TV Shows

Why Tina Louise ‘Wanted to Quit’ ‘Gilligan’s Island’

Louise, who played Hollywood movie star Ginger Grant on the ’60s sitcom, almost quit because Ginger was supposed to be more sarcastic.

By Megan Behnke

March 11, 2025, 2:39pm

Pictured is Tina Louise (as Miss Ginger). (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)

While Gilligan’s Island ran for just three seasons on CBS with the entire cast staying on until the end, that almost wasn’t the case. Tina Louise nearly quit the show before it even started.

Louise starred on the ‘60s sitcom as Hollywood movie star Ginger Grant. She took on many “roles” while on the island to keep occupied, such as lab assistant, hair stylist, psychoanalyst, and even fronting an island musical trio, The Honeybees. But she was almost completely different, and Louise didn’t even want to play Ginger at first because of it.

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“The CBS casting director Ethel Winant called me at the theater, ‘Do you think you could play this Lucille Ball/Marilyn Monroe-type of character?’ I said yes,” Louise told Forbes. “I got there and the director wanted it to be a more sarcastic kind of character. And so, then, I didn’t even want to work on it anymore. I told him I wanted to quit.”

Back row, from left, American actors Jim Backus (1913 – 1989) as Thurston Howell III, Natalie Schafer (1900 – 1991) as Mrs. Howell, Tina Louise as Ginger Grant, Alan Hale Jr. (1918 – 1990) as the Skipper, and Dawn Wells as Mary Ann Summers; front row, from left, Russell Johnson as the Professor and Bob Denver as Gilligan. (Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)

“The head of the [CBS] organization called me into his office, and he said, ‘We hear you want to leave.’ I explained to him that I didn’t want to play it, and I didn’t think the show would be successful, changing the original idea of the character,” she continued. “You just can’t go into people’s homes and dress somebody up like a doll and then have her to be not nice. So, he agreed with me, and he got rid of the director after it was only a month, and he hired Richard Donner, who was fantastic. He had a great sense of humor, and then the writers started writing for what I was supposed to be doing, and the show became a hit, and I enjoyed the part.”

It’s a good thing it worked out for Louise. It’s hard to imagine how different Gilligan’s Island would have been, not only without her but with Ginger having an essentially completely different personality. The show went on to air nearly 100 episodes from 1964 to 1967 with numerous television films between 1978 and 1981. Despite CBS canceling the series, Gilligan’s Island remains a beloved show to this day. The cast, which also includes Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Russell Johnson, Dawn Wells, and Charles Maxwell, are certainly part of the reason why it’s still so loved, as well as their hilarious characters.