I have a confession.... I don't enjoy "Gilligan's Island" and only watched it when I was too young to realize how bad the show was. So why would I watch this? Well, I do love seeing pilot episodes...especially when they are so different from the later show. In this case, the cast isn't the same...though the pilot is possibly dumber than the show....yes, dumber. In fact, it's so dumb that I'm surprised that the networks gave the green light after seeing this pilot...it's painfully bad.
When "Marooned" begins, you can tell it's VERY different from the actual later episodes. Instead of the familiar theme song, this one is a calypso song and the show is set in the Caribbean instead of the Pacific. Now considering how small the Caribbean is, you can figure out why they changed the location to the Pacific in the show.
Soon after the shock of the theme song wears off, the show begins with the SS Minnow crashed on the beach of a deserted island. And, you see that SOME of the cast is familiar...some VERY different. While Gilligan, the Skipper and the Howells are there, you have a DIFFERENT Professor and Ginger...and there is no Mary Ann...just some blonde named 'Bunny'.
This episode sets the stage for the show and much of it is devoted to the various folks trying to make a home for themselves or find a way off the island. As for the Howells, they are lazier and more clueless than usual....and do absolutely nothing to help. On the other extreme is the very helpful Gilligan...who destroys everything...their radio, the transmitter and more.
So why did I hate this show so much? Well, even compared to "Gilligan's Island", it just didn't make any sense. When Gilligan is fishing, due to the very sloppy use of stock footage, you see him catch porpoise about 10 feet from shore...and it turns into a shark...a big rubber shark when Gilligan 'lands it'. And here's the kicker...it turns out a fish swallowed their radio. Now this is dumb because the radio STILL works after having been in salt water AND the fish's mouth is about 1/3 the width of the radio!! Huh?? The bottom line is that this is just sloppy...as if Sherwood Schwartz simply didn't care...and I can only assume he didn't.
Overall, sloppy, annoying and bad...and yet, somehow, the network liked it! I have no idea why or how.
If you want to see this, I could only find it on the first DVD of the "Gilligan's Island" DVD set on Netflix.