How Gilligan's Island Star Russell Johnson Really Felt About Working With Tina Louise

The classic 1960s sitcom "Gilligan's Island" follows a handful of very different individuals who all become marooned together when their ship, the Minnow, runs aground on a deserted island. The series ran for three seasons and was moderately popular during its initial run, only to become even more popular in time through syndication. Unfortunately for some of the stars of the series, filming "Gilligan's Island" itself was kind of like being on that island, as the actors were in constant close contact with one another and there were some seriously conflicting personalities. 

Actor Russell Johnson, who had the incredibly important role as the Professor, frequently the voice of reason on the island, unfortunately, came to regret playing the character or starring on "Gilligan's Island" in the first place. He, unfortunately, became typecast due to the show's popularity, which derailed his career a bit in his eyes, but according to some of his recollections in his 1993 memoir, "Here on Gilligan's Island" (via MeTV), it sounds like he also had some regrets due to a bit of a personality conflict with Tina Louise, who played Ginger the movie star. 

According to Johnson, Louise didn't like playing Ginger even though the role had been tailored specifically for her talents, which he found puzzling. Ginger was vampy but innocent, a kind of idealized Marilyn Monroe type who stole the hearts of audiences. While the role did lead to Louise being typecast as well, having difficulty finding roles that weren't just carbon copies of Ginger, Johnson makes it sound like she took her distaste for the character out on her co-stars even during the show's filming. He explained that she could be rather moody on set, saying, "On any given day, we didn't know whether Tina was going to be Ginger Grant or Eva Grubb." 

Eva was a character that Louise played for one episode who intentionally came to the island to try and get away from civilization. Whereas Ginger was outgoing, bubbly, and sweet, Eva was a misanthropic and manipulative curmudgeon. That's not a very kind comparison, though Johnson might have had some monetary reasons for his malcontent. 

In his memoir, Johnson explained that the cast was offered the chance to make a lot of money, but Louise was the one holdout, costing them all:

"When our show began drawing good audiences, we were all approached about making cast appearances. The money would have been phenomenal for all of us. In just two weekends of appearances, we could have made thousands. The offer was for all seven of us or no offer at all. But for some reason, Tina was definitely not interested."

Being kept from making a whole lot of money is definitely one reason to be grumpy with your former co-star, and since Johnson had nothing but nice things to say about the rest of his castmates, it sounds like some of his other beef with Tina Louise might have had more to do with the money than with her actual behavior. For her part, Louise has cleared up the rumor that she hated working on the series, so maybe whatever discontent there was between the two actors was blown a bit out of proportion when Johnson looked back upon it all. Hopefully, things weren't really too bad between them, because the lighthearted fun of "Gilligan's Island" shouldn't make anyone miserable.