Movies - TV
Why The Gilligan's Island Opening Didn't Have Russell Johnson & Dawn Wells
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
The first-season theme song to "Gilligan's Island" is different from later seasons. In the later seasons, the theme song listed all seven characters individually.
In the first season, however, the professor and Mary-Ann were introduced as "And the rest." Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells didn't have credits and photos like everyone else.
This is because Tina Louise, who played Ginger, was very protective of her image as an actor and demanded that her credit be last in any above-the-line roll-call of cast members.
Because of the way the theme song was written, Louise's demands cut Wells and Johnson from the lineup. This was unfair, as all seven actors contributed to the show equally.
Luckily, Bob Denver (who played Gilligan) was wise enough to confront the studios about how Wells and Johnson were going uncredited, and they were listed from the second season on.