The title is the question.
Thanks.
She has personally done Mary Ann many many times.
Nobody in the Gilligans Island cast seemed to have any use at all for Tina Louise, save perhaps for Tina Louise, so they were all a bit biased.
That’s an excellent answer she gave. I think she’s right.
I disagree with her comment that the whole thing began after the show was in syndication. I remember arguing about it with my classmates when I was in fifth or sixth grade (1965–67). Mary Ann always won, hands down.
I have no inside info, but it always appeared that, decades after the show went off the air, Bob Denver, Dawn Wells and Russell Johnson were still close friends, but that nobody cared to stay in touch with Tina Louise.
I think it was more her decision to keep her distance. She basically thought she had been suckered into doing GI (she thought it was going to be about her, i.e., a movie star stuck on a desert island) and resented being part of an ensemble cast. She was also afraid of being typecast by doing a silly sitcom. From what I’ve heard, she was mostly interested in entertaining her boyfriend(s) in her private trailer on the set.
When she was offered the chance to be in the TV movies, she turned it down flat.
It’s her smile, and those incredibly gorgeous eyes. Why she never became Miss USA (or Miss America) is beyond me.
Part of her answer is hugely self-selective, though: the bit about Playboy’s “Ginger, Mary Ann or The Girl Next Door”… *Playboy *has always been about “the girl next door” no matter how improbable or fantasy-driven that is. Since Playboy is basically written for the 14yo boy in every suave, sophisticated, urban swinger… I guess she’s right all around. 
Not a patch on Dawn, IMHO. 
Do we know how old that interview is?
23 December 2008.
While I also pick Mary Anne over Ginger (which seems to be the consensus), I do feel bad for Tina Louise, because she was actually a stunning looking woman. When she was in her 20’s she was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. Of course the question isn’t a reference to Louise herself, per se, but the portrayal, its gotta be a little annoying that you have been relegated to second place on an ongoing debate.
If you’d seen Tina Louise in roles outside of GI, you’d probably think she was a pretty capable actress–probably better than Wells in the few things I’ve seen Wells in. In addition to what has also been said, I suspect that similar to Robert Reed in “Brady Bunch,” she also probably thought that the role was beneath her acting abilities–but it’s hard for an actor to turn down a steady paycheck.
Tina Louise lives (or lived, can’t say I know if she’s still there) on the same block as a friend of mine used to - midtown east Manhattan, a few blocks away from the U.N. He told me he’d see her working out at the YMCA and that she always wore her hair in pigtails (she was in her 70s at this point.)
One day after leaving my friends’ apartment, I stopped in at the Duane Reade drugstore. There was a short line at the counter, not paying much attention The lady at the counter was trying to pay with a personal check. The cashier told her she couldn’t, and the customer began bellowing “Don’t you know who I am??? I’m an actress!!” Of course, I and everybody else looks up and - guess who? - it’s Tina Louise!!! She stormed out in a huff when the cashier wouldn’t take her check.
Plus, by the time she realized she wasn’t going to be the focus of the show, she had already signed her contract. :rolleyes: