Rescue from Gilligan's Island

Rescue From Gilligan's Island is a two-part television movie that continues the adventures of the shipwrecked castaways from the 1964-1967 TV series Gilligan's Island starring Bob Denver and Alan Hale, Jr. The film first aired on NBC October 14 and October 21, 1978. It was directed by Leslie Martinson. While the film itself has fallen into the public domain, the movie is more than likely still considered a derivative work, and thus still copyrighted.

Synopsis

The movie begins with Gilligan and the Skipper in their hut in their hammocks. Gilligan is snoring so loud the Skipper cannot sleep. It then shows a satellite belonging to an unidentified country (one may assume that it is the U.S.S.R.) experiencing technical problems. The scientists controlling the satellite attempt to destroy the disc by launching it into space. This disc holds some very important, top secret information. Seconds later, the satellite blows up. The metal disc from the satellite is not destroyed, instead making it through the earth's atmosphere and landing right at the edge of the lagoon eventually being found by Gilligan himself.

After Gilligan shows him the disc, the Professor realizes that the unique alloy can be used to make a barometer. While using the new barometer, the Professor makes an educated guess that they are going to be hit by a tsunami of such magnitude, it will destroy the island (he can't back this up as even their radio has finally broken down due to age). The Professor has the castaways maneuver three huts together and secure them to one another (a trick he learned from one of the tribes that they had encountered while on the island- one canoe alone would not withstand the rough waters, but tying three together would) hoping they might stand a chance at surviving the killer wave.

When the castaways awaken the next morning, they realize that the Professor's prediction had come true- they had been swept off the island and their lashed together huts had become a makeshift raft. They use clothes donated by the Howells to make a sail, and try to make their way to land. In an attempt to broil a snapper he had caught, Gilligan makes a fire on the deck, and as Gilligan normally does, he walked away and left the fire unattended while he told the gang the good news about the cooking fish. Unfortunately for Gilligan, the fire begins to spread out of control. At first, angry at Gilligan for doing another one of his stupid stunts, the castaways are then grateful when the United States Coast Guard spots the smoke and rescues them.

After being towed to Hawaii, the castaways names are announced to the anxious crowds. Most of the cast's full names are recited, but a bullhorn obscures part of the first mate's name, and all that is heard is "Gilligan". The crew, at first, are confused by modern life. They are informed that the President is now Jimmy Carter, and that they had missed the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. After a ton of hoopla and media hype, including not only the key to the city but also a ticker tape parade in their honour, the group hug it out and move on to begin their new lives apart agreeing though to meet again at Christmas aboard the S.S. Minnow II.

During the interview on TV after the ticker tape parade, the powers that be of the unknown country are made aware that Gilligan is in possession of the recording disc from their satellite. Determined to recover it, they send two spies to try to get it from Gilligan, by any means necessary.

The Skipper and Gilligan are next seen hard at work, refurbishing the S. S. Minnow II. However, the insurance company informs them that they will not be able to get a settlement unless their former passengers sign a statement testifying that the Skipper was not responsible for the shipwreck.

First they find Ginger. She is making a movie, and is upset at the changes in Hollywood in the last 15 years. She is told that sex and swearing are what makes a movie successful, and that nothing else matters. The director overhears Gilligan talking about some of the recent movies that had neither sex nor swearing, and quickly decides that acting is what really matters. Ginger signs the insurance statement, and the Skipper and Gilligan go off to find The Professor.

The Professor is trying to get back into research and is busying himself in his lab conducting experiments. First, four cheerleaders enter the lab and inform him that he has been selected as the Home Coming King and they belt out a cheer they have created for this special occasion. He attempts to rebuff them but they insist that he must accept as all the women on campus are "into him" and he is so "macho", words that are clearly alien to him. He finally agrees just to get them to leave his lab and allow him to get back to his experiments. Second, a Miss Ainsworth from the Anthropology department enters and asks him if he had been witness to any tribal courtship rituals as her department had a vested interest in them. He assures her he has witnessed some and one in particular had the natives sharing a straw while drinking coconut milk. She then gives into her obvious attraction for the Professor and bends him over and begins kissing him passionately. She only really stops when Gilligan and the Skipper knock and enter his lab, whereby she drops the Professor to the ground and hastily makes her exit. And then finally, after Gilligan has been misdirected by the Professor and knocks over a fake experiment, the Professor introduces them to his latest inventions- the frisbee and the skateboard (of course the joke is that they have already been invented!). As Gilligan is amusing himself on the skateboard, the Dean of the college enters the lab and is immediately run into by Gilligan. After the Skipper and Gilligan leave, the Dean tries to get the Professor to stop his research and teaching to concentrate on fund-raising. Later, the former castaways agree that things were much simpler on the island, and the Professor signs the insurance statement.

Next they go to meet the Howells. They are having dinner with old friends, and are trying to find their way back into their old financial and social circles. The Howells are delighted when the Skipper and Gilligan arrive unannounced to get the insurance statement signed. The Howells introduce them to their upper class social friends before going into the library to discuss matters. However, over the intercom they overhear their rich "friends" making insults towards Gilligan and the Skipper. The Howells angrily throw their supposed friends out of their house and off of their property. It is apparent that the Howells have grown substantially during their time on the island and they too sign the insurance statement willingly.

The Skipper and Gilligan go to see Mary Ann. After 15 years, she is set to marry her fiancé, Herbert. However, she is sad for some reason, and her best friend Cindy tries to console her. Mary Ann explains that she and Herbert have both changed over the course of 15 years and she no longer loves him. Cindy says she should call off the wedding but Mary Ann insists she must do the right thing and marry Herbert as he has waited so many years for her. Again unannounced, the Skipper and Gilligan show up looking for a signature for the insurance statement. Mary Ann is thrilled to see them but they notice she is quite unhappy. She brushes it off and asks them to stay for the wedding. (She had asked no one from the island as she wanted to surprise them with her new husband during the Christmas reunion on the deck of the S.S. Minnow II). For whatever reason, Mary Ann's best friend Cindy, confides her true feelings regarding Herbert, and his for her, to Gilligan and the Skipper. They decide that they must "save" Mary Ann from making a huge mistake so they grab a tractor pulling an old wooden wheeled wagon laden with watermelon and proceed to "scoop" Mary Ann out of the arms of Herbert. Subsequently the two spies (who just happen to be in attendance no matter where Gilligan goes- the movie set, the college campus, the Howells front door) and all the male guests begin running after what is clearly the slowest tractor ever and almost catch the threesome until Gilligan ingeniously hurls a single watermelon into the group and they tumble over like a perfect strike! Then the Skipper joins in and the men continue to slip and slide and trip over themselves in their attempt to go after them. Meanwhile, as Mary Ann contemplates how to break the news to Herbert without breaking his heart, in the background you can hear the traditional wedding music that is played as the married couple have their first kiss and we see Herbert and Cindy are that kissing couple. Suffice it to say, Mary Ann is out of her predicament and the Skipper gets his insurance statement signed.

Eventually the insurance company pays for the S. S. Minnow, and the castaways and crew are ready for a cruise on the S. S. Minnow II. The spies make one last attempt to get the disc, but are thwarted at the last minute by the FBI. Finally, the cruise gets under way.

However, just like 15 years before, the S. S. Minnow II is caught in a storm, (a 12 day storm with 90 mile per hour winds), because while cleaning the compass, dear old Gilligan had rendered it useless by removing the dirty old piece of metal (which the Skipper informs him was the magnet that makes the compass work!), thereby causing the Skipper to sail for hours in the wrong direction, putting them way out to sea. Consequently they were so off course after the storm they had no idea where they were. When the storm had finally subsided, the group are seen pulling themselves from the water onto a beach, thankful that they are alive. After getting some not-so-happy looks by the rest of the gang, Gilligan high tails it into the jungle and returns just moments later with a piece of wood with the name S.S. Minnow I painted on it.

Production

• Leslie H. Martinson directed many B movies and television movies, including several episodes of the TV series Batman and its adjoining movie version, and the 1963 film PT 109. that was about the shipwreck of John F. Kennedy and his crew after being run down by a Japanese destroyer, which was the basis for the pilot of McHale's Navy, which was loosely based upon PT 109. Although Gilligan's Island was in no way a direct derivation, the television show premiered the year after PT 109 and two years after McHale's Navy, and was also about the shipwrecked crew and passengers of a small boat in the South Pacific.
• The movie was popular enough that two made-for-TV sequels followed.
• Unlike the TV series, the movie lacks a laugh track.
• Some VHS releases of this lack the theme song due to licensing disputes.

Cast

• Willie Gilligan - Bob Denver
• Jonas "The Skipper" Grumby - Alan Hale, Jr.
• Mr. Thurston Howell III - Jim Backus
• Mrs. Eunice "Lovey" Howell III - Natalie Schafer
• Ginger Grant - Judith Baldwin
• Professor Roy Hinkley - Russell Johnson
• Mary Ann Summers - Dawn Wells

Tina Louise at first declined to appear in the movie, claiming that she was not going to reprise the role that had devastated her career but she changed her mind several times, deciding at the last minute not to appear after all. Reportedly she asked for a prohibitively large sum of money. Judith Baldwin, a substantially younger actress who resembled Louise, was cast in her place. The following year, Baldwin would go on to play Ginger again in The Castaways On Gilligan's Island.

External links

• Rescue from Gilligan's Island at IMDb
• Rescue from Gilligan's Island is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive