Do You Remember This Bizarre ‘Brady Bunch’and ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Crossover Event?
Considering the success of Gilligan’s Island, it’s natural that the show yielded several spinoffs, each of which hoped to recreate some of the magic of the original shipwrecked group. Fans may recall the two animated series, 1974’s The New Adventures of Gilligan, which essentially continued the island-based fun of the first series, and Gilligan’s Planet, a 1982 cartoon that for some reason featured the island gang in space. But you may not know about Gilligan’s Island, The Musical, first created in the ’90s, with a book written by original series creator Sherwood Schwartz and his son, Lloyd. His daughter, Hope, and his son-in-law, Laurence Juber, composed the twenty-two songs in the musical,
The musical has been performed many times since its creation — sometimes with actual ’60s TV stars.
Mary Ann … back on the island (with Greg Brady)
In 2007, Gilligan’s Island, The Musical ran for ten days at the Coral Springs Center in Florida and one of the original stars came back. Dawn Wells, who originally played Mary Ann in the series, returned to play Lovey Howell, alongside another famous face: Barry Williams as Lovey’s husband, Thurston Howell.
Williams, best known for his role as Greg Brady in the other beloved series created by Sherwood Schwartz, The Brady Bunch, proved that he could play the part well.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Wells, who died on December 30, 2020, once spoke about how much the role meant to her, in honor of her late friend, the original Lovey Howell, Natalie Schafer. She told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about the role, and said, “I thought it would be such an honor to play her. [She] was such a dear friend and such a wonderful woman, and very much like her character.”
She added of the show’s long lasting impact, “It’s easily translatable — it’s slapstick — and there are no clothes or cars to date it, so it’s fresh to a new crop of kids everywhere.”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Wells’ management team, which runs her social media accounts posthumously, shared a throwback photo of the musical plus a signed postcard from Williams to Wells, and said, “Talk about age-defying casting! Jim Backus was 13 years younger than Natalie Schafer as Mr. Howell to her Mrs. Howell. Fast forward, and Barry Williams was 16 years younger than Dawn Wells when they teamed up as the Howells in Gilligan’s Island: The Musical. Some iconic pairings never age!”
Did you get a chance to see the musical starring Wells and Williams? If you did, let us know in the comments and share some memories!
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Classic TV Shows of the ’50s & ’60s
September 2020
Test your knowledge, from Bonanza and Gunsmoke to I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek and more fun TV of the 1950s and 1960s.
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