Warner Bros. Confirms Gilligan’s Island Re-make
Multiple sources are now reporting that Warner Bros. has green-lit a feature film re-make of the famous CBS sitcom Gilligan’s Island, which ran for three seasons from 1964 to 1967.
The original show was perhaps the greatest TV staple of my childhood. On any given day of the week, at least one local station on the television dial was broadcasting Gilligan’s Island. Along with The Brady Bunch, it was the one show every one of my siblings watched.
Gilligan’s Island followed the adventures of seven castaways marooned on an island paradise after a tropical storm blows their famous “three hour cruise” out of Honolulu far off course. While hardly a fantasy the way I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched were, Gilligan’s Island was not afraid to embrace the fantastic, with episodes that included voodoo spells, futuristic jet-packs, a stone that grants three wishes, a magician’s trunk, and much more. The pilot episode featured a theme song by John Williams, and the show had several notable guest stars — including Mel Blanc, voicing everything from a frog to Gilligan’s pet duck, and a very young Kurt Russell, playing a Jungle Boy.
This isn’t the first re-make. The show’s creator, Sherwood Schwartz, re-cast Gilligan’s Island as the short-lived western comedy Dusty’s Trail in 1973, starring Bob Denver and Forrest Tucker as part of a group who become separated from their wagon train, with a cast of nearly identical characters. The 1982 Saturday morning cartoon Gilligan’s Planet included the voices of the entire original cast except for Ginger (Tina Louise), and followed the adventures of the castaways after they escape from the island by building a spaceship, promptly getting shipwrecked on a distant planet.
The new movie is described as a star vehicle for Josh Gad, star of the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon (and the voice of Olaf the Snowman in Disney’s Frozen). Gad will also co-write the script. No news on a release date, or whether Gad will play Gilligan.
Gilligan's Island was one of those shows that I absolutely loved as a kid, and watched religiously over and over. But now, I confess that I cannot stand to watch more than five minutes of a single episode on youtube. It’s completely inane.
I’ve noticed this phenomenon with several other of my childhood favorites: The Dukes of Hazzard, Knightrider, The A-Team, and the original Battlestar Galactica, and others.
All of these shows were not equally ridiculous; but they don’t hold the interest for me that I once did.
I’m hoping that this says something positive about me, but maybe not.
There was also Far Out Space Nuts.
Someone needs to take a flamethrower to Hollywood.
> I’ve noticed this phenomenon with several other of my childhood favorites: The Dukes of Hazzard, Knightrider,
> The A-Team, and the original Battlestar Galactica, and others.
James,
I’ve heard TV producers in the 50s through the 80s had the greatest success by repeatedly targeting pre-teen audiences (ages 10-12). Children ruled the TV dial in American households, and if you could capture a 10 year old, you had a viewer for life (or at least for as long as the show lasted).
That didn’t start to change until the modern era of cable TV began in the early 90s, when shows targeted at adult audiences could finally survive.
That’s probably too simplistic a view, but it helps explain why I found the original Battlestar Galactica too childlike when I was 15, and the remake has no such problem, for example.
> There was also Far Out Space Nuts.
Joe,
Okay, I had to look that one up. But once I did, it brought back a lot of memories. I definitely remember seeing at least one or two episodes of this one. Bob Denver as the idiot-savant NASA maintenance worker Junior is what stuck in my memory.
> Someone needs to take a flamethrower to Hollywood.
TW,
Have faith! I scorned the thought of a BRADY BUNCH remake, but the premise of the first movie — the naïve, gee-whiz family of the 70s transplanted into the modern day — I found hilarious.
Who knows? Perhaps Gad can find a unique take on Gilligan’s Island.
“it helps explain why I found the original Battlestar Galactica too childlike when I was 15, and the remake has no such problem, for example.”
I was a pre-teen when the original BG was on television. It was a great weekly fix until the next Star Wars movie came out.
I love the remake of BG. It unfortunately (like the show Lost at the time) got more bizarre as it went on. But I loved 90% of the episodes. Great sci-fi series!
Somehow over the (many, many) years I’d gotten it into my head that Alan Hale was also in Far Out Space Nuts. (Or, as I called it until I looked it up on IMDB for my previous comment, “that one Saturday morning show with Gilligan and the Skipper in space.)
> I love the remake of BG. It unfortunately (like the show Lost at the time) got more bizarre as it went on.
No spoilers! We’re finally watching Season 2.5 now (and moving on to later episodes, hopefully).
I was enormously impressed with Season 1 (and 2.0). I hear it goes off the rails a bit, but so far I’ve been really enjoying it.
> Somehow over the (many, many) years I’d gotten it into my head that Alan Hale was also in Far Out Space Nuts.
Joe,
I expect that may have been deliberate… I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Chuck McCann (who played Bob Denver’s cranky co-worker Barney) was trying to recapture the same dynamic.
For those who are angry or surprised by the Gilligan’s Island reboot, Hollywood makes bottom-line decisions, not artistic decisions. Individuals within the Hollywood system occasionally make artistic decisions, and have the clout to get good work done, but studio-driven projects are money-oriented, period.
Hell, I used to work for New Line. Trust me on this.
Space Nuts was horrid. I wanted it (so badly!) to be good, and it wasn’t.
Josh Gad (Book of Mormon) is a really fine actor. Whether he can replace or reprise Bob Denver is an open question, but I wish him well.
Not that I’ll go see the remake, but still. Good wishes seem appropriate in this festive season.
: )
How could this ever work as a comedy? On a modern audience? Unless they turn it into a zombie island apocalyse survival adventure?
John says, regarding the rebooted BSG, “I Hear it goes off the rails a bit.”
While not as great as the earlier seasons, the later ones were consistently good. Some didn’t like the denouement of the series, but I thought it was fine, even if some of the “getting there” got a little convoluted.
And a few of the later season episodes were outstanding. There’s a two-parter that is one of the most intense bouts of TV you’re likely to see. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire thing. Plus Jane Espenson writes for the later seasons, and she’s one of the best TV writers working (the episodes of Buffy that she wrote were consistently second only to Whedon’s).
[…] For me, a young nerd in Junior High, the professor embodied a little more than that (Not that being a brainy sex symbol wasn’t a major accomplishment in itself). Everyone looks for role models at that age, and Russell Johnson’s good-humored, everyman brainiac was perhaps the finest role model on the airwaves in the mid 70s for young science enthusiasts. I can’t help but wonder who will be cast in the role in the upcoming remake. […]