The Hilarious Reason The Gilligan's Island Boat Is Named S.S. Minnow

https://www.slashfilm.com/1725834/gilligans-island-boat-ss-minnow-name-reason/

As an archived post on the website of the University of Texas School of Law explains, Sherwood Schwartz actually named the boat after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman, Newton Minow, who in 1961 delivered a speech at the 39th Annual Convention of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). In that speech, Minow decried the industry for creating a TV landscape that he dubbed a "vast wasteland," and implored networks to strive for higher-quality programming — which they dutifully did.

For Schwartz, however, this capitulation to Minow's demands robbed individual creators of their independence as networks were all too happy to adhere to the demands of the Federal Communications Commission Chairman. The "Gilligan's Island" creator said, "The year [that I began working on 'Gilligan's Island'] was 1963, and the three networks [ABC, CBS, and NBC] were already beginning to use the dictatorial power Newton Minow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, had handed to them." Schwartz's response was to name the doomed vessel on his sitcom after Minow, with one crew member being quoted as saying:

"No one can say 'Gilligan's Island' was without hidden meaning. I was surprised to find out recently from Sherwood Schwartz that our shipwrecked vessel, the S.S. Minnow, was actually named for someone. It was so christened in dubious honor of the man who, Sherwood insists, 'ruined television.'"