Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip….
While it has long been rumored that the actor who portrayed Gilligan on Gilligan’s Island, Bob Denver, was a pothead who died of throat cancer at the age of 70, and who may have used the drug as far back or even before his days as Maynard G. Krebs, the beat-nick on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis show that predated the aforementioned 1960s television hit comedy series about a shipwrecked group of people from various walks of life stranded on a deserted island, who could have guessed that the sweet and innocent Mary Ann, portrayed by actress Dawn Wells, now 69, liked to partake of the illegal weed?
Well, it has been alleged that it’s true! Following a surprise birthday party for the former actress, who is now known for being the founder of the Idaho Film and Television Institute in Driggs, Idaho, the mission of which is to "find, develop, train, nurture and mentor new and established artists in film and television," Wells was pulled over by Teton County sheriff’s Deputy Joseph Gutierrez on the night of October 18, 2007 after he witnessed her driving erratically. She purportedly had been repeatedly speeding up and slowing down and crossing the median line on State Highway 33. When he approached her car Gutierrez immediately noticed the pungent smell of marijuana, and asked Wells why he could smell it. She responded that she had given a ride to three hitchhikers, according to an Associated Press article that also showed up on Fox News and in Newsweek magazine, and had ordered them out of the car after they lit up and began smoking a suspicious substance. Wells, also an organizer of that state’s annual family movie festival, Spud Fest, allegedly failed a subsequent sobriety test. Gutierrez also found three half-smoked joints in the ashtray and in the car’s center console.
