Gilligan's Island's Original Pilot Featured Music From A Legendary Composer

Baby boomers and Gen Xers might not agree on everything — but at least they can almost all sing the theme from "Gilligan's Island" word for word. It was not, however, the first song written for the show. The original theme was actually written by a then-unknown composer: the legendary John Williams.

Years before he composed music for "Star Wars," "Jurassic Park," and dozens of other blockbusters, Williams penned a song for what became the unaired pilot episode of "Gilligan's Island." 

William's original theme is nearly two minutes long — double the length of the well-known version. Also unlike the song that became a cultural touchstone: The lyrics were performed by show creator Sherwood Schwartz, who was white, doing a fairly thick imitation of a Caribbean accent.

While the concept of the original pilot episode, titled "Marooned," was good enough for CBS to pick it up and develop it, nobody was happy with the "Gilligan's Island" pilot episode. Many changes were made, and CBS never aired the pilot because it was so different from the final version of the show. It wasn't until a TBS "Gilligan's Island" marathon in 1992 that audiences finally got to see it.

By the time "Gilligan's Island" made it to air, the cast had undergone a makeover with three characters being replaced. The other major change was, of course, the theme song. It was completely rewritten, this time by creator Sherwood Schwartz and composer George Wyle. Even though they ended up scrapping the John Williams version, Williams did end up composing music for the show for the first two seasons. 

Williams went on to become the most decorated composer of all time with five Academy Awards, three Emmys, and a whopping 20 Grammys. He also holds the distinction for having the second most Academy Award nominations all time with 51.