128 Fun Facts About Gilligan's Island

Who created and produced Gilligan's Island?

Sherwood Schwartz. He also co-wrote the theme song with George Wyle, and sang the unaired pilot's calypso version himself.

What is Gilligan's job aboard the castaways' charter boat?

First mate. The radio bulletin in the opening episode gives every other castaway a full name, but he is only "a young first mate named Gilligan".

What is the name of the charter boat the castaways set out on?

S.S. Minnow. Four boats played it: one was rented for the opening credits, one was towed to a beach to be the wreck, and one was built at the studio for season two.

According to the Gilligan's Island theme song, how long was the tour meant to last?

Three hours. The unaired pilot had a different calypso theme, which called the trip "a six-hour ride" instead.

From which port did the castaways' fateful trip depart?

Honolulu. The production also rented the boat seen leaving harbour in the opening credits there.

The unaired Gilligan's Island pilot resurfaced as flashbacks in an episode marking which holiday?

Christmas. Three roles had been recast, so the pilot could not air whole; pieces of it became flashbacks, and the full film went unbroadcast until 1992.

Gilligan's Island's second season was its first made in what?

Colour. The first year had been a Saturday hit in black and white, and the network moved it to Thursdays for the second.

The castaways' boat was named as a jab at a man in which job?

FCC chairman Newton Minow had attacked the quality of American television in 1961, so the show's creator put his name on a doomed little boat.

The 1961 speech that inspired the name of the castaways' boat famously called television a what?

Vast wasteland. The speaker dared broadcasters to watch their own stations for a whole day with no book, newspaper or ratings sheet to distract them.

What is the Skipper's real name?

Jonas Grumby. A radio bulletin about the missing boat gives the name early on, and after that it is hardly spoken again; to everyone on the island he is just Skipper.

What is the Professor's real name?

Roy Hinkley. When he once reeled off his string of university degrees, Mr. Howell replied that it sounded like a recipe for alphabet soup.

Mary Ann Summers is a farm girl from which state?

Kansas. A radio bulletin in the first episode fills in the rest: before the trip she worked at the general store in the town of Winfield.

How did Mary Ann come to be aboard the castaways' boat tour?

She won the trip as a prize, a lottery in some accounts and a radio contest in others. On the island she posts bottled letters to a sweetheart back home, and when news comes that he has married she admits the romance was only for show.

Mrs. Howell is always called Lovey, but what is her actual first name?

Eunice. Her husband never calls her anything but Lovey, and almost everyone else says Mrs. Howell, so the real name barely registers.

What was Mrs. Howell's maiden name?

Wentworth. She takes the name back in a season-two episode, after the radio reports that the minister who married the Howells was a fraud.

What is the surname of Ginger, the Hollywood actress among the castaways?

Grant. The first radio bulletin explains her wardrobe: Ginger boarded straight from a nightclub singing engagement, still in the evening dress from her last performance.

What colour is the shirt Gilligan wears in nearly every episode?

Red. The rugby shirt is a hand-me-down of sorts: in one episode Gilligan says it first belonged to his brother.

What does the Skipper habitually call Gilligan?

Little Buddy. Alan Hale Jr. had used it on screen before: in a 1962 Andy Griffith Show episode his character gives the same nickname to Barney Fife.

The slapstick between the Skipper and Gilligan was modelled on which comedy duo?

Laurel and Hardy. Alan Hale Jr.'s exasperated looks straight into the camera were borrowed from Oliver Hardy, who gave the audience the same look.

Before Gilligan's Island, its star was famous for playing which beatnik character?

Maynard G. Krebs. The show's creator nearly passed on the actor: he wrote that he could not connect the bearded beatnik of Dobie Gillis with his image of Gilligan.

Which actor was offered the role of Gilligan first and turned it down?

Jerry Van Dyke. Dick Van Dyke's younger brother landed a sitcom of his own a year later instead, and it was cancelled after a single season.

The actor who passed on Gilligan chose to star in which notoriously bad sitcom instead?

My Mother the Car. Its hero is a lawyer whose late mother is reincarnated as an antique car, a premise that lasted a single season.

Which future 1970s sitcom star auditioned to play the Skipper on Gilligan's Island but lost out?

Carroll O'Connor. The future Archie Bunker was passed over for Alan Hale Jr., who hitchhiked off a Western film set in Utah to catch a flight to the studio.

In which service did Skipper actor Alan Hale Jr. serve during World War II?

The Coast Guard. His father, of the same name, was a busy character actor, and he dropped the Junior from his own name after his father died in 1950.

What was the name of the Los Angeles seafood restaurant that Alan Hale Jr. co-owned in the 1970s?

The Lobster Barrel. It stood on La Cienega Boulevard, and Hale often worked the room himself, greeting diners in his skipper's cap.

Which Gilligan's Island actor was shot down in a bomber over the Philippines during World War II?

Russell Johnson. The future Professor was a B-25 bombardier who earned a Purple Heart when his plane went down in 1945, and the GI Bill then paid for his acting school.

Which anthology series had already cast the future Professor of Gilligan's Island as a professor with a time machine?

The Twilight Zone. His professor's time machine plucks a murderer from an 1880 hanging, and in a second episode his character goes back to try to stop Lincoln's assassination.

Which state pageant title did the actress who played Mary Ann hold before she was cast?

Miss Nevada. The Reno native took time off from college to win the crown, then went to Atlantic City to compete for Miss America.

Which future star was among the competition for the part of Mary Ann?

Raquel Welch. She lost the wholesome farm-girl part, and two years later a poster for One Million Years B.C. made her an international sex symbol.

What did the actress who played Ginger walk away from in 1964 to join Gilligan's Island?

A Broadway musical. She left Fade Out - Fade In, a new show starring Carol Burnett, and called the television offer too good to pass up.

Ginger, the castaways' glamorous movie star, was modelled on which real Hollywood star?

Marilyn Monroe. The actress who played Ginger recalled that the part was first billed as a Marilyn Monroe type, and said she loved it once the writers gave her more to do.

Which Gilligan's Island cast member refused to appear in any of the three reunion TV movies?

Tina Louise. Two other actresses played Ginger in the films; she finally acted with her old castmates again in a 1995 Roseanne episode, filmed on the castaways' old sound stage.

Jim Backus, the Gilligan's Island millionaire Thurston Howell III, also voiced which cartoon character?

Mr. Magoo. Backus had voiced the near-sighted old man since 1949, and a new prime-time Magoo series began the same season as Gilligan's Island, so he had two shows running at once.

In Rebel Without a Cause, Jim Backus played whose father?

James Dean's character. Backus played Frank Stark, the timid father whose failure to stand up for himself torments his son Jim, a long way from the blustering Thurston Howell.

Why did Natalie Schafer agree to shoot the Gilligan's Island pilot?

A free Hawaii trip. She asked who could resist an all-expenses trip to the islands, and admitted she never thought the show would even be bought.

Natalie Schafer, who played a millionaire's wife, left a seven-figure bequest to which cause?

A film and television hospital. The Motion Picture and Television Hospital used the bequest to renovate its outpatient wing, which was renamed in her honour.

The unaired Gilligan's Island pilot's theme song introduces the future Professor as what?

A high school teacher. John Gabriel played him in the pilot, and the part was rewritten and recast before the series reached the air.

The Gilligan's Island pilot was filming in Hawaii on which date in history?

The day President Kennedy was shot. Cast and crew heard the news on location, near the very end of the shoot.

What sombre detail can be spotted in the harbour during Gilligan's Island's first-season opening credits?

A flag flying at half-staff. The boat's departure was filmed in late November 1963, while the United States was in national mourning.

Which composer wrote the calypso theme used in the unaired Gilligan's Island pilot?

John Williams. Billed as Johnny Williams, the future composer of Star Wars and Jaws was then a jobbing television musician, years before his film scores made him famous.

What is the official title of the Gilligan's Island theme song?

The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle. It replaced the unaired pilot's calypso theme, and retells the whole shipwreck so that viewers get the backstory every week.

In the first-season Gilligan's Island theme song, which two castaways were lumped together as "and the rest"?

The Professor and Mary Ann. The snub lasted one season: from the second year the song was rewritten to name them both, and they joined the opening credits.

Which Gilligan's Island cast member pressed the studio until the theme song named all seven castaways?

Bob Denver. He went to the studio himself on behalf of the two co-stars the song left out, and from the second season they were in both the lyric and the opening credits.

Gilligan's Island was cancelled in 1967 so that which series could take its Monday-night slot?

Gunsmoke. The network had meant to drop the ageing Western that year, then changed its mind and moved it from late Saturdays into the castaways' Monday slot.

In its third and final season, Gilligan's Island ran on Monday nights directly opposite which series?

The Monkees. The newcomers took that season's Emmy for best comedy series, while the castaways opposite them lost their place on the schedule.

The Gilligan's Island lagoon was dug on a backlot in which part of greater Los Angeles?

Studio City. The district takes its name from that very lot, which the silent-comedy producer Mack Sennett built in the late 1920s.

What became of the Gilligan's Island lagoon when its studio expanded in 1995?

Paved over for staff parking. The studio filled it in and laid asphalt, ending a set so close to a freeway that crews once waited out the morning rush before filming there.

The beach scenes of the Gilligan's Island pilot, wrecked boat and all, were shot on which Hawaiian island?

Kauai. The production towed a boat to a beach there to play the wreck, then left Hawaii behind and shot the series itself at a backlot lagoon in Los Angeles.

Where did the creator of Gilligan's Island finally find his hero's name?

In a telephone book. By his own account he wanted a name funny enough to signal a comedy without tipping into burlesque, and leafed through directories until he hit on Gilligan.

Who takes all seven castaways off Gilligan's Island in the only episode where they ever leave it?

A mad scientist. Dr. Boris Balinkoff ferries them to his mansion on a nearby island to swap their minds about, and the boat they escape in sinks as soon as they are home.

On Gilligan's Island, the Professor wants a captured duck to do what?

Carry a note. Gilligan adopts the duck and guards her from the hungry castaways' cooking pot, and when she finally flies away he has forgotten to attach the rescue message.

Which future movie star played the Jungle Boy in a first-season episode of Gilligan's Island?

Kurt Russell. His jungle boy floats off alone in the castaways' raincoat balloon and lands on an aircraft carrier, where he has no English to tell anyone about them.

To impress the stranded film producer Harold Hecuba, the Gilligan's Island castaways stage a musical version of which play?

Hamlet. They set its famous speeches to opera tunes from Carmen to show off Ginger's talent, and Hecuba slips away without them to stage a musical of the play as his own idea.

The Mosquitoes, the band who land on Gilligan's Island to escape their fans, were a send-up of which real group?

The Beatles. The women form a group of their own, the Honeybees, hoping to be taken along, and it backfires: the Mosquitoes slip away without them rather than face the competition.

When the aviator Wrongway Feldman first flies off Gilligan's Island, why does no rescue follow?

His directions are all wrong. Wrongway makes it back to New York and tells the world about the castaways, but the bearings he gives are so far off that nobody can find the island.

Which celebrity guest-starred on Gilligan's Island as Erika Tiffany-Smith, a socialite who wants to buy the island?

Zsa Zsa Gabor. Her socialite gets engaged to the Professor, thinks better of it and leaves promising to return, but her logbook records no latitude or longitude, so nobody can find the island.

Dr. Boris Balinkoff comes to Gilligan's Island with mind-control rings, planning to make the castaways rob what?

Fort Knox. He rehearses the raid with coconuts standing in for gold bars, and when he orders the gold delivered the castaways pelt him with them and smash his control box.

Harold Sakata, the hunter's henchman Ramoo on Gilligan's Island, was best known for menacing James Bond in which film?

Goldfinger. Harold Sakata was its hat-throwing Oddjob, and a few years later he stood guard over the captive castaways while his boss hunted Gilligan for sport.

On Gilligan's Island, what does the exasperated Skipper habitually swat Gilligan with?

His captain's hat. A whack on the head with it is the standard price of Gilligan's blunders, yet for all the Skipper's exasperation the two stay close friends.

What first name did the creator of Gilligan's Island give Gilligan in his original treatment for the show?

Willy. Willy Gilligan is in the creator's original treatment, yet the first name is rarely if ever heard on screen, where he is simply Gilligan.

Which Gilligan's Island episode, about an island king seeking a woman to sacrifice to his volcano, proved to be the series finale?

Gilligan, the Goddess. Nobody knew it was the end: a fourth season was expected, so the series simply stopped with Gilligan shedding his dress and wig and the king going home empty-handed.

In the first Gilligan's Island episode broadcast, the raft party and the castaways left behind each mistake the other for what?

Headhunters. In Two on a Raft, Gilligan and the Skipper sail for help, a storm washes them back without their knowing it, and both parties end up hiding from each other in the same cave.

Which dessert does Mary Ann bake for Gilligan again and again on Gilligan's Island?

Coconut cream pie. Her pies are a running gag, usually baked as a reward for Gilligan, and the actress who played her later put a coconut pie named for the Skipper into her 1993 Mary Ann cookbook.

Who replaced the original Ginger actress in the 1978 reunion film?

Judith Baldwin had appeared with the original Ginger three years earlier in The Stepford Wives; she kept the role for the 1979 sequel before it was recast again for the third film.

In Rescue from Gilligan's Island, what lands on the island and triggers their escape?

A disc from a destroyed spy satellite proves sensitive to weather, and the Professor uses it to forecast a tsunami, so the castaways lash their huts together into a raft and get swept out to sea.

In The Castaways on Gilligan's Island (1979), what do the Howells turn the island into?

A getaway resort named The Castaways is Mr. Howell's idea, with the other five as his silent partners, so the people who spent fifteen years trying to leave end up welcoming guests to the place.

In The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981), the villains want the island for which fictional element?

Supremium turns out to be unstable away from the island, and the villain's stolen haul blows up his yacht. An ailing Jim Backus was mostly written out but insisted on a cameo at the end.

In the 1974 animated series The New Adventures of Gilligan, Gilligan gained what new pet?

Snubby the Monkey was the cartoon's one new castaway, voiced by producer Lou Scheimer himself; the animated Ginger, meanwhile, went platinum blonde in case her former actress objected to the likeness.

In the 1982 cartoon Gilligan's Planet, who voiced both Ginger and Mary Ann?

Dawn Wells did double duty, adding Ginger to her own Mary Ann; she had missed the 1974 cartoon because she was touring in a play, and Jane Webb had voiced both women then.

The 2004 reality series The Real Gilligan's Island aired on which network?

TBS cast real people to match each castaway, working actresses and a genuine millionaire among them, and set them challenges lifted from old episode plots, Survivor-style; it lasted two seasons.

Tom Carson's 2003 novel, narrated in turn by the seven Gilligan's Island castaways, takes half its title from which Joyce work?

Finnegans Wake lends its second word to Gilligan's Wake, in which each castaway narrates an invented past; the Skipper's has him serving in the Pacific alongside a young John F. Kennedy.

Little Roger and the Goosebumps sang the Gilligan's Island theme lyrics to the tune of which rock classic?

Stairway to Heaven: Led Zeppelin's lawyers had the 1978 single withdrawn, yet Robert Plant later called it his favourite cover of the band's work.

Which "Weird Al" Yankovic rap parody is about a woman who introduces the narrator to Gilligan's Island?

Isle Thing reworks Tone Loc's hit Wild Thing, and it slips in his other hit too: the narrator reckons two of the castaway women could have used some Funky Cold Medina.

When a Gilligan's Island film remake was announced in the late 2000s, its creator wanted which actor as Gilligan?

Michael Cera was his pick, with Beyoncé as Ginger; the 92-year-old announced a studio deal struck within 48 hours at his Television Academy Hall of Fame induction, but the film was never made.

The creator of Gilligan's Island also created which other long-running family sitcom?

The Brady Bunch arrived in 1969 with theme-song lyrics he again wrote himself, spelling out the whole premise before each episode just as his castaway theme had.

On Gilligan's Island, what does millionaire Thurston Howell III famously sleep with?

A teddy bear named Teddy shares his bed; he talks to it as an ally in arguments with Lovey, and now and then lends it to a frightened castaway for comfort.

The Professor could build almost anything from bamboo and coconuts, so what did fans joke he never managed to do?

Repair the boat: an early attempt with a tree-sap glue gave way and left the wreck in pieces, and the actor who played him joked about that failure himself.

Blue-blooded millionaire Thurston Howell III prides himself on being a graduate of which university?

Harvard completes the caricature Jim Backus played with a clenched-jaw society accent: a Newport clubman who packed trunks of cash and several changes of clothes for an afternoon boat trip.

Which animal, washed ashore in a crate, does Gilligan tame with cans of corned beef on Gilligan's Island?

A lion won Gilligan over after he pulled a thorn from its paw, and the two got on so well that he asked Mr. Howell to bankroll a circus act once they were rescued.

On Gilligan's Island, radioactive sugar beets give Mrs. Howell which sudden ability?

Super speed came from the sugar beets, while spinach gave Gilligan great strength and carrots sharpened Mary Ann's eyes; the cure was a meal of the castaways' plant-based soap.

What do greedy Gilligan's Island castaways secretly smuggle aboard a repaired life raft, sinking it in the lagoon?

Gold fever took hold after Mr. Howell and Gilligan stumbled on a mine while golfing, and the smuggled bags dragged the raft to the bottom before anyone could sail away.

A homing pigeon found on Gilligan's Island flies the castaways' rescue notes to its owner, an inmate of which prison?

Alcatraz was home to the bird's owner, who took the castaways' story for one of a pen pal's tall tales, shrugged off a $1,000 bill from Mr. Howell and was paroled before he saw the last note.

A blow from the Skipper loosens a tooth filling and turns Gilligan's mouth into what, on Gilligan's Island?

A radio is what Gilligan's mouth became, which mattered when the castaways' own set broke with a typhoon closing in: they tried again and again to knock him back on.

Scientists whose Mars probe lands on Gilligan's Island by mistake decide the castaways it films are a race of what?

Chicken people seemed the only explanation: exploding glue and a heap of pillow feathers had coated the castaways just as they stepped in front of the probe's repaired camera.

On Gilligan's Island, the Skipper loses Gilligan's services to Mr. Howell by betting on races between which animals?

Turtles were the runners, and when the Skipper's entry lost yet again Gilligan became the Howells' manservant, leaving the lonely Skipper with nobody to yell at.

In the one dream sequence Gilligan's Island gives Mrs. Howell, which fairy-tale heroine does she become?

Cinderella is Mrs. Howell's dream self, with the Skipper as her wicked stepmother, Ginger and Mary Ann as ugly stepsisters and Gilligan as an inept Fairy Godfather.

On Gilligan's Island, what power do the castaways gain by eating seeds from a bush that Gilligan later burns?

Reading minds soon had every castaway quarrelling over each other's private thoughts, so Gilligan burned the bush to make them friends again.

On Gilligan's Island, what fills the treasure chest Gilligan digs up, for which Mr. Howell offers $500,000?

Cannonballs were all it held, a letdown that came only after a midnight lock-picking attempt and a full trial, with the Professor as judge, to settle who owned the chest.

On Gilligan's Island, the two gangsters the castaways overhear talking in a cave turn out to be what?

A parrot, which the castaways named Sam, was doing both voices; it squawked at the word jewelry and led a hopeful Mr. Howell into the cave, where its treasure was a box of crackers.

When Gilligan dreams he is a vampire on Gilligan's Island, the Professor turns up as which fictional detective?

Sherlock Holmes arrives with the Skipper as his sidekick, and the dream ends in a brawl with comic-book sound effects splashed across the screen in the style of the rival series Batman.

What does Gilligan fly above Gilligan's Island as a rescue signal, only for searching ships to report a UFO?

A jet pack had just enough fuel left to hover as a signal, but a frightened Gilligan, not realising the UFO was him, steered into a thick cloud and the ships lost sight of him.

Holding a lucky stone said to give him three wishes on Gilligan's Island, what does Gilligan wish for first, and get?

A gallon of ice cream washed up in the lagoon, twice, but the big third wish backfired: asked to get everyone off the island, the stone merely floated their patch of beach out into the water.

Trying to make pancake syrup on Gilligan's Island, Gilligan instead invents a boat-patching glue from what?

Tree sap held only for a while: just before launch the Skipper gave the patched hull one hard tap, and the castaways' boat fell completely apart.

After Gilligan bumps his head on Gilligan's Island, how does he see the world until the Professor brews a berry cure?

Upside down was only the start: the Professor's berry potions next made Gilligan see double, then five of everything, and the same brew showed three raiders 35 castaways and sent them fleeing.

Which comedian guest-starred on Gilligan's Island as a kidnapper who holds the women for ransom one by one?

Don Rickles played the kidnapper Norbett Wiley, who charmed the castaways into throwing him a welcome-back-to-society party, robbed them during it and slipped away in his boat.

Which later sitcom, made on the old Gilligan's Island studio lot, re-enacted the show with its own cast in a daydream?

Roseanne was shot on the same studio lot, and in 1995 its cast played out the castaways' adventures in a daydream, with original cast members dropping in as guests.

Who land a space capsule in the lagoon of Gilligan's Island, far off course, and plan to leave the castaways behind?

Soviet cosmonauts Igor and Ivan feared the castaways would tell the world about their navigation blunder, so they tried to get the men too drunk on vodka to follow them home.

The eccentric Lord Beasley Waterford refuses to leave Gilligan's Island until he has caught a rare specimen of what?

A butterfly called the Pussycat Swallowtail was his quarry; the castaways tried to get him drunk to steal his flare gun, but he out-drank them all and left while they were out cold.

The silent movie the Gilligan's Island castaways float out to sea as a cry for help wins top honours at which festival?

The Cannes Film Festival gave its grand award to a film the castaways meant as a plea for rescue; the Professor's mishaps in developing it had turned their story into a comedy.

On Gilligan's Island, a second lightning bolt frees Gilligan from a magnetised bowling ball but leaves him how?

Invisible, Gilligan sat unseen at the table while the others, believing he had moved to the far side of the island, told each other how much they loved him.

After Gilligan saves Mrs. Howell from a falling rock on Gilligan's Island, how do the Howells reward him?

The Howells adopt him as their son and heir, renaming him Gilligan Thurston Howell IV, until a nightmare about life as a spoiled royal convinces him he would rather be himself.

A shortage of which fruit on Gilligan's Island sends Gilligan into a dream of climbing a beanstalk to a giant's hoard?

Oranges, or the lack of them, had the Professor warning of vitamin deficiency, and in the dream's chase scene the tiny Jack was played by the Gilligan actor's own young son.

Which "Weird Al" Yankovic parody borrows a verse from the Gilligan's Island closing theme?

Amish Paradise, his 1996 send-up of Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise, is one of several nods to the castaways in his catalogue, which also holds an entire rap about a girlfriend who gets him hooked on the series.

Which cartoon voice legend quacked for the duck Gilligan shields from hungry castaways on Gilligan's Island?

Mel Blanc voiced the migrating duck, which Gilligan named Everett and then renamed Emily when it laid an egg; guarding it overnight, he dreamed he was a Wild West marshal protecting it.

On Gilligan's Island, what washes ashore in a storm and briefly lets the castaways dial the outside world?

A telephone cable let the castaways place several calls, none of which brought help, and Gilligan sealed the cut so well that no cable crew ever needed to come looking.

The father of Alan Hale Jr., the Skipper on Gilligan's Island, played which Robin Hood outlaw in three films?

Little John was Alan Hale Sr.'s part opposite both Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn, and father and son each also played the musketeer Porthos, in films 40 years apart.

When a knock on the head gives the Skipper amnesia on Gilligan's Island, which cure does the Professor try three times?

Hypnosis kept misfiring: one session sent the Skipper back to childhood and another had him back fighting the war, taking his fellow castaways for enemy soldiers and capturing them at rifle point.

What does a gorilla start throwing at the castaways after finding a cave of old weapons on Gilligan's Island?

Hand grenades rained down until Gilligan, captured by the gorilla, taught it to lob them into the lagoon instead, where they did nothing worse than splash.

The Professor fears Gilligan's Island is sinking because Gilligan keeps moving his measuring stick to catch what?

Lobsters were the innocent cause of a panic that had the men building a hut on the island's highest point by night and the whole group attempting an ark, which fell apart.

The sea serpent Gilligan spots in the lagoon on Gilligan's Island is really the periscope of what?

A Japanese one-man sub had brought a sailor who believed his war was still on; he caged most of the castaways until Gilligan made off with his rifle, his keys and finally his glasses.

In the back story of Gilligan's Island, Gilligan saved the Skipper's life during their Navy days from a runaway what?

A depth charge that broke loose nearly killed the future Skipper, who later bought a charter boat and hired the shipmate who had saved him as his crew.

When the women of Gilligan's Island vanish one by one, a guilt-ridden Gilligan dreams he is on trial as which monster?

Mr. Hyde bursts out whenever food is mentioned in the dream trial, where Mrs. Howell defends him as a Mary Poppins figure; the missing castaways had only fallen into an old munitions pit.

On Gilligan's Island, what bears a carved face so like Gilligan's own that he fears he has royal tribal blood?

A totem pole carved by the Kupakai tribe bore the face; Gilligan lopped the head off, and when three angry tribesmen came to avenge it he scared them away with the very head he had removed.

Which comedian, whose own company co-produced Gilligan's Island, guest-starred as the pushy film producer Harold Hecuba?

Phil Silvers named his company Gladasya after his own catchphrase, and as Hecuba he pinches the castaways' idea for a stage show and slips away from the island without them.

What did Natalie Schafer, Mrs. Howell on Gilligan's Island, have her contract forbid the cameras to take of her?

Close-ups were ruled out in writing, though the clause was soon forgotten; she was 63 when the pilot was shot, and reportedly nobody on the set knew her real age.

What do the women of Gilligan's Island name the singing group they form to impress the visiting Mosquitoes?

The Honeybees were so good that the plan backfired: the men's band, the Gnats, had been dismissed as awful, but the visitors saw the women as competition and left without anyone.

Which towering actor played a fake ghost sent to scare the castaways off Gilligan's Island for its drilling rights?

Richard Kiel, who stood over seven feet tall, went on to play the steel-toothed henchman Jaws in two James Bond films of the late 1970s.

Which future Hollywood blockbuster director made three first-season episodes of Gilligan's Island?

Richard Donner, later the director of Superman and Lethal Weapon, cut his teeth on more than twenty-five TV series; his episodes here include the one in which Gilligan is elected president of the island.

Which Mission: Impossible star played the corporate raider J.J. Pierson in the last Gilligan's Island reunion movie?

Martin Landau played the villain opposite his wife Barbara Bain, in what proved the couple's last screen performance together before they divorced in 1993.

The Gilligan's Island episode in which a visiting hunter stalks Gilligan borrows its plot from which short story?

The Most Dangerous Game is the model: the hunter promises to rescue everyone if Gilligan survives a full day, then leaves without them so that nobody learns he hunted a human.

The lost aviator Wrongway Feldman reached Gilligan's Island while trying to fly around the world in which plane?

The Spirit of the Bronx was repaired by the Professor yet kept breaking down: its owner was secretly sabotaging it, having lost his nerve for flying after so long on the ground.

In the unaired Gilligan's Island pilot, Mary Ann's place was taken by a cheerful blonde secretary with which name?

Bunny and a sharper-tongued, secretarial Ginger were both dropped after the pilot, along with a third castaway, so only four of the seven roles kept their original actors.

Which Western series recast the Gilligan's Island formula, with the same star as the bumbler of a lost wagon party?

Dusty's Trail matched the castaways almost role for role, right down to a wealthy couple and a dance-hall girl, and lasted a single season in syndication.

Which star pro quarterback of the 1960s appeared on Gilligan's Island as one of three hostile tribesmen?

Roman Gabriel, then the Los Angeles Rams' quarterback, kept up the acting: he later played a prison guard in Otto Preminger's Skidoo and appeared alongside John Wayne and Rock Hudson in The Undefeated.

What turns Gilligan's hair white overnight and then leaves him completely bald on Gilligan's Island?

Laundry bleach was the culprit, as the Professor worked out only after the Skipper took over the washing and lost his hair too; until then Gilligan was sure he had aged overnight.

The video game The Adventures of Gilligan's Island, which leaves Ginger out entirely, appeared on which console?

Nintendo NES owners got the game from Bandai in July 1990, with the likenesses of every original castaway except the movie star.

Which Hollywood actress turned director made the Gilligan's Island episode that introduced aviator Wrongway Feldman?

Ida Lupino also shared the directing of the Harold Hecuba episode; through the 1960s nearly all her directing work was for television, on series as varied as The Fugitive and Bewitched.

What kind of artist is Alexandre Gregor Dubov, the snobbish recluse the castaways find living on Gilligan's Island?

A painter ten years into his seclusion, Dubov produced a hideous abstract of Ginger and finally gave the castaways the slip by tying his canvases together and floating to another island.