Just sit right back
And you’ll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip,
That started from this tropic port,
Aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailin’ man,
The Skipper brave and sure,
Five passengers set sail that day,
For a three hour tour,
A three hour tour.
The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed.
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The Minnow would be lost.
The Minnow would be lost.
The ship set ground on the shore
Of this uncharted desert isle
With Gilligan,
The Skipper too.
The millionaire
And his wife,
The movie star,
The professor and Mary Ann,
Here on Gilligan’s Isle.
(Ending verse)
So this is the tale of our castaways,
They’re here for a long long time.
They’ll have to make the best of things,
It’s an uphill climb.
The first mate and his Skipper too
Will do their very best,
To make the others comf’terble
In their tropic island nest.
No phone, no lights, no motor car,
Not a single luxury
Like Robinson Crusoe
It’s primitive as can be.
So join us here each week my friends,
You’re sure to get a smile,
From seven stranded castaways
Here on Gilligan’s Isle!
“The professor and Mary Ann,”
My favorite GI story is about that line. Originally it was “and the rest” an Wells and Johnson’s names were not in the opening credits, only at the end of the show. Bob Denver hated that, and without telling the other actors went to the producers and asked that they change the song and opening credits to include them. He was initially told it was too expensive. He then told them that his contract allowed him to decide where his credit would go. If they didn’t include Wells and Johnson in the opening, they would have to move his credit to the end of the show with theirs. The producers finally agreed.
Denver never told anyone else that he did that. Wells said she only heard about it decades later when someone doing a book heard it from one of the producers and told her.
I saw a video where someone put the Gilligan’s Island lyrics to “Stairway to Heaven.”