I honestly think I could sit down and write a show tonight that the critics would love, and I know it would be canceled within four weeks. I know what the critics love. We write and produce for people, not for critics.
If you study both 'Gilligan' and 'Brady,' you will see they are based on a similar philosophy: that it's possible for different kinds of people to learn to live together, either in a family or stuck on an island with no escape.
A lot of people say television holds up a mirror to life, and that's why you see all the drug busts and the killings and the seamier side of life. I personally take the view that it's not sufficient to portray only negative role models. It's not enough to say 'no' to drugs. What do you say 'yes' to?
I was creator and executive producer of 'The Brady Bunch' on TV. The stage version was done by others, but it was a repeat of the old scripts. The 'Gilligan' musical is a completely original work with all seven characters and 18 original songs.
When you say the name Gilligan, you know who that is. If a show is good, if it's written well, you should be able to erase the names of the characters saying the lines and still be able to know who said it. If you can't do that, the show will fail.
As a man who tried to explain in his own way that people have to learn to get along with each other. I did it with comedy because that's what I'm familiar with, and I think it's more acceptable to tell it in comedy form. But that's how I'd like to be remembered.
I think writers have become hypnotised by the number of jokes on the page at the expense of character.
I don't like it to be compared to 'Survivor.' The idea of 'Survivor' is to kill each other off to win the prize. There's no killing in Gilligan's Island.
It wasn't Ginger's Island, it was Gilligan's Island.
'Rescue From Gilligan's Island' was the first of the so-called reunion shows on the networks, getting a 54 share. With numbers like that, everybody else started to have reunion shows.
I own all the characters I created, thanks to the Writers Guild, so nobody can do anything without me. The way it works is: If the copyright owners instigate a project, like the movie, then I get a fee as creator. If I instigate a project, like the musical, I pay a percentage to the copyright owners.
