by “Anyone who says money can’t buy happiness doesn’t know where to shop.” Eunice Wentworth “Lovey” Howell
As a tribute to Sherwood Schwartz, producer of both Gilligan’s Island (1964-1967) and The Brady Bunch (1969-1974) who passed away yesterday at the age of 94, I wanted to share a few fun facts about both shows…
* Gilligan’s Island only lasted three seasons and produced 98 episodes, along with three television movies and a new theatrical version currently in the works (Fred rolls his eyes). The Brady Bunch lasted a little longer, five seasons of 117 episodes, along with two television movies, a variety series, a dramatic version of the series, along with countless albums, cartoons, theatrical remakes, guest roles on other shows, etc…
* Melissa Sue Anderson (better known as “Mary” on Little House on the Prairie) played Millicent, the girl who gave Bobby Brady his first kiss. In her recent book, “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch,” actress Alison Arngrim, who played Nellie on the Little House series, says Anderson was stuck-up and difficult in real life, just the opposite of her roles on Little House and The Brady Bunch.
* Mike Brady’s first wife was supposed to have died, and Carol was supposed to have gotten a divorce. The network felt the idea of divorce too “shocking,” so it was never fully explained in the show.
* Maureen McCormick (“Marsha Brady”) recorded and released a country album in 1995 that, while a commercial flop, received excellent reviews from critics. She also starred and performed in the reality series Gone Country in 2008.
* The rock group that suddenly appears on the island and performs a “concert” were called The Mosquitoes. The band Ginger and Mary Ann form as a response was called the Honey Bees.
* A young Kurt Russell guest starred in the Gilligan’s Island episode “Jungle Boy.”
* The Professor took the “three hour tour” to do research on a book about ferns.
* The pilot for Gilligan’s Island was structured radically different than the actual series, with many cast changes.
FAVORITE EPISODES
Most people seem to agree on their favorite Gilligan episode. In the episode “The Producers“, the gang put on their own version of Hamlet…it is often voted the funniest episode of the series.
The Brady Bunch is not quite as cut-and-dried. While the episode where Marsha dates “the big man on campus” and gets hit in the nose with a football is the most famous, some people seem to really like the “new” Jan Brady (with a black afro) and the kids’ appearance as the Silver Platters.
Also, the 70’s variety show The Brady Bunch Hour is a SCREAM (Florence Henderson doing disco!), along with the 1980s revival show The Bradys (which tried to be a drama, but ended up being funnier than the original show…Marsha becomes an alcoholic for one episode? Such is the stuff pure CAMP is made of!).
SUCH ARE CULTURAL ICONS BORN AND MADE…
You would be hard pressed to find anyone who has not uttered the Marsha-ism “Oh my nose!” or the Jan-ism “Marsha! Marsha! Marsha!” Surprisingly, Jan only wails Marsha’s name three times in succession (kind of like “Bloody Mary,” I guess) in a single episode, and only says it ONCE. Along those same lines, other Gilligan cast members called The Howells “Thurston and Lovey” only once, in a single episode. That was the Professor.
THE RUMOR MILL
Cindy Brady did porn – FALSE – There are several theories as to how this got started. One is that there was a porn star in the late-1970s that looked similar to Susan Oleson, the girl who played Cindy. More likely, it was born from people seeing Susan Oleson’s appearance in the 1980s version of “Divorce Court,” where she portrayed a character that was filmed having sex. When Divorce Court began filming actual couples rather than actors, it muddled the lines of reality and confused many people.
There were fistfights on the set of Gilligan’s Island – FALSE – While some of the actors (notably Tina Louise, or “Ginger”) were unhappy with their roles and fought with producers over scripts and storylines, the rumors of physical altercations were mostly created as media fodder.
Mike Brady walked out on his family – TRUE – Robert Reed hated the show and his role in it from the start, seeing himself as a serious dramatic actor stuck in a moronic show. After repeated feuds with Sherwood Schwartz, Reed walked out on the show and the series finale, “Hairbrained Scheme,” was filmed without him.
Carol Brady went on a date with her son, Greg – TRUE and FALSE – Florence Henderson and Barry Williams did go to dinner once. Williams, a hormonal teen, thought it was a date. Henderson did not.
