After the ''Gilligan's Island'' pilot was made, series creator
Sherwood Schwartz, after many network problems, decided to make changes, including dropping McCarthy's character. She also appeared in two other unaired TV pilots:
Zelda with Sheila James and on
The Peter Lorre Playhouse. McCarthy made appearances on eight episodes of other television series, including
My Three Sons,
The Donna Reed Show,
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,
Adventures in Paradise,
Lock Up, and
Surfside 6. McCarthy originally made her New York stage debut as Dixie Evans in
The Big Knife at the Seven Arts Playhouse in 1959, which starred Carroll O'Connor and was directed by Peter Bogdanovich. She appeared in several live television plays produced in New York, including
True Story,
Divorce Court, and
Moment of Fear with Robert Redford on the
Alfred Hitchcock Presents series. On stage in Los Angeles, she played Maggie in
After the Fall. Her regional credits include Flirt in
Dark at the Top of the Stairs with Sylvia Sydney at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts, and Maisie in
The Boy Friend at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. McCarthy retired from acting after suffering a back injury in 1972, but continued to work as a print and fashion model, and later, in the advertising and design field. Her final television credit is the pilot for ''Gilligan's Island'', which finally aired on
TBS on 16 October 1992, 29 years after it was filmed. ==Personal life==