Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History

I loved this documentary but kinda got the impression it was somewhat biased against Tina Louise. She is portrayed as selfish and self-centered in the show and the documentary states incorrectly she never participated in any reunions and cut her ties to the show because she thought it hurt her career. She did on several occasions appear in reunions the most famous was the 1988 Gilligan's Island reunion on the David Letterman show which was the last time the entire cast was together before the passings of Jim Backus in 1989, Alan Hale Jr in 1990 then Natalie Schafer in 1991. Tina has also appeared at a few others reunions the most recent was the TV Land awards. Still this documentary sheds light on a great deal of what went on behind the scenes and a must have for anyone who grew up on this show. The story of Jim Backus' battle with Parkinsons is compelling as is the story of Natalie Schafer's battle with breast cancer.

As a 32 year old, I grew up with watching Gilligan's Island. By watching this interesting "behind the scenes", I learned a lot. Heck, I never realized that Tina Louise was ashamed of being a part of the series. What a loser! Anyway, this was a lot of fun to watch as was anything but a "scandle" documentary. I was, at first, expecting to see some kind of E The True Hollywood Story. This was, instead, a very tastefully and well done story.

I never saw the promos for this wonderful feat of nostalgic fun, but as a Gilligan fan, I knew it was coming up. It was as funny and as cartoonish as the series with the last three survivors (if you consider Tina Louise killed "Ginger") telling in front of the camera their favorite anecdotes and having them acted out for all the fans who already know them. The host segments were wonderful, and the flashbacks were made wonderful by actors who looked like the castaways. I have seen Eric Allen Kramer and Steven Vinovich play other roles, but it was this movie that convinced me just how much they look like the Skipper and Mr. Howell. Samantha Harris and Kristen Dalton were equally wonderful as Mary Ann/Dawn Wells and Ginger/Tina Louise. I wonder how Tina is going to take this bashing portrayal of herself as a prima donna. If anything, I'd love to see these new actors take over the roles and bring back the series. If they can return us the the series, maybe they can bring back the series.

Despite having seen almost every episode of this show in reruns growing up and having read Russell Johnson (Professor)'s book, I learned new things about my 7 favorite castaways. I knew Tina Louise had an attitude about being on Gilligan's Island but I just didn't know how big the attitude was.

This documentary movie hosted by Dawn Wells, Bob Denver and Russel Johnson was incredibly well done!

The actors that re-enacted the roles of the castaways were superb, the young man who portrayed Jim Backus had a hell of a task on his hands and performed pretty well.

The actor who Portrayed Alan Hale had his character down to a Science. Tina Louis was portrayed most accurately.

If you pay close attention to this movie it explains why Tina never comes to the reunions, she wanted nothing to do with this show after it was over, she demanded extra high pay to play Ginger in the Rescue from Gilligan's Island so Schwartz told her where to go and he got another actress, this is not mentioned in the film.

The fact that Tina Louis was tricked into doing this show by her agent is a good enough explaination and is fully explained here.

No one is portrayed as a saint in this film, whoever made that comment was totally wrong!

This film follows up the E! True Hollywood Story Nicely and by the way Tina Louis allowed herself to be interviewed by E! for that documentary.

I give this 4 stars for excellent acting and accuracy! Worth checking out if it is shown again.