The Castaways on Gilligan's Island

The Castaways on Gilligan's Island
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Written by	Sherwood Schwartz Al Schwartz Elroy Schwartz
Directed by	Earl Bellamy
Starring	Bob Denver Alan Hale, Jr. Dawn Wells Jim Backus Natalie Schafer Russell Johnson Judith Baldwin
Music by	Gerald Fried
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Sherwood Schwartz
Producer(s)	Lloyd J. Schwartz
Cinematography	Joe Jackman Keith Smith
Editor(s)	Albert J. Zuniga
Running time	90 minutes
Production company(s)	Redwood Productions Sherwood Schwartz Productions Universal Television
Distributor	NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	May 3, 1979
Chronology
Preceded by	Rescue from Gilligan's Island
Followed by	The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island

The Castaways on Gilligan's Island is a 1979 made-for-television film that continues the adventures of the shipwrecked castaways from the 1964-67 TV series Gilligan's Island and the first reunion movie, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, featuring the original cast from the television series with the exception of Tina Louise, who was replaced in the role of Ginger Grant by Judith Baldwin. Written by Al Schwartz, Elroy Schwartz and series creator Sherwood Schwartz and directed by Earl Bellamy, it was first broadcast on NBC May 3, 1979. Unlike the independently-produced Rescue from Gilligan's Island, this and the subsequent The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island were produced by Universal Television.

Plot

Part One

The movie picks up directly after the end of Rescue from Gilligan's Island. The castaways are once again stranded on the same island that they had been on for so many years. The storm has contaminated all of the underground springs, and they are desperately searching for fresh water. Gilligan stumbles upon a couple of planes that are hidden in the jungle that they had somehow never noticed before during their fifteen years on the island. It is revealed that the island was a base of operations for the Army Air Corps during World War II, and the hangar was abandoned and overgrown by jungle brush. The tidal wave destroyed the foliage and exposed the hangar. The Professor believes that he can combine the two planes into one and fly them all back to civilization. He succeeds in cobbling together an airworthy plane and, dubbing it Minnow III, they head back. This occurs despite the fact that in two different episodes of the original series, it was established that the Professor cannot fly a plane.

However, during the attempt to fly back to Hawaii, the plane has engine trouble. The Professor orders Gilligan to jettison some weight, and in doing so, Gilligan falls out and has to parachute down to the island. Against their better judgment, the gang decides to return to the island to get him. After a little while, the engines of the plane fall off. Fortunately for them, the engines collapse after they land, meaning that although they are still stuck on the island, going back to get Gilligan saved them from plummeting to their deaths. They find him stuck in a tree, but now they are dismayed because the plane was their last hope of rescue. Their despair is quickly dispelled when a U.S. Navy captain appears saying that their plane was detected on radar long enough for them to follow it to the island. The castaways are once again returned to civilization and to ensure that Gilligan's Island gets charted, the U.S. government pinpoints the location of the island to prevent future castaway incidents.

Part Two

The second half — which was originally intended as a pilot for a Love Boat type of weekly series — picks up a year later, with the island now a tropical resort fully linked to civilization and owned by Mr. Howell (who makes Gilligan and the other castaways silent partners in the hotel). The rest of the castaways work as the staff of the resort. Gilligan and the Skipper deal with being unable to locate the parents of a boy (Ronnie Scribner), only to find that the child has run away from his parents to get away from their constant pressure on him to excel in athletics and in school. Meanwhile, Henry Elliot (Tom Bosley) is a workaholic Business man from Cleveland whose wife (Marcia Wallace) is trying to get him to relax and forget about work.

Cast

• Bob Denver - Gilligan
• Alan Hale - The Skipper
• Russell Johnson - The Professor
• Jim Backus - Mr. Howell
• Natalie Schafer - Mrs. Howell
• Judith Baldwin - Ginger
• Dawn Wells - Mary Ann
• Tom Bosley - Henry Elliott
• Marcia Wallace - Myra Elliott
• Ronnie Scribner - Robbie Sloan
• Judith Searle - Mrs. Sloan
• Rod Browning - Dr. Tom Larsen
• Joan Roberts - Laura Larsen
• Peter MacLean - Fred Sloan
• Natasha Ryan - Little girl
• Mokihana - Naheeti

External links

• The Castaways on Gilligan's Island at the Internet Movie Database