You AND John Kerry...
Posted on 09/26/2014 8:50:48 PM PDT by iowamark
In thee 1960s, Americans were faced with civil unrest, a growing war in Vietnam and the potential threat of nuclear annihilation from the Russians.
Perhaps it's no surprise then that "Gilligan's Island" -- with its trippy and light-hearted plotlines each week -- was a big hit with viewers, who may have wanted a diversion from the world around them.
The sitcom first landed on the airwaves on Sept. 26, 1964 on CBS, airing for three seasons for a total of 98 episodes.
It might have had a brief initial run, but the series remains one of the most syndicated shows on TV today. A half-century since its debut, fans of the show are as passionate as ever, although the series almost didn't come to fruition.
Series creator Sherwood Schwartz (who would later go on to create "The Brady Bunch") has said that he was met with a great deal of opposition while pitching his idea for the series the executives at CBS, who considered the premise too unrealistic and boring.
Alas, the execs relented, and a pilot episode was commissioned, to be shot on location in Hawaii.
Schwartz was interested in having Jerry Van Dyke (brother of Dick Van Dyke) star as the goofy first mate Gilligan, who causes the accident that lands himself and his Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.) and five passengers aboard the Minnow stranded on a remote deserted isle in the Pacific.
Like the studio heads, Van Dyke also didn't believe that the series had a chance of making it and instead agreed to star in another series, "My Mother the Car," which ended up only lasting for one season.
Bob Denver, at the time famous for his role as Maynard G. Krebs on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," soon accepted the title role.
During filming of what would become the first pilot episode, cast and crew were notified in Hawaii of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Despite the shocking news, production eventually resumed.
For the entire series run, the opening credit sequence shows the S.S. Minnow (named as a joke after FCC chairman Newton S. Minnow, who actually hated TV) sailing out of a dock that has flags at half-mast because of JFK's death.
The first pilot was initially rejected by CBS, but a new episode was commissioned by the network in the hopes of saving the series.
Several original cast members and characters were replaced, including Bunny (Nancy McCarthy) -- who would later be known as Mary-Ann and played by Dawn Wells.
"I wanted to create a 'social microcosm'," Schwartz, who died in 2011 at 94, said in a 2001 interview when asked about the diverse characters on the series, including a very wealthy couple, an academic (The Professor, played by Russell Johnson), a movie star (Ginger, portrayed by Tina Louise) and a country girl (Mary-Ann).
With the cast now solidified, Schwartz was tasked with coming up with a new theme song (the first pilot had used a calypso-style number from composer John Williams).
"The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle," co-written by Schwartz and his friend George Wyle, still stands as one of the most popular and recognizable TV themes in history.
"We now had the cast, we had the song and off we went to Hawaii to do the show," said Schwartz.
Fifty years later, the three-hour tour continues.
Exactly! I was in the ‘Ginger’ camp until last Monday. She knows how to connect on an authentic level...and somehow magically erased all adolescent pinings for ‘Ginger’. Ha!
With all due respect to John Williams that old TV series had a musical them that blows away the later Williams effort.
“Theme”
I forgot to add /s
Thanks very much. I love information such as that. I’m a trivia nut.
You make a good point that Klemperer wasn’t like todays Progressives who are absolutely totalitarian.
And Sgt. Schultz was played perfectly by John Banner. The whole cast was good.
Thanks.
A quick story: I know an old liberal woman who is a real busy body and I avoid her at all costs. I happened to run into her at the grocery store because she got in line behind me in the check out line.
She started talking about a construction project where she walks and said some of the men had no ear plugs or hard hats and she was going to call “someone” on them.
I didn’t say a word and got checked out and turned to her and said “Norma, you would have made a perfect “Slitzen-frau”. (I made up the name). She asked what that was and I told her that was a Block Matron who turned people in to Hitler’s Gestapo. Her jaw dropped and I walked off.
True.
I remember those appearances.Thanks for the memories.
Alan Hale Jr. played a crooked boxing champion on Gunsmoke.
Met Alan Hale at Wilson Golf Course in Griffith Park some years ago. His joviality was the real deal.
In about 1968 one of my little classmates had an autographed 8X10 of the Skipper and we were all very jealous.
When you watch Alan Hale Sr in some of his earlier movies, you can’t tell him from Jr.
There should be a reboot of Gilligan’s Island, only this time, they should load the Kardashian klan up in a boat and maroon them somewhere...The hilarity would ensue...
It was certainly funnier than Rod Serling’s politically correct version of the SHTF scenario...
The New People (1969) TV Series Full Pilot 1st Episode Rod Serling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyv8fiCPpuM
Is there anything college kids don’t know???
Not likely, according to them anyways
You AND John Kerry...
Well they DID eventually get off the island. Remember the 70s thing with the Harlem Globetrotters?
And there was talk of having the cast of Gilligan's Island meet with the Brady Bunch.
There was a "final" film about the making of the tv show with some cast member cameos. It was from the actors' perspective.
I heard that was the case with the first "new" Superman movie which was designed for the foreign/international market.
Just as "Captain America" was sold elsewhere as The First Avenger.
Screw Hollywood and ABC-Disney-Marvel.
I saw a video where someone put the Gilligan’s Island lyrics to “Stairway to Heaven.”
Alan Hale was in a movie called “The Giant Spider Invasion.” It was bad enough to appear on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Close. Jonas Grumby
That’s why they make the Big Money!
/sarc
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