Gilligan’s Island Turns 50: Listen to Famous Tune and Original Tune

50 years ago today, the show Giligan’s Island aired on CBS from September 26, 1964, until it got canceled on April 17, 1967.

The tune of the show, titled “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle,” was written by sitcom creator and executive producer Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle to explain how the cast came to be stranded together on an uncharted island.

Here’s the catchy tune:

Sure, the famous catchy tune is still etched in the minds of millions of viewers, but did you know the pilot had a different tune altogether? The original tune was composed by a young composer named John Williams! The lyrics were written by Scwartz and featured two female secretary characters.

Luckily, they wised up when the show was picked up and changed the secretaries to Ginger and Mary Ann.

Here’s what the original tune sounded like:

Also, if you noticed the trip in the pilot lasted 6 hours as opposed to 3 hours as we came to know it. And in case you’re wondering, the show got canceled with the 7 crew members still stuck on the island.