While on the lookout for more lost pilots, I stumbled onto this opening from the original Gilligan’s Island pilot (unfortunately, the full episode is much harder to find). The song is completely different from the one we’re all familiar with, and it has a different set of characters (2 secretaries and a high school teacher instead of the professor, movie star, and random woman off the street (Mary-Anne)). The Howells, Gilligan, and the Skipper are all the same though.
Drahken
Team Retroist Chief Nostalgia Psychic...
Latest posts by Drahken (see all)
- Grease, for Peace! - January 12, 2015
- Is That Pink Bunny DURAble or ENERGIZEd? - December 3, 2014
- Doobie Doobie Dum Dums - November 12, 2014
9 thoughts on “Gilligan’s Island Original Theme”
A great find. I think I saw this on TV Land about a decade ago and completely blocked it out. I much prefer the version of the intro we got in the end, but I am glad someone held onto this one.
You brought back some great childhood TV-watching memories with this one. Thanks for sharing! :-)
Several year ago, I saw the whole episode on AOL’s in2tv site. I had finally gotten broadband & stumbled onto the world of online video (originally via winamp, which channeled in2tv, then stage6, then the video linking sites such as tv-links). I remember being intrigued by the differences, but that’s about all that I remember about it.
Huh, that’s interesting. I have never seen this before.
Pilot episodes are always weird (especially when you revisit them after watching a popular TV series) because the characters aren’t fully “formed” yet and they don’t “act right”.
The music reminds me of the Tikki-Tikki-Tikki room at Disney World…
Derek
It’s a shame they changed the theme to the one they used later…nobody ever remembers that song. Bad move GI Producers! ; ) I like getting to see more of the group before getting on the ship. It wouldve been cool if they had created a little made for tv special that followed the events of the group, leading up to their three hour tour.
Lol…the millionaire and Mrs. Millionaire
There’s also another early version of the theme song. This other one is mostly the same as the familiar version, except that it replaces the the professor and mary-anne with “and the rest”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfR7qxtgCgY
I mean, c’mon… It’s 2 characters, what’s the point of saying “and the rest”? I could see if the just listed gilligan & skipper and then got lazy, but when you’re down to the last 2…
This full episode is on the first disc of the season 1 dvds under special features…