The ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Cast Once Took Over an Episode of ‘Roseanne’

When Roseanne decided to pay tribute to Sherwood Schwartz, the Hall of Fame sitcom producer behind Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch, the show decided to go all in. Not only did Roseanne create its own Gilligan fantasy sequence, but it also invited the original’s cast to completely take over at the end of the show. 

In the episode “Sherwood Schwartz: A Loving Tribute,” Dan returns to a thankless project — he’s repairing an old boat in the garage. Roseanne thinks it’s a harebrained scheme, of course. If by some chance Dan ever got the ship upgraded to seaworthy condition, Roseanne knows just what would go wrong: In three hours or so, they’d get lost at sea and then shipwrecked in the middle of nowhere.

Roseanne’s vision of doom becomes a dream sequence, with John Goodman’s Dan transforming into the Skipper. “Wow!” he exclaims, churning his arms like Chris Farley’s Matt Foley. “An uncharted desert island? This wasn’t on any of my maps!”

Laurie Metcalf’s Jackie becomes Gilligan, diving off the shipwrecked boat into the sand in an ill-fated attempt to abandon ship. 

Darlene is Mary Ann, “just a dumb girl from the country with an amazing rack.” Leonard and Beverly become the Howells, Mark is the Professor, and Roseanne shows off her own prodigious bosom as movie star Ginger Grant. After the Roseanne version of the castaways are nearly eaten by cannibals, the show returns to its reality — at least for another three minutes. But the best is yet to come. 

The extended credits sequence features the surviving members of the Gilligan’s Island cast filling in for the Roseanne characters. Tina (Ginger) Louise is up first, complaining about lite pork rinds as Roseanne. She calls to Jackie, played by a crossdressing Bob (Gilligan) Denver, who grouses about carrying all the groceries. 

Russell (The Professor) Johnson ambles in as Mark, looking for Becky. “Aah, I’m dumb,” he admits when he learns Becky isn’t in the episode.

Finally, Dawn (Mary Ann) Wells enters as Darlene. “This family sucks,” she declares before telling Jackie she needs a shave.

When the real David arrives, he double-takes upon seeing the Gilligan's Island actors standing in for his family. “We definitely watch too much TV.”

The bit ends with Rosanne/Louise calling for her new writer, Sherwood Schwartz. The producer, who would have been pushing 80 at the time, proves why he wasn’t an on-camera actor, giggling while the appreciative audience cheers him on. Eventually, “Roseanne” fires Schwartz for talking back, asking for the guy who wrote The Brady Bunch to fill in. That’s Schwartz again, and he’s rehired.

The episode is a near-perfect tribute to Nick at Nite era sitcoms, and the cast and writers clearly have a deep affection for their comedy ancestors. But there’s no getting around one key fact: Bob Denver makes for an ugly Jackie.