10 TV Backstories Revealed In Opening Credits
5. Gilligan's Island
The intro for Gilligan's Island is one of those that almost everyone knows, even if they've never seen an episode. Its song is entirely descriptive of the show's backstory, and it's an annoyingly catchy sort of earworm that digs its way into the listener's head like no other.
The song is called "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle," and it explains what happened to a group of castaways on a fateful trip. A group of people chartered a boat captained by a brave Skipper. There were five passengers, and Gilligan, the Skipper's first mate.
Unfortunately, the S.S. Minnow was tossed about by some terrible weather, and what began as a three-hour tour ended up with all seven people being marooned on an island. Once that's made clear, each character is introduced as Gilligan, the Skipper too, The Millionaire and his Wife, the Movie Star, the Professor, and Mary Ann, all of whom are stuck on Gilligan's Isle.
There's no mention as to why they opted to name the island after the witless crewman, but it worked for the series. The song continued in the closing credits, where it explained that there wasn't a single island luxury, but the castaways would try their best to be comfortable on Gilligan's Isle.