It’s hard to think of a sitcom that typecast its actors more severely than “Gilligan’s Island.” Even though it only aired for three seasons, the slapstick comedy series about seven castaways marooned on a desert island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean proved inescapable professionally for its entire ensemble.
This was partly due to the albatross of syndication. After its cancellation, “Gilligan’s Island” quickly became a favorite with undiscriminating couch potatoes, who got off on the show’s laughably simple formula, inane gags, and colorful locale. They loved watching Bob Denver’s blundering Gilligan repeatedly sabotage every single effort to get off the island, Ginger doing just about anything, and the Howells somehow living in the lap of bamboo luxury.
The show’s enduring popularity was understandably bad news for the future endeavors of its younger performers, particularly Denver, Tina Louise, and Dawn Wells, all three of whom lacked a strong enough pre-“Gilligan’s Island” oeuvre to offset countless hours of reruns. (Iindeed, Denver’s previous run as the confident Maynard G. Krebs on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” was quickly brushed aside.) But Alan Hale, Jr., Jim Backus, and Natalie Schafer should’ve fared better. Hale came from showbiz royalty and had appeared in major films with the likes of John Wayne, Gregory Peck, and Randolph Scott. Backus was a character actor whose snooty New England air — an odd speciality given he was born and raised in Cleveland — was used to both excellent dramatic (“Rebel Without a Cause”) and comedic (“Gilligan’s Island” and the voice of Mr. Magoo) effect.
As for Schafer, she was a veteran of Broadway and Hollywood, and well into her 60s when she landed the role of Eunice “Lovey” Howell on “Gilligan’s Island.” Alas, being a show business veteran, she had a good idea of what the series would do for her career, and she reacted appropriately.
The role of the rest of her lifetime
Speaking to the St. Louis Dispatch in 1989, Schafer recalled her audition for the sitcom with little fondness. “I didn’t even want to be in [“Gilligan’s Island”] when I tested,” she said. “I cried when I got the role.”
Given that she had aspirations to return to dramas after she put her time in on the island, that the show wasn’t the flop she thought it might be was a bit of a career tragedy. As she told the Dispatch, “Most of the young executives and casting agents don’t see past my role in [“Gilligan’s Island”]. I was on stage for years before the show and I can still do drama but they don’t see it that way.”
With very few exceptions (the most notable being her small role in John Schlesinger’s “The Day of the Locust”), no one ever saw Schafer that way again. Eventually, she segued to voiceovers, which she found preferable “because you don’t have to hold your stomach in.” Schafer made her final feature appearance as a grandmother in Tobe Hooper’s made-for-television horror flick “I’m Dangerous Tonight” before passing away at the age of 90 in 1990.