Line #14 Trivia/GilligansIsland


1	* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: The Professor was deliberately, canonically written to not be interested in sex, and it shows in his interactions with Ginger, with a visiting socialite who falls for him, and his description to Ginger of how his first attempt at romance failed when he was younger. The writers had no way of knowing they had created an UsefulNotes/{{asexual}} character, as the term wasn't common yet outside of biology as a term for the most common form of cell divsion reproduction.
2	* ActingForTwo:
3	** In both animated series, Ginger and Mary Ann were both voiced by one actress: Jane Webb in ''The New Adventures of Gilligan'', and Dawn Wells (the original Mary Ann) in ''[[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace Gilligan's Planet]]''.
4	** In one episode, Tina Louise played both Ginger and IdenticalStranger [[BeautifulAllAlong Eva Grubb]].
5	** Not to mention, Creator/BobDenver played a Russian spy made to look exactly like Gilligan who was investigating the castaways (complete with a sequence where they mirror each other's movements.) Creator/JimBackus also played his own character, and an imposter Mr. Howell in one of the episodes.
6	* ActorSharedBackground: Alan Hale Jr. (Skipper) served in the US Coast Guard during World War II.[[note]]The Coast Guard was incorporated into the Navy for the duration of the war, so the parallel fits exactly.[[/note]]
7	* AdoredByTheNetwork: A staple of syndication for decades, and in particular, the young [[Creator/{{TBS}} WTBS-17 from Atlanta]]. This was likely the reason why UsefulNotes/TedTurner, in his retention of the massive MGM library after having to sell back MGM/UA in 1986, kept this show despite relinquishing the rest of the UA library (barring the pre-1950 Creator/WarnerBros library).
8	* BeamMeUpScotty: Despite it being frequently utilised in parodies, there was no on-screen credit for the "And The Rest" lyric in the original show opening.
9	* CaliforniaDoubling: The harbor the ''Minnow'' is seen sailing from in the opening credits (in the color seasons) is really the harbor at Newport Beach. The cave Gilligan sometimes hid in is located a little south from there, at Corona del Mar, and is still known today as 'Gilligan's Cave' by locals.
10	* CreatorBacklash: For many years, Tina Louise absolutely ''refused'' to acknowledge the show or her part in it. She was the only surviving cast member to refuse to participate in the animated series or the reunion movies, which naturally resulted in her being portrayed in ''Surviving Gilligan's Island'' (which was co-produced by Dawn Wells, the cast member with which she was said to get along the least) as a vapid bitch while everyone else had no negative traits at all. Louise seems to have mellowed out in the years since, however -- she occasionally makes jokes and references to the show on Twitter (even noting in her description that she is "still living on an island (Manhattan)"), she did occasionally attend reunion specials (and seemed to be having a good time in them), and she even [[https://twitter.com/TheTinaLouise/status/1344465352655163392 paid tribute to Wells]] after the latter's death in 2020.
11	* DescendedCreator: Harold Hecuba was played by Phil Silvers, whose production company Gladasya ("Glad to see ya," get it?) made the series.
12	* EditedForSyndication:
13	** Syndicated repeats in the 1970s-80s had the ending theme with "each week" edited out, leaving "So join us here — my friends, you're sure to get a smile..." for fear viewers wouldn't know the show would be on again the next day, otherwise.
14	** In the late 1980s, Ted Turner colorized the black-and-white first season for airing on TBS. Both versions are shown in syndication and cable.
15	* ExecutiveMeddling: Creator/SherwoodSchwartz was a {{Determinator}} in regards of having the show greenlighted. Everyone hated the show when it was first pitched, right up to the original pilot, which was rejected by CBS. Schwarz plunged ahead despite all the negativity, and the show became one of the most popular comedies of all time. One documentary made about the show reveals that during the show's run the higher-ups had no idea why the show was popular and kept making changes; at one stage, they wanted Gilligan to gain a pet dinosaur.
16	* HeAlsoDid: It's harder to say which was Jim Backus' biggest role: Thurston Howell III or [[WesternAnimation/MrMagoo Quincy Magoo]].
17	* HeyItsThatPlace: Schwartz used the lagoon set and space capsule prop for his series ''Series/ItsAboutTime''.
18	* HostilityOnTheSet: While the rest of the cast got along famously well, Tina Louise (Ginger) did not. She felt the show was beneath her and feared it would keep her from doing Shakespeare on stage as she really wanted. This attitude did not endear her to the rest of the cast (she and Dawn Wells, in particular, did not get along ''at all'', and in a television film about the making of the show that Wells produced, Louise was portrayed as the clear antagonist of the story). They did apparently reconcile at some point, as Wells has positive things to say about Louise in her last interview prior to her death, and Louise paid tribute to Wells after she passed.
19	** Creator/BobDenver said that some of the hostility may have been because Louise was pitched that her character was to be the star of the show, although he expressed confusion that she would believe it, considering the show is named after the Gilligan character.
20	* IAmNotSpock: Happened to many of the regulars, Bob Denver especially, but Tina Louise (Ginger) never got over it. To this day, she pretty much refuses to speak about the show. Averted with Alan Hale Jr. who embraced his character and [[AdamWesting made numerous public appearances as the Skipper]].[[note]]According to Russell Johnson, there was almost no difference personally between him and the Skipper; he frequently had his castmates on his own boat.[[/note]] Having already had a long distinguished career as a character actor, he was generally appreciative of a role that brought him recognition, especially among children.
21	** Russell Johnson admitted to being upset at first by being typecast. He ultimately accepted that he would always be known as the Professor, saying that "it's brought a lot of joy to people, and that's not a bad legacy."
22	** Even Tina Louise has warmed to the legacy of the show. Speaking on the death of her only surviving co-star, Dawn Wells, she noted that Gilligan's Island was being shared by generations of families since its cancellation, and that the show was a source of comfort during the turmoil of COVID-19. Her Twitter bio humorously notes that she is "still living on an island (Manhattan)," and she has made allusions to her show on social media.
23	* TheOtherDarrin: Ginger in the reunion movies was recast with Judith Baldwin (in ''Rescue from Gilligan's Island'' and ''The Castaways on Gilligan's Island'') and then Creator/ConstanceForslund (in ''The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island''). She was voiced by Jane Webb on ''The New Adventures of Gilligan'' and Dawn Wells in ''Gilligan's Planet''.
24	* TheOtherMarty: Ginger and The Professor, and Mary Ann (called "Bunny" in the pilot) were all replaced after the original pilot. Initially, Ginger was played by Kit Smythe, the Professor by John Gabriel, and Bunny, who became Mary Ann, was played by Nancy [=McCarthy=].
25	** The three of them were AndTheRest in the original ExpositoryThemeSong.
26	* RealLifeRelative: Bob Denver's son played Gilligan in a dream sequence version of Jack and the Beanstalk.
27	* RecycledSet: Over the course of the series, two Western-themed {{Dream Sequence}}s were filmed on the ''Series/{{Gunsmoke}}'' set. To further lampshade the connection, a rescored version of the ''Gunsmoke'' theme was used as incidental music in both.
28	* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Originally intended to have a fourth season, the show was cancelled at the last minute to make room for ''Series/{{Gunsmoke}}''. The latter was supposed to be cancelled, but was renewed at the last minute at the insistence of then CBS chairman William S. Paley, as it was the favorite program of Paley and his wife, Barbara Mortimer. Sherwood Schwartz was so furious that he took [[Series/TheBradyBunch his next show]] to ABC.
29	* SpinOffCookbook: ''Mary Ann's Gilligan's Island Cookbook'' was written by Dawn Wells (who played Mary Ann), Ken Beck, Jim Clark and had a foreword from Bob Denver (who played Gilligan). Naturally, it has a lot of coconut pie recipes.
30	* UnfinishedEpisode: A fourth season was planned, but cancelled at the last minute. Story treatments of the Season 4 episodes are available, though a TV retrospective suggested that actual scripts had already been written.
31	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
32	** Instead of Mary Ann, the cast in the first pilot included a blonde secretary named Bunny. Ginger was also a secretary instead of an actress, and the Professor was instead a high school teacher.
33	** Creator/RaquelWelch auditioned for Mary Ann.
34	** Creator/JerryVanDyke was approached for the part of Gilligan, but turned it down because he thought the show was "too strange". He then ''accepted'' the lead on ''Series/MyMotherTheCar'', which would become infamous for its premise in which his character's automobile is haunted by the ghost of his dead mother.
35	** Creator/CarrollOConnor was considered for the Skipper.
36	** Creator/RussTamblyn turned down the role of Gilligan.
37	* WordOfGod:
38	** Erika Tiffany Smith, played by Creator/ZsaZsaGabor, explained about the island and the Castaways, but couldn't offer the exact longitude nor latitude, plus no one could decipher her diary (which was written in Hungarian, which nobody in the Navy could read). The sailor who brought her could have told people but apparently, he "suffered a major coronary and died."
39	** Gilligan's official first name is Willy.
40	** Russell Johnson confirmed that the Professor is asexual, although nobody used that term in TheSixties outside of biology to describe cell reproduction. He also stated that it was due to the censors demands that there be NoHuggingNoKissing due to the fact that the show had a large audience of children. It was a concern for his character because of the male castaways, he was the only seeming eligible bachelor, Skipper being a little old for the young ladies, Thurston being happily married to Lovey, and Gilligan being ruled out as his ManChild nature already worked to cancel out sex appeal. The Professor had intelligence, good looks, confidence, and was just young enough so the issue would have to eventually be addressed in his case.
41	* YouLookFamiliar:
42	** Vito Scotti played both the Japanese sailor and Dr. Boris Balinkoff.
43	** Denny Scott Miller played Duke the surfer as well as Tongo the ape-man actor.
44	** Eddie Little Sky appeared in three unrelated episodes portraying island natives.

Context Trivia / GilligansIsland