The All Encompassing Gilligan's Island Quiz

The show’s creator, Sherwood Schwartz, considered a number of names for his main character, ranging from Johnson or Thompson to Winkelpleck or Hokusfigger. Luckily for us, Schwartz found the more interesting and easier-to-pronounce name—Gilligan—in a phone book. Would we have watched Hokusfigger’s Island?

The scene of the S.S. Minnow leaving the harbor was shot in November 1963, shortly after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The flag was lowered to half-mast out of respect.

The Professor and Mary Ann were not mentioned by name, possibly so that Tina Louise’s character, the movie star, would be mentioned last. Bob Denver, who played Gilligan, did not like the fact that two of his costars were being disrespected. He campaigned for the song to be rewritten for subsequent seasons, listing all seven characters.

Complicated question: first, you have to know that Roy Hinkley Jr. is the Professor. He wrote a book called Rust, the Real Red Menace, and he was working on another, called Fun With Ferns. He had several degrees and taught high-school science.

Jonas Grumby is the actual name of the Skipper, captain of the ill-fated S.S. Minnow. The role was played by Alan Hale Jr.

Everybody loves Mary Ann’s coconut cream pie—don’t worry about how she obtained all of the ingredients or baked it so perfectly. Dawn Wells, the actress who played Mary Ann, released Mary Ann’s Gilligan’s Island Cookbook in 1993.

Gilligan tries to make syrup from tree sap, but instead, he creates an amazingly strong glue. The Professor uses it to patch the S.S. Minnow, but predictably the effort fails, and the boat is destroyed.

Not only does their butler have a butler, but when Mr. Howell was a boy his butler made his mud pies for him. Thurston and Lovey brought more than twenty suitcases on board the S.S. Minnow for a three-hour tour.

Gilligan wears a Manny Moose watch with antlers that tell the time. The professor, meanwhile, wears a calendar watch, and Mr. Howell wears a solid gold watch.

Mary Ann is the wholesome girl-next-door character on the show, so, of course, she is from Kansas. Mary Ann and Ginger inspired many debates among fans as to which was more desirable.

The 1939 movie Five Came Back starred Lucille Ball. The plot involves twelve people who are stranded on a jungle island after a plane crash. The title says only five come back, so you can do the math. Luckily, Gilligan’s Island has no casualties.

Ginger was preparing to star on Broadway, as Cleopatra in a production called Pyramid for Two. Because she sees herself as a budding star, she almost always wears an evening gown.

The Skipper smacks Gilligan with Gilligan’s own white sailor cap, not his captain’s hat. Gilligan generally angers the Skipper when he says something stupid, drops something on the Skipper’s foot, or otherwise injures the Skipper with his klutziness.

The Mosquitoes are a rock band, with members Bingo, Bango, Bongo, and Irving, who arrive on the island to escape their fans and rehearse. However, the castaways are anxious to leave the island with the musicians, so they form two other musical groups to bond with them. The men become the Gnats and the women become the Honeybees. Ultimately, the Mosquitoes leave without the castaways because they don’t want competition.

The show’s lagoon set was located in Studio City, California—right near the Hollywood Freeway. Sometimes they had to pause production while trucks passed. The set had previously been used for the 1954 movie Creature From the Black Lagoon.

The theme song goes: “No phone, no lights, no motor car / Not a single luxury / Like Robinson Crusoe / It’s primitive as can be.” They do have a radio, however, that occasionally provides news from civilization.

From 1959 to 1963, Bob Denver played Maynard G. Krebs on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. His character was a beatnik who freaked out at the mere mention of work.

Gilligan is bitten by a bat in a cave, and he thinks he might transform into a vampire. He goes off to live by himself on the other side of the island, so he doesn’t know that the Professor has identified the animal as a harmless fruit bat. Of course, delightful vampire dream sequences ensue.

After Mr. Howell writes a new will, leaving money to everyone on the island, he suffers a few mishaps and starts to think that someone is trying to kill him. He fakes his own death, and then he overhears the castaways mourning and tearing up their copies of his will, so he realizes that they care about him.

The series ended at the end of season 3, with Gilligan the Goddess. At the time, they expected to return for a fourth season, so the castaways were not rescued. A number of reunion shows followed, including Rescue from Gilligan’s Island in 1978. The castaways are finally rescued in that two-part TV movie, but then they are marooned again during a reunion cruise.