Russell Johnson Shared A Distinctive Bond With One Gilligan’s Island Co-Star

On “Gilligan’s Island,” romance at all times ran at a low ebb. Aside from Mr. and Mrs. Howell (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer), there have been no {couples} on the island, and none appeared to kind over the course of the present. Certainly, a number of of the characters appeared too foolish or infantile to kind something approaching a real-life affair. Gilligan (Bob Denver) was too harmless, and the Skipper (Alan Hale) was extra usually pondering of engineering and survival than being charming. Ginger (Tina Louise) was usually wearing fairly robes, and was actually offered as a intercourse image, however was extra involved with fame and performing than flirting with any of the lads or girls round her. 

The 2 “regular” characters on the island had been Mary Ann (Daybreak Wells) and the Professor (Russell Johnson), who usually served because the present’s “straight man” characters; they not often received to have slapstick moments or pratfalls of their very own. Due to their mutual operate, many “Gilligan’s Island” followers tended to ship the characters, if I could use fashionable parlance. If there was to be a brand new romantic pairing on Gilligan’s Isle, it was to be between the Professor and Mary Ann. This notion was cemented by the truth that Wells’ and Johnson’s credit had been listed collectively within the present’s opening. 

Viewers could have additionally been keying into the truth that Wells and Johnson had been good buddies off-camera. The 2 actually had loads of chemistry, and had quite a lot of respect for each other. Wells would later admit that she had an enormous crush on Johnson, though throughout their stint on “Gilligan’s Island,” they had been each married to different folks, and needed to maintain their relationship distantly respectful. 

Johnson, whereas by no means admitting to a romantic attraction to Wells, did write in his autobiography “Right here on Gilligan’s Isle” (penned with Russell Cox), that he and his co-star did share what he referred to as “a mutual fondness.”

Johnson wrote that Wells introduced loads of her personal persona to Mary Ann. She, like her character, was variety and pleasant. He additionally famous that Mary Ann was offered as an “all-American farmgirl” archetype, and that Wells herself was the great-granddaughter of one of many earliest Gold Rush settlers within the 1840s. To Johnson, that made her American to the core. He additionally wrote that he and Wells probably bonded due to the above-mentioned similarity of their characters. The Professor and Mary Ann had been the affordable ones. 

Johnson posited that the “Gilligan’s Island” showrunners realized within the present’s second season that their characters had been simply as very important to the ensemble as anybody else’s, inflicting their components to be expanded. As he wrote it: 

“I suppose if I needed to determine the one I used to be closest to within the forged, it could be Daybreak. We have at all times shared a mutual fondness for each other. It was at all times Platonic. On the outset, we had been each uncared for within the opening credit and known as ‘the remaining,’ and our roles had been about the identical proportion at first. As time glided by, I believe the producers and writers started to understand that the professor and Mary Ann had been the lone voices of logic. We had been crucial to the present, and so they expanded our components.”

The erstwhile Professor additionally recalled a dialog he had with Wells about fan mail. Wells, he stated, assumed that Tina Louise would get a the majority of the present’s fan mail, as she was “the glamorous one.” Because it seems, Wells received at the least as a lot fan mail, citing how relatable she was, possessing a “lady nextdoor” high quality. 

Johnson, sadly, handed away in 2014 on the age of 89. Wells died of COVID-19 in 2020 on the age of 82. Each of them, nevertheless, will dwell on by the never-forgotten “Gilligan’s Island” reruns.