Trivia / Gullah Gullah Island

• California Doubling: While Gullah Gullah Island is set in South Carolina, the scenes taking place in the Alstons's home were actually filmed in Orlando's Nickelodeon Studios.
• The Danza: The better part of the cast goes by their real names.
• In Memoriam: The show's final season was dedicated to Binyah Binyah's actor Philip D. Garcia, who was killed in a car accident before the season's production.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • Rescued. The entire series is available on DVD through Amazon's MOD (Make On Demand) program. You can find plenty of episodes elsewhere as well.
  • The show's short-lived spin-off, Binyah Binyah, however, is a completely different story. The spin-off had 8 to 13 episodes made for it but only five aired; no reruns, or home video releases. Fortunately, in 2017, a bootleg recording of snippets of Episode 5 and all of Episode 4 surfaced online, leaving the complete version of Episode 5, and all of Episodes 1-3, still missing.
  • A 71st episode aired in 2000, according to a newspaper listing. entitled "You Wanna Salsa?"; the episode focused on Latin music, including its origins. The episode never resurfaced on any home media or streaming releases, and it only ever aired twice. Part of the episode was used in a Gullah Gullah Jam Sessions interstitial that played in between other Nick Jr. shows.
• Missing Episode: The show aired two special episodes in 2000. While one of them, "Shake, Rattle and Roll", was eventually folded into the regular rotation of the series, a second special, called "You Wanna Salsa?", only aired twice, and was never released to home media.
• Non-Singing Voice: Vanessa (Vanessa Baden) has her singing dubbed over by Hillary Hawkins.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Shaina M. Freeman (Shaina) ended up leaving the show and was replaced with Tristin Mays. A glaring example in that the two not only didn't look similar, but were also different heights.
  • On January 3, 1997, Binyah Binyah's actor, Philip D. Garcia, died in a car accident, so the role was recast with Justin Campbell for the final season.
• Out of Holiday Episode:
  • "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" is an episode that takes place on the first day of Spring, and it aired on September 18, 1995.
  • "Mercy Mercy Me" is an Earth Day episode that aired on October 19, 1995.
• Recycled Set: Both the interior and exterior of the house were also used for Clarissa Explains It All. The backyard was used for a Coach Kreeton sketch on All That.
• Recycled Soundtrack: The song "What A Scary, Scary, Scary, Scary Monster" in "Gullah Gullah Ghoul-Land" was originally sung in the Eureeka's Castle Halloween special "It Came From Beneath the Bed."
• Referenced by...:
  • All That: One Coach Kreeton sketch was filmed on a set for Gullah Gullah Island. Coach Kreeton acknowledges this after several failed attempts to rescue a cat from a tree.
    "Crazy Gullah Gullah tree!"
  • Robot Chicken: A sketch from "Walking Dead Lobster" reveals Binyah Binyah to be a disguised criminal.
• Write What You Know: While Gullah Gullah is not an actual island, it is based on the traditions and language of a real culture known as Gullah Geechee, a cross-pollination of West African and American traditions regional to Georgia and the Carolinas started by African slaves. Co-creator Ron Daise is Gullah Geechee and the show was based on his and his wife Natalie's lessons of the culture which they would give all around the country.
  • In particular, the largest concentrations of Gullah Geechee culture are located on an island off South Carolina called St. Helena Island, which the island in the show is based on. This even explains the presence of Binyah Binyah Pollywog; the largest community on the island is called Frogmore.