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If Gilligan's Island hadn't been cancelled, the castaways would have turned the island into a resort hotel
It's a story of rags to riches.
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. While this is much easier said than done, the characters of Gilligan's Island exemplify this saying fairly well. Despite their best efforts, they never manage to escape the island they spend the entirety of the series on. But that doesn't mean that they're willing to give up, and each new episode gives the characters a new opportunity to try again.
Unfortunately, viewers were forced to say goodbye to Gilligan's Island much too soon when the series was canceled in 1967, after just three years on the air. While it still lives on in the hearts, minds, and jokes of generations today, we can't help but wish we got to see all of the crew's work paid off and watch the castaways escape the island during the show's original run.
Sherwood Schwartz, creator of Gilligan's Island, was not only aware of these wishes, he was one step further. He had a plan.
According to an interview with the Muncie Evening Press, Schwartz didn't intend for the castaways to spend the entire series on the island. "I hoped from the outset that the show would go for four years with them on the island," he said. "But I've had a projected escape in the back of my mind."
For all the bad luck the characters of Gilligan's Island experienced, viewers might be interested to know that once they do make it back home, their luck increases tenfold.
"Should they get rescued, or should the ratings go down, or should we feel we're getting into a rut," said Schwartz. "Then I'd turn the island into a resort hotel. Jim Backus would operate it because he's the rich man with the know-how. Gilligan and the Skipper would operate the boat to bring in the guests, and the rest of the cast would work at the hotel in various executive jobs."
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