Memories of the ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Fan Club

Written by Ronald A. Turner 

     “I’m the superstar, not the movie star,” Russell Johnson of L.A. claimed.  No, it wasn’t the man who portrayed the Professor on TV’s classic “Gilligan’s Island.”  I wish.

     It was kind of a prank as I tried to reach celebrities over the phone from my dorm room.  I was bored with the straight and serious news-like atmosphere of studying for my Radio/TV degree at Harding University in the small town of Searcy, Arkansas.  I wanted to learn about a real show, a creative one.  I had grown up on Gilligan reruns and filled a Georgia Bulldogs notebook with a story called “The Never Ending Adventures of Iggy:  Book One, Iggy Meets Mary Ann” while a freshman at Greater Atlanta Christian School in late 1981.

     I didn’t reach any stars that night, but an agency for Russell Johnson, the actor and Castaway, later gave me the office/home number for Creator/Producer/Writer Sherwood Schwartz in Beverly Hills.

     This was around February of 1987, and Sherwood sent me an unpublished copy of “Inside Gilligan’s Island,” a rather large book in both physical size and length, and I stayed up and burned some of that “midnight oil” reading it.  I quickly became the best and most faithful fan of the series as I began my own three-hour tour into the people and history of Gilligan’s Island,” the show that has been rerun more often and in more places than any other show in TV history.                                       

     I contacted the National Association of Fan Clubs (NAFC) in Pueblo, Colorado and was informed that they didn’t know of any clubs for the show.  There have been other clubs, but they must have been stranded on Fan Club Island when I began searching.  With the knowledge and blessing of copyright owner Turner Entertainment (Thanks, Ted) and Sherwood Schwartz, I sent $12 to the National Association of Fan Clubs and became the Founder and President of the Gilligan’s Island Fan Club.  That was a fun day!

     There have been many Star Trek and Andy Griffith fans, and there was a fan club on the Harding campus for Dr. Who, but all they did was sit around and watch episodes.  I wanted to do more than that.  My goals for the club were simple:

1.             Learn about the show.

2.             Meet the cast.

3.             Honor those behind the production.

     I sent plaques to Sherwood and the cast thanking them for their contribution to quality entertainment.

     I collected photos from the show and performers and even sent off for a photocopied episode script, “So Sorry, My Island Now” (about the Japanese sailor) or “Beauty Is as Beauty Does” (about the Miss Castaway contest).  The guy who sold me the script told me the name of the only other Gilligan fan he had heard of, Kent Spacek (cousin of actress Sissy) of Richmond, Texas.  Kent was also working on a Radio/TV degree and I appointed him the Vice President of my club.  This was a good idea because we both got involved in the next event.  We received an invitation to attend “America on the Rerun,” a four day event at three Houston malls.  They would provide a booth for the show and signs, and best of all, Bob “Gilligan” Denver and Tina “Ginger” Louise would be making an appearance on Saturday May 30, 1987.  Kent and his friend Chris Kalkomey went to all three malls and videotaped footage.  They got great footage of Bob and Tina arriving in a limo and talked to them behind the scenes.  Mr. Denver joked with them that they didn’t have enough light to shoot in the mall office.  Tina asked who they represented and when they told her proudly “ The Gilligan’s Island Fan Club,” she surprisingly asked Bob if he knew there was a fan club.  He seemed kind of amused.

  I stayed at the last mall they would appear at, West Oaks Mall.  A friend and former roommate from Harding (we roomed for five weeks one summer), Paul D. Berry, had driven in from Dallas to join us.

     I’ll always remember meeting Bob and Tina.  Paul and I went into a small mall conference room with Bob and gave him a laminated fan club membership card that had his name and the Gilligan’s Island logo you see on TV on it.  I remember watching him stir his coffee and wondering if the spoon would disintegrate like it did in one of the episodes.  Bob was a humble and kind man.   We took photos with Bob as we watched him sign his autograph for the many fans he would see in the mall.   I don’t believe Tina was in the room with us, but later she gave me an address where I could write her.  She was very nice, and I later wondered why she was appearing at the malls with Bob since I had heard some negative things about her feelings toward the work and how Bob felt about her character on the series.  During San Francisco radio interview (they called me in Florida) in the early 90’s, a DJ joked that they had to do the mall circuit because “their careers were just going so well.”

     When they appeared before the public on a small stage, I presented them each with a plaque.  This wild lady from a radio station called me on stage by saying,  “Come on up here, Baby.”

     “I’d like to present this plaque to Bob Denver and Tina Louise ‘in appreciation of the hard work you’ve done providing quality entertainment to others.’  From the Gilligan’s Island Fan Club, 30^th of May 1987, Ronald A. Turner, Founder and President.”  It was one of my favorite moments although friends at college later pointed out that I should have kissed Tina when I gave it to her.  Sorry, I forgot!

       “It’s gonna go up in the room,” Bob said as he thanked me.  I patted him on the shoulder and he enthusiastically put out his hand to shake mine.

     Tina said,  “My daughter is gonna be so proud,” and I shook her hand also. Her daughter, Caprice,  is a fan of the series, and she has probably helped change some of Tina’s negative feelings about it.  Sherwood told in his book how a man dying wanted to watch Ginger as he died and that information left a big impression on Tina’s perspective.

  They answered questions and passed out lots of sheets they had previously signed.  I remember later writing Tina with a self addressed stamped envelope and the thrill of getting my first note from a celebrity (she admitted that day in Houston that she doesn’t like being called a “starlet”) when she wrote me back.  She has written me several times.

      I continued to communicate with Sherwood and feel connected to his show.  In December of 1988, I visited Hollywood to attend the American Film Institute sponsored seminar on “Writing Television Sitcoms.”  While I was in the L.A. area, Sherwood agreed to visit with me.  I left the seminar early on that Sunday afternoon while they watched the pilot episode of “Roseanne” and went to the street where Sherwood picked me up in his Mercedes.  I remember thinking it was neat how the seat belt automatically reached out to greet me and fasten me in for our drive to Beverly Hills.  It was like meeting a true mentor and dear friend and grandfather all at the same time.  He was very kind and very intelligent.  It was neat to be in someone’s home and see pictures of the Castaways on the walls and stuff from the Brady Bunch and even the Gilligan voodoo dolls used in one episode on a shelf.    We talked about the cast members and some of the health problems they faced.  We talked a little about differences between the Jewish and Christian faiths.  I asked him why he didn’t just strand seven Jewish people on an island, and he told me he had wanted/needed a broader audience.  That made sense to me.

    Our visit probably lasted around an hour, and then he drove me back to my home away from home, The Best Western Hollywood.  I’ll never forget something that happened there, pure California style.  There was a tremor and I was on the eighth floor so I called down to the front desk,  “Was that an earthquake?”

     “Where you at?”

     “California.”

     “All right then!”  Now, that’s customer service!

     In May and June of 1989, I journeyed to England as part of a Harding church campaign.  There were ten of us in the group.  One of the other fellows, Scott Stewart, was also a Radio/TV major and would later interview Sherwood while pursuing his Master’s at the University of Southern California, same school Sherwood went to.

       In a congregation at Loughborough, I met Gilligan fans who remembered the original airing of the show in Britain.  I thought it was brilliant when both Eric Utting and Aphra Stones said,  “Aye, I watched that from ’64 to ’67.”  They remembered the years like it was just yesterday.

     The rewards of learning about the series and meeting members of  TV history increased my enthusiasm for the show.  I guess I compare it to a sports fanatic who gets real excited about a team and meeting its players, but most people don’t see me in the same light.                                                

     I won $75 for a speech I gave tying the series to spiritual integrity, basically saying Christians can use TV to influence for good.  Sherwood was far from thrilled that I compared his work the quotes from the Bible. 

      I even got college credit for an independent study, three hours of credit for a three-hour tour.  Not bad!

      Many thought I was this love-sick, obsessed fan.  Although I do have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (no, it’s not confession time), this really wasn’t a problem.  Years later, the club got listed in a book called “Organized Obsessions.”  Mass communication professors Lou Butterfield and Mike James often said “No Gilligan” when they assigned a TV project or paper, but my passion was strong, and I remember sitting up late one night with a typewriter in an empty dorm study room preparing a 20 something page script for my TV class production “A Closer Look at Gilligan’s Island” when they had changed their minds.  Gilligan wins again!

     I collected autographs from Sherwood, Bob, Tina, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells.  I received a picture signed by Jim Backus and his wife Henny.  She later signed a book after he passed.  Trinket Hale, the widow of Alan, sent me a bio and one of the last photos he had signed.  Dawn was good friends with Natalie Schaefer and got me her autograph.  So, I collected them all although they weren’t all signed to specifically me.

     I really wanted to get a cast member to make an appearance at Harding.  A visit by Dawn and Russ was talked about for $3000, but the school was small and finances were limited.                                            

     I believe God works in mysterious ways, and this would be no exception.  A man walked into the Searcy Subway Sandwich Shop looking for the President of the Gilligan’s Island Fan Club.  When I found this out later, it was kind of scary and reminded me of a tale I’d heard about a man looking for Michael Landon once and shooting two studio guards.  But, this man meant me no harm and called me on the phone instead of actually meeting me.  He had worked with Dawn on a play or something and gave me her home phone number.  I left her a message, and it was great to hear her on my voicemail later.  I saved that voicemail (along with about 79 others from my last days at Harding) and played it over the phone during the San Francisco morning drive interview years later.  I’ve also sung the theme over the air to those lucky California morning drivers (the poor folks really got stranded with me) but the announcer responded to the shock of my still having this message by saying  “I’m going to run right out and get you the game of Life.  I’m going to skip Monopoly and Clue and get you the game of Life!”

      March 29, 1990 became “Mary Ann Comes to Harding” Day.  It was a dream come true to meet this sweet lady who is so much like Mary Ann in real life.  Steve, a school official, and I drove about an hour to the Little Rock Airport to meet her and take her to Shoney’s.  She was a beautiful woman.  She was Miss Nevada before joining the cast of  “Gilligan’s Island.”                                                

     In a TV interview the day after “Mary Ann Comes to Harding,”  Dawn described the event as follows:  “…never had the privilege of meeting Ron and he corresponded with me three or four times and said, ‘Would you do it?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, let’s try to work it out.’  So we had the best time!  We got in real late, my partner in my company and I came in together and got in real late Wednesday night, and we spent all day yesterday at the school, starting at 7:15 at breakfast, and ending at 10:00 last night.  I felt like the President.  Every few minutes I was someplace else with all these little bodyguards around me.  It was great.”

     Dawn visited a dorm room, the dean’s office, chapel.  She lectured in a science and tailoring class, and I did a fifty minute interview with her in the school’s TV studio.  Then, that evening, we did some give-aways and showed the “Gilligan’s Island” Slide Show and Dawn spoke, signing autographs at the reception.  She also worked in a couple  of radio interviews.  It was a busy day, and she sent me a plaque as her way of saying thanks.  It reads  “A Special Thank You to Ronald A. Turner, President, Gilligan’s Island Fan Club:  “Mary Ann Comes to Harding” Day, March 29, 1990, was a very special day for me.  Thanks for the wonderful memories!  Dawn Wells, Mary Ann.”  Steve presented a letter she had written praising that day and the school in chapel, but I’m glad he didn’t call me up to get the plaque because it was one of my “a little behind on the grooming” days.

        While living in Nashville, TN after the completion of my B.A., Dawn called me in

1991 asking me to appear on the Fox Network’s show “Personalities.”  A cameraman came to my home and took some footage of me typing and my looking into the camera and saying how “Dawn glows from the inside to the out.”   On the show, they claimed I ran the Dawn Wells Fan Club with about 1800 members.

        Something interesting you see in the video is that there is a poster of Mr. Fred Rogers during part of the shot and then it disappears.  Mister Rogers later wrote me and was a very nice man, but the cameraman changed his mind about having the poster on the wall and it still shows up anyway.  It’s been a lovely day with the Castaways!

     I also appeared very early in the morning on a local Nashville show, “Rise and Shine,” dressed in my red shirt and white cap, which I don’t wear very often.  Dawn phoned in some comments for the show.  Chad, the host, almost went into shock when he heard Dawn say his name.

     I knew nothing about the Original Gilligan’s Island Fan Club based out of Salt Lake City.  They had begun about the time of the show and reorganized in 1972.  Where were they when I asked about fan clubs?  They have about 1000 members, or did.  Now, you can join a club online (it’s a goofy or wacky club because the members or leaders go by Castaway names and you never know who they are as real people).  You probably won’t get anything in the mail unless you buy it from Ebay.  That can become costly because there are plenty of Gilligan goodies.

     You can look up Gilligan’s Island or  pick your favorite performer from the show and see what E Bay has to offer. You can also look up sites for Bob (buy a rubber coconut), Dawn (get a cookbook with my name on the acknowledgement page, wow!), Russ  (I have a tee shirt he autographed “Love, Russell Johnson, the Professor) and Alan (his site is just a tribute to a great man and actor).  My fan club, listed in the 2001 Encyclopedia of Associations with a Florida address (I’m now in Huntsville, Alabama), had about 180 members from 20 or so states and England.  It was a very personal effort, not something mainstreamed to many people.  I didn’t sit behind a desk.  I lived the adventures.  I was big like the Skipper, had the knowledge of the show like Professor and was often bumbling in word and deed like Gilligan.  I didn’t have the resources of Mr. Howell.  I only put out one two-sided newsletter during the whole life of my club.  My efforts weren’t all that noble for what the fans got out of it.  But, Dawn recognized my efforts when she said,  “You are better about Gilligan’s Island than I am.  You’ve stumped me three or four times here.”  The Original Club had a regular sixteen page newsletter full of goodies so I respected that.  Sometime in 1992, I was asked to merge my efforts with this group, and I became Co-President.  I wrote an article introducing myself to the club, compared the merger to the mixing of peanut butter and chocolate and included a photo of Dawn and me.  For some reason, this merger sunk.  The addresses of many of the Houston fans from 1987 were no                       longer good, and someone didn’t like my new title, possibly because I was not a financial contributor to the cause.  I don’t know why.  So, I was demoted to the rank of Southern Promoter.  The rewards kept coming my way anyway.

     In May of 1993, I headed to my Dad and older brother’s alma mater, Abilene Christian University and worked as a weekend announcer for KACU, their NPR station.  I began work toward a Master’s degree in English, but my hobby proved that academics were not going to be my strength at this time.  A month later, I was offered a free trip to New York for a guest spot on a Joan Rivers Show episode about fan clubs featuring Dawn and Star Trek’s Uhura, actress Nichelle Nichols.  I got a free flight, free room at the Empire Radison Hotel near the Lincoln Center (nice heated towel bar and CD player in each room; I listened to Madonna and Phil Collins), and I got rides in a town car or limo to the show and the airports.  I also got an expense check for $25.  They kept the other $25 because I asked them to send me a VHS of the show.  Dawn and I decided I should dress up in my Gilligan outfit since there were some Klingons in the audience.  I was kind of heavy for Gilligan, but I changed into my costume in Dawn’s dressing room restroom.  The show was fun, but Nichelle and Dan Madsen, a Trekkie and Star Wars fan, talked so much I didn’t get a chance to tell Joan how much Dawn’s involvement with the fan club and me personally has been a boost to my self esteem.  I regret that.  It was taped on June 29, 1993, my mother’s birthday, and I remember watching it in the ACU cafeteria later when it aired.  The fellow eaters clapped me for me when I came on the TV screen.

     In September of that same year, Dawn made an appearance at ACU and we had a fun

time.  I even got to sit one on one with Dawn when we went out for lunch and the rest of the group left us alone for a moment.  I don’t remember what we talked about except I noticed her middle initial on her credit card (I’ve been sworn to secrecy).

       A cast put on “Gilligan’s Island Live,” a reproduction of the beauty contest episode and Dawn answered questions, signed autographs, talked to an acting and fiction writing class.   This was about the time her cookbook was released and the cafeteria cooked up some of her dishes.

     After I dropped out of grad school, I found myself back in Lakeland, Florida where my parents lived at that time, and I got a chance to see Bob, Dawn and Russ in February of 1994 at the Florida State Fair in Tampa.  I dressed up yet again (why do I keep doing that?!) and took a lot of my memorabilia to appear with them on “Harris and Company,” a local show.  I provided clips to the producer of the lost pilot and some of their films including Russ’ “It Came From Outer Space,” Bob’s “Back to the Beach,” and Dawn’s “Return to Boggy Creek.”  Russ was wearing a green shirt and chomping on gum.  Some of his buddies from Girard College were there and gave him a ball cap that he put on.  Bob talked about how they didn’t make much money off the show, and he joked about how the Professor could do absolutely anything except fix a two foot hole in the boat.  I remember him also telling me in Houston that they used to pick on Russ by asking him how he could mess up such “simple dialogue.”  They each talked about their books and went to a table after the show to sign autographs and pose for pictures.  Russ was wearing a black pair of eyeglasses, but he’d quickly snatch them off before he posed for a photo, and Bob would raise his hand to say hello as he posed.  Bob was in that famous cap and a long sleeved shirt and dress coat.  Dawn was in a black outfit with white trim.  They were very laid back and had a good time with the fans and media.

     Bob, Dawn and Russ went on a cruise on February 20.  Bob had told me at the state

fair,  “Don’t forget to take your Dramamine,” but I chickened out and didn’t go on this over  three-hour tour, mainly because one of my Harding “not so little buddies,” Alan Berger, wasn’t able to fly in to Tampa and join me.    Debbie, a fan I met at the fair, did attend, though, and she shared the video footage with me.  The Castaways arrived in a black limo.  Russ was wearing an untucked white shirt and those black eyeglasses and carried a briefcase that was not handcuffed to him like Gilligan had in one episode.  Aboard the ship, Russ and Dawn signed their books (as did Bob) and I noticed that those two are Southpaws like me.  They both stuck their face into Debbie’s camera and said hi to Al from Goshen and Russ said,  “You’re a good guy, Al.”  Debbie just seemed to go around asking everyone to speak to Al from Goshen, Indiana (not to be confused with the Berger I mentioned).

       As they left the boat, Bob took off his cap and smiled and shook hands as he glided through the crowd.  Russ strolled over to a white limo and set his briefcase on the trunk and waited to leave.  Well, that egghead who can do 1001 things with a coconut (said he also used it for toilet paper…oh my, that’s rough!) almost missed his ride.                              

      He was informed he was meant to ride in the black limo.  This “genius” who couldn’t fix a two foot hole in the boat also couldn’t find the right limo.

     On September 7, 1997, Russ returned to Tampa to a convention William Shatner was also going to attend.  I visited with the Professor, but I beamed out of there before Captain Kirk arrived because I didn’t want him telling me to “get a life.”  And, YES, I have kissed a girl, William!  Professor has too!!

                         In late 1998, I returned to Sherwood’s office/home and brought along my parents, younger brother and his daughter Vicky.  My younger brother lives in the L.A. area

     I remember Dad asking Sherwood if the pendulum of quality in entertainment would ever swing back to the days of shows like you see on classic TV.  

    I was not a fan of the Gilligan reality series, however, but this was a few years before its creation.  There was just so much to the reality series that was “real -world” and not the creativeness of the original series.  For example, the man who played the Professor on the reality series supposedly convinced the producers that the original  Professor was gay.  I hope Sherwood was not one of the producers because there is no evidence that the way Russell Johnson portrayed the Professor shows he was homosexual.  There is a difference between homosexual and asexual.  He was interested in the flora and fauna but I’ve seen him dancing with Mary Ann and Ginger certainly tried to teach him about romance many times.   I was turned off by “The Real Gilligan’s Island” when I saw the Professor trying to describe the merits of being gay to the lady playing Mrs. Howell.  What a wholesome topic for TV!  Sadly, in answer to my Dad’s question, Sherwood admitted that the quality probably wouldn’t return.  Have you seen “The Brady Bunch” motion pictures?  They are a good example of how the quality has slipped.  It makes me wonder if the old times were clean because there were just more rules and now nobody cares about decency.  I recently bought a movie called “The Brady Bunch in the White House.”  Mike Brady becomes president.  It’s full of sexual innuendos.  I met someone at a funeral who told me their daughter plays “Brady Bunch” with friends and loves that show.  Should we show this movie to her?  Is that how she should learn about the “real world?”

    We’d visited a good while when young Vicky, age five or six, blurted out  “Can we go now?  It’s getting boring!”  We laughed.  We were in the home of a true storyteller and entertainer, and she was bored.  Sherwood took action and let her hold his Emmy he won as head writer on the Red Skelton Show and he autographed pictures of the Castaways and the Brady Bunch, his other successful show.

     I’ve learned a lot from Sherwood from meeting him, writing to him and reading his book.  TV has an influence; he would tell you that.  He asks in his book if it merely mirrors society or is it a modeler to society?  In my own words, does it act as a thermometer to reflect society or is it a  thermostat that sets the stage?  The Coast Guard summoned Sherwood after the series began to give him telegrams in which people had requested that the government save those lost souls                                                    they saw on TV.  But, there was a theme song explaining how they got on the island, music in the show and a laugh track!  What is the influence of TV?

     All three seasons of “Gilligan’s Island” are now available on DVD.  It’s easier  than cuing them up on VHS.  You just pop in a DVD and sit right back with the Castaways.