When the Harlem Globetrotters Visited Gilligan’s Island
Story by @GIJoeRepairShop
I have a strange memory from childhood. I know that I’ve watched the Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Harlem Globetrotters were everywhere. They were even on Scooby-Doo. Indeed, they’re still everywhere. Just last month, they had Pope Leo XIV spinning a basketball on his finger! So, their appearance on the show alone isn’t that surprising. As an adult, I have to question how the entire Harlem Globetrotters organization managed to get onto, and then off of, Gilligan’s Island so easily, while the castaways never seemed to manage it.
As it turns out, what I watched in was not an original episode of “Gilligan’s Island,” but rather one in a series of made-for-television movies that occurred after the original series had ended. “The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island” was broadcast in May 1981. The original series ended in 1967. Nearly 14 years has passed. Are they still stuck on the island? No, they were rescued twice: Once in the made-for-TV movie “Rescue from Gilligan’s Island,” which aired in two parts in 1978, and then rescued again (spoilers) in “The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island,” where they return to the island once again to turn the island into a resort. So, by 1981, the castaways are running a resort on Gilligan’s Island. The resort itself is named “The Castaways.”
This TV Guide listing gives some indication of the convoluted plot of this particular television movie spectacular. The castaways must team up with the Harlem Globetrotters to save the island’s mineral deposits from an evil billionaire. Think of it as Avatar, but near Hawai’I and with the Globetrotters. The Globetrotters plane is experiencing engine failure over the Pacific Ocean and they are forced to land on the island. After a brief time stranded in the jungle, they are discovered by Gilligan and The Skipper. First, castaways play basketball against the Globetrotters and are even more useless than the Washington Generals. However, evil plots are afoot on Gilligan’s Island! J.J. Pierson, who is Thurston Howell III’s worst rival, plans to swindle Gilligan and the others into signing over the island resort ownership to him. He knows (somehow) that the island contains “supremium”, which is an ore that provides a huge source of energy. (Remember that in 1981, the gas crisis of 1979 was still a vivid memory for most adults.)
Pierson tricks most of the castaways into signing. However, Gilligan and The Skipper uncover the conspiracy right when Thurston Howell IV (Howell III’s son) is about to sign on his father’s behalf. This dispute over the mineral-rich island can only be resolved if the Harlem Globetrotters play Peirson’s team of robots, called “the New Invincibles.” The winner gets ownership of the island. As you’d expect, after more shenanigans and lots of Globetrotter trick shots, Gilligan makes the game-winning basket.
Undaunted, Pierson orders the robots to load the supremium onto his yacht. The Professor warns Pierson that supremium is highly unstable outside of the mine. His yacht subsequently explodes and sinks, leaving him penniless. There’s a moral there, somewhere. At least, the Globetrotters get to leave the island.
