80 Fun Facts About Gilligan's Island

Who created and produced Gilligan's Island?

He had spent 1956 to 1962 as head writer of The Red Skelton Show and co-wrote this show's theme song himself.

On which network did the series originally air from 1964 to 1967?

The same network later cancelled it at the last minute to make room for a rescheduled Gunsmoke, after telling the producer it had been renewed.

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

The name was no accident: it was a swipe at Newton Minow, the FCC chairman who had just called television a "vast wasteland".

How long was the tour supposed to last, according to the theme song?

In the unaired pilot's original calypso theme, the trip was described as "a six-hour ride" instead.

From which port did the fateful trip depart?

The boat seen leaving harbour in the opening credits was rented from Ala Wai Yacht Harbor in Honolulu.

How many episodes did the series produce over its three seasons?

That figure excludes the 1963 pilot, which did not air on television until 1992.

How many episodes did the black-and-white first season, later colorized, contain?

Seasons two and three (62 episodes) and all three reunion films were shot in colour.

The castaways' charter boat was named as a jab at which real person?

The speech had lambasted producers for "formula comedies about totally unbelievable" characters, which Schwartz evidently took personally.

The 1961 FCC speech that inspired the boat's name famously described television as a what?

The phrase became shorthand for TV criticism for decades, and Schwartz answered it by naming his tiny ship after the man who said it.

What is the Skipper's real name?

The name is barely used on screen; it turns up in a radio report and in an episode where a Maritime Board of Review blames him for losing the boat.

What is the Professor's real name?

In one episode Mr. Howell introduces him as Roy Huntley, is corrected, and replies "Brinkley, Brinkley."

Mary Ann Summers is a farm girl from which town?

In the pilot she did not exist at all; her slot was filled by a secretary named Bunny.

How did Mary Ann come to be aboard the tour in the first place?

Not much else about her pre-island life is ever revealed; she mostly ends up doing the cooking and laundry.

Mrs. Howell is always called "Lovey". What is her actual first name?

Mr. Howell never calls her anything but Lovey, which is why almost nobody remembers the real name.

What was Mrs. Howell's maiden name?

Thurston, meanwhile, was said to have been a multi-billionaire until the stock market crash reduced him to a mere multi-millionaire.

What is the movie star Ginger's surname?

She tries to solve island problems with tricks from her old films, which usually means someone else has to rescue her.

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

The outfit never changes across 98 episodes, which made him one of the easiest Halloween costumes of the era.

What does the Skipper habitually call Gilligan?

The affectionate name is usually followed by a swat with the captain's hat.

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

Hale's exasperated glances straight into the camera were a direct lift from Oliver Hardy.

Before Gilligan, the show's star was famous for playing which beatnik character?

Schwartz was initially reluctant to hire him precisely because he did not want Gilligan to come across as a beatnik.

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

He instead took the lead in a show that is regularly named one of the worst ever made, and it lasted a single season.

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

Gilligan's Island, by contrast, ran three seasons and then never left syndication.

Which future All in the Family star auditioned for the Skipper but could not land the role?

Schwartz nearly gave up on casting the part before Alan Hale Jr. became available; Hale's wife said he was born to play it.

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

He was the son of character actor Alan Hale Sr. and dropped the "Junior" from his name only after his father died in 1950.

Alan Hale Jr. co-owned a Los Angeles restaurant in the 1970s. What was it called?

It sat on La Cienega Boulevard's Restaurant Row; his agent said he was "phased out" of the business in 1982.

Before acting, Russell Johnson flew 44 combat missions in the Pacific in what role?

His plane was shot down off Zamboanga in March 1945; he broke both ankles ditching in the sea and received a Purple Heart.

Which future 9 to 5 star auditioned for the revised role of the Professor?

The pilot's version of the character, played by John Gabriel, had tested poorly with audiences.

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

She was born in Reno, where her father ran a construction company called Wells Cargo.

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

Pat Priest went on to play Marilyn on The Munsters instead.

The actress who played Ginger won a New Star of the Year Golden Globe after which 1958 film?

That same year the National Art Council named her the "World's Most Beautiful Redhead".

The Ginger actress agreed to a compromise and played her in the style of which screen star?

She had believed she was hired as the show's central character and refused to play Ginger as the hard-nosed temptress originally written.

Which cast member was the only one to refuse to appear in any of the three reunion TV movies?

She did finally join the cast on a 1995 episode of Roseanne in which that show's cast re-enacted Gilligan's Island.

Jim Backus, who played Thurston Howell III, was also the voice of which near-sighted cartoon character?

Schwartz wrote Howell specifically for Backus and CBS had to approve a budget increase to afford him.

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

He spent five decades playing upper-crust types with a New England air, which made Thurston Howell a natural fit.

How old was Natalie Schafer when the pilot was shot, an age she reportedly hid from the cast?

She took the job mainly because the pilot was filmed in Hawaii and treated it as a free vacation, convinced the show would never go.

What unusual clause did Natalie Schafer have written into her contract?

She lived to 90 and left up to $2 million to an actors' retirement home, which named a wing after her.

In the unaired pilot, the character who became the Professor was instead what?

The pilot's other two departed characters were secretaries; one of them, Bunny, was replaced by Mary Ann.

The final day of shooting the pilot in Hawaii fell on which date in history?

Cast and crew crowded around a radio between scenes listening to the bulletins.

What reminder of the Kennedy assassination can be spotted in the season-one opening credits?

The harbour footage was shot in Hawaii that same weekend.

Which composer wrote the calypso theme used in the original unaired pilot?

Credited as Johnny Williams, he scored the show's first season before Gerald Fried took over; Star Wars was still twelve years away.

What is the official title of the show's theme song?

A faster version with different lyrics played over the closing credits, promising "no phones, no lights, no motorcars".

Which folk group recorded the first-season version of the theme song?

The group also turned up on screen as guest stars, one of many acts to reach the uncharted island.

In the first-season theme, which two characters were dismissed as "and the rest"?

The pilot's version was even stingier: it did not mention Ginger at all, just "the Millionaire and Mrs. Millionaire" and "the other tourists".

Who insisted the Gilligan's Island theme name all seven castaways, threatening to have his own name removed otherwise?

The studio had refused at first, claiming reshooting the titles would be too expensive, then caved.

The network cancelled the show at the last minute to move which series into its Monday slot?

Some of the cast had just bought houses near the set on the strength of a verbal promise of a fourth season.

In its final weeks the show was still winning its Monday timeslot against which rival-network series?

CBS had assured Schwartz of a renewal on that basis, then pulled the plug anyway.

The lagoon set was built on which Los Angeles lot?

The same stage later hosted The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Roseanne.

What happened to the lagoon during the show's off-season?

It outlived every other piece of the set and was finally demolished in 1997 for a studio expansion.

Beach scenes with the wrecked boat were shot on which Hawaiian island?

Another Minnow, the Bluejacket, turned up for sale on Vancouver Island in 2006 after running aground off Alaska.

How many different boats portrayed the castaways' charter vessel over the run of the show?

One was rented in Honolulu for the credits, one was towed to a Kauai beach, and one was built on the studio lot in season two.

Which is the only episode in which the entire cast leaves the island, if only temporarily?

A mad scientist takes them to his castle on another island for mind-swapping experiments; they escape and end up right back where they started.

In "The Sound of Quacking", Gilligan dreams he is a marshal guarding his pet duck. What is its name?

The dream was filmed on a real Western set, with Mrs. Howell as a duck-gravy-making señora.

Which future movie star played the feral Jungle Boy in a first-season episode?

He escapes in the Professor's raincoat balloon and lands on a Navy carrier knowing only the words "boy boy, girl girl, no no."

Producer Harold Hecuba had the castaways stage a musical version of which play?

Hecuba sneaks off in the night and the castaways later hear about his smash-hit musical of the same play.

The Mosquitoes, a band that came to the island to escape their fans, were a pastiche of which group?

The women formed a rival group, The Honeybees, to annoy them off the island; their names were Bingo, Bango, Bongo and Irving.

Wrongway Feldman was stranded on the island after trying to fly around the world in which plane?

He left, came back, left again and crashed, then radioed that he had landed on "a strange island" that appears to be Hawaii.

Zsa Zsa Gabor guest-starred as which wealthy socialite who wanted to buy the island?

She falls for the Professor and treats Gilligan as a butler, and, like every visitor, leaves without rescuing anyone.

Mad scientist Dr. Boris Balinkoff returned to use mind-control rings to make the castaways rob what?

His first visit involved mind-swapping experiments in a castle; both times he was played by Vito Scotti.

Rory Calhoun played big-game hunter Jonathan Kincaid, who came to the island wanting what as a trophy?

His assistant Ramoo was played by Harold Sakata, better known as Oddjob in Goldfinger.

How many episodes did Britain's ITV air in 1965 before dropping the show?

American syndication was kinder: it ran every weekday morning on cable throughout the 1990s, often paired with Bewitched.

The actor who played Gilligan said he always felt the character's never-spoken first name should be what?

The name is never used in the series, the films or the cartoons; the question came up on Dick Cavett's show while promoting the first reunion movie.

What was the title of the final episode, which left the castaways stranded because a fourth season was expected?

They would not get off the island until the 1978 reunion film.

What was the title of the first episode broadcast, often mistaken for the pilot?

Gilligan and the Skipper set off on a raft for help and unknowingly land on the other side of the same island.

Who was the uncredited voice of the radio announcer whose bulletins always arrived on cue?

The radio was one of the show's five stock plots: news about the castaways would arrive and cause discord.

Rescue from Gilligan's Island (1978) aired as a two-part special on which network?

Part one pulled a 30.2 rating and a 52 share, just below that season's top shows Laverne & Shirley and Three's Company.

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

Cassandra Peterson auditioned too, shortly before KHJ-TV made her Elvira; Baldwin played Ginger again in the 1979 sequel.

In the 1978 film, what lands on the island and sets the rescue in motion?

Once rescued, the castaways learn about Watergate for the first time and get a congratulatory letter from Jimmy Carter.

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

By the 1981 third film, villains played by Martin Landau and Barbara Bain were trying to seize it for a vein of a fictional element.

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

An ailing Jim Backus was largely written out and replaced by a son, Thurston Howell IV, but insisted on a cameo at the end.

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

The Mary Ann actress could not take part because she was on tour, so Jane Webb voiced both Mary Ann and Ginger.

In the 1982 cartoon Gilligan's Planet, which original cast member voiced Ginger?

The castaways build a spaceship, escape the island and promptly get shipwrecked on a distant planet instead.

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

Each contestant matched a character type from the original show; it was cancelled after two seasons.

Tom Carson's 2003 novel retelling the sitcom from the castaways' viewpoints takes half its title from which Joyce work?

The novel is called Gilligan's Wake; Carson was Esquire's film and television critic.

Little Roger and the Goosebumps set the show's theme lyrics to the tune of which rock classic?

"Weird Al" Yankovic later borrowed a verse of the closing theme for "Amish Paradise".

Which "Weird Al" Yankovic song is about a rapper whose girlfriend introduces him to Gilligan's Island?

Israel Kamakawiwoʻole and Bowling for Soup have both recorded versions of the theme itself.

In 2008 the show's creator said he would like a modern film remake starring which actor as Gilligan?

His pick for Ginger was Beyoncé; the film never happened.

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

He had earlier won an Emmy as head writer of The Red Skelton Show, and received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2008 at 91.

The Filmation cartoon The New Adventures of Gilligan aired Saturday mornings on which network?

It ran for 24 episodes from 1974 to 1977, with the original cast voicing their roles except for Ginger and Mary Ann.

In the unaired pilot, actress Nancy McCarthy played a young woman with what name?

After the pilot, the network recast the Professor and both young women, and the farm girl Mary Ann Summers was created in the role's place.

The pilot's calypso theme was performed by Sherwood Schwartz impersonating which singer?

John Williams wrote the two calypso-style tracks; the pilot's lyrics never even mentioned Ginger, ending with 'the other tourists'.