Johnny Williams and Gilligan's Island

[Faleel 5,340]

I noticed the JWFan TV Works page say ?:?? in the episodes category.

I recently purchased the Season 1 DVD set, while watching it, I noticed "Music Composed by Johnny Williams" in the credits of 2 episodes so far:

Episode 7: The Sound of Quacking

And

Episode 8: Goodbye Island.


I have no Idea if this music was tracked or not.

I apologise if this has already been mentioned.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

He composed the most iconic theme from the show aside from the revised Main Title. It was used at the end of a lot of episodes.

[Thor 7,477]

Actually, Williams never did a theme for this series per se. Both opening themes (the unused and the used) were composed by the show's creator, Sherwood Schwartz. I've always found it interesting how LOST and GILLIGAN'S ISLAND -- while wildly different in everything else -- are two shows about people stranded on a desert island with the main theme composed by the show's creator.

As for Williams' involvement, he scored the first pilot of the show. This pilot was eventually binned and changed and re-cast and he is NOT credited on the new, actual pilot that aired. However, bits and pieces of his unused pilot were used throughout the first season (and maybe subsequent seasons as well, I haven't checked), which was customary at the time. That's why he's credited on multiple episodes even though he didn't write any new music for them.

However, I do have an ongoing discussion with a GI connaiseur about this, as I've seen episodes credited to Williams that have music NOT from the unused pilot. Does that mean he did compose new music for later episodes as well? Or that these cues were pulled from other sources? Or unused music from the unused pilot?

It's somewhat of a jungle to chart.

[tranders65 65]

Thor, I think E.T. and Elliott is referring to the end title from the original pilot - Schwartz may have written the original title song used in the unaired pilot (as well as the iconic theme that everyone knows from the revised pilot and series), but I think Williams did indeed write the end music, which was then used throughout the series and is the next most-recognized music for the show. At least I think.

[Thor 7,477]

Ah, the END titles. I'm not sure about that one. Could be a Williams leftover, yes.

[Balahkay 627]

Is this it... at 2:14?

[Miguel Andrade 1,262]

I think the end titles is indeed Williams music.

As for the tracking, back in 2005 I was sent the first season, and tried to compile all the cues from the episodes credited to Williams and there is indeed a lot of tracking going on. But there is also some new music that does not comes from the pilot.

[tranders65 65]

That's the one I was talking about Miguel (and I'm assuming that E.T. and Elliott was talking about, too)! I always assumed he wrote that since it's part of the pilot and all music except the opening song was credited to Williams. Sounds just like his style at that time frame, and you're right, I've seen Williams' name on many other first season episodes with musical cues and stingers that weren't part of the pilot that sounds like him.

[Thor 7,477]

I think the end titles is indeed Williams music.

As for the tracking, back in 2005 I was sent the first season, and tried to compile all the cues from the episodes credited to Williams and there is indeed a lot of tracking going on. But there is also some new music that does not comes from the pilot.

Exactly. That was my discovery as well that I mentioned earlier.

But it could be music tracked from other composers, or -- as the GI expert mentioned -- be unused music from the unused pilot. Many possibilities

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

That is indeed the theme I was referring to. I remember it being used in a lot of episodes. It's Gilligan's Theme.

[JediJones 1]

This is an older, but more recently posted YouTube interview where Sherwood Schwartz is asked about what music John Williams did, at 3:28. Not sure if it reveals anything people here don't already know. But Sherwood is clear that Williams wrote what he calls Gilligan's theme (and he less assuredly credits him with Skipper's theme). He also avoids crediting Williams with the opening theme music. Wikipedia for Gilligan's Island credits Williams with writing the calypso music for the opening theme of the unused pilot. The Wikipedia page is seemingly responsible for spreading that around to various other articles on the internet. But the sentiment on film music forums seems to be that Williams did not write that calypso music. This interview with Sherwood seems to support that conclusion. But whether Sherwood was thinking only about the official opening theme and not the unused one when he said that is uncertain.

 

 

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I knew it!

[Thor 7,477]

8 hours ago, JediJones said:

This is an older, but more recently posted YouTube interview where Sherwood Schwartz is asked about what music John Williams did, at 3:28. Not sure if it reveals anything people here don't already know. But Sherwood is clear that Williams wrote what he calls Gilligan's theme (and he less assuredly credits him with Skipper's theme). He also avoids crediting Williams with the opening theme music. Wikipedia for Gilligan's Island credits Williams with writing the calypso music for the opening theme of the unused pilot. The Wikipedia page is seemingly responsible for spreading that around to various other articles on the internet. But the sentiment on film music forums seems to be that Williams did not write that calypso music. This interview with Sherwood seems to support that conclusion. But whether Sherwood was thinking only about the official opening theme and not the unused one when he said that is uncertain.

 

 

Williams didn't compose "Skipper's Theme", according to GI music researcher Bill Boston. Gerald Fried did that. He did compose "Giligan's Theme", however, so Schwartz remembers correctly there.

 

As for the original, discarded calypso theme, there is more uncertainty. I seem to remember Jeff Eldridge pointing out years ago that he did NOT compose that. Obviously, Williams was not involved in the 'sea chant' theme that was eventually used.

 

Check out Bill Boston's (aka Broughtfan's) list of material in the FSM thread you also posted in, JediJones. Quite useful!