When “Gilligan’s Island” made its debut on CBS in 1964, its theme song cleverly introduced viewers to both the premise and the “seven stranded castaways” of the series before the episode itself had even begun. What viewers didn’t see, however, was the original pilot episode, which was made superfluous by the revised pilot and therefore never aired. As a result, it was a major event when TBS finally unearthed the original pilot — Turner Entertainment found the negative in their archives — and aired it for the very first time in 1992.
The first difference between the original pilot and the first actual episode of the series is that the theme song is different. Although it still sets the stage for the series, this version is done in a calypso style, and it isn’t nearly as succinct, lasting for almost two minutes. Upon listening to the lyrics, it also becomes clear that the cast and characters are slightly different:
“Two secretaries from USA / Sail on the Minnow this lovely day / A high school teacher is next aboard / All taking trips that they cannot afford”
Three of the pilot’s cast members had to be changed
In the original pilot, the Professor is played not by Russell Johnson but John Gabriel, who went on to greater fame for his Emmy-nominated role as Seneca Beaulac on the soap opera “Ryan’s Hope.” In a Woman’s World article about the original pilot, series creator Sherwood Schwartz said CBS felt Gabriel was insufficiently professorial and too much in the mold of a traditional leading man, a point validated by the way Gabriel’s shirt is half-unbuttoned throughout the pilot.
“If you get an opportunity to see the pilot, you may agree with me when I note the difference between the Professor in the pilot and my Professor,” Russell Johnson wrote in his memoir, “Here on Gilligan’s Isle.” “I think my Professor Roy Hinkley was more of a reassuring man.”
Instead of Ginger and Mary Ann, the pilot instead offers Ginger and Bunny, played by Kit Smythe and Nancy McCarthy, respectively. In this incarnation, Ginger isn’t a movie star; she’s a secretary. Indeed, both women are secretaries, as you might’ve deduced from the lyrics, but this Ginger is louder and more brash than the later version of the character. Meanwhile, Bunny bears no resemblance to Mary Ann; she’s blonde and comes across as unabashedly bubbleheaded.
“There wasn’t enough of a separation between the two ladies in the pilot film,” Schwartz told Pop Goes the Culture TV. “They were both secretaries who were on a vacation. … I needed one to be sexy and the other to be very modest. After the pilot, I decided to change the roles to make them more in keeping with seven distinct people instead of two who became indistinct.” Enter, Tina Louise and Dawn Wells as Ginger and Mary Ann. TV history is made.