Ilha da Fantasia

As a teenager in the 70's, this was one of my favorite TV shows. I thought it had a truly unique and amazing idea for a show and there was nothing else like it on TV. I remember being instantly hooked on the show and looked forward to seeing the different guest stars each week fulfill their fantasies or dreams. Each fantasy was like a different show within that hour long period and each fantasy never seemed to turn out the way you thought it would which made the show even more interesting. Ricardo Montalban and (Da Plane!, Da Plane!) Herve Villachaize were great in their roles as hosts of Fantasy Island. I still love watching it and see it has fun and nostalgic. And in my opinion I still think it holds up well for that unique style all its own. After all it must've been a little special to last seven seasons and I hope eventually they all make their way to DVD!

I used to love this show as a child. What a wonderful concept, a person pays for a vacation, which acts out his or her "Fantasy". Thankfully this was not part of an adult programming. However, the show had reunions of people meeting loves from high school, and events people wanted. The show's writers had imagination too show what you want can turn into a nightmare. Ricardo mentioned this line in every third show. Ricardo, and Tatoo were well casted. As I matured, I will agree with the other posts that the storylines were thin, the sets cheap, along with rushed directing and scripts. Hard to watch again, but the what kept myself watching for a couple of minutes is some of the neat concepts, and the freshness of having new guests every week. With all television, the ideas became old, and they pushed the series 2 years too long.

A very odd and weird fantasy series which were perfect to watch after midnight in the after hours zone where everything seems magic if u get the point. basically in this series those who went to that island got their wish come true but only until the end of the....episode they were on. Dozens of guest stars appeared in this show with Riccardo montalvan (the man who played zack powers of dynasty II the colbys 1985-1987) to be t a great host of the show. that dwarf actor is also one of the most memorable members of this show. if u love fantasy shows then this is for you. by the way seasons 2 and 3 are now available on dvd but seasons 4-7 are still yet to be released. let's hope we get them too soon.

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.

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?