<P> The Castaways on Gilligan's Island is a 1979 made - for - television comedy film that continues the adventures of the shipwrecked castaways from the 1964--67 sitcom Gilligan's Island and the first reunion movie, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, featuring the original cast from the television series with the exception of Tina Louise, who was replaced in the role of Ginger Grant by Judith Baldwin . Written by Al Schwartz, Elroy Schwartz and series creator Sherwood Schwartz and directed by Earl Bellamy, it was first broadcast on NBC May 3, 1979 . Unlike the independently - produced Rescue from Gilligan's Island, this and the subsequent The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island were produced by Universal Television . </P> <P> The movie picks up directly after the end of Rescue from Gilligan's Island . The castaways are once again stranded on the same island that they had been on for so many years . The storm has contaminated all of the underground springs, and they are desperately searching for fresh water . Gilligan stumbles upon a pair of airplanes that are hidden in the jungle that they failed to notice throughout their 15 years on the island . It is revealed that the island was a base of operations for the Army Air Corps during World War II, and the hangar was abandoned and heavily overgrown with jungle brush, and as such hidden from plain sight . The tidal wave from the previous movie destroyed the foliage and exposed the hangar . The Professor believes that he can combine the two planes into one and fly them all back to civilization . He succeeds in cobbling together an airworthy plane and, dubbing it Minnow III, they head back . </P> <P> During the attempt to fly back to Hawaii, however, the plane has engine trouble . The Professor orders Gilligan to jettison some weight, and in doing so, Gilligan falls out and has to parachute down to the island . The castaways elect to return for Gilligan, although the Professor warns takeoff will be impossible again . Right after landing, the engine falls off, and the Skipper remarks it would have been certain death had that happened while airborne . Gilligan inadvertedly saved the castaways again, and the group says they should look for him . They soon find him stuck in a tree, but now they are dismayed because the plane was their last hope of rescue . Their despair is quickly dispelled when a U.S. Navy captain appears saying that their plane was detected on radar long enough for them to follow it to the island . The castaways are once again returned to civilization and to ensure that Gilligan's Island gets charted, the U.S. government pinpoints the location of the island to prevent future castaway incidents . </P> <P> The second half--which was originally intended as a pilot for a Love Boat type of weekly series--picks up a year later, with the island now a tropical resort fully linked to civilization and owned by Mr. Howell (who makes Gilligan and the other castaways silent partners in the hotel). The rest of the castaways work as the staff of the resort, where Skipper and Gilligan man a motor whale boat, aptly named Minnow IV, that shuttles people to and from cruise ships that stop at the island . On one such trip, the Minnow IV contains a married couple Henry Elliot (Tom Bosley), a workaholic business man from Cleveland whose wife (Marcia Wallace) is trying to get him to relax and forget about work, as well as an unaccompanied minor (Ronnie Scribner). Gilligan is concerned why the boy is by himself, only to find that the child has run away from his parents to get away from their constant pressure on him to excel in athletics and in school . </P>

Where were the castaways going when they were shipwrecked