Q&A; : Taking Another Trip Down the Isle

It’s been 30 years since the S.S. Minnow ran aground on a piece of Pacific landscape known as “Gilligan’s Island.” And in many ways it and its followers are still stuck there.

The 1964-67 television series created by Sherwood Schwartz has outlived 30 years of critical abuse to become a pop-culture icon of sorts , a classic study of life and profits after prime time.

Schwartz says he never envisioned anything more than a season or two when he developed the show as an escape from writing “The Red Skelton Show.” Yet “Gilligan’s Island” has had as many reincarnations as “The Brady Bunch,” another creation from Schwartz (who was also the producer of two television forgettables, “Big John, Little John” and “Dusty’s Trail”).

“Gilligan” has been in nonstop syndication since 1967, is in home video and has been the subject of several books. Its story will soon become a feature movie and is the basis of a new musical play. “There might even be a laser disc of ‘Gilligan’ somewhere,” Schwartz said from San Diego, where he is overseeing production of “Gilligan’s Island, the Musical,” now at The Theatre in Old Town.

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Question: How many “Gilligans” have you had?

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Answer: Your guess is as good as mine. Originally there were 99 episodes over three years, and as soon as the show was off the network they went into syndication. Then we had two cartoons. There were also three two-hour TV specials. “Rescue From Gilligan’s Island” was the first of the so-called reunion shows on the networks, getting a 54 share. With numbers like that, everybody else started to have reunion shows. Five books have come out about the show. And the entire three years are on home video.

Then coming up is a movie for Turner Pictures and a stage musical. It’s been a cottage industry.

Q: A musical “Gilligan’s Island”?

A: Yes, at The Theatre in Old Town in San Diego. I wrote the book with my son Lloyd. My daughter Hope and her husband, Laurence Juber, wrote the lyrics and music for our musical. Like I said, it’s a cottage industry. In my cottage. We are doing the first original stage musical based on a television series.

Q: Wasn’t “The Brady Bunch” also a play?

A: Yes. I was creator and executive producer of “The Brady Bunch” on TV. The stage version was done by others, but it was a repeat of the old scripts. The “Gilligan” musical is a completely original work with all seven characters and 18 original songs.

Q: Your “Gilligan” movie had been making the studio rounds for some time.

A: We could have been the first one out with a movie based upon a television series if things had run smoothly. My original script was written 4 1/2 years ago. The copyright belongs to the Phil Silvers estate and to Ted Turner. First, we had to sell them, and since Ted Turner didn’t have a film operation, we went first to Disney. Disney finally decided against it. Then we almost had a deal at Columbia. Then Paramount got interested, but Columbia threatened to sue, so Paramount bowed out. Then Columbia bowed out. The script traveled so much, I almost put wheels on it.

Now with the new Turner Pictures company we have the best of all worlds. He owns the studio and half the copyright.

Q: You don’t own “Gilligan”?

A: I own all the characters I created, thanks to the Writers Guild, so nobody can do anything without me. The way it works is: If the copyright owners instigate a project, like the movie, then I get a fee as creator. If I instigate a project, like the musical, I pay a percentage to the copyright owners.

Q: “Gilligan’s Island” has never been a favorite of critics. But interest in the show is still around. Why?

A: I don’t know about the critics, but the show is a family show, which is important to me. Family values mean something, just like they do on my other show, “The Brady Bunch.” That’s what I do, family entertainment.

If you study both “Gilligan” and “Brady,” you will see they are based on a similar philosophy: that it’s possible for different kinds of people to learn to live together, either in a family or stuck on an island with no escape.

I took seven radically different people, a captain, his first mate, a movie star, a farm girl, a scientist, a billionaire and his wife and put them on an island where they could learn to compromise and live together. It’s like the world, with its poor nations and rich nations learning to live together. It’s the same in families where people have to learn how to live together.

Q: How did it all start?

A: I was Red Skelton’s head writer for seven years, and I was tired of doing Freddie the Freeloader and Clem Kadiddlehopper, so I decided in 1963 to develop my own property. When I did my agent made one phone call to CBS. We made a presentation and the network bought it.

CBS wanted Phil Silvers to do another series after “Sergeant Bilko” (“You’ll Never Get Rich”) and gave him a deal to form his own production company, which took on my show, “Gilligan’s Island.” United Artists was a partner with Silvers. When Turner bought MGM and United Artists, he got half of “Gilligan’s Island,” and he held onto it when he sold UA.

Q: Was “The Brady Bunch” as easy to sell as “Gilligan”?

A: No. I wrote the pilot five years after “Gilligan.” Then it took 3 1/2 years to sell it to ABC. I own that show’s characters, too.

Q: How did the musical “Gilligan” come about?

A: I’ve been working on it for the past 16 years after I saw “Annie” on Broadway. Why, I wondered, did that show run so long? The answer was easy: three generations of kids growing up with the comic strip. The same thing was happening with “Gilligan” through syndication. So I decided to do a musical and started working on it with my son, Lloyd. Five years ago, we did a stage reading of our script in North Hollywood with just a piano and the actors. A director friend of mine saw it and said I should take it to a theater in the South that was looking for new musicals. So about two years ago, we staged it at the Flat Rock State Theater in North Carolina. Then we took it to Chicago for four months. The Theatre in Old Town approached us, and I went there to see what was being done there. It’s scheduled for a month, and then we’ll decide if it stays or moves on. We have some interest from two New York producers.

Q: Besides the musical, you have some movie projects.

A: Two movies. My son, Lloyd, and I have written and will produce “Gilligan’s Island” for Turner. And we’ll do the same with the feature version of “The Brady Bunch” for Paramount. “Brady” is more advanced than “Gilligan.” It starts production in July. The script is finished, and it’s in rewrite. This will be a different “Brady.” It will show the Bradys with all of their traditional values but in the ‘90s. They remain staunch to their beliefs, even if everyone else thinks they’re freaks. Guess who wins?

The “Gilligan” movie will be different from the TV series because of the size of the production, and it will have seven major stars. But that won’t be ready until next year. I also have a reissued book out now from St. Martin’s Press, “Inside Gilligan’s Island,” on how the series developed. It brings everything up to date.