The Castaways on GI




	Sherwood really wanted to produce a movie called "Murder on Gilligan's Island". You wouldn't have missed tuning in for that, would you? The title alone would certainly have piqued the interest of GI fans everywhere. Instead, he ended up filming two more Gilligan's Island TV movies, the first of which was "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island".

In Russell's own words:

Following "Rescue from Gilligan's Island", the network knew it had a good thing.
Our record-breaking success in "Rescue" prompted Sherwood to use his
powers as Lazarus to keep us alive on the island for two more TV movies. In
"The Castaways on Gilligan's Island", we were rescued again, and Mr. Howell
built a bamboo tropical resort for tourists. The whole idea was to host celebrity guests a'la The Love Boat and Fantasy Island , which were on the air at the time.

In "Castaways", a ninety-minute movie, we were stranded on the same island
again. Gilligan stumbled upon two disabled WW II fighter planes and a machine shop in a Quonset hut that we had somehow overlooked all those years on the island. I combined parts from the planes and flew us off the island, only the plane cracked up and we had to make an emergency landing back on the island.
The Coast Guard spotted us and we were instantly rescued.

Mr. Howell transformed the island into a resort paradise, and - imagine! - he allowed all of us to be partners in the venture. Of course, Gilligan and Skipper still slept in hammocks that hung in a hut, and the rest of us were dressed in the same clothes we had worn for fifteen years, prowling the resort like costumed mascots in a theme park. The guest stars in this special were Tom Bosley and Marcia Wallace. The movie aired in March 1979 to modest ratings.

Russell's experience as a fighter pilot came in handy in this GI TV movie