1982 10:30 on CBS: GILLIGAN'S PLANET

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Gilligan's Planet was on your local CBS affiliate at 10:30 in 1982 (and at Noon in the Spring of 1983) that featured nearly the entire cast of the original 1964 sit-com "Gilligan's Island", the only exception being Tina "Ginger" Louise, who even after nearly 20 year was still upset at having been "tricked" in to taking the roll on the original show (luckily, Dawn "Mary-Ann" Wells was able to fill in and provide the voices for both roles).

Much like the original Gilligan' Island theme song had done, the intro to this cartoon summed up the entire back-story and plot in one compact snippet. They're castaways on an island, they build a rocket, they're now stranded in space.

Produced by Filmation (in conjunction with MGM/United Artists), Gilligan's Planet was the last cartoon series that Filmation produced for Saturday mornings. After this point, it's all syndicated stuff. It was also the first Filmation series to feature the Lou Scheimer "signature" credit (as opposed to the rotating Lou Scheimer/Norm Prescott "wheel" credit which had been used since 1969).

And of course, it was directed by my close personal friend, Hal Sutherland (and by "Close Personal Friend", I mean "I bought an animation cell of Orco from him at a comic book convention and had him sign it for me")

Comments

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

I have fond memories of Gilligan's Planet, although even then I knew it was not exactly Shakespeare. ;) I think I just really enjoyed the whole "live action shows cartoonified" genre, but at least some of that was because of my love for Star Trek.

-TG

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

That Star Trek cartoon was the BEST live-to-cartoon continuation EVER. The various Gilligan attempts, though...

So here's the problem. Gilligan's Island was at the very least a 50% PHYSICAL comedy. That could translate well to a cartoon done by somebody like Disney, but using Filmation's famous "Lots of dialogue so all we have to do is close-up on the face and animate the lips and recycle the same walking animation over different backgrounds" style of animation just couldn't cut it (imho)

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

BUT! Yeah, I still looked forward to and loved every minute of Gilligan's Planet :)

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Part of that is because Star Trek was written by a lot of the same people who did the original show. At least some of the scripts had been intended for use in the live-action series, although they had to get severely chopped to fit the 30 min slot.

-TG

[queeberquabbler.livejournal.com]

I've been waiting for you to get around to this cartoon :) I remember it well, but no one else I know personally remembers it at all. Now I can point them to this page and say HA, I TOLD you so! They owe me so many beers >:-D

[aurora77]

Hal loves to talk, but I haven't heard any particularly interesting stories from him yet, or at least they weren't ones I hadn't heard before. I hope to catch him at the next ECCC if he's there.

I have virtually no memory of this cartoon. :( I probably would have liked it, too. I'll have to grab a few eps someday.

[bookishwench.livejournal.com]

It kind of fascinates me that the original stars (minus one) voiced their roles in this, not unlike the Mork and Mindy one, giving Robin Williams a taste of animation work long before he was in Aladdin.

[janusfiles.livejournal.com]

Let me get this straight -- the Professor couldn't find a way to repair the MINNOW, but he could build a fully-functioning spaceship? That's not suspending one's disbelief; that's hanging it by the neck until it's dead.

[artytoons.livejournal.com]

Tina Louise didn't want to be involved in anything related to "Gilligan's Island" after the original sitcom's run ended.

Filmation regular voice actress Jane Webb played both Ginger and Mary Ann in the "New Adventures of Gilligan" billed as Jane Webb as Ginger and Jane Edwards (Webb's maiden name) as Mary Ann. Dawn Wells was acting in regional theatre roles at the time and was unavailable for the "New Adventures of Gilligan" series.

Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott worked with Gilligan and Brady Bunch creator/producer Sherwood Schwartz well enough with the "Brady Kids" cartoon show that they probably agreed to do a "Gilligan" cartoon show afterwards.