I get the impression, Tina has always been embarrassed at being famous for this role far above anything else she’s done. Some folks cannot be pleased. If I could be part of a well known, family oriented series, even if I had to play an Eggplant, I would be thrilled, but that’s just me.
I don’t guess she was too bothered about all those royalty checks coming in decade after decade.
Thought I read somewhere that the cast never received royalties for the decades it ran in syndication?
Tina apparently had aspirations as a serious actor, and signed on with Gilligan’s Island after her movie career cooled. She was the only one of the original cast who never appeared in the made-for-TV reunion movies. Of course, I don’t recall seeing her in a lot of acting roles after “Gilligan” went off the air, either.
“Royalties” in the TV world are better known as “residuals.” From what I’ve read, none of the cast members on Gilligan’s Island received any residuals after the fifth airing of reruns, which means they didn’t make a dime off the series after 1970 (the show was cancelled in 1967). Since then, the only parties that have made money from foreign syndication sales, DVD collections, etc., have been Sherwood Schwartz, Paramount and CBS.