Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a Hollywood mess. If you sang those words in your head to the catchy tune that opened “Gilligan’s Island,” we think you’ll be curious about the show’s rough origin story.
The original pilot episode — titled “Marooned” — was filmed in November 1963 but was plagued with so many problems that no network aired it until 1992. Production crews in Hawaii were faced with the same choppy seas and stormy weather that threatened the folks on the S.S. Minnow, and creator Sherwood Schwartz and his production team had almost wrapped when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In fact, at the 0:21 mark of the original opening sequence, the Minnow cruises by a flag flying at half-mast.
Honolulu harbor was then closed for a national day of mourning, which delayed the already over-budget production. According to MeTV, it was right about that time that producers realized the pilot was two minutes too short. Schwartz and CBS executives also had different ideas about the show’s tone and direction. Schwartz wanted a satire about class differences, and the suits at CBS were more interested in a goofy comedy suited for Bob Denver. Ultimately Schwartz had to bow to his bosses, and audiences got nearly 100 episodes of falling coconuts and collapsing bamboo structures.
The cast of that original pilot also looked different from the one that would carry on from the official first episode, “Two on a Raft.” In the unaired version, secretaries Bunny (Nancy McCarthy) and Ginger (Kit Smythe) are aboard instead of Mary Ann Summers (Dawn Wells) and movie star Ginger Grant (Tina Louise). John Gabriel was originally cast as the professor, but CBS execs thought his good looks might make him seem untrustworthy to some viewers. Russell Johnson replaced him immediately, and went on to appear in 98 of the show’s 99 episodes.
Tina Louise wasn’t happy with her role as Ginger
Tina Louise was a Broadway star when she was cast on “Gilligan’s Island,” and left a production of “Fade Out — Fade In” with Carol Burnett to work on the new sitcom. TV historian Geoffrey Mark told Woman’s World that Louise’s agent had told her Ginger would be the show’s lead star instead of part of an ensemble, flat-out claiming that “The agent lied to her.” He recounts that she got about 10 pages into the pilot script before complaining, “The show’s about me and I haven’t said a word [yet].”
According to Sherwood Schwartz’ son, Lloyd, audiences didn’t like the original pilot either. In a chat with Woman’s World, he recalled that “Dad didn’t like what he called ‘packing scenes.’ If the characters were going somewhere, just go — you don’t need a whole scene of them packing and preparing. But the network added those kinds of scenes, and when they tested the pilot, it didn’t score well.” He said his father then took the film back back, recut the episode, and tested it with a different audience.
The theme song also went through some changes from the original, John Williams-penned calypso version. Schwartz hired composer George Wyle to write a new one, and the rest is earworm history.
All wasn’t well immediately, though. Bob Denver was upset that the professor and Mary Ann weren’t mentioned by name in the song, and lobbied for their inclusion in an updated version.