By Gavin Boyle
GILLIGAN’S ISLAND became a cultural icon in the ’60s, but that might not have happened without some significant changes made after the pilot episode aired.
“Even now, when people dismiss it as simple or silly, you’ll find that GILLIGAN’S ISLAND is studied in TV and theater arts programs,” said creator Sherwood Schwartz’s son Lloyd J. Schwartz. “There are academic papers written about it – I’ve read a few – and most of them assume Sherwood Schwartz never intended any deeper meaning. But he absolutely did.”
The genius of the show can be gleaned through the changes made between the pilot and first season of the show. For example, John Gabriel, a handsome, soft-spoken actor who was just beginning his rise to fame, originally played “the Professor.” Schwartz, however, decided to replace him because his looks became a problem, positioning him as the lead role and outshining Bob Denver, who played Gilligan.
He also replaced Ginger Grant’s actress with someone more attractive. She was rewritten to be a movie star rather than a ditsy secretary, which she was in the pilot. She also originally had a counterpart, Bunny, a second ditsy secretary that would dial up the comedy. Bunny was eventually cut as Schwartz found two of the same character redundant.
Schwarz, however, had a problem, as re-writing one secretary and eliminating another left the show with multiple big personalities but lacking a relatable character for audiences at home. Thus, he created Mary Ann, a down-to-earth character to balance out the rest of the cast.
“Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann, got five times the fan mail than everybody else,” Schwartz explained in 2022. “She was the only normal person in the show. She was the one everyone identified with. All the other folks were extreme characters. But Mary Ann seemed like the girl next door.”
Related: How GILLIGAN’S ISLAND Brought People Together Across the Decades
“I remember we were doing an event somewhere and people couldn’t stop coming up just to say hi to her,” Schwartz added. “As I stood next to her, I realized what her life must have been like. I remember one guy approached her and said, ‘If I had to pick between Ginger and Mary Ann, it would be you.’ She would always respond with a smile and say how nice that was. And then the next guy would come over and say the same thing. She probably spent her whole life with people coming up to her saying how much they adored her. And she was extremely gracious with every single person.”
With how popular the show ultimately became, it is interesting to reflect on how different the pilot episode was and just how different the show could have been.
Read Next: How GILLIGAN’S ISLAND Keeps Fans Coming Back
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