He chose the name of the bumbling first mate-Gilligan-from the Los Angeles telephone directory. GILLIGAN’S FIRST NAME IS WILLY.Īfter getting a green light from CBS for the pilot, Schwartz went about assembling his cast. Schwartz quickly discovered after his first few pitch meetings that words like “microcosm” and “metaphor” were not very helpful when trying to sell a comedy. The island would be “a social microcosm and a metaphorical shaming of world politics in the sense that when necessary for survival, yes we can all get along,” Schwartz explained in Inside Gilligan's Island: From Creation to Syndication. Thinking back to that desert island question, he thought it would make for an interesting dynamic to have a group of very dissimilar individuals stranded together and have to learn to live and work together. One day in a public speaking class at New York University, the professor had students compose an impromptu one-minute speech on this topic: If you were stranded on a desert island, what one item would you like to have? Sherwood Schwartz was a student in that class, and the question so intrigued him that it remained lodged in the back of his mind for many years.Īfter working for some time as a comedy writer for other shows, Schwartz decided to pitch his own idea for a sitcom. IT WAS INTENDED TO BE A “METAPHORICAL SHAMING OF WORLD POLITICS.” Just sit right back and you’ll hear some tales of everyone’s favorite castaways. It was sold into syndication and has been broadcasting reruns continuously in 30 different languages around the world. So Gilligan got the axe and, at least as far as viewers know, the cast is still stranded somewhere in the Pacific.įorty-eight years after that final wrap party, however, Gilligan’s Island is still on the air. But at the last minute CBS needed to find some room on the schedule for Gunsmoke, the favorite show of Babe Paley, wife of network president William Paley. Though never a critical favorite, the show was still a solid ratings hit and the cast and crew had every expectation of returning in the fall for a fourth season. The final episode of Gilligan’s Island was broadcast on April 17, 1967.
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