Book Review: Inside Gilligan’s Island by Sherwood Schwartz

“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 Ballad of Gilligan’s Island lyrics

Review:

I never read this when I was first reading books by the cast and crew of Gilligan’s Island, even though this was written by the creator of the show himself. I anticipated it to be a collection of the same stories that have been circulating on the internet for decades, but I was impressed to realize how much it discusses the process of creating a television show (in that era) as a whole.

Sherwood Schwartz briefly touches upon his career both before and after Gilligan’s Island, but as the title suggests, this is an extensive look at the creation of this sitcom. Even in the 1960s, a quirky sitcom about seven castaways on a Pacific island was a hard sell. But behind that quirky exterior, the personalities were meticulously designed to illustrate a purpose: that in the face of a crisis, it doesn’t matter if you’re a couple of billionaires, a movie star, a sailor with a bumbling first mate, an academic, or a farm girl, people can get along when working toward a goal such as survival. As Schwartz put it himself, the show was ‘a social microcosm’. 

Along with the general creation of the show, this book is also a collection of behind-the-scenes memories from both the original series and the three made-for-TV movies that followed fifteen years later. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book not only for the Gilligan’s Island nostalgia, but also for learning about what it took to get a show on the air back in the day. I found the discussions about the contrast between television in the 1960s and the landscape at the time this book was published (the late 1980s) interesting. In a way, the found family aspect of Gilligan’s Island paved the way for the rise of other famous sitcoms, such as Cheers or Friends. Gilligan’s Island strayed from the typical family sitcom of the era, yet retained a certain innocence that was lost in the following decades. 

Even though television is wildly different nowadays (or should I say ‘streaming’?), I think a modern reader with any interest in this industry would benefit from learning the history discussed in this book.

Likes & Dislikes:

What I liked:

• Getting to learn about the process of pitching a show, going through different people, the logistics, etc.
• So much nostalgia!

What I didn’t like:

• A bit scattered in places, going back and forth between topics.

Afterthoughts:

I ended up rereading Russell Johnson’s book Here on Gilligan’s Isle because I was so sad to have finished this one!

Where to buy the book: