Gilligan’s Island’s Worrying Eighth Passenger Theories Defined

Behind each happy-go-lucky franchise, there is a fan principle hypothesizing that somebody was lifeless the entire time. Though it aired a long time earlier than followers started sharing viral theories that the castaways of “Lost”, musical youngsters in “Grease”, and even the expensive previous tart in “Up” someway died earlier than the opening credit, “Gilligan’s Island” was nonetheless swept away by darkish fan principle like a ship in a monsoon.

Typically, these weirdly darkish and non-canonical fan theories titillate some folks whereas forcing others (myself included) to reply with an enormous previous, “Who cares?” Within the case of The Story of Gilligan’s Island, nevertheless, the miserable theories are based mostly on an actual a part of the sequence: an inconsistency within the theme track that turns into an increasing number of noticeable every time you begin an episode.

The theme song “Gilligan’s Island”offered by sequence creator Sherwood Schwartz and prolific composer and songwriter George Wyle, is an undeniable earworm that has permeated popular culture over the previous half-century. Earlier than watching the present, I already knew a lot of the lyrics to the track that implores viewers to “sit again” and “hear a narrative” a few shipwreck that left a ragtag group of passengers stranded. The track does the majority of the narrative by reintroducing the present’s premise every week, and its sea shanty format provides us clues as to only how wacky the sitcom will develop into.

The sequence solely contains seven essential characters and the ending of the theme track pointedly refers to Gilligan, Skipper, Ginger (Tina Louise), Mary Ann (Daybreak Wells), Thurston (Jim Backus), Lovey (Natalie Schafer) and The Professor (Russell Johnson). Thus, the eighth castaway solely seems within the opening credit – an oddity that has led to sinister imaginings amongst followers. According to MeTVthe lacking individual within the opening credit seems to be a person piloting the boat. Nobody on the present ever mentions, mourns, or misses this man, however according to Cracked reportsThat hasn’t stopped viewers from theorizing that the crew threw him overboard, murdered him, and even cannibalized him in a traditional desert island worst-case situation.

There seems to be no official clarification for the extra passenger or crew member aboard the SS Minnow, though it needs to be famous that the grain within the footage from the early Sixties is powerful sufficient for the person to be at barely distinguishable. In his memoir, Schwartz wrote about his cussed insistence within the face of community interference that the theme track be used to introduce the present’s story, however he died in 2011 and by no means set the document straight concerning the extra individual which may have been misplaced. at sea. As with most fan theories based mostly on wild extrapolations, it appears doubtless that Occam’s Razor applies right here, and the best clarification is the most effective. On this case, I suppose it wanted somebody with precise maritime expertise to direct for the second aboard an actual ship, and the digicam operators assumed the driving force would not be seen. That, or Gilligan, is definitely a serial killer who dispatched the poor man and assumed his identification as a member of the crew for the remainder of the sequence.