The third and final season of the American comedy television series Gilligan's Island commenced airing in the United States on September 12, 1966, and concluded on April 17, 1967, on CBS.

The third season continues the comic adventures of seven castaways as they attempted to survive and escape from an island on which they had been shipwrecked.

However, Schwartz was forced to hire lawyers and audit United Artists film studio because they did not pay royalties in a timely fashion.

Bob Denver as Gilligan Alan Hale Jr. as Jonas Grumby (Skipper) Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III Natalie Schafer as Eunice "Lovey" Howell Tina Louise as Ginger Grant Russell Johnson as Professor Roy Hinkley Dawn Wells as Mary Ann Summers Executive producers for the third season of Gilligan's Island included William Froug and series creator Sherwood Schwartz.

[4] After the series' cancellation, the show's lagoon was not dismantled, and it remained in place until 1995, when it was converted into a parking lot.

[5] Denver played the role of the titular First Mate Gilligan, a bumbling, naive, and accident-prone crewman who often messes up the castaways chances of rescue.

Russell Johnson portrayed Professor Roy Hinkley, Ph.D., a high school science teacher who often uses his scientific background to try to find ways to get the castaways off the island.

Comedy actor Phil Silvers appears as the film director Harold Hecuba in the episode "The Producer".

[12] In the episode "Take a Dare", Strother Martin portrays George Barkley, a contestant on the titular game show.

[13] In "The Hunter", Rory Calhoun plays the role of Jonathan Kincaid, and Harold Sakata portrays his assistant, Ramoo.

[14] Miller had previously appeared in the show as lost surfer Duke Williams in the first season episode "Big Man on Little Stick".

[15] In the episode "Splashdown", Chick Hearn, George Neise, Scott Graham, and Jim Spencer all play astronauts or officials of NASA.

Jim Lefebrve, Al Ferrara, and Pete Sotos play headhunters in the episode "High Man on the Totem Pole".

[18] Despite a drop in the ratings when compared to the previous two seasons,[19] Gilligan's Island was still performing solidly in its third year and helped build "excellent" lead-ins for the series that aired directly afterwards on Monday nights.

To finance this endeavor, he used his earnings from his ABC series The Brady Bunch; this conflict later caused him to joke that every television writer or producer needs two hits in which "the second one [provides] the money for the lawsuit on the first one.

[23] While Schwartz made large sums of money due to syndication earnings,[23][25] Wells revealed that the cast of the show never received any compensation.

[25] CBS executive Mike Dann had congratulated Schwartz on the renewal of Gilligan's Island while the show was in the midst of filming its third season.

Dawn Wells and Russ Johnson even purchased new homes, feeling satisfied with the future of the show supposedly secured.

However, after several weeks, Schwartz never heard back from CBS Business Affairs, the department officially tasked with announcing the renewal of the show,[20] even though the series appeared on the network's planned schedule for the following year.

[26] Schwartz soon learned that when William S. Paley, the chief executive who contributed largely to CBS's success, had learned that his and his wife's favorite television series, Gunsmoke was being canceled due to falling ratings, he demanded that the network find a way to re-add the drama into the 1967–68 United States network television schedule.

[27] Desperate, the program associates at CBS went into an "emergency session" and decided to cancel a new series called Doc, along with Gilligan's Island, and reschedule Gunsmoke in their place, at 7:30 (EST) on Mondays.

Stuart Galbraith IV of DVD Talk noted that since "the series had exhausted every reasonably plausible story situation that could be derived from its limited premise, of seven castaways shipwrecked on an uncharted island in the Pacific […] the show's writers looked for any excuse to cut loose […] and by the third season this seemed like every other episode, dream sequences became the modus operandi.

"[29] He concluded that, "at its best the show offers immensely likable characters in broadly funny situations that are, in the end, timeless.

Extras include a season introduction by Schwartz, episode commentary for "The Producer", and the short documentary Gilligan's Island: A Pop Culture Phenomenon.

Ginger hears on the radio that egocentric Hollywood producer Harold Hecuba is circling the world for new talent.

Phil Silvers of Gladasya Productions (which filmed Gilligan's Island) guests stars as Harold Hecuba.

That night, Balinkoff, using a mechanical control device and the ring, turns Gilligan into a mindless robot slave.

That night, thinking he is still controlling Gilligan, he asks him to go to the Howell hut and take a lot of money.

On board is big game hunter Jonathan Kincaid (Rory Calhoun) and his assistant Ramoo (Harold Sakata).

The radio announces that after winning a shooting match, Kincaid had to be put in a straight jacket because he kept muttering the name Gilligan.