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On “Gilligan’s Island,” romance always ran at a low ebb. Apart from Mr. and Mrs. Howell (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer), there were no couples on the island, and none seemed to form over the course of the show. Indeed, several of the characters seemed too silly or childish to form anything approaching a real-life affair. Gilligan (Bob Denver) was too innocent, and the Skipper (Alan Hale) was more often thinking of engineering and survival than being charming. Ginger (Tina Louise) was often dressed in pretty gowns, and was certainly presented as a sex symbol, but was more concerned with fame and acting than flirting with any 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 the show’s “straight man” characters; they rarely got to have slapstick moments or pratfalls of their own. Because of their mutual function, many “Gilligan’s Island” fans tended to ship the characters, if I may use modern parlance. If there was to be a new romantic pairing on Gilligan’s Isle, it was to be between the Professor and Mary Ann. This notion was cemented by the fact that Wells’ and Johnson’s credits were listed together in the show’s opening.
Viewers may have also been keying into the fact that Wells and Johnson were good friends off-camera. The two certainly had a lot of chemistry, and had a great deal of respect for one another. Wells would later admit that she had a huge crush on Johnson, although during their stint on “Gilligan’s Island,” they were both married to other people, and had to keep their relationship distantly respectful.
Johnson, while never admitting to a romantic attraction to Wells, did write in his autobiography “Here on Gilligan’s Isle” (penned with Russell Cox), that he and his co-star did share what he called “a mutual fondness.”
Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells were fond of one another
Johnson wrote that Wells brought a lot of her own personality to Mary Ann. She, like her character, was kind and friendly. He also noted that Mary Ann was presented as an “all-American farmgirl” archetype, and that Wells herself was the great-granddaughter of one of the earliest Gold Rush settlers in the 1840s. To Johnson, that made her American to the core. He also wrote that he and Wells likely bonded because of the above-mentioned similarity of their characters. The Professor and Mary Ann were the reasonable ones.
Johnson posited that the “Gilligan’s Island” showrunners realized in the show’s second season that their characters were just as vital to the ensemble as anyone else’s, causing their parts to be expanded. As he wrote it:
“I guess if I had to identify the one I was closest to in the cast, it would be Dawn. We’ve always shared a mutual fondness for one another. It was always Platonic. At the outset, we were both neglected in the opening credits and referred to as ‘the rest,’ and our roles were about the same proportion in the beginning. As time went by, I think the producers and writers began to realize that the professor and Mary Ann were the lone voices of logic. We were very important to the show, and they expanded our parts.”
The erstwhile Professor also recalled a conversation he had with Wells about fan mail. Wells, he said, assumed that Tina Louise would get a the bulk of the show’s fan mail, as she was “the glamorous one.” As it turns out, Wells got at least as much fan mail, citing how relatable she was, possessing a “girl nextdoor” quality.
Johnson, sadly, passed away in 2014 at the age of 89. Wells died of COVID-19 in 2020 at the age of 82. Both of them, however, will live on through the never-forgotten “Gilligan’s Island” reruns.
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