Editing Gilligan's Island (section)

== Episodes ==
{{Main|List of Gilligan's Island episodes}}
{{:List of Gilligan's Island episodes}}

=== Pilot episode ===
The [[television pilot|pilot episode]], "Marooned," was filmed in November 1963. The pilot featured seven characters (as in the series), but only four of the characters—and their associated actors—were carried forward into the series: Gilligan (Denver), the Skipper (Hale), and the Howells (Backus and Schafer).

Because of the three significant character and casting changes between the pilot episode and the first series episode, the pilot was not shown before the series first aired on September 26, 1964. The original pilot eventually aired over 29 years later on [[TBS (American TV channel)|TBS]].

The three characters who did not carry forward from the pilot were two secretaries and a high school teacher. In the pilot, the scientifically inclined Professor was instead a high school teacher played by [[John Gabriel (actor)|John Gabriel]]. Ginger, the movie star, was still red-haired, but she worked as a secretary and was played by Kit Smythe. She was more sarcastic than the later incarnation. Mary Ann, the Kansas farm girl, was instead Bunny, Ginger's co-worker, played as a cheerful "[[Blonde stereotype#Dumb blonde|dumb blonde]]" by [[Nancy McCarthy]].

The pilot's opening and ending songs were two similar [[Calypso music|calypso]]-styled tracks written by [[John Williams]] and performed by Sherwood Schwartz impersonating singer [[Sir Lancelot (singer)|Sir Lancelot]]. The lyrics of both differ from those of the TV series, and the pilot's opening theme song is longer. The short scenes during this initial music include Gilligan taking the Howells' luggage to the boat before cast-off and Gilligan trying to give a cup of coffee to the Skipper during the storm that would ultimately maroon the vessel.

After the opening theme song and credits end, the pilot proper begins with the seven castaways waking up on the beached SS ''Minnow''. It continues with them performing various tasks, including exploring the island, trying to fix the transmitter, building huts, and finding food. Contrary to some descriptions, the pilot contained no detailed accounts of the characters' backgrounds. It concludes with the ending theme song and credits. The background music and even the [[laugh track]]s of the pilot appear nearly identical to those used during the series.

=== First broadcast episode ===
The first episode broadcast, "Two on a Raft," is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the series pilot. This episode begins with the theme song performed by the Wellingtons and then the same scene of Gilligan and the Skipper awakening on the boat as in the pilot (though slightly differently cut to eliminate most shots of the departed actors) and continues with the characters sitting on the beach listening to a radio news report about their disappearance. No equivalent scene or background information is in the pilot, except for the description of the passengers in the original theme song. Rather than reshooting the rest of the pilot story for broadcast, the show proceeded. The plot thus skips over the topics of the pilot; the bulk of the episode tells of Gilligan and the Skipper setting off on a raft to try to bring help but unknowingly landing back on the other side of the same island.

The scene with the radio report is one of two scenes that reveal the names of the Skipper (Jonas Grumby) and the Professor (Roy Hinkley); the names are used in a similar radio report early in the series. The name Jonas Grumby appears nowhere else in the series except for an episode in which the Maritime Board of Review blames the Skipper for the loss of the ''Minnow''. The name Roy Hinkley is used one other time when Mr. Howell introduces the Professor as Roy Huntley, and the Professor corrects him, to which Mr. Howell replies, "[[Huntley-Brinkley Report|Brinkley]], Brinkley."

The plot for the pilot episode was recycled into that season's Christmas episode, "Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk," in which the story of the pilot episode, concerning the practical problems on landing, is related through a series of [[Flashback (narrative)|flashbacks]]. Footage featuring characters that had been recast was reshot using the current actors. For scenes including only Denver, Hale, Backus, and Schafer, the original footage was reused.

=== Last broadcast episode ===
The last episode of the show, "[[Gilligan's Island (season 3)#Episodes|Gilligan the Goddess]]", aired on April 17, 1967, and ended just like the rest, with the castaways still stranded on the island. It was not known at the time that it would be the series finale, as a fourth season was expected but then canceled.{{Sfn | Stoddard | 1996 | pp = 306–7}}