''Gilligan's Planet'' is an American Saturday morning animated series produced by

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and ...

and MGM/UA Television which aired during the 1982–1983 season on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. It was the second animated spin-off of the sitcom '' Gilligan's Island'' (the first being ''

The New Adventures of Gilligan ''The New Adventures of Gilligan'' is an American Saturday morning animated series produced by Filmation, which aired on ABC during the 1974–1975 seasons. The show was based on the 1964–1967 sitcom ''Gilligan's Island''. A few years later, Fi ...

''). ''Gilligan's Planet'' was the last cartoon series that Filmation produced for Saturday mornings; afterwards, they transitioned from Saturday mornings to producing cartoons exclusively for

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

. It was also the first Filmation series to feature the

Lou Scheimer Louis Scheimer (October 19, 1928 – October 17, 2013) was an American producer and voice actor who was one of the original founders of Filmation. He was also credited as an executive producer of many of its cartoons. Early life and education ...

"signature" credit (as opposed to the rotating Lou Scheimer/

Norm Prescott Norman Prescott (January 31, 1927 – July 2, 2005) was co-founder and executive producer at Filmation Associates, an animation studio he created with veteran animator Lou Scheimer. Life and career Born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Bosto ...

"wheel" credit which had been used since 1969). In addition, it was one of the last 1980s Saturday morning cartoons to be fitted with an adult

laugh track A laugh track (or laughter track) is a separate soundtrack for a recorded comedy show containing the sound of audience laughter. In some productions, the laughter is a live audience response instead; in the United States, where it is most common ...

, as the popularity of the practice had subsided. ''Gilligan's Planet'' featured all of the original actors but one;

Tina Louise Tina Louise ( Blacker; born February 11, 1934) is an American actress widely known for her role as movie star Ginger Grant in the CBS television situation comedy ''Gilligan's Island''. With the death of Dawn Wells in 2020, Louise became the las ...

, who has consistently refused to participate in any ''Gilligan's Island''-related material since the series ended, again declined to reprise her role as

Ginger Grant Ginger Grant is a fictional character portrayed by actress Tina Louise in the 1964 to 1967 television sitcom ''Gilligan's Island''. Character summary Born in New York City on September 1, 1937, Grant is a "movie star" and would casually ment ...

, who again was portrayed as a platinum blonde (as was the case in ''The New Adventures'') instead of Louise's red hair. Dawn Wells, who had been unavailable during the production of ''The New Adventures of Gilligan'', returned to the franchise, voicing both her own character ( Mary Ann Summers) and Ginger.

Premise

''Gilligan's Planet'' is a spin-off of ''The New Adventures of Gilligan,'' based on the premise that the Professor had managed to build an operational interplanetary spaceship to get the castaways of the original cartoon series off the island. True to the castaways' perpetual bad luck, they rocketed off into space and crash-landed on an unknown

planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

that supported human life. In many ways, the planet was like the island, but with a strangely colored and cratered surface with more land to get around. The rocket was severely damaged in the crash; thus, the castaways were still stranded and the Professor resumed his attempts to repair their only way home. Overall, ''Gilligan's Planet'' re-presented the source material of the original live-action series with space and alien themes. Encounters with headhunters and other shipwrecked people instead became encounters with alien creatures. A new character named Bumper was added, who appeared as a reptilian alien pet/sidekick for Gilligan and company.

Production notes

The theme song from ''The New Adventures of Gilligan'' was recycled, with new narration to explain the new show's premise.

Sherwood Schwartz Sherwood Charles Schwartz (; November 14, 1916 – July 12, 2011) was an American television screenwriter and producer. He worked on radio shows in the 1940s, but he now is best known for creating the 1960s television series '' Gilligan's Isla ...

, who had hands-on involvement in the ''New Adventures'' series, was not as heavily involved in ''Gilligan's Planet''. Two of the show's primary writers,

Tom Ruegger Tom Ruegger () is an American animator and songwriter. Ruegger is known for his association with Disney Television Animation and Warner Bros. Animation. He also created ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', ''Animaniacs'', ''Pinky and the Brain'', and ''Hist ...

and

Paul Dini Paul McClaran Dini (; born August 7, 1957) is an American screenwriter and comic creator. He has been a producer and writer for several Warner Bros. Animation/DC Comics animated series, most notably '' Batman: The Animated Series'' (1992–19 ...

, would emerge at

Warner Bros. Animation Warner Bros. Animation Inc. is an American animation studio which is part of the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., a flagship of Warner Bros. Discovery. As the successor to Warner Bros. Cartoons, which was active from 19 ...

in the 1990s. This is one of the few Filmation series not currently owned by successor

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a prede ...

Classic Media Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Media ...

. It is instead owned by

Turner Entertainment Turner Entertainment Company is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner in 1986. Purchased by Time Warner in 1996 as part of its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the company was largely responsible for overseeing th ...

(via

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

) as it is a part of their pre-1986

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

library.

Cast

Bob Denver Robert Osbourne Denver (January 9, 1935 – September 2, 2005) was an American comedic actor who portrayed Gilligan on the 1964–1967 television series ''Gilligan's Island'', and beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the 1959–1963 series ''The Ma ...

as Gilligan *

Alan Hale Jr. Alan Hale Jr. (born Alan Hale MacKahan; (March 8, 1921 - January 2, 1990) was an American actor and restaurateur. He was the son of actor Alan Hale Sr. His television career spanned four decades, but he was best known for his secondary lead role ...

as Skipper Jonas Grumby *

Jim Backus James Gilmore Backus (February 25, 1913 – July 3, 1989) was an American actor. Among his most famous roles were Thurston Howell III on the 1960s sitcom ''Gilligan's Island,'' the father of James Dean's character in '' Rebel Without a Cause, ...

as Thurston Howell III *

Natalie Schafer Natalie Schafer (November 5, 1900 – April 10, 1991) was an American actress, known for her role as Lovey Howell on the sitcom ''Gilligan's Island'' (1964–1967). Early life and career Natalie Schafer was born on November 5, 1900, in Manhatta ...

as "Lovey" Wentworth Howell *

Russell Johnson Russell David Johnson (November 10, 1924 – January 16, 2014) was an American actor. He played Professor Roy Hinkley in ''Gilligan's Island'' and Marshal Gib Scott in '' Black Saddle''. Early life Johnson was born in Ashley, Pennsylvania, o ...

as Professor Roy Hinkley * Dawn Wells as Mary Ann Summers, Ginger Grant *

as Bumper

Episodes

Home media

On July 22, 2014,

Warner Archive The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...

released ''Gilligan's Planet: The Complete Series'' on DVD in region 1 as part of their

Warner Archive Collection The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...

. This is a manufacture-on-demand release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.

References

External links

''Gilligan's Planet'' Cartoon Info @ Big Cartoon DataBase
*

at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on August 28, 2016. {{Children's programming on CBS in the 1980s 1982 American television series debuts 1983 American television series endings 1980s American animated television series 1980s American comic science fiction television series American children's animated space adventure television series American children's animated comic science fiction television series American animated television spin-offs CBS original programming

Planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

American sequel television series English-language television shows Television series created by Sherwood Schwartz Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Television series by Filmation Television series set on fictional planets Television shows directed by Hal Sutherland