» characters · professor roy hinkley
John Gabriel was originally cast, but the network thought he looked too young to have all the degrees attributed to the Professor. Actually, "the Professor" was in fact a high school science teacher, not a university professor. In the first episode, the radio announcer describes him as a research scientist and well known Scoutmaster. Johnson, who served as a bombardier in the Pacific during World War II, stated that he had some difficulty remembering his more technically oriented lines. Johnson's role in the series was spoofed in a Bloom County comic strip for the Professor's technical expertise being unable to get the castaways off the island. This odd contradiction was played up in "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody song, Isle Thing, when the Professor, who is brilliant enough to "make a nuclear reactor from a couple of coconuts" cannot "build a lousy raft". (In his autobiography, Here On Gilligan's Isle, Russell Johnson admitted the Professor indeed for all his smarts could not build a boat, but, despite popular beliefs stated in the aformentioned Bloom County strip or the "Weird Al" parody song, firmly added the Professor also did not build a nuclear reactor from coconuts nor a satellite dish from clam shells.) "The Professor" was portrayed by Russell Johnson.