The New Adventures of Gilligan was an animated series created by Filmation that ran from 1974 to 1977. It was a spin off to the popular 60s comedy series Gilligan's Island, and in flavor was somewhere between a Spiritual Successor and an animated remake of the series, with the biggest difference being the inclusion of a friendly, intelligent island monkey named Snubby.
As with the original live-action series, the plot was simple: the Skipper of the S.S. Minnow and his first mate, Gilligan, had been rented for a tour by five guests; a wealthy married couple, a famous actress, a high school science professor, and an ordinary farm girl. However, a terrible storm washed them off course and left them stranded on an island, forcing them to survive and hope to some day be rescued.
It was followed in 1982 by a spin-off sequel series; Gilligans Planet.
This series included examples of:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Because Tina Louise chose not to return to voice the animated version of her character Ginger Grant, wanting to distance herself from the role, Filmation changed the cartoon version of Ginger from a redhead to a platinum blonde.
- An Aesop: Like a lot of Filmation's cartoons from the 70s, The New Adventures was aimed at kids and strove to provide moral lessons.
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Many of the episodes concluded with an "educational tag" where Skipper and Gilligan would talk about whatever lesson they had learned that day.
- Fantastic Racism: When an interplanetary geological sampling robot launched from Cape Kennedy crashes on the island, everybody becomes convinced it's actually an alien invader, and react to it with varying degrees of hostility and disgust. This is spelled out for them when the Professor returns and clarifies things, and everybody realizes what bigoted fools they — especially as the robot could have saved them!
- Poor Communication Kills:
- In "The Olympiad", the castaways fly into a panic after the Professor tells them the island is going to sink. It's not until the episode's end that he finally clarifies it was going to sink 25,000 years from now.
- The episode "Their Own Image" is kickstarted when the Skipper misunderstands a conversation and believes Mary Ann is in love with Gilligan.
- In "The Movie Makers", none of the castaways pay attention to Snubby's efforts to direct them to a film that contains instructions on building a rescue boat until it's too late.
- Mundane Utility: In "Super Gilligan", after Gilligan is granted superpowers by a mysterious plant, the best use the castaways can think of for his new powers is to teach the Skipper a lesson in not being so bossy, as opposed to using them to get them all back home.
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The Other Darrin: Tina Louise didn't want to play Ginger Grant again, and Dawn Wells was unavailable due to being on the road as part of a play. As a result, the animated Ginger and Mary Ann were played by a new voice actress; Jane Webb, credited under her married name (Jane Edwards) for Mary Ann and her maiden name (Jane Webb) for Ginger.
