Success is never a guarantee in the television world, so one can hardly blame Russell Johnson for being leery about signing up for a three-hour tour to "Gilligan's Island." While his career pre-"Gilligan" was mainly taken up by appearences in 1950s science fiction films like "It Came from Outer Space" and "This Island Earth," as well as Westerns like "Tumbleweed," Johnson was still reluctant to give himself entirely over to a life on TV — especially when he learned that CBS was having a hard time getting an actor to play Roy "The Professor" Hinkley.

"They called and asked if I wanted to run a test for the part of the Professor, and I said no. They called me three times and I finally said yes," Johnson told the Press and Sun-Bulletin (as quoted by MeTV ). Johnson explained that he had done

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