Fantasilandia

I don't know why I liked this show so much as a child. Maybe it was the fantasy island bit where people's dreams and fantasies come true only it was never an ideal. This show was a spin-off of Love Boat again with celebrity guest stars from other shows and a cast that included the wonderful Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaise who said the "Plane, the plane" in the beginning sequence of the show. Sadly, Herve killed himself. The show was never the same without him. I think the show provided lots of jobs to actors who probably needed the job outside their own shows. Of course, I remember the episode with Barbi Benton as a mermaid. It was pure fantasy but remember to be careful what you wish for because it might come true and it may not be all that you wanted in the first place. Also I liked the fact that they filmed in Hawaii too.

I bought this for my wife, she waited with anticipation for the release date.

If it is not a part of your early teen years it may not appeal to you, as this is all about pleasant memory's.

There is a short but interesting documentary on the DVD set that gives some in-site to how the show came about.

The episodes them-self,for me, are a gentle reminder of how bad and corny and good T.V. was back then. A blast to watch and I really enjoy these as back ground visual and verbal noise as I study.On a good day I will sit and pay attention to the episodes. This is TV folks and it shows, but we liked it then and I enjoy the feelings it brings about now.

When you set out to create a show like Fantasy Island you have to be well read on history and have one good imagination. Glad to say that Fantasy Island showed a good deal of both in their episodes.

One episode I well remember was a pair of women were real big into the Civil War and desired to go back and live the genteel life that Scarlett O'Hara and her family had on Tara. Fantasy Island brought them back all right, but showed them the downside of that era and I'll say no more on the story. The morale of that show was be happy in your own backyard.

Host and impresario of Fantasy Island was the mysterious Mr. Roarke played by Ricardo Montalban. In interviews Montalban said that he never got the real career role on the big screen that defined other of his contemporaries. But on the small screen Montalban got two of them, Mr. Roarke and Khan on Star Trek which went to the big screen also. What powers Roarke drew on to show his guests what they really thought was ideal was left open to the imagination.

For all but one season Montalban had his dwarf companion Herve Villechaize and these two had a gentle and playful repartee. Villechaize had a sad and tragic life, but Fantasy Island left him with a career role and an identity that will linger.

I could never see this show revived because Montalban and Villechaise had such a special chemistry for the small screen.

Originally, this show had a dark side to it which quickly disappeared. The dark side was replaced with silly problems brought on by it's "guest stars." Think of any washed up movie star and they made an appearance on this show. The exotic locale helped, with the plane bringing that week's stars to the island, flying over waterfalls, and mountains along the way. Mr. Roarke would always greet his guests and then turn to Tattoo and say something ominous to him about one of this weeks fantasies, just so we'd stay tuned. This was essentially a landlocked "Love Boat." It was harmless fluff and part of my formative years...how scary is that?

In my final two years of high school one of the local broadcast broadcast station was re-airing various 70s shows at 6AM, they'd run every episode back to back over the course of a few weeks then switch to another. One of them was Fantasy Island. While I never caught every episode of those runs I caught a few. The fantasies of the guests could border on ridiculous, petty, strange etc. Mr. Roarke, the ever mysterious proprietor would fulfill their wishes with his trusty employee Tattoo. To them it was the business and they'd often share some humorous exchanges. Sometimes there'd be a twist or lesson for the guest, sometimes a happy ending. Many stars cameo in guest roles on the show. Recently the series has popped up on streaming with almost every episode in 16x9 Widescreen HD and gone are the scratchy old syndication copies replaced with crisp almost Technicolor prints dripping with color that almost makes things seem all most like a fantasy captured in time. Not the greatest show ever produced but an odd endearing quality about it which no doubt spurned the reboots.