Gilligan's Island Pilot Episode

The original pilot for a concept that eventually became Gilligan's Island. It's amazing how many changes were made before the show premiered! The pilot episode was called Marooned, and was produced in 1963, but didn't air until 1992! (Thanks, Bill!)

Update: Reader Piikalama recalls the filming of the pilot, and was kind enough to share with us.

The storm at sea, shipwreck and scenes on the beach of this episode were filmed on my parent's lawn and beach at Moloaa Bay, Kauai. I was in college at the time and my parents told me they screened out our home with foliage. They also planted fake coconut trees on the coral reef in front of our house. I've climbed the coconut tree that Gilligan was supposedly up on top of many times as a youth - handpicking and dropping the nuts for me and my brothers to drink and eat from. There is a movie location company on Kauai that takes tourists around to film locations and this is one of the places they always stop at.

I don't remember much other than what my mom and dad told me - I was away at college in Denver at the time they filmed the pilot episode. Of course that first episode wasn't aired because of JFK's assasination in November 1963. We never did have TV in the valley either as there was no electricity until 1983. I do remember that my mom said the film company drove up in vans and trucks hauling generators, equipment and an old fishing boat. The boat was set up on rockers and they used hoses to shoot water at it with the skipper and Gilligan onboard while rocking it violently to simulate the storm at sea scene. I think my parents were compensated about $500 for the use of their property and to have our home that was located about 50 feet up on the hill directly behind the beached shipwreck - screened off by foliage. In those days, there were just 2 homes in the valley - our home and my grandmother's which was located on the hill behind the coconut tree that Gilligan climbs up to see what he can see immediately after the shipwreck. That coconut tree is still there today. Anyone who has seen the pilot episode can walk down to Moloaa Beach today, stand directly below our old family home which is still there, and pretty much see the same beach scene that is depicted in the first episode.

An interesting aside to all this is that, prior to the Great 1946 Tsunami, all the family homes were located at sea level in the valley. When the tsunami hit and destroyed every home in the valley (government surveyors later recorded that Moloaa received the 2nd highest wave heights - 46 feet - in the entire state), everyone left except for my grandmother and family members who went around collecting scraps of lumber and hauled it up the hill to rebuild her home high enough on the hill to escape future tsunami's. My mom returned in 1950 from serving as John Foster Dulles's personal secretary in Army Intelligence in Tokyo during the Korean War and built her home on the side of the hill opposite from my grandmothers - for that exact same reason. All during my childhood (I was born in 1946 at Moloaa) our two homes were the only structures in the valley. I left Moloaa and moved to the Big Island in 1996 after living in Moloaa for 50 years. During that time, I've been through 2 tsunamis (1946 and 1957) and 4 hurricanes including Iwa and Iniki. Our family home, built in 1951 survived because of its location on the side of the hill, also withstood every following natural disaster with minimal damage. We farmed and fished and had a natural spring on our property to bathe and drink water from. Whenever a hurricane hit, it didn't deter us because we didn't have electricity to begin with - and we ate fresh fish, lobster, fruit and vegetables from our garden under the stars and by torchlight every night. Aloha, Piikalama

 

Comments

[DUKE]

Did you check out "Created & Produced by.."? Kinda like Bridge Mei Ling Goldberg. Probably named for someone in his lineage who was the only Jewish member of Robin's band of merry (not gay) men!

[Paul]

I have never seen the first episode, I just watched it. I watched Gilligans Island growing up as a kid. I have seen episodes that I thought were the pilot but I guess they were not. Thanks for sharing.

Paul

[Piikalama]

The storm at sea, shipwreck and scenes on the beach of this episode were filmed on my parent's lawn and beach at Moloaa Bay, Kauai. I was in college at the time and my parents told me they screened out our home with foliage. They also planted fake coconut trees on the coral reef in front of our house. I've climbed the coconut tree that Gilligan was supposedly up on top of many times as a youth - handpicking and dropping the nuts for me and my brothers to drink and eat from. There is a movie location company on Kauai that takes tourists around to film locations and this is one of the places they always stop at.

[Miss Cellania]

Geez, Piikalama, you ought to write up the whole story of how that happened! I'd love to publish it.

[Piikalama]

I don't remember much other than what my mom and dad told me - I was away at college in Denver at the time they filmed the pilot episode. Of course that first episode wasn't aired because of JFK's assasination in November 1963. We never did have TV in the valley either as there was no electricity until 1983. I do remember that my mom said the film company drove up in vans and trucks hauling generators, equipment and an old fishing boat. The boat was set up on rockers and they used hoses to shoot water at it with the skipper and Gilligan onboard while rocking it violently to simulate the storm at sea scene. I think my parents were compensated about $500 for the use of their property and to have our home that was located about 50 feet up on the hill directly behind the beached shipwreck - screened off by foliage. In those days, there were just 2 homes in the valley - our home and my grandmother's which was located on the hill behind the coconut tree that Gilligan climbs up to see what he can see immediately after the shipwreck. That coconut tree is still there today. Anyone who has seen the pilot episode can walk down to Moloaa Beach today, stand directly below our old family home which is still there, and pretty much see the same beach scene that is depicted in the first episode.

An interesting aside to all this is that, prior to the Great 1946 Tsunami, all the family homes were located at sea level in the valley. When the tsunami hit and destroyed every home in the valley (government surveyors later recorded that Moloaa received the 2nd highest wave heights - 46 feet - in the entire state), everyone left except for my grandmother and family members who went around collecting scraps of lumber and hauled it up the hill to rebuild her home high enough on the hill to escape future tsunami's. My mom returned in 1950 from serving as John Foster Dulles's personal secretary in Army Intelligence in Tokyo during the Korean War and built her home on the side of the hill opposite from my grandmothers - for that exact same reason. All during my childhood (I was born in 1946 at Moloaa) our two homes were the only structures in the valley. I left Moloaa and moved to the Big Island in 1996 after living in Moloaa for 50 years. During that time, I've been through 2 tsunamis (1946 and 1957) and 4 hurricanes including Iwa and Iniki. Our family home, built in 1951 survived because of its location on the side of the hill, also withstood every following natural disaster with minimal damage. We farmed and fished and had a natural spring on our property to bathe and drink water from. Whenever a hurricane hit, it didn't deter us because we didn't have electricity to begin with - and we ate fresh fish, lobster, fruit and vegetables from our garden under the stars and by torchlight every night. Aloha, Piikalama

[Mimi]

I always thought it was cool that the island they show in the opening credits was never even visited by the cast.

[William J.Howell]

Where was the Island located that they showed at the end of each episode and what was it called?

[KJG]

I do remember this dialog etc. but with the other actors so they re-filmed it using the cast that we are all familiar with.

[Holiday Homes]

I love the theme song. The music and lyrics for the theme song, "The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle," were written by a Sherwood Schwartz and George . One version was used for the first season and another for the second and third. In the original song, the Professor and Mary Ann were referred to as "and the rest."