All language subtitles for The.Unknown.Story.S01E01.Gilligans.Island.1080p.PCOK.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

Just sit right back

and you'll hear a tale

an improbable tale
of a classic sitcom.

It is the longest running
shipwreck in television history.

How did a series
no network wanted to air

become one of the most
recognizable

TV shows in the world?

The head of CBS didn't
like the idea particularly.

My dad had his own
creative vision

for what the show would be like.

There wasn't a lot
of love for it.

There was a lot of
why you can't do that.

"Gilligan's Island",

the story of seven,
shipwrecked castaways.

It was unlike anything
else that was on TV.

We the audience,
don't know what to root for

because if they get rescued,
the show's over.

We take you
beyond the island

back to the very beginning.

No one wanted to buy the show.
They hated it.

From the complicated casting.

Dad thought
Jerry Van Dyke could be

the perfect person for Gilligan.

Raquel Welch, he thought she was
a little too sexy for the part.

To the original cast members

who never made it to air.

He had to call them up
and say that

they were gonna be replaced.

Learn how
"Gilligan's Island"

became an instant hit,
if not a critical darling.

If you ever last more
than six weeks,

that's the first prophecy.

One of the worst shows
ever on television.

During one
of the most tumultuous times

in American history.

There was Vietnam, protesting.
There was the Cold War.

The president had been shot.

There was
backstage drama.

Bob Denver and Tina Louise,
uh, were not close.

She was a little bit aloof
from the other castaways.

There were
network battles.

One of the vice presidents
of CBS thought

it would liven up the show

if they put a dinosaur
on the island.

The network censors
weren't always too thrilled

about her cleavage.

Learn how an abrupt
end to the series

was both a blessing and a curse
to the castaways.

I think all of us suffered

from what you might call
type casting.

Join us as we take
you on a one-hour tour

of one of the most unlikely,
enduring phenomenons ever made.

It has been rerun more than
any other show including "Lucy".

"Gilligan's Island"
is a national treasure.

In 1974,
legendary television creator,

Sherwood Schwartz is
on a mission to sell

a TV reunion film of one
of his most famous series,

"Gilligan's Island".

Sherwood Schwartz was,
I think, one of the most

persistent men in television.

He knew that we loved
"Gilligan's Island".

And he never stopped trying
to give us more.

After the series
surprise cancellation

seven years earlier,
Schwartz is convinced

the fans remain eager
to learn what became

of the seven castaways
of the S.S. Minnow.

Dad wanted to get them
off the island eventually.

And felt that the people who
loved the castaways

would like to see them
be rescued.

But the major
networks think the pitch

is dead in the water.

So we created this idea called
"Rescue from Gilligan's Island",

and it was turned
down everywhere.

The letter from CBS says, not
only do I not want to see this,

I can't believe anybody
else would tune in.

So it was rejected.

It would take
Sherwood Schwartz four years

of pitching his TV movie

before he would receive
a green light from NBC.

Dad believed that
there would be a big audience

who had grown up
or lived with these characters

who would tune in
to see them get rescued.

And he was so right.

In the fall of 1978,

NBC airs
"Rescue From Gilligan's Island".

And for the network,
it's a risk that pays off

when more than half of all
American households

tune in to watch
the castaways get rescued.

The highest-rated movie
of the year,

everybody wanted to see what
happened to those people.

Welcome home, castaways.

You can tell by the enormous
crowd that the country

is delighted that you've
finally been rescued.

Well, we're delighted
to be back.

Yeah, yeah, I'm great.

That first TV movie gave us,
clearly gave us what we wanted

and Sherwood was right
because it had stellar ratings.

And that launched, of course the
appetite for a second TV movie,

and then a third.

We got to see them share their
island with the world

by turning it into a resort.

The show's creator's
persistence pays off,

but for Schwartz it was
certainly not the first time

his shipwreck sitcom
had been rejected.

By the early 1960s,
television sets are a staple

in most American homes.

And as US involvement
in Vietnam grows,

families are looking to hold on
to simpler times

from days gone by.

The TV landscape in the 60s
for comedy

was the traditional,
family comedy.

There was "Leave it to Beaver",
"The Dick Van Dyke Show".

It was the last vestige of 50s
conservatism being stretched.

And one of the
people responsible for many

of the jokes that keep viewers
tuning in week after week

is then writer,
Sherwood Schwartz.

Sherwood Schwartz had been a
comedy writer since the days

of Bob Hope on television.

Sherwood started contributing
and writing as a freelancer.

And it became his career.

Dad had been very successful
having written

"My Favorite Martian" and
"Red Skeleton",

and "I Married Joan"
and a lot of shows.

In the summer of 1963,

Schwartz is fresh off
winning an Emmy

as the writer
on the long-running series,

the "Red Skeleton" show

and is finally ready
for some of his own ideas

to take center stage.

My dad believed very strongly
that humans on this planet

need to work together and learn
to live together in peace.

And he was trying to figure out
someway of saying that,

that would entertain people
but get his point across.

He said he wanted to create a
world, a microcosm

of different types of humanity

and show how they're forced to
get along with each other.

The inspiration
for Schwartz's series

is one that he's been carrying
around for quite sometime.

He was at a class at NYU and
they had an assignment about

if you could take one thing to
an island, what would you take?

Schwartz soon
realizes that his one-time

college assignment provides
just the right setting

for his microcosmic scenario.

And he woke up in the middle
of the night one time and said,

a deserted island.
That's it, a deserted island.

They can't get,
then|re shipwrecked.

They can't get away
from each other.

And he, he poked my mom when,
who was sleeping next to him

and he said, honey, honey,
a deserted island.

My mom said, go back to sleep.

Over the next
several months,

Schwartz conjures up
various scenarios

for how a group of people

could end up stranded together
on a deserted island

until he finally
settles on a premise.

Seven stranded castaways
on an uncharted island

and are every week trying
to get the attention

of civilization,
so that they can be rescued.

As the premise takes shape,

so too do the castaways
who would inhabit it.

When dad would create
a show or write anything,

he wants to create characters
that are far removed

from each other.

And it makes if very easy for
the audience to understand.

So each of these people would
have different attitudes

about whatever they were
talking about.

The characters were intended
to represent

segments of society,

male versus female,
rich versus poor,

maybe more educated versus less.

But this being the 60s,
there was no thought

to ethnic diversity,
gender diversity.

These were not times when
people thought that way.

With a finished script,

Schwartz begins the arduous task

of shopping his idea around to
the major studios of the time.

Sherwood Schwartz was trying
to sell "Gilligan's Island"

to the networks based on the
idea that this is a microcosm

of American society.

And the network reaction was
like just blank looks

like what does the word
microcosm even mean?

And no one wanted
to buy the show.

There wasn't a lot
of love for it.

There was a lot of,
why you can't do that.

My dad had his own
creative vision

for what the show would be like.

And he um, he had to try
to sell that to executives

who don't necessarily share
your own, your vision.

But the
ever-persistent Schwartz

stands by his idea and he takes
his pitch back to CBS

to try and sell the series
one more time.

The head of CBS didn't like
the idea particularly.

And in fact, when dad presented
it, he said,

and they've got these seven
people that's on the island.

And he said,
what about the next week?

Well, that's the show.
It's gonna be on this island.

And he said, no, no.

In a sit-down
interview with Connie Martinson,

Sherwood Schwartz recalls his
meeting with the head of CBS.

He wanted it to be uh,
Gilligan's Travels.

And he wanted the first
episode to consist

of what my idea for
the whole series was.

The next week,
the ship has been fixed,

the little boat has been fixed.

And they're off
on a different adventure.

That's when your battles
begin with the network.

Yeah.

Because what he was really
suggesting was a different show.

Even the executives
that do like Schwartz's concept

think he should push
the premise even further.

At one point, one of the
vice presidents of CBS

thought it would
liven up the show

if they put a dinosaur
on the island.

And I think that was a
little bit too far for my dad.

I don't think that
he agreed with that.

Despite their hesitation,

CBS gives Schwartz's pilot
the green light.

And armed with an approved
filming budget,

Schwartz can now
begin his search

for the perfect cast
of castaways

starting with the first mate of
the ill-fated charter boat.

It's the,
it's the naive character

It's, it's a type that's been
played since ancient theater

of the bumbling fool.

And unfortunately
his bumbling nature

often sabotages what could be a
rescue until he ruins it.

Schwartz knows
that he wants to center the show

around the hapless mate,
so first order of business

is to settle on
the character's name,

which would also inform
the show's title.

Sherwood Schwartz was just
flipping through the Los Angeles

telephone book for names
and he hit upon Gilligan.

And he told me that he
could've picked a funny name

like Mulligan.

It could've been like
Mulligan's Mire, and he said,

but he wanted a name that
was less comedic in itself,

but still sounded a little
comedic, but didn't,

wasn't trying to like hit you
over the head.

Now Schwartz
just needs the right actor

to play the titular Gilligan.

Dad had done a pilot for a
different show

and he became familiar
with Jerry Van Dyke.

And so he thought Jerry Van Dyke
would be the perfect person for

Gilligan and had the same agent.

And then Jerry Van Dyke was
presented two shows.

And one was "Gilligan's Island"
and one was "My Mother the Car".

And the agent who was
my dad's agent said take

"My Mother the Car".
And that was how.

I think dad fired
the agent after that.

With Jerry Van Dyke
out of the mix,

attention turns towards another
established comedic TV actor.

I was a major fan
of "Dobie Gillis".

And I knew Maynard,
which is Bob Denver.

Let's try another approach.

Can you fight dirty?
- Maynard, try to be helpful.

- Okay, call off the fight.
- What? And lose face?

Either way that's
what's gonna happen.

I repeat, call off the fight.

And dad didn't know who Bob
Denver was and I said, take him.

He's great.
That's the guy you gotta get.

I met with Sherwood Schwartz,
the producer, writer and um,

he was telling me about
"Gilligan's Island" and I said,

could you give me some premises?

And he said, well, a surfer
rides in on a giant tidal wave,

lands on the island.
I went, what?

I said, well, how do you
get him off the island?

And he says, a reverse tidal
wave takes him back to Hawaii,

knocks himself out and he
can't remember where he was.

And he told me a few premises
and I started laughing,

and I said, I want
to do it very much.

Joining the first
mate as the boat's captain

who was known simply
as The Skipper.

The Skipper is an experienced
sailor, but even he did not

expect this squall that came up
outside of Honolulu

where they left and which
got them stranded.

Uh, and he and Gilligan have a
comic rapport

that is the heart of the series.

It's very "Laurel and Hardy" in
terms of their physical types,

the skinny one and the fat one.

But there's such love
between them.

They treat each other
like father and son.

But finding just
the right actor to play off

Bob Denver's, Gilligan proves
particularly difficult.

My dad always thought
that The Skipper was going to be

his biggest challenge
in casting.

And it turned out to be true.

Pretty much any big guy
in Hollywood had come in

and auditioned for that role.

And he couldn't find anybody.

I mean, I know
Carroll O'Connor came in.

I don't know who else.
There were several others.

A frustrated
Schwartz feels as though

he may never find
his perfect Skipper.

Until one evening when a chance
encounter changes everything.

He went out to dinner
with my mother.

And he looked over on the other
side of the restaurant.

There was Alan Hale.

And he was eating
and dad said, that's him.

That's The Skipper.

A star of the big
screen as well as the small,

Alan Hale, Jr. is mostly known
for his supporting turns

in westerns as well as for his
countless guest spots

in a wide range
of popular TV programs.

And so he went home and he
called the casting person

and said, I want to bring
Alan Hale into read

for The Skipper 'cause
he has that quality.

With the boat crew
fully onboard,

it was time to book the first
two passengers.

The passengers being

Mr. and Mrs. Thurston
and Lovey Howell.

And they are the archetypal,
snobbish rich people.

And they represent, particularly
Mr. Howell represents greed.

For Sherwood Schwartz

there is only one actor who
could play

the role of Mr. Howell.

Dad and Jim Backus had a
long-time relationship.

They had worked together
on the radio, so dad had him

in mind for this part.
And Jim trusted dad.

And therefore he got the part
of Mr. Howell.

But Jim Backus was very,
very popular worldwide

at that time as the voice
of Mr. Magoo

in the animated cartoons.

And also, uh, Jim Backus had
been a movie star

and had starred as James Dean's
father in the movie,

"Rebel Without a Cause".

What are you?

And so he was like
a really huge name to bring

to "Gilligan's Island".

For the role of
Lovey Howell, Thurston's

better half, veteran star
of stage and screen,

Natalie Schafer is
immediately brought up

as an ideal candidate.

The casting
of Mrs. Howell, uh, I think,

was a more usual route.

I think that there was an
executive there

that knew her and suggested her.

Natalie Schafer had done a lot
of work on Broadway.

You can see her in a lot
of old movies.

She was very gifted.

Another refusal for
president and Mrs. Van Buren.

In the original,
pilot episode,

some of the now iconic
characters look a bit different.

The role of Mary Ann is
initially named Bunny

and is played by Nancy McCarthy.

The original Professor
is played by John Gabriel.

And Ginger is originally
portrayed

as a more brassy, sarcastic type
by Kit Smythe.

So it was Ginger, Mary Ann
and the Professor

who were three different actors
at that time.

The cast is assembled

and they are ready to start
filming the pilot,

but a national tragedy threatens
to derail everything.

In late 1963,
production is about to begin

on the pilot episode of
"Gilligan's Island".

The Hawaiian island of Kauai is
chosen as the shooting location.

For the cast assembled,
there are still a few more tasks

for Schwartz to complete
before filming can commence,

including naming one of the
show's most crucial characters,

the charter boat.

The S.S. Minnow got its name
from um, Newton Minnow.

Newton Minnow was
the chairman of the FCC

and he was famously quoted
as saying

that television was
a vast wasteland.

And Sherwood believed that
Nelson Minnow through the FCC

had shipwrecked
network television.

And dad in his sense of humor

thought he'd give a wink to that
and named the boat the Minnow.

The four days
of filming are filled

with script rewrites,
sunburned actors

and sand-covered equipment.

But nothing prepares
the cast and crew

for what transpires
on the last day of filming.

And they're on the beach
filming it,

and somebody came running up
and said that

President Kennedy
had been assassinated.

They were told that
the president

had been shot and killed.

And it was very difficult
for them to continue working

that day,
but they did have a schedule.

Despite the
unimaginable tragedy unfolding

in the country,
production resumes after

a national day of mourning.

And if you look at the pilot
film of that original pilot when

they're sailing on the boat out,

you'll see that the flag is
at half staff there.

And that was because of that.

With principle
photography now complete,

Sherwood Schwartz oversees
the edit of the pilot

and soon presents a rough
version to CBS.

There's just one problem.

They hated it.

It is a
devastating blow to learn

that his new pilot,
"Gilligan's Island"

would not be moving forward
at CBS,

but Schwartz refuses to go down
without a fight.

He finds out exactly what it is
the powers that be

didn't enjoy about the pilot
and comes up with a plan.

And so dad said,
can I have the film?

And they said, yes.

And so he went and paid
somebody, an editor

to cut it the way
he wanted it to go.

In the original
version of the pilot,

we meet the castaways as they're
all boarding the S.S. Minnow

at the marina.

But in this recut version,
the series opens

with the characters
already shipwrecked.

The construction
of the show changed

and so inherently
the show changed.

After a major
retooling of the episode,

Schwartz delivers a new version
of the pilot to the studio.

And reaction to this revised
pilot is significantly better,

except for three very
specific concerns.

So the original three actors,

the Professor, Ginger and
Mary Ann were John Gabriel,

Kit Smythe and Nancy McCarthy.

Usually it's the network decides
that they're not working.

And three actors got replaced.

And that's always a hard
thing to do.

I know that it actually
pained my dad a lot

to have to tell those actors.
You know, he loved them.

And he had to call them up
and say that

they were gonna be replaced.

Once again Schwartz
finds himself going through the

casting process to find just the
right actors to play the newer

versions of the three castaways
starting with the Professor.

The Professor
on "Gilligan's Island"

made everything sound like it
could be possible.

I mean, he took the most absurd
kind of inventions and

made you believe that it made
total sense that, that coconut

would make those batteries last.

Sometimes his inventions
worked, sometimes they don't.

Of course, there's the perennial
question of, if he can do all

that, why can't he fix a hole
on a boat?

Don't think about it.

To find the right
person to convincingly deliver

all of the Professor's
complicated dialogue,

Schwartz looks to well-known
actor, Russell Johnson.

Russell Johnson uh, had
reached 40 years of age.

And at that age at that time
period,

that's usually when
you got your own sitcom.

And it hadn't happened for him,
so he took this role.

Actually this opportunity
came back to me three times.

The first two times I said no
because there were other things

that I thought I was going to
do, which didn't work out.

The third time my agent
called me and said uh,

that they were going to recast.
- Oh.

You know the Professor
and the two girls.

And uh, I said, okay, well,
I'll take a shot at it.

As for the role
of Bunny, the secretary,

the part is completely rewritten
to become Mary Ann,

a wholesome farm girl.

Mary Ann Summers is for some
reason taking a cruise

from Honolulu alone

wearing a little gingham shirt
and short shorts.

Don't think about it,
but she is the innocent.

And she's the girl next door.

The role of Mary Ann
quickly becomes

a highly-sought after role in
Hollywood.

I know that dad brought
in Racquel Welch

for the part of Mary Ann.
And I think um,

he thought she was a little too
sexy for the part.

Imagine Racquel Welch
on that island with...

That would be quite a show.

After a thorough
search a young, up and coming

actress and former
Ms. America contestant

comes in for a screen test.

Dawn Wells who was
Ms. Nevada and had been like

in the beauty contest.

And she was about 22,
23 years old.

Dawn was you know
everybody's view of wholesome

and she really was.

You know, when you're doing
any series, you want to tap

into how people really are.

And Dawn was not very much
removed from Mary Ann.

And I auditioned for
about a week, 250 women,

girls coming back and forth.

They kept telling me I had the
role and yet they kept having me

come back tomorrow to audition
with somebody else,

and no contracts were signed.

So you know how tenuous
that position is.

And I think on a Thursday
afternoon this gorgeous girl

came in and this gorgeous
figure to test for Mary Ann.

I thought well, that's it.
But she didn't get it.

More challenging to recast

is the role of Ginger,
the movie star.

Ginger Grant is an actress who
really was starting to hit it

big in Hollywood when
for some reason

she got on that
doomed S.S. Minnow.

And so her storyline,
her arc throughout the series

is that she wants to get back
to Hollywood

before her star cools
and reclaim her throne.

The team offers the
role of Ginger to famous blonde

bombshell and real-life movie
star, Jane Mansfield

who turns it down.

The casting team then begins
to court rising theater and

film star, Tina Louise.

Tina Louise had probably one
of the more promising

film careers among everybody
in the cast.

May we introduce,
if you please, a young lady

named Tina Louise.

She's a star of movies
and of TV.

Very beautiful as you can see.

When they had uh, Tina Louise
come in to play Ginger,

she had a sexuality, but an
innocence and a wide-eyed

kind of just uh, feminity.

So they rewrote the Ginger
character for Tina Louise.

There's just
one problem.

Tina Louise is apparently
under the impression that

she signed on to do a
very different show.

Now Tina was doing Broadway
and she was a movie star.

And whoever went to her
and told her about the show,

unfortunately described it in a
way to get her to do the show.

They said it was, it's about
this movie star

that gets marooned on an island
with six other people.

Well, that sounded,
hey, it's about me.

I'll do the show,
so she signs on to do the show

and suddenly she's getting
the scripts

and it's not about Ginger.
It's not Ginger's island.

And then uh, she went to dad
and they had a meeting.

And dad said he didn't know
who told her that, but he said,

didn't it give you a hint when
it was "Gilligan's Island"?

After the pilot is
reshot and re-edited

with its new cast members,
Sherwood Schwartz meets

the studio bosses at CBS
to learn whether or not

this new version would set sail.

As it turns out,
then CBS president, Jim Aubrey

still has a few concerns.

So in a meeting
with Mr. Aubrey,

he said how are we going
to explain these seven people

on the island every week?
People are gonna tune in.

And dad said well,
there would be a song.

So dad realized he had
to write the song.

Especially with a show like
"Gilligan's Island" where people

might be turning in
for the first time

and they missed
the original pilot.

And they go, why are these
people stuck on this island?

And it sets it off where here's
our premise and you got a chance

to meet the characters before
you launch into the show.

George Wile wrote the music.
It became a sea shanty.

And it's the
"Gilligan's Island" song

that you know today.

♪ The mate was a
mighty sailing man ♪

♪ The skipper brave and sure

♪ Five passengers set
sail that day ♪

♪ For a three hour tour,

♪ a three hour tour.

It tells the whole story.

It gives you the tone, the
setting, the persona.

It's brilliant.

And it does it in a tune
that'll never leave your head.

The revised pilot
of "Gilligan's Island"

is then screened
for test audiences.

And it tested
through the roof.

And in fact, Mr. Aubrey, when he
called up my dad to tell him

that he was putting the show on
the air, he said, Sherwood,

I still hate your [bleep] show,
but I'm putting it on the air.

"Gilligan's Island"
premieres on September 26, 1964

to solid ratings and
enthusiastic audience response.

The critics, however, are less
than impressed.

It was basically called,

the worst show in the history
of television.

People loved it.
The critics hated it.

They could not have
been further apart.

They basically lambasted it.
What did they think?

Piece of junk.
Never be more than six weeks.

Never last more than six weeks
was the first prophecy.

One of the worst shows
ever on television.

I guess, they're kind of eating
their words now a little bit.

Dad, he had a great sense
of humor about that.

He said, I do shows
for the people.

I don't care about the critics.

And the people
continue to tune in

week after week propelling
"Gilligan's Island"

into the top 20 shows
of the year.

And as things in the real
world get darker,

the need for Schwartz's
escape from reality

only becomes more critical.

In the fall of 1964,

the show about
seven marooned castaways

continues to defy the odds by
consistently winning

its Saturday evening timeslot.

It was the show
for the whole family.

You felt good at the end of an
episode of "Gilligan's Island".

It just captures
your imagination.

And then you picture yourself.

What would you do if you were
living on this island?

You know, and you can imagine
yourself you know.

They're building these huts and
sleeping in a hammock.

And uh having
coconut cream pies.

And so I think it's just got a
lot of allure and magnetism

to kids of all ages.

We the audience,
don't know what to root for

because if they get rescued, the
show's over.

And as the country
continues to navigate

great unrest.

For many, "Gilligan's Island"
is a perfect escape.

There was Vietnam.
There was protesting.

There was the Cold War.

And then you have castaways
stuck on a desert island.

And it made no sense.
It was escapism.

When you think of the tension
that was going on in America

in the 1960s,
why would they want to go back?

Being marooned
on a desert island sounds great.

I would love one now.

The early 1960s
is also a time of conservative

censorship rules
for network television.

Tina Louise has this
amazing body

and she was very proud of it.

And so she should've been,
but the network censors

weren't always too thrilled
about her cleavage.

And on the other hand,
you had Dawn Wells

who had a belly button
like most people do.

And the network censors weren't
very happy about that either.

We weren't allowed
to show my navel.

When I had my little short
shorts, we had to have a little

point up to cover my navel.

Also at that time period of
course, you know even

on the "Dick Van Dyke Show"
there's two separate beds

that Dick Van Dyke and
Mary Tyler Moore sleep in.

On "Gilligan's Island" even
Mr. and Mrs. Howell

sleep in separate cots
on the island.

Behind the scenes,
the cast enjoys working

on the series and bringing
their wacky characters to life.

The cast, all of them were so
warm and friendly, and nice

that it was hard to find
a group of people

that was more of a family than
these seven castaways.

But just like with any family,

it isn't always smooth sailing.

Bob Denver and Tina Louise
uh, were not close.

They were,
they admired their talents,

but they were just not close.

Sometimes I would notice that
Tina uh, Ginger

was off by herself
with a parasol.

She was a little bit aloof
from the other castaways.

There's nothing
acrimonious about it,

but she was a little aloof.

But overall,
the seven actors each enjoy

their time on set
from the youngest...

Dawn loved being Mary Ann.
She absolutely adored it.

To the possible oldest.

Natalie Schafer, Mrs. Howell,

nobody knew how old Natalie was.

She never told anybody her
age, never told anybody her age.

And she was married
to Louis Calhern,

a pretty important
Shakespearean actor.

And he was dying.

He was in the hospital dying
and he said,

would you please
tell me your age?

And he, she said, never.

And then he died.

She did her own stunts.

Natalie was the one character
of all of them

that absolutely insisted on
doing her own stunts.

It was a lot of fun.
It was great.

It was great to go to work.

Yeah, we had different
episodes that you know,

we'd just be finishing one
and we'd be sitting there

on a Friday and say, well,
this is the silliest thing

we've ever done.

And some crew member'd say,
did you read next week's?

As Gilligan's
inaugural season continues,

the popularity of the series,
lovingly dubbed

TV's best, worst show by critics
only grows.

In fact, some viewers feel
such a strong connection

to the stranded seven,
the line between TV and

reality becomes a bit blurred.

It's very humorous by today's
standards that viewers believed,

actually believed that there
were seven castaways

stranded on an island.

And they wrote letters and sent
telegrams to the US Coast Guard.

As "Gilligan's Island"

prepares for its second season,

several changes are made
to the popular sitcom

starting with the rest.

So in the theme song
to "Gilligan's Island"

for the first season, it was...

♪ With Gilligan
The Skipper, too ♪

♪ The millionaire
and his wife ♪

♪ The movie star
And the rest ♪

We unfortunately left out the
Professor and Mary Ann.

The Professor and Mary Ann.

They were kind of like less
important characters

when they first
created the show.

And in fact,
Dawn and Russell would always

refer to each other as the rest.
You know?

Everybody said to me, all the
fans said, you can't,

how can you leave them back
there you know and all that?

So I went to CBS and I said,
you know you've gotta bring 'em

up front with the rest of us.

And they said, no,
they have contracts.

That's read-in credits.

And I said, well,
I have a contract

that reads first billing.
And they said, yes.

And I said that means
I can go anywhere.

And they said yes.

And I said I want to be
in back with the rest.

- Oh, did you do that?
- And they went... What?

I said, yeah it can say,
you know Gilligan last.

I can choose my billing.

And they went,
oh, we'll move them up.

- I didn't know-
- Well, why not?

I mean, it was silly.
- That was so nice.

By the time the
show's second season premieres

in the fall of 1965,

many American homes have
switched to a color television.

So accordingly,
"Gilligan's Island"

also makes the switch.

Times changed.

All of a sudden,
everybody had color TVs.

And they were switching
to color broadcasting.

Fortunately for fans,

in the show's second season

the castaways still don't
appear any closer

to leaving the island.

So instead a crew of guest stars
come to them.

For its second
season, "Gilligan's Island"

moves from Saturday nights
to Thursday nights.

A move which doesn't seem
to affect its ratings.

Dad was always very proud
of the ratings.

Then it was moved from Tuesday
night to Saturday night,

whatever was you know,
but it was still doing well.

As the show's
success continues,

guest stars join the castaways
in the sun and the sand.

One of the things I love the
most about "Gilligan's Island"

and one of the things
that at the same time

is the most ridiculous
about "Gilligan's Island"

is the number
of guest stars they had.

There's such a great
time-capsule element

to finding some really
great comic performers.

Or people just who were famous
for being famous

like Zsa Zsa Gabor.

You know Professor,
I never met anyone like you.

You see the crazy ways that
they end up on the island

and then end up leaving
the island

without rescuing the castaways.

Don Rickles shows up as a
kidnapper who keeps kidnapping

the various castaways
on an island.

I'd give anything
to be like you.

Big, strong, good looking
and honest.

Kurt Russell shows up as a
Jungle Boy.

Come here, Jungle Boy.

Uncle Thurston Howell the Third
would like to leave you a

little something in his will.

And every
Gilligan fan has their

all-time favorite episode.

A favorite episode of fans is
called the friendly physician

in which a mad scientist shows
up on the island

played by Vito Scotti,
a famous character actor.

And he's got these booths,
so he puts the castaways

in different booths.
And he changes their bodies.

One of my favorite episodes,
The Mosquito's episode.

Four musicians basically
modeled after The Beatles

show up on "Gilligan's Island"

and they're called
The Mosquitos.

It's kind of a dig
at The Beatles.

Their names are Bingo, Bango,
Bongo and Irving.

♪ He's a loser
Call him anything you choose ♪

And the castaways decide
to form rock and roll bands

to inspire The Mosquitos to
bring them back to civilization.

So the men form a band called
The Gnats, which is awful.

And the three women form a band
called The Honeybees.

They're The Honeybees
and they're great.

And they're in these little
outfits that they look,

Ginger has never looked sexier
than she did in that.

♪ I can picture a moon star
Like a golfer into par ♪

Again, why were these things,
costumes in their trunks

when they took
a three-hour tour.

I don't know, but it's, it's,
there are t-shirts of it.

There are pictures of it.
It's, that's a fan favorite.

After an equally
successful season two,

a third season is green lit and
premieres in the fall of 1966.

Despite moving to a trickier
Monday evening lineup,

the show continues
to win its time slot.

Reassuring the Gilligan
team that the castaways

would be sticking around
for at least another year.

And dad made all the calls
to everybody and said,

we've been picked up
for the fourth year.

And everybody was very
excited about it, you know?

People buy houses and things.

And everybody's getting ready
for a fourth season

and then there was the wife of
one of the executives at CBS.

Her favorite show
was "Gunsmoke".

And there was not a place
in the schedule

to put "Gunsmoke",

but they couldn't move Gilligan
anywhere else.

And so now the executive said,
where's "Gunsmoke"?

Where's "Gunsmoke"?
Like they didn't know.

And they said,
oh, it's right here

and they erased "Gilligan's
Island".

And that was the end
of the show.

Because the original
series had been canceled

so suddenly and unceremoniously,
there was no finale.

And with no
closure for the series,

legions of disappointed fans are
left to wonder

what became of
their favorite castaways.

Do you know what?
Dad was very uh, practical

about things and I know the hard
part for him

was to tell all the actors

that they weren't gonna be
working again.

It was very difficult.

After the unexpected
conclusion of the hit show,

the seven castaways all attempt
to move on from the island

with varying degrees of success.

When any series goes off, if
it's a very successful series,

the people on it,
that's how people are known.

And they don't get cast
so easily.

Right after uh, the show
was dropped in '67,

we all in a sense suffered a
kind of, of type casting

of being put in a box by people.

And it took a while
to get out of it.

There was also a stigma
back then

to being a TV actor
versus a film actor.

They were very separate career
paths for an actor.

Today, you can do anything.

Back then if you were a
TV actor,

you barely got
a chance to do film.

If you were a film actor and you
did TV, you were slumming.

You would probably never be
able to do film again.

By the early 1970s,
"Gilligan's Island" has been off

primetime for several years,
but it has since been introduced

to a whole new audience
in day time.

"Gilligan's Island"
became popular in reruns.

And they start, you know,
they start syndicating it

because they can make more
money in syndication

just like they do today.

And "Gilligan's Island"
was just so popular

that it just like
spread like wildfire.

Well, I think sometimes family
introduces the new ones

to shows that they love.

There was something magic
about every single episode

that people could watch them
over and over again.

And it was unlike anything
else that was on TV.

And the show's
popularity in syndication

only continues to grow
as it is shown in more

than three dozen countries and
dubbed in multiple languages.

"Gilligan's Island" is
typical of a lot of shows

that my generation grew up with
where they were over and done

with long before I was born,
but they were on TV

five days a week and probably
for two hours a day.

And "Gilligan's Island"
was that show.

I'd come home from school.
"Gilligan's Island" is on.

It has been rerun more than
any other show including "Lucy"

because there were
far less episodes.

So it just keeps turning over
and over, and over like that.

The resurgence in
the show's popularity

even lead to several
animated spinoffs

with most of the original cast
reprising their roles.

You got a cartoon,
a Saturday-morning cartoon

version of "Gilligan's Island".

You've got "Gilligan's Planet",
yet another cartoon version

set further afield.

But a new generation
of viewers means a whole new

group of frustrated fans who
were left pining for answers

about the fate of their
favorite castaways.

But luckily, they would not have
to wait for answers much longer.

In 1967,
"Gilligan's Island"

is abruptly canceled after
wrapping up its third season

leaving its cast, crew and fans
stranded.

But over the next several years
after an unexpected

resurgence in popularity
through syndication,

one major question endures.

More and more had seen it.

And the big question became, do
they never get off the island?

Are they still there?

You think about it.

"Gilligan's Island"
was like purgatory.

It's people stuck on an island
trying to get off every week

and there's no happy ending
to the show.

It just ends.

It was the stuff that little,
innocent nightmares are made of.

- NARRATOR: But in 1978, fans
would finally get the answers

they've been seeking for more
than a decade.

I know that dad originally
wanted an episode where

he could rescue them,
but as the show had been yanked

off the air so unceremoniously,

the castaways were stuck there
for many years.

And that's why he decided to do
"Rescue From Gilligan's Island".

The two-hour
TV movie is green lit by NBC

on one condition,
Sherwood Schwartz reassemble

the original cast to once again
portray the iconic roles.

We had to get all the cast
back together, which is very

difficult because the cast knows
that they have the parts.

You know when you're trying
to cast somebody,

there's a negotiating kind
of a thing,

but these people knew
they had the parts

and they did very well.

Including the same kind
of number for Tina,

but by that point she had
kind of had it with the show.

And so she decided not to join.

They couldn't get Tina Louise
to be on the show,

so they had to cast
somebody else.

Judith Baldwin played the
role of Ginger Grant,

which is unfortunate because
it's such an iconic role.

Despite only
getting six of the seven

original cast members,
NBC schedules the television

event to air in the fall
of 1978.

Dad wanted to get these
castaways rescued

and believed that there
would be a big audience.

And he was so right.

"Rescue From Gilligan's Island"

is one of the highest-rated
TV movies of all time.

Hooray, we're saved.

Thanks to Gilligan.

And in the film,
the castaways are finally

rescued after the Coast Guard
spots the seven on a raft

and returns them
to civilization.

It was, it was
very kind of satisfying,

but it was also sort of subtle

because once they
get off the island

they find really having a hard
time of adjusting

after they'd gotten so used
to just being themselves,

knowing each other
and nobody else.

And through a number
of typical "Gilligan's Island"

kind of things,
they end up shipwrecking

on the same, exact island again.

So after the reunion movie was
such a hit in the ratings,

Sherwood was able
to convince them to you know

to make more reunion movies.
They made a movie called,

"The Castaways
of Gilligan's Island".

And then the "Globetrotters
on Gilligan's Island".

Although six decades later,

"Gilligan's Island" remains
as popular as ever.

Nick at Night, TV Land,
all those kinds of places

had these shows on reruns, so
"Gilligan's Island" gets

another big boost,
people watching it on cable.

"Gilligan's Island" was not
meant to be shown in the 1980s,

but it was still there.

It was not meant to be shown
in the 1990s.

It is still there.

And it lives
through syndication.

It lives through reruns.

And I think "Gilligan's Island"

is a national treasure.

I think Sherwood Schwartz
truly succeeded in creating

his microcosm, a long-lasting
microcosm despite the networks,

despite everything.

It's a microcosm that has legs
that will last forever.

And to this day,
fans of all ages continue

to debate some of the eternal
"Gilligan's Island" questions.

This was a three-hour tour.

All of a sudden there's a
volcano on the island.

How come we never saw
that before?

They were only an hour
and a half away from mainland.

Why do they have
money with them?

That doesn't make any sense.

So like was there
a conspiracy on the island?

Like was Gilligan out to
sabotage every rescue attempt?

How could nobody
have found them?

How could the Coast Guard
have not found them?

Why can't they fix the boat?

The Professor can't patch
a hole in a boat?

Of course,
is the eternal question,

Ginger or Mary Ann?

"Gilligan's Island"
has become sort of

a part of the American folklore.

It's the longest running
shipwreck in television history.

It's still in reruns worldwide.

I mean, it's, you can go
everywhere on the planet

and people know what
"Gilligan's Island" is.

I think it's timeless
for one thing.

I mean, I think you have
no idea when it was shot.

Also, I think everybody
has a fantasy of wanting

to be marooned.

And with my experience this last
30 years with listening to fans,

it was the family.

I would kid dad about
the fact that it seems,

his shows seemed
to be addictive.

And I said,
I finally figured it out.

You put something in the film
that made it addictive,

that people would have
to keep watching.