5 Times Ginger Was Impossible on ‘Gilligan’s Island’
When Tina Louise arrived on the Gilligan’s Island set, she was “under the impression it was her series,” Bob Denver wrote in his memoir, Gilligan, Maynard & Me. “With fourth billing, how she believed that is beyond me. She changed the wisecracking movie star into the typical dumb actress, proving that sometimes what you see is what you get.”
According to the show’s cast and crew, Louise didn’t get any less insufferable over the course of the sitcom’s run. (She was too highfalutin to return for the made-for-TV movie sequels.) Here are five more times Louise was the worst person to be stranded with on Gilligan’s Island…
Method Actress
Louise studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actor’s Studio in New York, and she let everyone know it. She was cashing checks from her hit series while telling TV Guide, “I found out that I can’t use my work at all in this show. There’s no such thing as a real moment, an honest reaction, because the show is like a cartoon. You’re not acting, not the way I studied it.”
Don't Miss
Producer Sherwood Schwartz was taken aback by Louise’s public complaints. “I think she would be delighted,” he said. “She’s an integral part of a major hit. What else does an actress want? I don’t know what would make her happy. It seems to me she’s not a happy person.”
Gray Is the Warmest Color
On one occasion, Louise refused to leave her dressing room and perform a scene. To keep the production moving, Schwartz went to her dressing room to determine the cause of the problem.
“This is a ridiculous scene,” she whined, “and I don’t want to do it!”
You have to do it, replied Schwartz.
“Without missing a beat,” according to Schwartz, she agreed to return to the set if the producer would paint her dressing room a new shade of gray.
No Prize Money at the State Fair
When the show took off, the cast was offered serious cash to make appearances on the “State and County Fair Circuit,” according to Russell Johnson’s Here on Gilligan’s Isle. There was just one catch: The bookers required the entire cast to appear, or the deal was off.
You can probably guess which actor refused, taking cash out of everyone’s pockets. “In just two weekends of appearances,” Johnson lamented, “we could have made thousands.”
V Is for V-Neck
For someone who wanted to be taken seriously as an actress, Louise had a peculiar habit of calibrating her island wardrobe to call attention to other talents. “Tina played most of her scenes in her light-beige V-neck gown,” remembered Schwartz. “And somehow between rehearsals and the time the camera rolled for actual takes, the V was mysteriously slipping down to reveal more cleavage.”
To appease the censors, Schwartz had to tell Louise to knock it off. “I’m not showing off anything that everybody hasn’t seen a million times before,” she protested. “On every TV show.”
She adjusted her straps when Schwartz threatened to make her deliver dialogue off-camera.
Can’t A Guy Get A Little Sleep Around Here?
The seven cast members all had dressing rooms near the sound stage. Unfortunately for sleepy Bob Denver, his cabana was directly next to Louise’s. “I still remember the time I was trying to grab a nap at lunchtime when Tina was having sex with her boyfriend next door,” he said. “Her groans and screams were so loud I pounded on the wall and told her to keep it down. She never heard me.”
