That one, at least, is easy enough–she went on vacation!
Jim Backus wasn’t too shabby himself.
Because Mr Howell was a frustrated autere and insisted on making a movie.
I think she won the vacation in a contest. Or maybe that was her predecessor in the unaired pilot? 
I enjoyed Gilligans Island. Its supposed to be lighthearted comedy. Belly laughs. Nothing more. Just like Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges. The plot isn’t supposed to be believable. The plot is just there as a frame for the jokes.
It was bad, but not the absolute dregs. The premise was endearingly silly. The scripts were good for an occasional chuckle. Bob Denver was a good comic actor, who could sometimes make you laugh at an unfunny line. And yeah, Mary Anne was cute.
That said, I’m dumbounded that people are still talking about it after half a century.
Last week I was in a bar conversation on Gilligan’s Island, and one guy said that he was a straight man, but in his considered opinion the Professor was more of a good-looking man than Mary Anne was a good-looking woman. I had no idea how to answer that.
The correct response was “Well, Russell Johnson was just poured into those chinos!”
Obviously, nerds are irresistibly sexy.
And if I keep repeating that enough, maybe some women will start believing it.
Not me. I hated that episode.
I was quite surprised seeing Jim Backus as the father in “Rebel Without a Cause.”
Despite his Roman numerals, Thurston Howell III would be a great drinking buddy - probably the most enjoyable (platonic) company of anyone on the island, if they had been real people.
A word about clothing: I’m sure plenty of you have noticed that Gilligan, the Skipper, and the Professor wear the same outfits all the way through all three seasons (except when they’re specifically in costume or some such).
The Howells, OTOH, due to their unwillingness to be parted with a couple of trunks’ worth of clothing (and money) for the duration of a three-hour tour, had different outfits from the get-go.
My recollection is that Ginger and Mary Anne had the same outfits all the way through the first season (including those wonderfully short shorts on Mary Anne), but beginning with the second season (IIRC), they suddenly had a variety of outfits, but no explanation for their appearance that I can recall.
Ginger was originally in the dress she wore at her last nightclub engagement, then made another out of Gilligan’s duffel bag. All of the other clothes presumably washed up on shore, prêt-à-porter.
I watch the Addams Family on weekends. That’s one show I can watch over and over and not get tired of it. Jackie Coogan was also great as Fester, far superior to Christopher Lloyd IMNSHO. But Lurch was my favorite. The best episodes were the ones that centered around him, such as the time his mother visited, the time Lurch became a pop singer, and the time the Addamses decided to donate Lurch’s harpsichord to a museum.
On TV, he was Morticia’s uncle, not Gomez’s brother. Whoever wrote the script for the movie hadn’t done his-or-her homework!
That’s right! Miss Nevada, 1959, Baby!
…could be the answer to the “other” question that Mary Ann is the answer to. 
You might have pointed out that Dawn Wells was a honest-to-God beauty queen (Miss Nevada, 1959).
On his daytime show, Art Linkletter would sometimes ask little kids which famous people they’d like for their mom and dad. My answers were always Dawn Wells* and either Russell Johnson or Richard Dawson (as Cpl Newkirk on Hogan’s Heroes).
*And with my luck, I’d’ve been bottle-fed. 
Miss Nevada?!? :eek: Mary Anne was too wholesome to be Miss Nevada!!!
$50, same as in town.
My blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold…
Agreed. He oughta shoot him inna back!