Gilligan’s Island premiered on CBS on September 26, 1964, 62 years ago today. Yet the sitcom nearly missed that date: CBS rejected its first pilot, and Jerry Van Dyke passed on the lead role.
The show followed seven people stranded after a short boat trip went wrong. Gilligan, the boat’s first mate, became the name viewers knew best, but creator Sherwood Schwartz initially wanted Van Dyke to play him.
Van Dyke doubted the show would succeed and chose another sitcom, My Mother the Car. Recalling his decision in a later TV film, he said, “I wasn’t that crazy about it. Matter of fact, I thought it was the worst script I ever read in my life.”
Instead, Bob Denver took the role of Gilligan. Alan Hale Jr. played the Skipper, who joined him and five passengers on the island.
How the Rejected Pilot Became a Series
CBS first resisted Schwartz’s idea because executives thought the setting would grow dull. Then the network rejected the original pilot, although it commissioned another episode to give the series a chance.
The changes went beyond a new episode. Schwartz replaced several original characters and cast members before the show reached viewers, including a character who became Mary Ann.
Schwartz wanted the castaways to reflect people from different walks of life. “I wanted to create a ‘social microcosm,'” he said in a 2001 interview cited by CBS News.
The revised show ran for three seasons and 98 episodes. Although its first run ended in 1967, reruns kept the castaways on television for years.
Its place on all-time lists reflects that staying power, not universal critical agreement. CinemaBlend ranked Gilligan’s Island 86th on its list of the 100 best sitcoms, six decades after its debut.
from Men's Journal https://ift.tt/tA0rhIp
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