Interesting bit of trivia...
In the original song, the Professor and Mary Ann, originally considered “second-billed co-stars”, were referred to as “and the rest,” but with the growing popularity of those characters (played by Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells), their names were inserted into the lyrics. The “Gilligan” theme song underwent this one major change thanks to star Bob Denver (Gilligan), who personally went to the studio and asked that Johnson and Wells be added to the theme song’s opening credits. When the studio at first refused saying it’d be too expensive to reshoot, Denver insisted, even saying that if Johnson and Wells weren’t included, he wanted his name out of the song as well. The studio caved in, and “the Professor and Mary Ann” were shoehorned in at the very end of the theme for Seasons 2 and 3.[7][8][9] Wells elaborated that star Bob Denver went to the studio executives to get her and Johnson added to the opening credits.[10] Denver pointed out that his contract stated he could have his name anywhere he wanted in the credits, so they could move it to the end credits along with Johnson and Wells. Wells said Denver never mentioned this to anyone in the cast, and she did not find out about it until years after the show ended.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilligan’s_Island
I remember that change. As a ten- or eleven-year-old, I just figured "hmm, I must have remembered it wrong."
RE: Gilligan’s Island theme song
One of the many melodies that Amazing Grace can be sung to.
Go ahead, try it.
From what I’ve heard about Bob Denver, he seemed like a decent guy.
WOW! Now that was a very classy thing to do! Bravo, Mister Denver.
I only saw the show in reruns and they were always out of order, so we didn’t know why sometimes the credits had the cheesy “and the rest” on there. It seemed so wrong.