| "All About Eva" | |
|---|---|
| Season 3, Episode 14 | |
| |
| A bookish librarian turns up on the Island and ends up looking like a stunning clone of Ginger. | |
| Basic Info | |
| Air Date: | December 12, 1966 |
| Written By: | Joanna Lee |
| Directed By: | Jerry Hopper |
| Guest Cast: | None |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous | Next |
| And Then There Were None | Gilligan Goes Gung-Ho |
All About Eva is the 82nd episode of Gilligan's Island and the fourteenth episode of the third season. It first aired December 12, 1966. It is best known as the episode where Tina Louise plays two characters.
Synopsis[]
A Plain Jane named Eva Grubb comes to the Island to escape society and live by herself without being bothered. However, Gilligan and Ginger discover her boat and believe they're being rescued. However, the Professor deduces something else is up and everyone searches for Eva on the island. Gilligan discovers her, and Eva runs out to be caught by the Skipper. She surrenders the boat willingly. The Professor later reveals that when they reach civilization, they'll send someone back for Eva because she is distraught and shouldn't be alone. Gilligan, however, accidentally reveals this to Eva, who decides to keep everyone prisoner on the island by hiding the spark plugs to her boat.
Ginger and Mary Ann decide to give Eva a beauty makeover to buoy her spirits, but it results in Eva looking exactly like Ginger. Eva tests this similarity by coming on to Gilligan, and she returns the spark plugs. The Howells decide to throw a party to thank Eva, but Eva overhears Ginger comment that looking like her might not be enough to help her get dates. Eva later knocks Ginger out with a coconut and gags and ties her up. Eva tells Ginger about her plan to replace her as an actress and leave the island, leaving her alone on the island.
At the party, Eva tries to fool everyone by pretending to be Ginger at the Howell's party, but every time they about Eva, she has to leave the party and change clothes, forcing her to change her dress to cover her deceit. The Professor soon begins to get suspicious, but when Eva breaks her glasses while dancing with Gilligan, and Ginger returns to camp, she is forced to apologize.
Eva however realizes that by fooled everyone she proved to herself could get away with stealing Ginger's career. At morning, she secretly leaves with the boat and leaves behind a note to the stunned Castaways, signing it "The New Ginger Grant." When everyone wakes up at daylight and discovers the boat missing and her note, Ginger becomes devastated, bawling louder when Gilligan mentions the word "grub."
Message[]
- "Sometimes the reward you get for giving someone a pat on the back is a kick in the pants."
Highlights[]
- Tina Louise playing two-characters
- Eva kissing Gilligan.
Credits[]
Main Cast
- Bob Denver as Gilligan
- Alan Hale Jr. as The Skipper
- Jim Backus as Mr. Howell
- Natalie Schafer as Mrs. Howell
- Tina Louise as Ginger
- Dawn Wells as Mary Ann
- Russell Johnson as The Professor
Guest Cast
Trivia[]
- The title of this episode is an homage to the Academy Award-winning 1950 movie "All About Eve" which starred Bette Davis, Anne Baxter and a young Marilyn Monroe.
- This is the second episode in the series where one of the actors plays a double character.
- Tina Louise gets an extra opening credit for playing Eva Grubb.
- This episode thoroughly demonstrates Louise's versatility as a dramatic actress as what she had previously done before Gilligan's Island aired. She was more well-known for playing serious character roles in Hollywood and television. And in this episode, the producers have given Louise more free rein over her acting abilities apart from the more comedic and showy Ginger Grant.
- Gilligan mentions that they've been on the island for "years, months and days," suggesting the castaways have been on the island longer than the broadcast history of the series, but he could have just been exaggerating.
- It is unclear in this episode if Eva legitimately resembled Ginger or just ended up looking like her after her makeover.
- The Professor could have used psychology to let Eva know how hard it would be for her to live alone by herself on the island.
- Gilligan and the Skipper should have just left in Eva's boat for help and left the others to talk Eva into going back with them.
- Even if the Castaways had left Eva on the island, ownership of the boat would have been traced back to her by the authorities.
- Mrs. Howell claims she doesn't know French, but she claims she knows it in Quick Before It Sinks.
- Eva could have saved a lot of running by claiming as Ginger that "Eva was off exploring the other side of the island."
- It's unrevealed as to how Eva got the keys for her boat back from the Skipper.
- Considering how bad her eyesight was, it is debatable that Eva even made it home without her glasses.
- The identity of the actress playing Tina Louise's body double is unrevealed.
- Eva's glasses get broken, ruining her scheme. This over-used plot device has occurred in several films and TV shows. possibly originating from the 1960 film, "Where the Boys Are."
- Ginger cries when Eva abandons her and the others. She has possibly cried more often than any other Castaway in the series; having cried in Angel on the Island, The Return of Wrongway Feldman, It's Magic, Gilligan Gets Bugged, Meet the Meteor and The Producer.
- It's unlikely Eva could have pulled off impersonating Ginger as her vision, hand-writing and Ginger's sister (mentioned in Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow) would have exposed her.
- Considering all the other visitors to the island, why the Skipper or Professor didn't tamper with the boat to keep Eva from leaving without them is unrevealed.
- This is one of the few episodes where the tag scene is left intact in syndication.
- This is the last of the three episodes featuring the Castaways meeting their "doubles," unless one includes Santa Claus as the Skipper's double in Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk.
Quotes[]
- Professor - "Well, I'm sorry folks, but money doesn't buy happiness!"
Mrs. Howell - "Anyone who says money doesn't buy happiness doesn't know where to shop."
- Ginger - "Well, Gilligan, what would you do if you looked like Eva?"
Gilligan - "I'd go down to the draft board and get reclassified."
- Gilligan - "Everybody, you should see Eva. Wow, what a change in her!"
Skipper - "She can really turn it on, huh?"
Gilligan - "I could barely turn her off!"