(Info gathered from retroland.com)
The New Adventures of Gilligan was Filmation’s animated Saturday morning
version of the enormously popular 1960’s TV series Gilligan’s Island. The
cartoon picked up where the prime time show left off: Gilligan, the Skipper too,
the millionaire and his wife (Mr. and Mrs. Howell), the movie star (Ginger), the
Professor, and Mary Ann were all stranded on an uncharted desert isle. The
Saturday morning show also included five of the seven original voices (Dawn
Wells and Tina Louise did not lend their voices to Mary Ann and Ginger,
respectively), as well as the same executive producer, Sherwood Schwartz.
The premise of the cartoon was similar to the series as well, with Gilligan - in
his patented bungling way - inadvertently thwarting the efforts of the rest of the
gang to get off the island. But since he was so lovable and was Skipper’s "little
buddy," the others usually forgave him. One notable addition to the animated
version was Gilligan’s pet monkey, Stubby. Most of the episodes ended with
an educational slant, wherein Skipper and Gilligan would discuss whatever
lesson they had learned that day.
The New Adventures of Gilligan proved to be almost as successful as its
live-action predecessor, lasting for three full seasons before ending its run in
1977. In 1982, the crew of the S.S. Minnow were time-warped to outer space
for the animated Gilligan’s Planet. Although it only lasted one season, it
marked the return of Dawn Wells as the voice of both Mary Ann and Ginger.