One of TV's Most Beloved Shows Never Aired Its Pilot for Nearly 30 Years
While most pilot episodes become the first things TV audiences watch, in the case of this sitcom the pilot got quickly locked into a vault.
In the television industry, the pilot episode serves as a proof of concept produced to demonstrate a show’s premise, tone, and characters to network executives and potential investors.
The show’s original pilot, titled “Marooned,” was shot and used to sell the series to CBS in 1963, but it was then locked away in a vault, unseen by the public for almost three decades, like the classic sitcom Gilligan’s Island.
Author summary: Gilligan’s Island pilot locked away.