Dawn Wells, who played the fresh-faced farm girl Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island, has signed on to be marketing ambassador for the vintage TV network MeTV. Wells will be the on-air hostess for MeTV’s “The Summer of Me” campaign, will appear in ads, promos and interstitials, and will travel the country, visiting MeTV affiliates and advertisers, and talking up MeTV’s classic TV lineup.
Gilligan’s Island joins the weeknight comedy lineup at 9:30 p.m. starting May 30.
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“Dawn Wells is the perfect ambassador for MeTV’s family-friendly line up,” said Neal Sabin, vice chairman of MeTV parent Weigel Broadcasting Co. “Dawn is wonderful, warm and fun to spend time with…just like MeTV. We welcome her to our family and look forward to sharing new adventures with one of TV’s most loved characters.”
More than just Mary Ann, Wells is a producer, motivational speaker and author. She appeared in more than 150 TV shows, including Bonanza and Winterhawk, and a number of feature films as well.
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"It's questionable today what some TV shows provide for our impressionable kids,” said Wells. “I'm proud to be the MeTV ambassador. MeTV is a network which airs classic family TV shows the entire family can watch together."
Gilligan’s Island aired on CBS from 1964-1967, and found countless new fans in syndication. Wells’ Mary Ann was one of a handful of castaways—along with a movie star, a professor, a millionaire, a millionaire’s wife, a blustery ship captain, and a dim-witted first mate—that set out for a three-hour tour and was shipwrecked.
