Did You Know?

Jayne Mansfield turned down the role of "Ginger"; Carroll O'Connor tested for the role of The Skipper; Dabney Coleman tested for the role of The Professor.

Jerry Van Dyke turned down the role of Gilligan.

Natalie Schafer's contract stipulated that there be no close-ups of her in the show. The reason was producers knew her real age, which was 13 years older than Jim Backus, who played her character's husband. It was not until years after the series ended that her co-stars found out her actual age.

The three-man folk singing group The Wellingtons sang the theme song for the first season, but were replaced by a similar sounding group, The Eligibles, for the following seasons. The Wellingtons (plus one) also portrayed 'The Mosquitoes' in a classic episode of the series: Gilligan's Island: Don't Bug the Mosquitoes.

Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos once seriously considered buying this island as a retreat, but the sale never took place.

Ginger once mentioned that she had appeared on Ben Casey.

In the credits, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells were relegated to being simply "The Rest". That changed in the second season when Bob Denver demanded that they be given an equal share in the credits, thus changing the lyrics to "The Professor and Mary Ann." Sherwood Schwartz, who composed both themes, has said it didn't occur to him the Professor and Mary Ann would turn into prominent characters.

Phil Silvers was cast as a producer in an episode partly because his production company was actually producing the show.

As the show progressed, producers planned to introduce a new character - a pet dinosaur - but decided against it because of the cost of special effects. The character, however, was incorporated into the animated Gilligan's Planet.

It is revealed in Gilligan's Island: Two on a Raft, (the second pilot) that the name of Mary-Ann's hometown was Winfield, Kansas. It is sometimes mispronounced as Horner's Corners, but that was the home of her boyfriend, Horace Higgenbotham.

Gilligan saved the Skipper's life once when they were in the Navy. A depth charge had broken loose from it's mount and was rolling across the deck. Gilligan pushed Skipper out of the way. Skipper would later say that Gilligan didn't save his life, he only prolonged it.

"The radio" seen in virtually every episode was a Packard-Bell AM Radio, Model AR-851. The small silver handle and telescoping antenna were added by the prop department (despite the fact that AM radios do not use telescoping antennas). The antenna was likely added to lend credence to the castaways' ability to pick up radio signals so far from civilization.

The island shown in the opening and closing credits is actually located in Kaneohe Bay, about a mile offshore from the island of Oahu, in Hawaii.

The lagoon set was the same one used to make Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Partly inspired by the 1939 film Five Came Back starring Lucille Ball. The characters in that film included a wayward pilot and co-pilot, a botanist and his wife, a sultry woman with a shady past, and a rich playboy and his homespun wife.

Four vessels were used as the SS Minnow. One was towed to Kauai, Hawaii for beach scenes, one was rented in Honolulu for the original opening credits, and one was built at CBS Studios in the second season. The fourth one was used in the second season opening credits. A subsequent owner was sailing it south from Alaska when it ran aground on a reef off the coast of British Columbia. It was purchased for salvage and restored. It was offered for sale in B.C. for $99,000. It was listed as a 37-foot twin-diesel, mahogany Wheeler Express Cruiser which sleeps five.

It has long been stated that the entire cast of Gilligan's Island never received residuals beyond the first four reruns of each episode. This was true for the entire cast except Dawn Wells. When the show was picked up by CBS and Dawn was cast to replace Nancy McCarthy, she was married to her agent at the time. In her original contract she was to be paid $1200 per week plus the residual contract the 6 other castaways received. Her husband/agent said that should the show become successful Dawn would not benefit from receiving such a limited residual option. Believing the show would flop, the CBS executives humored Dawn and her husband and put a clause in her contract giving her long-term residuals should the show ever syndicate. As a result from that clause Dawn has made literally millions of dollars as the years have gone by from syndication of Gilligan's Island. This was never public knowledge. Dawn and series creator Sherwood Schwartz are the only individuals to profit long-term from the series.

Jim Backus's name of Thurston Howell III was named after Hubart Updyke .III

Ginger, Mary Ann, and the Professor, are the only characters to not appear in all 99 episodes, only 98.