grant, the movie star. The name, an amalgam of Ginger
Rogers and Cary Grant, was an homage to Hollywood's past.[citation needed]
When regular shooting began, Louise clashed with producers, because she had
believed that she was to be the main focus of the show (despite its title).
In addition, 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 hair style
used were designed to recreate the look of Myrna Loy. Louise continued to
clash with producers and was the only cast member who refused to return for
any of the TV movies that followed the series' cancellation, and the fourth
season, which was later canceled to make room for a western, 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 TV 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 tarps or similar ersatz cloth (some
had the name of the vessel stenciled on them). Later on, she wore regular
evening gowns.
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. Coincidentally, Johnson, an Air Force gunner, was
shot down during World War II and ended up on an island in the Philippines.[citation
needed] Johnson stated that he had some difficulty remembering his more technically-oriented
lines.
Dawn Wells as Mary Ann Summers. Wells was a former Miss Nevada when she auditioned
for the role. Her competition included Raquel Welch. The pilot episode had
a different character played by a different actress. After it was shot, the
network decided to recast the roles of the Professor and the two young women.
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.
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