When “Gilligan’s Island” went off the air in 1967, it had just barely reached the benchmark required to put the show into syndication. Sherwood Schwartz’s series was popular during its three-season run, but it remained solidly in the American consciousness thanks to endless reruns. Multiple generations grew up watching the show, and it always seemed to draw big numbers. Interest remained high enough that, by 1978, NBC produced a follow-up TV movie titled “Rescue from Gilligan’s Island.” The film saw the seven stranded castaways finally returned to the mainland, only to find that life wasn’t so rosy. In an ironic twist, a freak storm deposited them back on the exact same island in the end.
Advertisement
That film was successful enough to warrant a 1979 sequel titled “The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island,” which was actually a backdoor pilot. The movie also saw the castaways getting rescued but coming to the conclusion that, like Sisyphus, they wanted to make their rock “their thing.” Hence, the castaways deliberately moved back to the island and, with the funding of Mr. Howell (Jim Backus), built a well-advertised beach resort. The third and final “Gilligan’s Island” film, 1981’s “The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island,” was rather notorious for how silly it was. In it, the titular basketball team crash-landed at the above-mentioned resort and were coerced by an evil business plunderer to play basketball against his team of robots (!).
Advertisement
One might think that, after a few years, one would be able to reboot “Gilligan’s Island” either on TV or on the big screen. The TV movies weren’t great, but reruns were still popular. Plus, by the late 1980s, ’60s nostalgia was riding high, so a film feels like it would be logical. Speaking with Woman’s World, Sherwood Schwartz’s son, Lloyd J. Schwartz, explained the long saga of why there hasn’t been another “Gilligan’s Island” movie yet. More than anything, he chalked it up to blustering studio heads who don’t “get” the property.
Lloyd J. Schwartz thinks modern studio bosses don’t get Gilligan’s Island
Lloyd J. Schwartz revealed that he and his father (who passed away in 2011) spent years attempting to reboot “Gilligan’s Island” in movie form, starting back in 1988. As they did, one might have gotten wind of rumors claiming some “Gilligan’s Island” film or another was in pre-production. I personally recall hearing about rumors that Jamie Kennedy was once in line to play Gilligan in a movie in the 1990s. In 2008, Sherwood Schwartz even said he wanted to make a “Gilligan’s Island” film starring Michael Cera as Gilligan and Beyoncé as Ginger. “Over the years, so many people have come and gone,” Lloyd noted in his Woman’s World interview. “Executives have made promises, key figures have passed away … it’s a long, sad, and often ridiculous story.”
Advertisement
He then pinpointed the reason why none of the planned movies ever went anywhere: studio executives. As he put it:
“Every now and then, you’ll see headlines about a ‘Gilligan’s Island’ movie being in development, but nothing ever comes of it. The biggest problem? When we meet with studios, they act like they know better than us. Instead of trusting the people who actually created and understand the show, they dictate how it should be done. And, inevitably, they fail.”
Sherwood Schwartz did the lion’s share of work on “Gilligan’s Island,” but Lloyd J. Schwartz was there every step of the way and even collaborated with his father on various “Brady Bunch” projects. He would know Sherwood’s work better than anyone. And yet, the common story persists: The execs want to be the creatives.
Advertisement
Lloyd J. Schwartz addded that the most positive experience he had with an exec occurred when he and his father were working on “Rescue from Gilligan’s Island.” The head of NBC at the time, Deanne Barkley, didn’t offer input, and, by Lloyd J. Schwartz’s recollection, merely said: “You know something? I don’t get ‘Gilligan’s Island.’ I don’t know why it works. Why don’t you guys just go make the film?” And they did, without interference. “That’s how it should be done,” he emphasized.
Indeed.