Gilligan's Planet

Gilligan's Planet is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by the Filmation animation studio and MGM/UA Television which aired during the 1982-1983 season on CBS. It was the second animated spin-off of the popular sitcom Gilligan's Island (the first being The New Adventures of Gilligan).

Gilligan's Planet was the last cartoon series that Filmation produced for Saturday mornings; afterwards, they produced cartoons exclusively for syndication. It was also the first Filmation series to feature the Lou Scheimer "signature" credit (as opposed to the rotating Lou Scheimer/Norm Prescott "wheel" credit which had been used since 1969).

Gilligan's Planet was also the final 1980s Saturday morning cartoon to retain Charley Douglass's adult laugh track. Thereafter, Filmation dismissed Douglass' chuckles for its animated lineup as it transitioned to more heroically-themed cartoons which were too dramatic for a laugh track (i.e. He-Man and She-Ra).

In 2012, Animation World Network named Gilligan's Planet the 57th greatest animated television series of all-time.

Premise
Gilligan's Planet is based on the premise that the Professor had managed to build an operational interplanetary spaceship to get the castaways of the original series off the island. True to form of the castaways' perpetual bad luck, they rocketed off into space and crash-landed on an unknown planet that supported human life. In many ways, the planet was like the island but with a strangely colored and cratered surface with more land to get around. The rocket was severely damaged in the crash, thus the castaways were still stranded and the Professor resumed his attempts to repair their only way home.

Overall, Gilligan's Planet re-presented the source material of the original live-action series with "space" and "alien" themes. Encounters with "headhunters" and other shipwrecked people became encounters with alien creatures. A new character named Bumper was added, who appeared as a cute, reptilian alien pet/sidekick for Gilligan and company.

Cast

 * Bob Denver - Willy Gilligan
 * Alan Hale, Jr. - Skipper Jonas Grumby
 * Jim Backus - Thurston Howell, III
 * Natalie Schafer - Mrs. Lovey Howell
 * Russell Johnson - Professor Roy Hinkley
 * Dawn Wells - Mary Ann Summers, Ginger Grant

The cast of Gilligan's Island returned to voice their respective characters for Gilligan's Planet except for Tina Louise who played Ginger Grant. Dawn Wells provided the voice of Ginger as well as her own original character, Mary Ann Summers.

Episodes
† The New Adventures of Gilligan also featured an episode entitled "Super Gilligan".

DVD release
On July 22, 2014, Warner Archive released Gilligan's Planet: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Warner Archive Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.