- Lovey Howell
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Eunice Howell Gilligan's Island character First appearance Gilligan's Island (pilot episode) Last appearance The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island Created by Sherwood Schwartz Portrayed by Natalie Schafer Information Nickname(s) Lovey
Mrs. HowellGender Female Occupation Socialite Spouse(s) Thurston Howell, III Eunice Howell (née Wentworth); referred to as, "Lovey", by her husband, and as "Mrs. Howell", by the other castaways. Lovey was a fictional character in the 1964 to 1967 television show Gilligan's Island. Played by Natalie Schafer, the character was a rich, spoiled socialite, married to Thurston Howell, III.
Character summary
While Mr. Howell always called her "Lovey", the other castaways always called her "Mrs. Howell". There are only two times someone besides Thurston calls her Lovey: in the pilot, when the radio is announcing the missing people, the announcer says "Thurston Howell, III, and his wife, Lovey"; and in the episode in which Gilligan thinks he wins the lottery and invites all the people into the Howells' club, The Professor refers to Mr. and Mrs. Howell as Thurston and Lovey.
In one episode in which the Howells were having marital problems, she mentioned her maiden name was Wentworth, and in another episode a radio broadcast mentions that her given name is Eunice.[1] Hardly anything was ever learned about her life before being marooned with her fellow castaways, but she mentioned in one episode that she spoke fluent French and Italian, hinting at a classical education. Thurston Howell also indicates that Lovey, or at least her family, had money of their own; Mr. Howell describes her family as being loaded. She also claimed in one episode to being a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).
Although she was spoiled and preoccupied with social status, Mrs. Howell was also kind and genuinely cared about the well-being of her fellow castaways. She frequently served as something of a mother figure to the two younger female castaways, Ginger Grant and Mary Ann Summers, offering advice (though she sometimes also displays jealousy toward the two younger women).
Several times she acted as a motherly figure to Gilligan, such as psychoanalyzing him, adopting him, and praising him for his accomplishments when no one else did. She often plotted with her husband several times to steal/access/manipulate things from the other survivors. She once tried to get Gilligan and Mary Ann to wed, kept a gold mine secret from the rest of the group, divulged secrets about stolen jewelry from a parrot, schemed to convince a burnt out artist to leave the island and got through to an uncivilized jungle boy played by Kurt Russell.
It was once quoted by Thurston Howell himself that their brilliance together was only succeeded by their greed. They had also proven to have once had several houses and several staffs of servants, including an upstairs maid, a downstairs maid and a butler who served him breakfast in bed. Thurston once quoted that the neighborhood of one million dollars apiece was considered a slum area where they resided.
Notes
- ^ Adams, Cecil (1997-10-31). "In Gilligan's Island, what was Mrs. Howell's first name?". The Straight Dope. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1250/in-em-gilligans-island-em-what-was-mrs-howells-first-name. Retrieved 2011-01-10.
External links
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