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There may be audition films and/or stills. I do not think that any pilot with those actors ever materialized
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I doubt there's anything that exists, unless there is a picture. I know there's nothing on film.
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Does anyone have any idea how or why Tina Louise was off doing Italian cinema in the 60s?
I've just watched (flicked through) Il fischio al naso (of which the plot kind of baffled me but Tina had some great costuming).
It's all in Italian, she's playing Italian but is dubbed. Was this popular back in the day? It seems all like a lot of work and a bit difficult to understand how it's directed?
I've just watched (flicked through) Il fischio al naso (of which the plot kind of baffled me but Tina had some great costuming).
It's all in Italian, she's playing Italian but is dubbed. Was this popular back in the day? It seems all like a lot of work and a bit difficult to understand how it's directed?
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The 60s were wild with those multinational productions; they' get a Hollywood star or two for American name recognition, fill the rest of the cast with European actors, and then dub everyone into whatever language the film would be released in. These were usually lower budget genre films, like Spaghetti westerns or peplum ("sword and sandals"), but some more prestigious productions too.
Dubbing kills any movie for me, so I've never been able to take them seriously.
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As much as I liked Tina Louise, I always wonder about 'what if' Jayne Mansfield had accepted the role
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I have pondered this often in my head.
On one hand, I'd not recast Tina Louise for anything (seeing how the follow-up made-for-TV movies didn't work when different actresses replaced her) because she was very good as Ginger. She was sexy, and even funny -- which, as I see it, the one thing missing from the TV movie recasts. Regardless to how well she did or didn't like doing the show, Louise played her role well and worked good with the rest of ensemble.
Jayne Mansfield has always had a soft spot in my heart. She had genuine talent, but it was squandered by her exploited physical attributes and her own hunger for attention. Jayne had a fine sense of humor, but I think (as it's been said before here in the discussions) that she was still too big a star in 1963 to take a supporting role on a new TV sitcom which many in the industry felt would die a quick death. Even so, I still imagine how Jayne would've played Ginger. I long to see Mansfield and Jim Backus go toe-to-toe in a banter of wits.
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I am fascinate with the logistics of the actual directing that would have gone on. You have an American actress who (I don't think) speaks Italian, speaking dialogue and reacting, while the other actors are actually speaking Italian. It just seems like such an odd choice. It's a contemporary film, Tina's character is playing a doctor. She's on the poster and credited as a main cast member so you're probably right as far as the recognisable name thing goes, just seems so random to me lol. I wish there was an easily accessible English version too because the plot is difficult to follow even from translated descriptions.
I agree. After rewatching and looking at other projects Tina has been involved in, it's become more evident that she's truly playing a character, and doing so with a lot of nuance. At first glance, it might seem like she's just "playing herself," but in reality, there's a mix of naivety, humor, and a calculated superficiality that she carefully crafts. She's not just acting as an actress portraying an actress; she's bringing a deeper level to the role. Ginger is funny, deadpan, and effortlessly sexy, yet it's clear that Tina is working hard to project that image. Even just switching to Ginger's voice is an act separating the character from the actress.
I can absolutely understand how frustrating it must be to be continuously compared to the character and have people constantly bring it up, especially when it was a role she played for just three years. It was likely seen as a stepping stone to bigger opportunities, rather than a defining career moment.
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Admittedly, I've seen little of Tina's work outside of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, but judging by her roles in THE STEPFORD WIVES and on DALLAS, she held a range greater than her career-defining Ginger Grant role might suggest.
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I think about that with actors all the time, having to constantly humor fans and interviewers by talking about the same project from years ago. Imagine being endlessly asked about a job and co-workers you had for a few years decades earlier? The actors (say, Victoria Principal) who mostly cut ties with their past work are the smart ones.
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Exactly.
From this view, I can understand why someone like Tina Louise has gotten irritated in the past about being questioned frequently about the time she spent on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. It was just three years of a long, successful career full of other film, TV, and stage work.
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Yes, GILLIGAN (and I'm sure we've discussed it before) was cancelled by CBS in 1967 by Bill Paley who wanted to salvage GUNSMOKE which the network's board had just axed after 12 years. (GUNSMOKE had drooped to Number 35, a good enough rating to keep most shows on the air, but because GUNSMOKE was always expected to be in the Top 10, it got cut). Paley, who liked GUNSMOKE and felt it (obviously) had a longer first-run shelf-life potential than GILLIGAN, uncanceled GUNSMOKE and moved it to early-Monday nights (where it would remain for 8 more years) and, in order to make way, shelved GILLIGAN, despite it still being in the Top 10.
I'm glad he salvaged GUNSMOKE, but Paley should have renewed GILLIGAN for a fourth season, and inserted GILLIGAN into the middle of the '67-'68 season as a mid-season replacement for any new show which quickly flopped.
Any popular series which runs three seasons should probably get a fourth. It's that four-year-itch thing.
And I have to briefly delve back into the B&W-vs-color debate... I love the different vibe of GILLIGAN's first season (1964-'65) in black-and-white: there is a calm serenity to it (just as there is to BEWITCHED's first season, also 1964-'65) which is 'special'. It should never have been colorized, as that ruins the B&W ambiance, yet doesn't achieve the "wacky" tone the second season (1965-'66) has which would be in keeping with the general flavor of late-'60s television, a tone that befitted GILLIGAN (and BEWITCHED) which superficial things like colorization doesn't conjure.
But GILLIGAN made the switch (as did ANDY GRIFFITH) at the correct time, the fall of 1965. Any series in B&W that didn't make the switch to color until a year later, in the fall of 1966 as required by all American primetime series, have a washed-out, anachronistic look.
The B&W vibe from the 1964/65 season is damn near holy. But it looks merely drab if that B&W continues into 1965/66. (Which is why I don't mind so much the colorization of Season 2 of BEWITCHED -- still shot in B&W; yet consider the colorization of Season 1 to be heresy).
It's weird. But it makes some sense. There has always been a lot of talk about where "the line" in the '60s was drawn, as the two halves of the decade were like two different decades (almost two different centuries). But the calendar year which started out still feeling like the early-'60s (funereal and sacredly pre-apocalyptic) but ended up clearly in evidence that new era had begun (the mad, mod post-apocalyptic late-'60s) was ... 1965.
In TV horror terms, think the original TWILIGHT ZONE versus DARK SHADOWS (although ZONE ended in 1964, and SHADOWS -- a cheapy daytime soap -- was still in B&W through 1967. Which vaguely destroys my point, but some of you get the idea). Or, in terms of cinema, PSYCHO versus ROSEMARY'S BABY (I wanted to use NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD as the post-apocalyptic example of late-'60s horror on the big screen, but it was shot in B&W, so my point is lost yet again).
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I've loved GILLIGAN'S ISLAND for years now, and there was a time that I wished a good, colorized version of Season 1 existed somewhere. But, having grown up a little bit, I wouldn't trade that B&W premiere season for anything. In the case of GILLIGAN, though, I'd say the show worked best in that garish, late-60s brand of color. It helped it come into its own. It helped BEWITCHED and JEANNIE, too.
GILLIGAN needed at least one more season of, say, 30 episodes. Its ratings were down at the end of the 1966-67 season, but that was partly due to the earlier time slot and the competition from THE MONKEES over on NBC, which, to be fair, GILLIGAN was still besting in the overall ratings. GILLIGAN had dropped from #22 to #49 in between 1966 and 1967, but it was still winning its time slot, and apparently by a considerable margin.
I don't wish CBS would've cancelled GUNSMOKE in 1967, but they could've nixed something else to keep GILLIGAN around for another year. There were several single seasons shows on CBS that ended in 1967, such as Sherwood Schwartz's own IT'S ABOUT TIME, as well as PISTOLS 'N' PETTICOATS, both half-hour comedies that could've made room for GILLIGAN to carry over into the 1967-68 season. They could've even toyed with cancelling a longer-running sitcom, like MY THREE SONS or THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, both shows I like, but were limping into exhaustion.
GILLIGAN deserved a proper sendoff during its original run, instead of the half-hearted TV follow-up movies in the late-70s. In saying that, I think part of the series' popularity in syndication for decades owes to the fact that the seven castaways stay stranded on the island without any hope of resuce on the horizon. I know a lot of people that didn't even know the reunion movies existed for decades.
GILLIGAN needed at least one more season of, say, 30 episodes. Its ratings were down at the end of the 1966-67 season, but that was partly due to the earlier time slot and the competition from THE MONKEES over on NBC, which, to be fair, GILLIGAN was still besting in the overall ratings. GILLIGAN had dropped from #22 to #49 in between 1966 and 1967, but it was still winning its time slot, and apparently by a considerable margin.
I don't wish CBS would've cancelled GUNSMOKE in 1967, but they could've nixed something else to keep GILLIGAN around for another year. There were several single seasons shows on CBS that ended in 1967, such as Sherwood Schwartz's own IT'S ABOUT TIME, as well as PISTOLS 'N' PETTICOATS, both half-hour comedies that could've made room for GILLIGAN to carry over into the 1967-68 season. They could've even toyed with cancelling a longer-running sitcom, like MY THREE SONS or THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, both shows I like, but were limping into exhaustion.
GILLIGAN deserved a proper sendoff during its original run, instead of the half-hearted TV follow-up movies in the late-70s. In saying that, I think part of the series' popularity in syndication for decades owes to the fact that the seven castaways stay stranded on the island without any hope of resuce on the horizon. I know a lot of people that didn't even know the reunion movies existed for decades.
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I agree. I've taken screenshots sometimes just to appreciate the colouring. It's just such an experience of it's own in a way.
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GILLIGAN'S ISLAND was a show made for color. It looks beautiful.I agree. I've taken screenshots sometimes just to appreciate the colouring. It's just such an experience of it's own in a way.
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Although the garish color (and louder tone) perfectly fit GILLIGAN and BEWITCHED, their first year (the 1964/65 season) had a unique quality in B&W which is almost sacred and should never have been touched (a la colorizing).
Their origins were in 1964, perhaps by necessity. Although they inevitably had to branch out into, and embrace the new zeitgeist of, the shriekier late-'60s. Their freshman seasons were a prologue of sorts.
Much as DALLAS had to have its origins in the late-'70s before it could become the global 1980s titan that it did.
You can't have the latter without the former -- it's all part of the arc.
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‘Gilligan’s Island’ Pilot: The Forgotten Original Castaways
The original 'Gilligan’s Island' pilot featured a different cast and characters. Here’s who they were—and why Sherwood Schwartz made a course correction.
www.womansworld.com
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Very interesting. In his book "Here on Gilligan's Isle" Russell Johnson makes a point of keeping the axed actors' names confidential. To save them embarrassment, I think, but I'm not entirely sure why that would be the case.‘Gilligan’s Island’ Pilot: The Forgotten Original Castaways
The original 'Gilligan’s Island' pilot featured a different cast and characters. Here’s who they were—and why Sherwood Schwartz made a course correction.
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There was a "Baywatch" episode where Bob Denver and Dawn Wells played their "Gilligan's Island" roles
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So, I was today-years-old when I learned that Kit Smythe (the Ginger in the unaired pilot) was the first wife of Denny Miller, the man who guest-starred twice on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. He first appeared as Duke Williams in "Big Man on a Little Stick" (S1, E21) and later as a Tarzan-type TV actor in "Our Vines Have Tender Apes" (S3, E20).
