Attack of the Mushroom People. A 1963 Japanese movie about people on a sailboat who get stranded on a deserted island in the south Pacific. They soon eat mushrooms growing on the island and strange things happen to them. One man imagines (after eating them) Japanese showgirls back in Tokoyo. And an electric sign that looks like a smiling face in lights. Anyone remember this film and believe it inspired Gilligan?

Ummm....I've not seen the movie, but I've read Sherwood Schwartz's book, and he doesn't mention this movie (not that I recall, anyway). He kinda gives credit to having read "Robinson Crusoe" as a child.

ALSO POSSIBLE, IDO, IS THAT SCHWARTZ DIDN'T ACKNOWLEGDE AOTMP AS INSPIRATION SO NOT TO GET SUED BY THE FILMMAKERS OF THE JAPANESE MOVIE.

Whoever wrote for the show must have been inspired by "Lord of the Flies" somewhat. When I read that (serious) book I noticed things used later in GI.

I hear you Rich. BUt AOTMP was really a lot like Gilligan. Even more than Lord of the Flies was. They had a guy in AOTMP who even wore a hat just like Gilligan's. Remember one ep of Gilligan when they ate strange vegetables (including mushrooms) growing on the island and funny things began happening to them?

I think you're combining 2 episodes. The "mushroom" show was when Mary Ann thought she had eaten poisonous mushrooms (everyone was being nice, though, because her "boyfriend" had married another girl). And the "strange vegetables" episode was about Gilligan finding a crate of radioactive vegetable seeds. They planted the seeds and ate the vegetables, and the radioactivity played havoc with them. But it's an interesting theory. Maybe if I saw the movie, I'd see the similarities.