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On “Gilligan’s Island”, romance has always run at a low level. Apart from Mr. and Mrs. Howell (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer), there was no couple on the island, and none seemed to train during the show. Indeed, several of the characters seemed too stupid or childish to train everything that approaches a real affair. Gilligan (Bob Denver) was too innocent, and the skipper (Alan Hale) thought more often of engineering and survival than being charming. Ginger (Tina Louise) was often dressed in pretty dresses, and was certainly presented as a sexual symbol, but was more concerned with glory and the game than to flirt with one of the men or women around her.
The two “normal” characters on the island were Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) and the professor (Russell Johnson), who often served as “hetero” characters of the show; They rarely had to have moments of slapstick or their own falls. Due to their mutual function, many fans of “Gilligan’s Island” tended to ship the characters, if I can use modern language. If there were a new romantic agreement on the island of Gilligan, it was to be between Professor and Mary Ann. This notion was cemented by the fact that the credits of Wells and Johnson were listed together in the opening of the show.
Viewers may also have seized the fact that Wells and Johnson were good friends out of camera. The two certainly had a lot of chemistry and had a lot of respect for each other. Wells would later admit that she had a huge crush on Johnson, although during their visit to “Gilligan’s Island”, they were both married to other people and had to keep their relationship with respectful distance.
Johnson, while never admitting a romantic attraction for Wells, wrote His autobiography “here on the island of Gilligan” (Written with Russell Cox), that he and his co-star shared what he called “a mutual inclination”.
Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells have loved each other
Johnson wrote that Wells brought a large part of his own personality to Mary Ann. She, like her character, was kind and friendly. He also noted that Mary Ann was presented as an archetype of “Farmgirl All-American, and that Wells herself was the great-granddaughter of one of the first colonists to gold in the years in the years 1840. For Johnson, it did it American at the heart.
Johnson applied that the showrunners of “Gilligan’s Island” made in the second season of the show as their characters were just as vital for the whole as that of others, which caused the widening of their games. As he wrote:
“I guess that if I had to identify the one I closest in the distribution, it would be dawn. We have always shared a mutual inclination. It was always platonic. The opening credits and called” the others », And our roles were almost the same proportion at the start.
The former teacher also recalled a conversation he had had with Wells on a fan mail. Wells, he said, assumed that Tina Louise would get most of the mail of fans of the show because she was “the glamor”. It turns out that Wells obtained at least as many fans, quoting how it was related, having a quality of “next girl”.
Johnson, unfortunately, died in 2014 at the age of 89. Wells died of COVID-19 in 2020 at the age of 82. Both, however, will live through the “Gilligan’s Island” “reorganized” reruns.
