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‘Gilligan’s Island’: Secrets From the Set, Including Who Thought the Show ‘Would Never Be Picked Up’


Lloyd Schwartz, the son of Gilligan's Island creator Sherwood Schwartz, and more spill secrets from the show's set in this exclusive interview with Closer.

In the weeks following the September 26, 1964, premiere of Gilligan’s Island, the U.S. Coast Guard began getting letters from concerned citizens. He named the show’s storm-tossed boat, the S.S. Minnow, after FCC chairman Newton Minow, who had decried TV as a “vast wasteland.” “My father thought television was valuable,” says Lloyd. Gilligan’s Island lasted only three sea- sons on CBS, but its slapstick comedy, coconut phones and fantasy sequences made it a beloved classic in syndication.

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