Sherwood Schwartz scored an unexpected television coup when his cartoony sitcom “Gilligan’s Island” premiered on CBS 60 years ago. Though the show only lasted for three seasons, it turned into a syndication sensation with mostly teens and 20-somethings eager to avoid homework and chores around the house. Algebra assignments and the ever-growing grass on the front yard routinely took a backseat to the seven castaways from the S.S. Minnow. Yes, everyone knew they weren’t getting off that confounded island, but every episode had a way of sparking false hope; between this and the Professor’s fantastic inventions, the Howells’ inexplicably lavish bamboo lodgings, and the eternal Mary Ann vs. Ginger debate, “Gilligan’s Island” was shamefully irresistible.
The show’s boundlessly silly situations and digressions also allowed for surprise guests (like the Harlem Globetrotters) and allusions to other hit series. Schwartz knew his show wasn’t changing the face of television (even though it kind of ended up doing just that via its syndication success), nor was it jockeying for Emmys. It was just there to, as Skipper actor Alan Hale Jr. once noted, provide regular folks with a half-hour escape from the drudgery of their workaday existence. So, he had license to execute some out-there gags, one of which referenced the one-time ratings cornerstone of CBS’ 1950s lineup.
The one where Gilligan dreamed he was in Dodge City
Though “Gilligan’s Island” wound up having a longer shelf life in syndication (primarily because of its appeal to younger viewers who had considerably more free time on their hands than adults), “Gunsmoke” was, between 1955 and 1975, a TV institution that was the top rated show in the United States until it expanded to an hour in 1961. When the series began to struggle, the network, which was proud of the Western drama, scrambled for ways to goose its ratings.
Perhaps this is why “Gilligan’s Island” briefly brought its title character to Dodge City, Kansas during the show’s first season. In the series’ seventh episode, “The Sound of Quacking,” Gilligan dreams up a cowpoke fantasy that whisks the cast off to a Western city that is pretty obviously the Dodge City set famously located at CBS Studio Center. If you squint, you can even see the Dodge House and Marshal Matt Dillon’s office.
What did Schwartz get for being a network team player? Canceled. In 1967, when “Gunsmoke” was facing the end of its run due to declining ratings, CBS head honcho William S. Paley, at the behest of his wife, axed the more popular “Gilligan’s Island” so that the Western could live for eight more seasons. No good deed goes unpunished, Little Buddy!
