Most people know that Gilligan's Island was a 1960s sitcom about seven cruise passengers attempting to get home after being marooned on a desert island. But true devotees know that the first season of the show looked very different from the two that followed. When the show premiered in 1964, it was shot in black and white (per MeTV); only in the second year did viewers get the full experience of Gilligan's bright-red shirt and Ginger's ginger hair.
The other big difference was the lyrics of the theme song. In the first season, the castaways were identified as "Gilligan/The Skipper, too/The millionaire and his wife/The movie star/And the rest are here on Gilligan's Isle." Wells and Russell "Professor" Johnson were relegated just to the end credits. Why? Per TV Series Finale, Tina Louise, who played Ginger, had a stipulation in her contract that she get the plum spot of last billing in the opening credits. Bob Denver, who played Gilligan, felt Wells and Johnson deserved better, so when his contract came up for renewal, he insisted that either his castmates be added to the opener, or else he wanted to be removed from it. Realizing that a Gilligan without a mention of Gilligan would throw everything off, the network caved, and "the Professor and Mary Ann" are what we all sing today.
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