Rescue From Gilligan's Island (1978) / The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West (1976) (DVD)

RESCUE FROM GILLIGAN'S ISLAND (1978): It's been 14 years, and Gilligan, the Skipper, millionaire Thurston Howell III and his wife, movie star Ginger Grant, the Professor, and Mary Ann are all still stranded on that uncharted desert isle. Salvation arrives in the unlikely form of a little metal disc that falls off a high-tech Russian spy satellite and lands right in Gilligan's lap. The Professor uses it to power a navigational device that finally brings the crew of the S.S. Minnow back home! The castaways find that the world has changed drastically in their absence, and not always for the better. There's little time for malaise, however, as a pair of sinister Russian spies want that metal disc back, and they're willing to kill Gilligan to get it!

After years of letters from fans demanding the castaways finally be rescued, Rescue from Gilligan's Island aired as a two-part TV movie on NBC October 14 and 21, 1978. Original stars Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Russell Johnson, and Dawn Wells all returned. One cast member who did not was Tina Louise, who was vocal about Gilligan's Island ruining her serious acting career. After she asked the producers for an exorbitantly large amount of money to play Ginger again, they replaced her with actress Judith Baldwin (ironically, Louise and Baldwin had appeared alongside each other in The Stepford Wives just three years earlier.) Rescue from Gilligan's Island was a ratings smash, and inspired two further TV movies with the original crew (and Baldwin): The Castaways on Gilligan's Island (1979) and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981). Actor Vincent Schiavelli, who plays one of the Russian spies, is best known for his memorable parts in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Ghost (1990).

THE WACKIEST WAGON TRAIN IN THE WEST (1976): With Gilligan's Island reruns still bringing in high ratings in the 1970s, series creator Sherwood Schwartz decided to put a new spin on an old concept. Premiering in 1974, Dusty's Trail centered around a group of pioneers lost in the untamed frontier after being separated from a wagon train. All of the characters from Gilligan's Island are represented, with Bob Denver as the bumbling Dusty and F-Troop star Forrest Tucker as the Skipper-like wagonmaster Mr. Callahan. Together with the engineer, the banker and his wife, the saloon girl, the young school teacher and the wagon master, the group make a succession of comical attempts at finding their way to California. The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West is a feature-length compilation of four episodes of the series ("Tomahawk Territory", "Horse of Another Color", "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" and "The Not So Magnificent Seven") that was released theatrically in August 1976.

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