# Just a fun and interesting little story



## AZ Jim (Jun 26, 2015)

[h=1]15 Fateful Facts About 'Gilligan’s Island'[/h]






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 The 98[SUP]th[/SUP]—and final—episode of _Gilligan’s Island_  was broadcast on April 17, 1967. Though never a critical favorite, the  show was still a solid ratings hit and the cast and crew had every  expectation of returning in the fall for a fourth season. But at the  last minute CBS needed to find some room on the schedule for _Gunsmoke_, the favorite show of Babe Paley, wife of network president William Paley. So _Gilligan_ got the axe and, at least as far as viewers know, the cast is still stranded somewhere in the Pacific.
 Forty-eight years after that final wrap party, however, _Gilligan’s Island_  is still on the air. It was sold into syndication and has been  broadcasting reruns continuously in 30 different languages around the  world. Just sit right back and you’ll hear some tales of everyone’s  favorite castaways.
 [h=4]1. IT WAS INTENDED TO BE A “METAPHORICAL SHAMING OF WORLD POLITICS.”
[/h] One day in a public speaking class at New York University, the  professor had students compose an impromptu one-minute speech on this  topic: If you were stranded on a desert island, what one item would you  like to have? Sherwood Schwartz was a student in that class, and the  question so intrigued him that it remained lodged in the back of his  mind for many years.
 After working for some time as a comedy writer for other shows,  Schwartz decided to pitch his own idea for a sitcom. Thinking back to  that desert island question, he thought it would make for an interesting  dynamic to have a group of very dissimilar individuals stranded  together and have to learn to live and work together. The island would  be “a social microcosm and a metaphorical shaming of world politics in  the sense that when necessary for survival, yes we can all get along,”  Schwartz explained in _Inside Gilligan's Island: From Creation to Syndication__._  Schwartz quickly discovered after his first few pitch meetings that  words like “microcosm” and “metaphor” were not very helpful when trying  to sell a comedy.
 [h=4]2. GILLIGAN’S FIRST NAME IS WILLY.
[/h] After getting a green light from CBS for the pilot, Schwartz went  about assembling his cast. He chose the name of the bumbling first  mate—Gilligan—from the Los Angeles telephone directory. Gilligan’s first  name was never mentioned during the series, but according to Schwartz’s  original notes, it was intended to be “Willy.” Yet Bob Denver always  insisted that “Gilligan” was the character’s first name. “Almost every  time I see Bob Denver we still argue,” Schwartz once admitted.  “He thinks Gilligan is his first name, and I think it's his last name.  Because in the original presentation, it's Willy Gilligan. But he  doesn't believe it, and he doesn't want to discuss it. He insists the  name is Gilligan.”
 [h=4]3. SCHWARTZ WANTED JERRY VAN DYKE TO PLAY GILLIGAN.
[/h] Jerry Van Dyke was Schwartz’s first choice to play the lead,  but Van Dyke said that the pilot script was “the worst thing I’d ever  read.” On the advice of his agent, Van Dyke accepted the lead in the  short-lived (and critically panned) _My Mother The Car_ instead. “I had a lot of problems with the agency, because they were trying to push me into taking [_Gilligan’s Island_],” Van Dyke recalled in an interview. “But that’s the joke: I turned it down and took _My Mother the Car_. But, again, it was really good, because I’d [have] been forever known as Gilligan. So that worked out, too!”
 [h=4]4. ALAN HALE GOT TO HIS AUDITION VIA HORSEBACK.
[/h] The Skipper was the toughest, and last, character to be  cast. Schwartz auditioned dozens of actors (including Carroll O’Connor),  but no one was quite right; he wanted someone strong and commanding,  sometimes blustery and short-tempered, but able to show a genuine  affection for Gilligan even when smacking him over the head with his  hat. Alan Hale was filming _Bullet for a Bad Man_ in St. George, Utah when he got the casting call for _Gilligan_  and was unable to get time off for a screen test. So he had to sneak  off set after a day of filming, which was no easy task. In _Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three-Hour Tour in History_,  it was revealed that Hale made his way to Los Angeles to read a scene  with Bob Denver via horseback, hitchhiking, airplane, and taxi cab. He  reversed the process after the audition and made it back to Utah just in  time to resume filming his western the next day.
 [h=4]5. THE ASSASSINATION OF JFK DELAYED PRODUCTION ON THE SERIES.
[/h] The pilot for the series was filmed over several days in November of  1963 on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. The last day of shooting was  scheduled for November 23, 1963 in Honolulu Harbor for the scenes  showing the S.S. _Minnow_ embarking on its fateful three-hour tour. Late in the morning on November 22, a crew member ran to the set and announced  that he’d just heard on the radio that President John F. Kennedy had  been shot. As Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President, it was announced  that all military installations (including Honolulu Harbor) would be  closed for the next two days as a period of mourning. Filming was  delayed by several days as a result, and in the opening credits—as the_ Minnow_ cruises the harbor—the American flag can be seen flying at half-mast in the background.
 [h=4]6. THE MILLIONAIRE’S WIFE REALLY WAS A MILLIONAIRE.
[/h] Natalie Schafer, who played Mrs. Lovey Howell—and allegedly only  accepted the invitation to play Mrs. Howell because it meant a free trip  to Hawaii to film the pilot—was a real-life millionaire. During her  marriage to actor Louis Calhern, the couple had invested heavily in  Beverly Hills real estate at a time when a house on Rodeo Drive could be  purchased for $50,000.
 When she died in 1991, Schafer bequeathed a large chunk of her fortune  to her favorite teacup poodle (she had no children), with instructions  for that money to be donated to the Motion Picture and Television  Hospital after the pooch’s passing. Said hospital now has a "Natalie Schafer Wing." Rumor has it that Schafer also left a tidy sum to _Gilligan’s Island_ co-star Dawn Wells (Mary Ann), who lived with and helped care for Natalie as she battled breast cancer.
 [h=4]7. DAWN WELLS STILL GETS PAID FOR _GILLIGAN’S ISLAND_.
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 All of the actors signed contracts that guaranteed them a certain  amount of money per original episode plus a residual payment for the  first five repeats of each episode. This was a pretty standard contract  in 1965, when as a rule most TV shows were only rerun during the summer  months as a placeholder between seasons. 
 Even though the word “syndication” wasn’t yet a standard term in the  TV production glossary, Dawn Wells’ then-husband, talent agent Larry  Rosen, advised her to ask for an amendment  to that residual clause in her contract, and the producers granted it,  never thinking the series would be on the air nearly 50 years later. As a  result, the estate of the late Sherwood Schwartz (who reportedly  pocketed around $90 million during his lifetime from his little  microcosm-on-an-island show) and Dawn Wells are the only two folks  connected to the show who still receive money from it.
 [h=4]8. RAQUEL WELCH AUDITIONED FOR MARY ANN.
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 The programming executives at CBS were underwhelmed by the pilot,  but it managed to impress three different test audiences enough that  they put the series on the fall schedule. But before filming for the  first episode began, they had a few caveats—the first of which was  replacing three cast members who had tested the “lowest” with audiences:  John Gabriel, who  played The Professor, a high school science teacher; Kit Smythe, who  played Ginger as a secretary, not a movie star; and Nancy McCarthy, who  played Bunny, yet another secretary. It was decided to make Ginger an  actress, and Bunny was replaced by wholesome farm girl Mary Ann. One  actress who auditioned for Mary Ann’s part was a young Raquel Welch,  though something about her just didn’t scream “girl next door.”

 [h=4]9. THE SHOW’S STARS FOUND FANS IN THE STRANGEST PLACES.
[/h] Years after the show stopped filming (it’s never really been “off the  air”), the cast members found fans in the most unusual places. For  example, in 2001 Russell Johnson was asked to speak at a biochemical  conference in San Francisco. “There were four or five hundred PhDs  there, and every one of them was a _Gilligan’s Island_ fan,” he recalled.  Bob Denver took his wife to dinner at Chicago’s elegant Pump Room once  and the trio of musicians immediately switched from playing their  semi-classical chamber music to “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island.” Dawn  Wells was vacationing in the Solomon Islands in 1990 when she and some  friends canoed to a remote island in the area that had no running water  or electricity. The visitors were ushered to a hut to meet the village  chief, and Wells was stunned when  “The chief's wife said, ‘I know you. In 1979, I was going to nursing  school in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, and I used to  come home and watch you in black-and-white!’”
 [h=4]10. THE SKIPPER BROKE HIS ARM FALLING OUT OF A COCONUT TREE.
[/h] Alan Hale was an old-school “the show must go on” kind of actor. In_ Inside Gilligan’s Island_, Schwartz recalled  chatting with Hale at the season one wrap party when the actor, as  jolly and convivial as always, happened to comment that now that  shooting was completed, he could take care of his arm. When Schwartz  asked what was wrong with his arm, Hale nonchalantly replied: “Oh, I  broke it a few weeks ago.” He went on to explain that three weeks prior  he had missed the crash pads slightly when he fell out of a coconut tree  for a scene and had smashed his right arm on the stage. He hadn’t  sought medical treatment because he didn’t want to disrupt the filming  schedule. Schwartz was dumbfounded; “How did you manage to haul coconuts  and lift Bob Denver with a broken arm?” “It wasn’t easy,” Hale  admitted.
 [h=4]11. NATALIE SCHAFER DID HER OWN STUNTS.
[/h] Even though Natalie Schafer was in her mid-60s when _Gilligan’s Island_  was filmed, she insisted on doing the majority of her own stunts—and  never complained about jumping into the lagoon or sinking in fake  quicksand. In 1965, she told “Let’s Be Beautiful” columnist Arlene Dahl  that she kept in shape by swimming in her backyard pool—in the nude—and  by periodically following her special “ice cream diet,” which consisted  of eating nothing but one quart of ice cream (spread out over three  meals) daily. She would lose three pounds in five days following that  regime.
 [h=4]12. THE MILLIONAIRE WAS A CHEAPSKATE.
[/h] Jim Backus, who played Mr. Howell, was beloved by his castmates. In  addition to being the source of endless ribald jokes and a willing coach  to the less experienced actors on how to ad-lib or deliver a punch  line, he was also notoriously cheap. In _What Would Mary Ann Do? A Guide to Life_,  Dawn Wells recalled how during the show’s first season he would often  invite her and Natalie Schafer out to lunch … only to realize that he  had left his wallet back at the studio when the check came. Before the  cast departed for summer hiatus after the wrap party, Schafer presented  Backus with a bill for a little over $300—the total he owed for all  those meals.
 [h=4]13. THE PROFESSOR AND MARY ANN WEREN’T IN THE ORIGINAL OPENING CREDITS.
[/h] In the first season of _Gilligan’s Island__, _the opening  credits ended with a picture of Ginger as the singers crooned “the  moo-vie star” followed by a hastily added “and the rest.” The text  accompanying the photo proclaimed: “and also starring Tina Louise as  ‘Ginger.’” (The only other cast member whose character name was listed  in the credits was Jim Backus, a show business veteran and very  recognizable character actor whose resume was longer than Ginger’s  evening gown.) Louise had had it written into her contract that, along  with the “also starring” billing, no one would follow her name in the  credits.
 Once the show was renewed for a second season, champion-for-the-underdog Bob Denver approached the producers and asked that Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells be added to the opening credits,  stating that their characters were just as vital to the dynamic as any  of the others. When the producers mentioned the clause in Louise’s  contract, Denver countered by referring to a clause in his own contract  which stated that he could have his name placed anywhere in the credits  he liked. He threatened to have his name moved to last place, so an  agreement was hammered out with Louise, a revised theme song was  recorded, and Johnson and Wells took their rightful place in the opening  montage.
 [h=4]14. THE LAGOON WAS LOCATED IN STUDIO CITY, CALIFORNIA.
[/h] The lagoon set was specially built for the show by CBS on their  Studio City lot in 1964. They’d originally tried filming two episodes in  Malibu, but they had a lot of downtime due to fog. Of course, filming  at the studio had its own set of problems; sometimes filming had to be  halted when traffic noise could be heard from the nearby Ventura  Freeway. And the water temperature would hover around 40 degrees during  the winter months, forcing Bob Denver to wear a wetsuit under his  Gilligan costume. In 1995, the lagoon was turned into an employee parking lot.
 [h=4]15. THE MOVIE STAR WANTED TO BE THE TELEVISION STAR.
[/h] In the January 23, 1965 edition of _TV Guide_, an article about Bob Denver  mentioned the on-set tension between Tina Louise and the rest of the  castaways: “Denver will not say why he and the glamorous Tina [Louise]  do not get along, nor will any of the castaways–they just ignore her,  and she ignores them. Between scenes, while the other six principals  chat and tell jokes together, she sits off by herself. And recently when  Denver was asked to pose for pictures with her, he adamantly refused.  Part of Louise’s dissatisfaction with the series was that she had  expected to be the star of the show. (Her agent had allegedly pitched it  to her as the story of an actress stranded on an island with six other  people.)





 Bob Denver eventually capitulated to network pressure and agreed to do a photo shoot with Louise for a _TV Guide_ cover in May of 1965—but only if Dawn Wells was included. To his chagrin, Wells was cropped out of the final image.



   June 21, 2015 - 9:15pm


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## Ameriscot (Jun 26, 2015)

Cool!  I always watched Gilligan's Island.


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## AZ Jim (Jun 26, 2015)

Ameriscot said:


> Cool!  I always watched Gilligan's Island.



It was a great little show just designed to make us smile a little while.  I watched it too and not because of Ginger and Mary ann.......*wonder if she bought that*


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## Ameriscot (Jun 26, 2015)

AZ Jim said:


> It was a great little show just designed to make us smile a little while.  I watched it too and not because of Ginger and Mary ann.......**wonder if she bought that**



Nope!


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## Falcon (Jun 26, 2015)

Thanks for that post Jim.  Interesting aspects of that series of which I wasn't aware.


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