Fantasy Island - Complete Season 1 Details

Fantasy Island - Complete Season 1

One of the definitive TV shows of the 1970s that originally aspired to the dark moral complexity of anthology shows like The Twilight Zone. Even die hard fans will have to admit Fantasy Island fell short of its goal--but that didn't stop it from becoming hugely popular, lasting for seven powerhouse seasons. All the most iconic elements were present from the beginning: Diminutive Tattoo (Herve Villechaize, The Man with the Golden Gun) shouting "De plane! De plane!"; infinitely gracious Mr. Roarke (Ricardo Montalban, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) commanding "Smiles, everyone, smiles," before delivering pages of exposition with his implacable Latin gravitas; the white suits; the tropical island that somehow has all the vegetation and weather patterns in the world; the pageant of celebrities from Jim Backus to Karen Valentine, Barbi Benton to Don Knotts--it all added up to sneakily addictive television.

After all, wish-fulfillment--be it a schlub who wants to be irresistible to chicks or kids who want their separated parents to reconcile or a former cheerleading team who want to relive their high school glory days--had a built-in narrative hook, even though the resolution (various versions of "be careful what you wish for") was never in doubt. Almost every episode bubbled over with sex, revenge, ambition, and regret, delivered with a shameless lack of subtlety. Over the course of the first season, the interplay between Montalban and Villechaize--each armed with an intriguing exotic accent--became more and more prominent, with Mr. Roarke becoming increasingly supernatural while Tattoo oozed the mortal sins of greed and lechery. Turn on any episode; you'll find it hard to stop watching, no matter how cheesy or ludicrous the storyline. --Bret Fetzer

Starring	Ricardo Montalban, Hervé Villechaize, Herve Villechaize, Carol Lynley, Leslie Nielsen, Dennis Cole, Ed Byrnes, Peter Graves, Eva Gabor, Diane Baker, Anthony Caruso
Director	Phil Bondelli, George McCowan, Allen Baron
Studio	Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK
Certificate
Genres	Action/Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Television
Language	DVD: English
Released	Production year: 1978 To Rent: DVD: 10 Dec 2007