Gilligan's Island

Gilligan's Island
Premiere	September 26, 1964
Finale	April 17, 1967
Creator	Sherwood Schwartz
Network/Provider	CBS
Style	30-minute sitcom B&W (season 1), Color (seasons 2-3)
Company	Gladasya Productions, United Artists Television, CBS
Distributor	United Artists Television (1967–1982) MGM/UA Television (1982–1986) Turner Program Services (1986–1996) Warner Bros. Television (1996– )
Seasons	3
Episodes	98 + pilot + 3 TV movies
Origin	USA

Gilligan's Island is a sitcom that aired on CBS.

The set-up is well known (and critically reviled) by the theme song alone: A charter boat with a captain (Jonas "Skipper" Grumby) and his bumbling first mate (Gilligan, the title character) welcome five passengers (multi-millionaire industrialist Thurston Howell III and his wife Lovey, beautiful Hollywood starlet Ginger Grant, Kansas farm girl Mary Ann Summers and high school science teacher Roy Hinkley, Jr., better known as the Professor) on a three-hour tour when the boat is tossed around by a violent storm at sea. The boat—the S.S. Minnow—is beached on a deserted island, leaving the seven castaways to fend for themselves and find a way to get off the island.

Given that critics hated the show with a passion, it ran a remarkable three seasons and went into endless reruns in syndication thereafter. Viewers have made a number of questions regarding incongruities (such as the crew's wardrobe considering they were only supposed to be out for three hours, how much battery power is in the Professor's radio, etc.), but given the broad, cartoonish manner in which the show plays, it would be useless to answer those questions.

Following the show, two animated spin-offs were produced featuring most of the original cast returning to voice their characters. The New Adventures of Gilligan was basically an animated version of this show while Gilligan's Planet had a similar premise, but the characters were deserted on a whole different planet instead of just an island. There were also three live-action reunion TV movies.

Gilligan's Island was produced by Gladasya Productions and United Artists Television in association with CBS. The series copyright is now co-owned by Turner Entertainment (which briefly owned UATV's successor-in-interest, MGM/UA Television [now MGM Television] after purchasing it in 1986, and is now an in-name-only subsidiary of AT&T's Warner Bros. Entertainment) and the estate of Phil Silvers (the successor-in-interest to Gladasya), with distribution handled by Warner Bros. Television.

Seasons

Season	Premiere	Finale				#
CBS
Season One	September 26, 1964	June 12, 1965				36 + 1
Season Two	September 16, 1965	April 28, 1966				32
Season Three	September 12, 1966	April 17, 1967				30

TV Movies

Title			Airdate
NBC
Rescue from Gilligan's Island			October 14, 1978
The Castaways on Gilligan's Island			May 3, 1979
The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island			May 15, 1981

In-Depth

• At a Glance: Additional information about the series

DVD Releases

Title			Release			Discs
Complete Series  (Region 1)
The Complete Series			November 6, 2007	purchase		9
Season Sets  (Region 1)
The Complete First Season			February 3, 2004	purchase		3
The Complete Second Season			January 11, 2005	purchase		3
The Complete Third Season			July 26, 2005	purchase		3

External Sites

• Gilligan's Island on IMDb

• The Gilligan's Island Fan Club
• opening credits for season 1on YouTube
• opening credits for seasons 2 and 3on YouTube