A television special brought the entire Harlem Globe Trotters to the island.
They were visited by headhunters, a wayward trans-atlantic stunt pilot, and astronauts in a returning moon capsule. During the show's three-year run (ninety-eight episodes), the island's inhabitants attempted to leave the island by broadcasting radio messages, sending smoke signals, repairing the Minnow, building a raft, and fixing a deep diving suit to permit Gilligan to walk along the ocean floor back to Hawaii. In 1965, the American public was first treated to the whimsical story of Gilligan and six other hapless castaways, trapped on a small Pacific island after their pleasure cruise ends in a violent shipwreck. Five passengers set sail that day for a three-hour tour. The mate was a mighty sailor man, the skipper brave and sure. 'Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship.
