Who Remembers: Did Gilligan Get Off the Island?
Most would agree that the fastest way off Gilligan’s Island would have been to get rid of Gilligan (played brilliantly by Bob Denver), but that wouldn’t have been fun. While the bumbling first mate spoiled just about every attempt the castaways made at being rescued over the series’ three-season run (Sept. 26, 1964-April 17, 1967), Gilligan still remained a favorite. The final episode of Sherwood Schwartz’s hit Gilligan’s Island has quite a different ending than many people believe.
Did the castaways on Gilligan’s Island ever get rescued?
“Gilligan’s Island has been repeated in syndication so often, many people have seen the same episodes over and over,” tells Schwartz in his book Inside Gilligan’s Island. “They begin to believe they might have missed the episode when the castaways were rescued. Then they begin to wonder if there was such an episode. Then they write a letter to the TV editor of their paper asking whatever happened to those castaways.”
(L-R) Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Tina Louise, Alan Hale Jr., Dawn Wells; front: Russell Johnson, Bob Denver. Courtesy Everett Collection
So, what happened to Gilligan in the final episode?
“There was no rescue episode because I was sure there would be another season of Gilligan’s Island,” Schwartz explained of the series. “If I had known we were going to be off the schedule in 1967, I might very well have produced a final episode in which they were rescued.”
Instead, the final episode (Season 3, Episode 30) of the original series started with Thurston Howell (Jim Backus) encountering three primitive tribe members, and he bartered with their king to help rescue them. While Thurston was ready to part with $100,000 (his final offer) for the king’s assistance, the king had something else in mind. He was seeking the white goddess.
The castaways had to figure out who would be best to fake being a true white goddess. Is it Lovie (Mrs. Howell, played by Natalie Schafer)? Nope, she’s married. Not a maiden. Ginger (Tina Louise)? Mary Ann (Dawn Wells)? The Professor (Russell Johnson)? The Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.)? No chance. When the men find out that the king planned to sacrifice the white goddess by throwing her into a volcano, they decide to come to the rescue and dress Gilligan as a female. The disguise works and the king takes a liking to Gilligan, and instead of a sacrifice, he wants to add Gilligan to his collection of wives.
In a surprising first, Gilligan actually comes up with a plan of his own and is able to escape and drive off the natives. The episode ends, however, with no rescue, just the natives paddling off the island as fast as they can.
15 years later, Rescue From Gilligan’s Island is released.
Dawn Wells, Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Russell Johnson, Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Judith Baldwin. Courtesy Everett Collection
At the time the series ended, reunion shows and reboots just weren’t a thing. In 1975, Schwartz wrote the two-hour TV film Rescue From Gilligan’s Island and shopped it around to all the networks and had no success. Every network said no.
It wasn’t until 1978 that fans got closure.
Schwartz credits timing for the October 1978 NBC airing of Rescue From Gilligan’s Island — the two-hour TV special achieved a 52-share in the National Nielsens and was the highest-rated entertainment program the first week it was aired.
The movie special was one of the most complicated TV projects Schwartz had ever attempted.
“There were more than a dozen locations required, at such diverse places as a ranch, a dry dock, a college, a marina, a mansion; with production problems involving tugboats, helicopters and hundreds of extras,” he writes in his book.
Tina Louise, who played Ginger, also was holding out for more money, something Schwartz couldn’t afford, and they had to replace her just days before shooting began. Judith Baldwin took over as the new Ginger.
How did Gilligan finally get rescued?
Everett Collection
You can thank a hurricane for rescuing the castaways. A hurricane hits the island and washes the huts out to sea. When the Coast Guard spots the strange floating huts, the rescue begins, and towboats bring the castaways home. The second hour of the movie shows the castaways as they reacquaint themselves to their old lives — before they took that cruise on the USS Minnow.
Schwartz shot the rescue scene in Marina del Rey, and while the castaways were being towed into the harbor, hundreds of onlookers had gathered around to witness the commotion and filming.
“They came running to see what was happing. Then they joined the extras and began cheering and yelling themselves. Somehow the tourists thought it was a real welcome for the castaways who were actually being rescued,” Schwartz recalls. “It was another example of the reality power of television. People who had been watching these actors on television for years were cheering their rescue from that fictitious desert isle.”
They, along with the rest of the world, finally got their happy ending!
Remind
Classic TV Shows of the ’50s & ’60s
September 2020
Test your knowledge, from Bonanza and Gunsmoke to I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek and more fun TV of the 1950s and 1960s.
Buy This Issue