Years before he had to figure out how to get off classic television’s most famous island, Alan Hale Jr. was pulling off international escapades on “Biff Baker, U.S.A.”
Now best known for his portrayal of the Skipper on “Gilligan’s Island,” Hale’s second-longest role on TV came in the form of the titular character on “Biff Baker, U.S.A.,” a spy TV show that aired on CBS from 1952 to 1953. Like “Gilligan’s Island,” “Biff Baker, U.S.A.” occasionally employed a comedic tone, but dealt with higher stakes: As the employee of an international importing business, Biff Baker frequently found himself swept up into clandestine matters of overseas espionage. Each episode followed Baker’s efforts to get himself and his wife Louise (Randy Stuart) out of trouble, all while thwarting the evil endeavors of Nazis and mobsters alike.
After its 1953 cancellation by CBS, reruns of “Biff Baker U.S.A.” began airing in syndication. Baker and Stuart received modest amounts of praise for their performances, although some critics opined that the show lacked the suspense necessary for a thriller program about global espionage. By the time the series quietly left the airwaves, Stuart was building a reputation as an actress on TV Westerns, and Hale was on the verge of achieving household-name status with his role on “Gilligan’s Island.”
The actors on Gilligan’s Island headlined many forgotten television shows
Like Alan Hale Jr., many “Gilligan’s Island” stars ultimately became best known for their portrayals of the passengers on the ill-fated S.S. Minnow — and many of them starred in shows that, like “Biff Baker U.S.A.,” faded from pop culture far too soon. After “Gilligan’s Island” was canceled in 1967, for example, Gilligan actor Bob Denver once again played a humorously inept lead on the little-known 1973 Western “Dusty’s Trail,” an almost beat-for-beat retelling of “Gilligan’s Island” that instead followed a motley crew of stranded pioneers. Jim Backus, who played the pompous castaway Thurston Howell III, provided the voice of Mr. Magoo across three decades’ worth of shorts and shows — including the single-season 1977 animated series “What’s New, Mr. Magoo?”
In the end, the talents that the “Gilligan’s Island” actors honed on now-obscure television shows still supported them throughout their successful careers. In Alan Hale Jr.’s case, his ability to bring lightheartedness to the heavy subject matter of “Biff Baker U.S.A.” became the exact thing that cinched him the role of the Skipper on “Gilligan’s Island.”
“Everybody I tested [before Alan Hale Jr.] was just not right,” explained Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of “Gilligan’s Island,” in a 1997 interview with the Television Academy Foundation. “They turned dark when they started to yell at Bob Denver.” When Schwartz spotted Hale at a Los Angeles restaurant, he knew he had found the man who could seamlessly bring humor to those on-screen tussles. “We did the [chemistry] test, and it was perfect,” Schwartz recalled. “[Hale] was exactly the right person.”
