Gilligan is a cultural phenomenon. It's silly, cliched and, well, silly. And you
can't take your damn eyes off it. It was perfect Sixties fun. And it did get pretty inventive. I still remember the one where Gilligan was Dr. Jekyll; tons of silly Victorian references in it. And the one where they did the entirity of Hamlet as a musical in 10 minutes.
OK, how many other sitcoms eventually do a Gilligan homage? The major one I can remember was ALF (Somewhere over the Rerun AKA The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle), where Alf (who is totally obsessed with the show) dreams he's on the Island with Gilligan, the Professor, Skipper and Mary Ann (played by the original actors). It was probably the best episode of that series, where the characters got to show off 'the real side' of the island in a pretty funny manner. Mary Ann particularly showed she wasn't so sweet all the time, with her tirade against the hated coconut pie.
And just for fun, too..
http://www.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/jarvis.htm
That link has some great trivia in it as well, like...
As originally written, the song did not mention either the Professor or Mary Ann by name, but instead referred to them as "and the rest." This was due to a clause in Tina Louise's contract that guaranteed her the final spot in the song and prohibited anyone from coming after her. Keith Marder,
For Wells, Life After Gilligan Has Been Pretty Smooth Sailing, A[size=-1]LBANY[/size] T[size=-1]IMES[/size] U[size=-1]NION[/size], May 19, 1995, at C9. After the first season, however, Louise's contract was renegotiated and the song was rewritten.
and..
In addition to wanting to create a social microcosm, it has been suggested that Schwartz also intended the castaways to represent the seven deadly sins of pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth. Id. at 15, 97 (claiming that the Professor represented pride, Mr. Howell greed, Ginger lust, the Skipper anger, Mrs. Howell gluttony, Mary Ann envy and Gilligan sloth).