A Chance Encounter With A Soldier Convinced Alan Hale Jr. That Gilligan’s Island Was A Hit

It may be common knowledge among TV historians that Sherwood Schwartz’s 1964 sitcom “Gilligan’s Island” wasn’t beloved by critics when it debuted, but it was a big hit with audiences. Critics said that the show was fluffy, unrealistic, and insubstantial, and Schwartz likely agreed. Indeed, its insubstantiality may have been the main reason for its success. Over the years, the seven main cast members of “Gilligan’s Island” have all cited the show’s featherweight tone as a necessary relief for audiences who had been inundated with turbulent news of the outside world. It certainly didn’t help that “Gilligan’s Island” was also very kid-friendly, featuring no serious conflicts, no sex, no violence, and no adult themes. 

In the year 2025, “Gilligan’s Island” isn’t just accepted as popular, but has become something of a cultural institution. Its images, music, and characters are archetypal nearly to the point of becoming Jungian. Gilligan (Bob Denver) and his retinue are this nation’s version of Commedia Dell’arte. Some have said that they are modern iterations of the Seven Deadly Sins. Even in the 1960s, the cast knew the show was popular, but it just took them a long time to figure out just how popular it was. 

In the case of Alan Hale, Jr., who played the jovial/cantankerous Skipper on “Gilligan’s Island,” it took a meeting with a soldier overseas for him to connect how many people were watching him. In a 1979 interview with the Biloxi Sun (as transcribed by MeTV), Hale told a story of how he was visiting Beirut, Lebanon, and how an armed youth recognized him as he was disembarking from his plane. If a soldier in Beirut knew who he was, then his image, Hale figured, had reached pretty much all over the world. 

Hale, after the end of “Gilligan’s Island” in 1967, began making live appearances to the world’s many fans. The show also entered into a state of seemingly perpetual syndication, rerun on a daily basis for literally decades. Hale, as such, was a huge celebrity. Travel was something Hale was used to, as he was also an officer in the Coast Guard during World War II, but he had to get used to living in a world where his face was on TV somewhere in the world at just about any given moment. He only knew how well-known he was after the following exchange: 

“In Beirut, I was trying to get off a plane, and a young soldier with a machine gun looked at me. He put the gun across the ladder, and he looked up again and broke into a big smile and said ‘Skipper, please, do not come ashore.’ It was a long way [from] home at 3:30 in the morning, and I didn’t even have my cap on, yet he knew me immediately.” 

Hale also said that he was half a world away from Beirut, and was still recognized by the locals. “Gilligan’s Island” was on TV in both Lebanon and Thailand. As Hale recalled: 

“I went to Thailand. And I was in the airport and I heard ‘Hey, Skipper!’ I turned around and there was a young Thai boy with a bunch of little girls, all waving and saying, ‘Hi, Skipper!’ It delights me to know that I will never be alone in the world, and the delight that shows on people’s faces is a very gratifying thing.”

Hale, it should be noted, loved playing the Skipper. The warmth from fans never bothered him, and he was, by all accounts, friendly during all fan encounters. It was moments like meeting a soldier in Lebanon or a group of children in Thailand that only cemented his fondness.