In his production memoir “Inside Gilligan’s Island: From Creation to Syndication,” Schwartz wrote that the Ginger of the show’s pilot was written as “a slick Hollywood actress, with a sarcastic kind of wit.” Right away, I wonder how a character like that would’ve dealt with, let alone tolerated, the lunkheaded antics of Gilligan. If the series was going to have an antagonistic castaway like Dr. Zachary Smith on “Lost in Space,” it feels like this Ginger would’ve definitely fit the bill.
Schwartz opted to go in the opposite direction when he met Tina Louise. She’d made a smolderingly hot debut in Anthony Mann’s “God’s Little Acre” six years earlier, but wasn’t ideal casting for Ginger. Schwartz cast her anyway, noting, “…[I]t became apparent that the concept of Ginger had to be rewritten to make better use of Tina’s natural abilities. Tina wasn’t really comfortable as the wisecracking, brassy, Hollywood Ginger. But she was marvelous as a wide-eyed, innocently sexy Hollywood starlet.”
CBS had to buy out Louise’s contract in the Broadway show “Fade In, Fade Out” (headlined by future TV superstar Carol Burnett), but Schwartz believed it was absolutely worth it. And her casting was a boon for Dawn Wells. Per Schwartz:
“As Tina’s Ginger became wide-eyed and innocent, Mary Ann [played by Wells] stopped being wide-eyed and innocent, and became more realistic and down-to-earth. She was still virginal, but not from innocence. From determination.
Dawn Wells was an ideal choice for the new Mary Ann, particularly after Tina Louise was cast as Ginger. Her energetic, pretty, girl-next-door look made a wonderful contrast with the tall, glamorous, sexy Tina Louise.”
Source link
