"Gilligan's Island" premieres 1964

The pilot for Gilligan's Island, Marooned was filmed first but by the time it was ready for release onto television, the cast had changed.  The first episode to air was Two on a Raft, in which Gilligan and the Skipper build a raft and set back out to sea to find help.  It debuted September 26, 1964.

The show starred Bob Denver as Gilligan, Alan Hale Jr. as the Skipper, Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III, Natalie Shafer as Mrs. Howell, Tina Louise as Ginger Grant, Russell Johnson as the professor, and Dawn Wells as Mary Ann.  

The show ran for three seasons.

Happy birthday, Mary Ann!

Dawn Wells, born October 18, 1938 in Reno, Nevada, is best known as Mary Ann Summers on everyone's favorite sitcom Gilligan's Island.  After graduating from Reno High School, she attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri where she graduated with a chemistry degree in 1960.  But in 1959, she was crowned Miss Nevada.

She made her television debut in 1961 in The Roaring Twenties, and landed the role of Mary Ann Summers in Gilligan's Island in 1964.  The rest is history.  In some ways, she's still marooned on that desert island.

She and Tina Louise, with whom she doesn't get along, are the only surviving cast members.

This is one of my favorite clips from the show.  How the writers managed to incorporate Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins into one skit, I'll always be amazed.