Sherwood Schwartz earned his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by dreaming up two sitcoms that ran forever in syndication, inspiring decades’ worth of spin-offs, reboots and TV movies. But those two mega-successful creations — Gilligan’s Island and Brady Bunch — existed in two separate Nick at Nite universes, never crossing paths into a single sitcom reality.
At least, not until 2007. When the quasi-crossover finally happened, it was thanks to Schwartz’s genius at milking cash out of new iterations of old hits. In addition to Saturday morning cartoons like Gilligan’s Planet, TV movies like The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island and a reality show called The Real Gilligan’s Island, Schwartz collaborated with his son Lloyd, daughter Hope and son-in-law Laurence Juber (former guitarist with Paul McCartney and Wings!) on the stage show, Gilligan’s Island: The Musical.
If you run a local community theater, you can still license the show, which features the seven original castaways and a character called Alien. Gilligan’s Island: The Musical had a national tour in 2009, based on a plot that sounds right out of a typical sitcom episode: “Their biggest challenge comes from the U.F.O. and its Alien, who monitors their behavior. By the end of the play, the castaways manage to defeat the extraterrestrial and save the entire planet, while staying marooned themselves.”
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Honestly, it sounds a little like the plot of “Red, White and Blaine” from Waiting for Guffman.
Playbill reported that Gilligan’s Island: The Musical was bound for Broadway, though — surprise! — it never made it there. Instead, the show did kitschy runs in places like the Coral Springs Center in Florida, where that Gilligan’s Island/Brady Bunch crossover finally took place.
The Florida production somehow convinced Dawn Wells, the show’s original Mary Ann, to star in the show, according to Remind Magazine. But instead of the Kansas farmgirl, the older actress took on the role of Lovey Howell. Opposite Wells in the role of insanely rich millionaire Thurston Howell III? That was Greg Brady himself, Barry Williams.
Facebook/Dawn Wells
Wells posted photographic proof on her Facebook page, but no video appears to exist of this comic crossover, so we’ll never get to hear Greg Brady attempt the Mr. Magoo cadence of Jim Backus as Thurston Howell. You’ll have to just imagine TV’s Mary Ann and Johnny Bravo acting out the painful comic patter of scenes like this:
It was a marriage made in sitcom heaven. Wells posted a picture of the postcard that Williams sent her in anticipation of their three-hour tour on stage:
Dear Dawn,
If given the choice: Ginger or Mary Ann, I would take Lovey. It is great fun navigating around the “island” with you. I wish you a warm hand on your opening.
(Heart), Barry
Content shared from www.cracked.com.