The CBS Exec That Greenlit Gilligan's Island Absolutely Hated The Show

The development of a television show is always kind of a wacky, potentially surprising thing, but the creation of the classic CBS television series "Gilligan's Island" is truly one for the books. Series creator Sherwood Schwartz, who would also go on to create the immensely popular "The Brady Bunch" for ABC, famously developed the series purely based on his idea for the theme song. In his defense, it's an earworm and it explains the entire backstory for the show, so it's basically perfect as far as theme songs go, but there were some folks at CBS who just weren't entirely sold on the concept. In fact, the president of CBS at the time, Jim Aubrey, absolutely hated the show and wanted nothing to do with it!

Eventually, it was Aubrey himself who greenlit "Gilligan's Island," surprising Schwartz and everyone who helped create the initial test pilot. In the book "Sitcom Writers Talk Shop: Behind the Scenes with Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, and Other Geniuses of TV Comedy" by Paula Finn, Schwartz revealed the secret behind convincing a reticent executive to give their go-ahead, and like many things in Hollywood, it involves the promise of the almighty dollar.

According to Schwartz, Aubrey thought it was impossible for audiences to care about seven people stuck on a remote island for any real length of time, but then audience reactions proved him very, very wrong. Schwartz explained:

"I presented the idea for 'Gilligan's Island,' and he said, 'No one's going to keep coming back and watching these same seven people. And how many stories can you do?' Well, I already had lots of stories; I knew how I wanted it to go. A lot of steps were involved, but finally, after I re-edited the film, it tested very well. And Aubrey knew he had to put shows on that tested well, so when he called me, he said, 'Sherwood, I still hate your f***ing show -– and I'm putting it on the air!'"

The road to getting the "Gilligan's Island" pilot to test well was a frustrating one that involved CBS making edits behind Schwartz's back, those edits going abysmally, and then Schwartz getting another final edit out that wowed audiences. That final edit impressed test audiences and sold them on the idea of the show, proving that persistence is half the battle in getting your work out there. In the end, Aubrey simply couldn't say "no" to Gilligan and the gang, sending the Minnow off on a fateful voyage that would run for three seasons and make its mark on television history. 

Sticking seven characters on an island without the opportunity for any guest stars really does seem like the worst idea in the world according to TV thinking of the 1960s, so why was Schwartz so insistent? Although it seems like the show might be a simple take on something like "Robinson Crusoe," the idea actually comes from something more original. In an interview with EmmyTVLegends.org in 1997, Schwartz explained how he came upon his idea:

"[...]That was my aim, was to put all these very very different people together, where could I put them that they couldn't get away from each other? And that's how I came upon the desert isle." 

Schwartz wanted the characters to be strangers forced together by circumstance who have to work together to survive, and he wanted them to be from as many different walks of life as possible. That's why there are millionaires, a movie star, a professor, the ship's captain, a farm girl, and the ship's silly first mate all trapped upon the island — the idea was to show that even the most different of strangers can learn to survive together, like an anti-"Lord of the Flies." Since then, there have very few other shows with a completely limited cast and location, but "Gilligan's Island" was the first and best, in large part because of its earnest, hopeful heart.