One Of The Professor's Experiments On Gilligan's Island Saved A Real Family's Lives

In the "Gilligan's Island" episode "Gilligan Meets Jungle Boy" (February 6, 1965), the title character (Bob Denver) unexpectedly finds a young boy living on the island. The boy (Kurt Russell) has clearly been living on the island his whole life, as he cannot speak English, and only repeats what others say. Gilligan tries to tell the other castaways about his encounter with Jungle Boy, but, comedically, no one believes him. 

Eventually, Jungle Boy is exposed, and the castaways are kind and protective. The boy also happens to know of a massive natural gas vent on the island, and it gives the Professor (Russell Watson) an idea. If they can sew together the long rubber raincoats on the S.S. Minnow, and seal the seams with tree sap, he could fill the coats with natural gas, hence constructing a makeshift hot air balloon. Surprisingly, the Professor's idea works, and the balloon seems capable of transporting at least one person off of the island. Because audiences know the castaways must remain stranded for the series to persist, however, they know that it's only a matter of time before something goes completely awry. 

Although the Professor's balloon was a fantasy concocted by teleplay writers Al Schwartz, Howard Merrill, and Howard Harris, it seems that there were some notable real-world applications for it. In his book "Inside Gilligan's Island: From Creation to Syndication," series creator Sherwood Schwartz recalled hearing an unlikely story that paralleled "Gilligan Meets Jungle Boy." It seems that a group of Czechoslovakian asylum seekers used the exact same type of balloon to flee Russian persecution in 1983.

The story was reported in the New York Times on September 9, 1983. Recall that the Iron Curtain didn't fall until 1989, so the country was still living under a harsh, repressive Communist regime. The story goes that a professional cyclist, Robert Hutyra, constructed a hot air balloon out of old raincoats, loaded his wife and two children — and a bike — into the basket, and floated away from Czechoslovakia to safety. Hutyra discussed his experiences in a video interview in 2019, and he said that he got the raincoats by faking an order from his cycling club, claiming they needed about 300m worth of black material. 

This story would have shocked critics of "Gilligan's Island" (and there were many) who said the show was dumb and implausible. "Far-fetched? Bizarre? Unbelievable?" Shwartz related. "That's what a critic in one of the trade papers said about that particular episode back in 1965." 

But Schwartz was amazed when the true story broke 18 years later. He wrote: 

"In September 1983, a family of four in Czechoslovakia made a balloon by sealing the ends of the sleeves of six raincoats and filling them with hot air. Thanks to wind currents, they escaped Russian persecution by sailing across the border to a safe democracy. They even used the same number of raincoats we used. Maybe they watch 'Gilligan's Island' in Czechoslovakia. If they do, the Professor must have convinced them it would work, even if he couldn't convince some of 'Gilligan's Island's' critics."

It's unclear how much American TV was allowed on Czech TV in 1983, although it's unlikely there was a lot of imported media available before the Velvet Revolution. 

If Hutyra was inspired by Gilligan, though, Schwartz and his screenwriters can proudly take credit.