Finding favorite film locations is a fun and exciting hobby for many. Finding the filming location of Gilligan’s Island can be tricky however, especially since the island doesn’t really exist (it was, after all, “uncharted” according to the song). MeTV recounts that one episode gives a position of “approximately 140º latitude by 10º longitude,” a coordinate that doesn’t exist within the law of physics. Another episode says the castaways are “250 miles south of Hawaii.” As for the iconic lagoon, Mental Floss says that was a set built in 1964 at Studio City in Los Angeles, but is now an employee parking lot. There are, however, filming locations to see from the original pilot.

To the delight of fans everywhere, the fan site Gilligan’s Island studiously recorded the known shooting locations of that first long-hidden pilot. The list includes Zuma Beach near Malibu, California and Hanalei Plantation Resort and Moloaa Bay in Hawaii. The producers procured the first of four S.S. Minnows at Honolulu Harbor, where the cast was filmed sailing out to sea. Islands in the opening credits are identified as Coconut Island (pictured) in Hawaii, Sandy Cay in the Bahamas and the landscape at Marina Del Rey, California. Notably, Sherwood Schwartz once confirmed that a Coast Guard colonel once contacted him regarding some legitimate letters from Gilligan’s Island viewers who wanted the castaways rescued.

We all know the names of Thurston Howell III and Ginger Grant, but aside from these two characters, everybody else on Gilligan’s Island went by a nickname or had no last name. Ah, but they did! Sherwood Schwartz, says Ninja Journalist, picked Gilligan’s name from a Los Angeles phone book. He also pitched Gilligan’s first name as Willy, according to Mental Floss. That didn’t go over well with Bob Denver, who refused to call his character anything but Gilligan. Then there is Mrs. Howell, whose nickname “Lovey” was used so often that folks think it was her first name. It wasn’t; according to the Internet Movie Database, her actual name was Eunice Wentworth Howell.

What about Mary Ann and the Professor (who, if you think about it, would have made a great romantic couple)? Fandom confirms that Mary Ann’s last name was Summers and she hailed from Winfield, Kansas. And the Professor’s real name, according to Greenfield Reporter, was Roy Hinkley. Last but not least is the Skipper whose real name, Jonas Grumby, was not revealed until the original pilot aired in 1992, says MeTV. According to the site, the name is mentioned on the radio and calls the Skipper “an old salt.”

In the pilot episode of Gilligan’s Island, the character of Ginger was actually a teacher portrayed by actress Kit Smythe. Later, Smythe was replaced by Tina Louise, whose Ginger was reintroduced as a sultry Hollywood actress. But Fandom says Louise’s agent allegedly led her to believe that she would be the star of the show, resulting in “a great deal of tension” on the set, says Cheat Sheet. Louise, who preferred movie acting to television acting, often sat away from the rest of the cast. But although polls actually showed viewers preferred Dawn Wells’ character to hers (per Forbes), the two actresses were “actually quite close friends,” says Kiwi Report. 

Notably, Gilligan’s Island premiered just two years after the death of Marilyn Monroe. Several fan sites, including AV Club, enjoy comparing Monroe to Ginger. One thing wholesome Gilligan’s Island censors missed, for instance, was the second episode which MeTV points out has Ginger wearing nothing but a sheet when the castaways are rousted out of bed in the night. The Monroe similarities appeared lost to Louise, who feared being typecast and later claimed the show ruined her movie career. MeTV reports the actress declined to appear in subsequent shows about Gilligan’s Island after the series ended.

Not as much as one would think. Snopes quotes Dawn Wells as guessing her weekly salary was around $750 a week, or $6,300 dollars by today’s calculations. She also said that actors like Tina Louise and Jim Backus made more. And when the show ended, says Over Sixty, the cast received $7,000 apiece for subsequent syndication. Considering that other stars, like Dick Van Dyke (brother of Jerry Van Dyke), made $1,550 per episode back in 1961 (per Parade), that’s pretty low. Back then, reruns were practically non-existent, although The Take credits Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as being the first to contract for possible reruns of I Love Lucy. Nobody could know that Gilligan’s Island would become such a popular rerun, but by some miracle, it did.

For years, says Mental Floss, a rumor persisted that Wells’ husband, Larry Rosen, made sure that a “residual clause” in her contract meant she got paid for reruns. Wrong. Wells herself (who died in 2020) debunked that rumor but said that Sherwood Schwartz made $90 million from the show including its reruns. Schwartz’s daughter, Hope Juber, said that is also untrue. “If there is $90 million, it must be buried in a chest on the island somewhere because we’ve never seen it,” she said, according to Market Watch.

You would think that Gilligan’s Island would end with the castaways getting rescued, but no. The producers, according to Kiwi Report, were “feeling” the ratings slipping in 1967 when they toyed with adding a dinosaur character “to freshen things up.” Ninja Journalist adds that CBS President Jim Aubrey and Sherwood Schwartz had agreed that the castaways would eventually be rescued, bringing a natural end to the series. But neither idea happened, nor did the renewal for a fourth season, says Mental Floss. Instead, the series was suddenly replaced by Gunsmoke, which had been cancelled but was brought back after William Paley and his wife voiced their disapproval.

According to Do You Remember, the 98th and final episode, “Gilligan the Goddess,” aired on April 17, 1967. But reruns began as fans received a few bonus movies in the coming years: Rescue from Gilligan’s Island in 1978, The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island in 1979, and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island in 1981. There was also a cartoon that aired between 1974 and 1977, a video game in 1990, and even a reality show, The Real Gilligan’s Island, in 2004. There has been talk of making Gilligan’s Island into a movie since 2009, says TV Series Finale, but nothing has come of it yet. 

Which leaves only one more question: How come the song is about “Gilligan’s Isle,” but the show is titled Gilligan’s Island? Nobody seems to know the answer to that one.