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Gilligan's Island -
The home of the crew and passengers of the S.S. Minnow, a charter boat
shipwrecked during a violent tropic storm. on the maritime situation comedy
GILLIGAN'S ISLAND/CBS/1964-67.
Gilligan's Island was located approximately 300 miles southeast of the
Hawaiian Islands, (110 degrees longitude/10 degrees latitude per the Professor's
calculations).
The castaways on the island included:
- Alan Hale, Jr.
as Jonas "The Skipper" Grumby
- Bob Denver as Gilligan, his bumbling
First Mate
- Jim Backus as millionaire Thurston Howell the III
- Natalie Schafer as his wife, Lovey
- Tina Louise as Ginger Grant, a
sexy, full-figured movie star
- Dawn Wells as Mary Ann Summers, a
homespun sweetheart from Horners Corners, Kansas
- Russell
Johnson as Roy "The Professor" Hinkley a high school teacher who
used his knowledge of science to make the castaway's life easier
while they attempted to find a way off the island (once inhabited by
a tribe of headhunters called the Kupaki).
GILLIGAN'S ISLAND was
shot on CBS's Studio City lot in the Valley, four or five miles away
from what is actually Hollywood. The back-lot island lagoon (four
feet deep with a working waterfall) has since been dismantled.
Everything else was filmed indoors on Soundstage 2 with one camera
and no audience. The pilot for the series was filmed on the island
of Kauai in Hawaii at Moloaa Bay. Actual outdoor scenes were a
combination of Hawaiian Island shots and footage taken at Zuma Beach
near Malibu in southern California. The island seen in the show's
establishing shots is Coconut Island, one of Hawaii's tiniest,
located in Kaneohe Bay on the northeast shore of Oahu.
Cast of 'Gilligan's Island'
This twenty-five acre tropic island in reality was the site of an
eloquent estate, cabins, a beach cabana, a swimming lagoon, and a
boathouse that have hosted such dignitaries as Presidents Harry
Truman, and Lyndon Johnson. In 1985, the island was put on sale with
an asking price of 8.75 million dollars.
The island was also featured in the sequel made-for-television
movies Rescue from Gilligan's Island (1978); The Castaways
on Gilligan's Island (1979); The Harlem Globetrotters on
Gilligan's Island (1981); and the animated cartoon THE NEW
ADVENTURES OF GILLIGAN'S ISLAND/ABC/1974-77.
TRIVIA NOTE: The name 'Gilligan' was plucked
right out of the Los Angeles white pages by the show's producer
Sherwood Schwartz because "it's a happy name that was also funny."
Bob Denver (a.k.a. Gilligan) and Sherwood Schwartz (the show's
executive producer) once discussed that that if the Gilligan
character ever disclosed his first name it would be "Willie."
Officially, it never happened. The name was never used on the actual
series.
In 1992, a 1200-member Gilligan's
Island fan club petitioned the governor of Hawaii to rename the
island of Maui, "Gilligan's Island." In 1997, The Illinois Lottery
offered cash prizes (up to $10,000) for "Gilligan's Island" instant
tickets, a scratch-and-win game based on the hot '60s series.
Illinois lottery spokesman Jeffrey Schweig said the tie-in was a
natural. "When you think of Thurston and Lovey Howell, you think of
money, money, money."
See also -
COOKS & COOKBOOKS: "Mary Ann's Gilligan's Island Cookbook" and
BOATS: "Minnow, S.S."
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