FRIDAY HALL OF FAMER 5/31/19 - GINGER GRANT

The Television Crossover Hall of Fame began in 1999.  (This is our twentieth anniversary.)  With its sophomore year, the Hall celebrated the Year of the Woman since they were so under-represented in the premier year.  Two of the members that year were Mary Ann Summers and Lovey Howell from 'Gilligan's Island'.  But I didn't even consider their fellow female castaway, Ginger Grant, because Tina Louise only played the role in the series. 

Over the ensuing two decades, I came to look at the characters on his or her own merits, rather than on who (and how many) played them.  I can usually come up with some sort of splainin nowadays for that, and I've got a good one in this case.

There have been six actors who have played Ginger, but there have been only three Gingers in the greater TV Universe.  It is the Ginger of the main Toobworld who is being inducted, even though three actresses have played her.

First, let's take a look at the basics of Ginger Grant.

From Wikipedia:

Ginger Grant is a fictional character portrayed by actress Tina Louise in the 1964 to 1967 television sitcom 'Gilligan's Island'.

Grant is a "movie star", and would casually mention names of some of the biggest movie stars of the day, as co-stars or acquaintances, suggesting that she too was a great star. She also mentions her roommate and fellow actress, Debbie Dawson, several times.

In the series' Season 1 Episode 1 "Two on a Raft", Ginger is also "singing in a club in Waikiki", the same gig mentioned by the radio announcer, after which she was seen boarding the tour boat "still wearing the evening gown from her last performance".

"When I first broke into show business, I used to work with a magician", Ginger confesses in Season 1 Episode 33 "It's Magic".

Ginger was sometimes seen helping the Professor with his experiments, dressed in a lab coat and spectacle frames, and they conspired together in the episode 'Ship Ahoax' to make it appear as though she were fortune-telling. They also shared romantic scenes, although these were usually in the form of a "lesson in love", such as in the episodes 'Erica Tiffany-Smith to the Rescue' and 'The Postman Cometh'.

She also appears to have been the object of desire of The Skipper in several episodes. The Skipper chooses Ginger as his preferred contestant in the "Miss Castaway Pageant" held on the island (Season 2 Episode 2 "Beauty Is As Beauty Does"). In addition, when Skipper loses his memory in the first season Episode 30 "Forget Me Not", he is much more attracted to Ginger than Mary Ann, asking Ginger, "Hi, beautiful!  What's your name?" while leering at her with delight. Ginger does not know about the Skipper's memory loss and she answers, with appropriate Hollywood pique, "Ginger, big boy, what's yours?"

Ginger sides with Thurston Howell, III on many occasions - acting as a witness during a trial over treasure, serving as a sort of spy to divulge information from Gilligan by scratching his back and allowing herself to be bribed by Howell, such as during the "election" of who was to be President of the island. It should also be noted that her secret agent code name and her measurements were both 36-25-36.

She is also close friends with Mary Ann; the two are around the same age.

Ginger Grant, due to many prior film roles in Hollywood, spent her time on the island occasionally taking on the roles of chanteuse, barefoot fortune-teller, lab assistant, hair stylist, and psychoanalyst – as well as fronting the hastily formed island musical trio: The Honeybees. She also had to deal with a doppelganger, a plain mousy girl named Eva Grubb (also played by Tina Louise).

Unlike the other female castaways, who were seen in more than one set of clothes, Ginger initially appeared only in her evening gown. Later episodes did include changes in apparel for her as well.

First off, let's get the other Ginger Grants out of the way.  There was one in the Prequel Toobworld and one in The Tooniverse (but for whom two actresses provided the voice.)

From Wikipedia:In Gilligan's Island's pilot, actress Kit Smythe, was hired to portray Ginger, who was then a secretary.  

For 'The New Adventures of Gilligan' the voice was provided by Jane Webb, while Dawn Wells had double duty as both Mary Ann and Ginger for 'Gilligan's Planet'.

And now, let's look at our inductee from Earth Prime-Time!

We know Tina Louise was THE Ginger Grant for the entire run of the series, but when it came to the sequel reunion movies....

From Wikipedia:
In the 1978 made-for-TV-movie, "Rescue from Gilligan's Island"; Tina Louise refused to return, for she believed the role had typecast her forever as a glamor queen, and was replaced by Judith Baldwin. Baldwin also portrayed Ginger in the sequel "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island".

However, Baldwin didn't return for the third sequel, "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island"; therefore, Constance Forslund, stepped in as the fourth actress to play the "movie star". 

This turns out to be one of the easiest - if not the wildest - splainins I ever needed for a recastaway.

During the course of the series, almost every castaway met up with their identical lookalike on that remote deserted island.  The island had berries which gave the person who ate them telepathic powers.  And most importantly, there was the meteor which emitted cosmic rays that would supposedly cause them to die of old age in one week.

So there's our splainin for why the physical appearance of Ginger changed in the decade since we last saw her.  It could have been that same meteor, or perhaps another amazingly landed on the island and its cosmic rays only affected Ginger, altering her physiognomy. 

By the third TV reunion movie, her looks again changed and I think we can also assume that she died from that exposure which was ravaging her cellular structure.  Even all three of the actresses were still alive, I think it best to consider Ginger as the second castaway to pass away in Toobworld.  (I think we can all agree that Thurston Howell III must have died soon after that third TV movie.)

So even though it wasn't the same actress who played Ginger in all four outings for 'Gilligan's Island' in the main Toobworld, it was still the same Ginger Grant.

Hi, Beautiful!  Welcome to the Hall!