Gilligan’s Island, the tale about 7 castaways stranded on an uncharted desert isle, is one of the most iconic sitcoms of classic television.
Even if the show didn’t always make a ton of sense (The Professor could make a radio out of coconuts but couldn’t fix the boat? Where is Ginger getting all these outfits?!) it’s been a favorite of generations of TV viewers.
Gilligan’s Island premiered exactly 60 years ago today on September 26, 1964. In honor of this anniversary, here’s some fun facts about this classic sitcom.
The original theme song left out The Professor and Mary Ann
It’s safe to say that the castaways wouldn’t have lasted long without The Professor (Russell Johnson) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells), who were often the brains and voices of reason on the show.
But when the show first premiered, the two were uncredited in the opening and left out of the theme song, referred to simply as “the rest.”
However, thanks to their growing popularity with fans, and at the behest of series star Bob Denver, “the Professor and Mary Ann” were added to the opening starting in season 2.
The pilot was filmed the day of the Kennedy assassination
A rather dark bit of trivia given how silly the show was, but filming the original pilot of Gilligan’s Island, titled “Marooned,” coincided with the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963.
The cast and crew got news of the assassination while wrapping up filming in Honolulu Harbor. The tragedy also delayed filming, as U.S. naval and military bases closed for a period of mourning.
If you look closely at the season 1 intro sequence, you can see US flags in the background at half-mast: they were lowered in honor of the slain president.
The original pilot didn’t air for 30 years
After the pilot was shot, the series underwent some major retooling, as Ginger (who was a secretary in the original pilot, not a movie star) and The Professor were recast, and a character named Bunny was cut and replaced with Mary Ann.
Given all these changes, producers made the decision not to air the pilot at all, instead debuting with “Two on a Raft” on September 26, 1964. The unaired pilot wouldn’t see the light of day until 1992, when it aired on TBS.
The boat was named after an FCC chairman
Fans remember that their wrecked tour boat was called the S.S. Minnow, but it wasn’t named after the fish — it was reportedly named after FCC chairman Newton Minow.
Minow is most famous for describing American television as a “vast wasteland” due to what he saw as poor quality programming. Series creator Sherwood Schwartz decided to name the shipwreck after him as a tongue-in-cheek dig.
Alan Hale rushed to his audition on horseback
It’s hard to imagine anyone else but the great Alan Hale Jr. playing The Skipper — and the actor truly went the extra mile when it came to auditioning.
Hale was in Utah filming the western Bullet for a Bad Man when he received the casting call for Gilligan. According to the book Surviving Gilligan’s Island, Hale snuck off set on horseback. He then hitchhiked his way to Las Vegas, got on a flight to Los Angeles, and made his audition.
Thankfully, the extra effort paid off and Hale landed the role, beating out some tough competition: future All in the Family star Carroll O’Connor also auditioned.
The show was canceled because of Gunsmoke
Despite its enduring status as a classic TV show, Gilligan’s Island was abruptly and unceremoniously canceled in 1967 after just three seasons — to make room for a very different classic TV series.
CBS originally planned to cancel their long-running western Gunsmoke, but reversed their decision after outcry from network execs and affiliates. Unfortunately, they had to move Gunsmoke to Gilligan‘s Monday time slot, and the castaways axed at the last minute.
But the show’s legacy was just beginning, as reruns became a staple of syndicated TV throughout the ’70s and ’80s, cementing it as a pop culture classic.
Natalie Schafer was a millionaire in real life
Not everyone in the cast of Gilligan’s Island was like their character — but actress Natalie Schafer had something major in common with the rich socialite Mrs. Howell: they were both millionaires.
A longtime actress, Schafer didn’t get rich from Hollywood but rather from investing her earnings in real estate. Her investments paid of so handsomely that by the time of her death in 1991, she was able to leave $2 million to the Motion Picture and Television Hospital, who renovated their outpatient wing in her honor.
She also left a large sum of money to her beloved pet poodle!
Even though Gilligan has run on TV for decades, it didn’t exactly make the others millionaires. “A misconception is that we must be wealthy, rolling in the dough, because we got residuals,” Dawn Wells told Forbes in 2016. “We didn’t really get a dime.” (She says Sherwood Schwartz made $90 million from the reruns.)
READ MORE: Dawn Wells was rescued by fans after almost losing everything
The castaways did eventually make it off the island — but kept coming back
Because Gilligan’s Island was abruptly canceled, the original series ends with the cast still marooned on the island. However, some sequel TV movies expanded the story, taking them off and on the island.
The 1978 film Rescue from Gilligan’s Island, living up to its name, shows the 7 castaways finally getting rescued after 15 years — but, of course, they find themselves struggling to readjust to society. They board a reunion cruise, and soon find themselves stranded again on the very same island.
The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island, in 1979, saw the cast opening a resort on the island, while 1981’s The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island took things to an even more absurd place as the titular basketball team faces off against robots.
The whole cast returned, with the exception of Tina Louise. Jim Backus, who played Mr. Howell, appears in the first two films but did not return for the third due to declining health.
They also go to space in the cartoon Gilligan’s Planet, but that might not be canon.
Only one cast member is still alive
Of the 7 stranded castaways, only one is still alive to tell the tale: Tina Louise, who played Ginger, is still alive at 90.
Jim Backus died in 1989, Alan Hale Jr. died in 1990, Natalie Schafer died in 1991, Bob Denver died in 2005, Russell Johnson died in 2014, and most recently Dawn Wells passed away in 2020.
Louise has long held complicated feelings about the sitcom that made her famous: she struggled with being typecast and said Gilligan kept her from landing serious movie roles. However, she continues to receive fan mail and appreciates what the show has meant to people over the decades.
“I get letters every day at my house,” Louise told Forbes. “I appreciate the fact that they love the series. I once had somebody come up to me in a restaurant, She said she was sorry to interrupt, but that her husband was dying of cancer and liked to look at the show every single day.”
“That was very, very important. I respect the fact that people like it so much.”
Gilligan’s Island is a true TV classic. Please share this story with your friends in honor of the show’s 60th anniversary!
READ MORE: Dawn Wells opens up on relation with Bob Denver on Gilligan’s Island
