In Paula Finn’s 2018 e book “Sitcom Writers Discuss Store: Behind the Scenes with Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, and Different Geniuses of TV Comedy,” Finn interviewed producer and author Dava Savel, who labored on reveals like “Will & Grace” and “That is So Raven,” and Savel recounted a narrative about how “Gilligan’s Island” got here to be:
Here is a shaggy dog story for you a couple of pilot. I knew Sherwood Schwartz for thirty years, and he as soon as requested me, “You understand how I offered Gilligan’s Island?” I stated, “How?” He stated, “I wrote this tune, and I am on my method to the studio. I cease to get my gasoline crammed, and I say to the gasoline station man, ‘Can I sing one thing to you, and also you inform me for those who’re gonna watch this present?'” So he sings the entire thing, and the man says, “That seems like a very good present to me.” Sherwood goes, “That is what I believed!” In order that’s how he offered it.
If that gasoline station attendant had not been as receptive to Schwartz’s tune, who is aware of what might have occurred? Possibly the author/producer would have tweaked the lyrics on the final minute, altering the chemical perfection of the present tune to such a level that the “Gilligan’s Island” theme might need by no means change into the proper earworm everyone knows. Possibly Schwartz would have gotten dejected on the prospect of a daily TV watcher being disinterested in his thought and scrapped the pitch altogether. The probabilities are countless, however we’re actually glad issues shook out the best way they did. Speak about a fateful journey.
To study the saga of the completely chaotic, last-minute recording of the “Gilligan’s Island” theme tune, make sure you try our article about that right here.
