Mary Ann Summers

Mary Ann Summers is a fictional Winfield, Kansas farm girl who is a character in the television sitcom Gilligan's Island which ran on the CBS network from 1964 to 1967, and has run more or less continuously since in reruns.

Role

Mary Ann was portrayed by actress Dawn Wells. She was an ingenue and a foil, as well as a friend, to glamorous Hollywood star Ginger Grant, played by Tina Louise. In addition, her practical domestic skills and plain, good common sense make her an indispensable member of the group. Her no-nonsense Kansas farm-girl character is a reference to Dorothy Gale as played by Judy Garland in the 1939 classic movie The Wizard of Oz (complete with Dorothy's ubiquitous side-pony tails and blue and white gingham dress).

She was traveling alone on the "three-hour tour" that was lost at sea, and was in her late teens to early twenties—an age which she pinpoints in the Season 2, Episode 30 "V for Vitamins" when she says, "Women and children first, so I get two votes." In many episodes she appeared to be the love interest for the Professor but this was never allowed to go beyond a mild flirtation.

As with the rest of the cast, not much was ever learned about her life prior to being marooned on the island, but she mentioned having dated a boy named Horace Higgenbotham from Horners Corners, Kansas.

In the series' (second) pilot "Two on a Raft" (Season 1, Episode 1), the Honolulu-based AM radio news reader only states that...
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