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I picked up the DVDs of the first three seasons of this show. I never got to watch it as a kid, I was too young. (I got sent to bed when the opening credits of Hawaii 5-0 rolled.) But I had heard that it was good.
The pilot was a delight. The idea is that Fantasy Island is an island resort where guests pay $50,000 to live out their fantasy. Ricardo Montalban plays Mr. Roarke, the owner of the resort. He's kind of like if the narrator of the Twilight Zone got to actually be in the episodes.
There was a romantic storyline with Bill Bixby and Sandra Dee, a story about a rich businesswoman faking her own death and attending her own funeral, and a third storyline that was an inversion of The Most Dangerous Game, where a big game hunter signs himself up to be hunted, for the ultimate thrill.
Victoria Principal has an early role as the hostess assigned to the big game hunter. She's basically his ersatz girlfriend.
In an unexpected complication, she gets handcuffed to the big game hunter, who has to save her constantly. And in a lovely scene, she runs into a tiger and faints dead away, and winds up getting carried OTS for the remainder of that stage of the hunt.
But don't take my word for it:
It's a great way to kick off a show. Only time will tell if they can beat that!
Oh, and so far, I like the show. Ricardo Montalban is great as Mr Roarke.
Fantasy Island (1977)
Story quality varied, but they had some really funny ones. In the middle of the run they had three WW II military buddies recreating the time they escaped from a German POW camp. Then they find the officer in charge of the camp is also there and said something about having a fantasy too where he was going to get revenge for their escape,
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bushwackerbob
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I used to love those anthology series where you had new characters, guest stars, and stories every week, with Mr. Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) and that little guy. They replaced the little guy in the final season with the British dude who played the housekeeper in Mr. Belvedere. In my youth, this was back-to-back Aaron Spelling classic series staples on Saturday nights, Spelling's Love Boat at 9PM and Fantasy Island at 10PM back when folks actually watched primetime television on Saturday nights. The 1998 Fantasy Island reboot with Malcom McDowell as Mr. Roarke didn't interest me at all.
Jingle TV, aka the b-list babe of the week, along with Love Boat. Except for the guest females, the stories were pretty weak. I always wondered what would happen to Julie if she was grabbed by a gang of pirates in Mexico. I think everyone expected PornHub and any real life version was run by Epstein or located in Thailand. Robot Chicken, I think, had it pretty much nailed.
