Shark Bytes

Once your main character does battle with Satan, there's nowhere else to go...it's all gotta be downhill.

I swear I remember an episode where Charlie's Angels took Love Boat to Fantasy Island. I've never met another person who saw this episode, yet I swear I saw it when I was a kid. Can anyone confirm they saw it? Anyone?

What kind of donut would you like sir?

The plain ,the plane!!!!!!

Why couldn't Ricardo Montalban be Hispanic on the show instead of "Mr. Roarke"? It would not have taken anything away from the show.

I loved this show when it was first on, no question. Saturday night at 8, my butt was in the barcalounger for 2 hours of Love Boat and Fantasy Island. This was when I was around 8 years old. By the time I was 9, I was openly making fun of the rigid formula ("Smiles, everyone...smiles!" "What's HER fantasy, boss?" "But remember...once you begin your FAHN-tasy, nothing can stop it. I cannot help you!") and the parade of cheesy guest stars (Carol Lynley, Charo, Donny Most, Randolph Mantooth). Then along came Roddy McDowall as Satan, doing battle with Mr. Roarke for control of the world (does this make Mr. Roarke God?). That was the end...finis. Even my little-kid-sized willing suspension of disbelief could be stretched no further. I remember some time later reading that Tattoo had left, but I had stopped watching long before.

Jumped when Tatoo left. I used to think that this show was scary as a kid, and it made it even scarier for me when I saw Star Trek 2...HAHAHAHA..I remember seeing a documentary about Sonny Bono and he said that he had to change his ways after he appeared as a guest on this show. By mistake, during filming, he suppossedly called Herve' Valenchez "Pontoon" instead of "Tatoo", and Valenchez kicked Bono in the nuts...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The two TV-movie pilots that preceded the series were better - they talked about the price of the fantasies (50K) and Rourke's character was morally ambiguous, enjoying when fantasies went awry.

When the show went to series, Rourke became a nice guy, and the show fell into a formula: Tattoo yells "the plane, the plane"; he greets Rourke outside the front door; there's some midget-demeaning jokiness; they ride off to the lagoon; Rourke gets his drink and says, "Smiles everyone, smiles!"; cue the dancing natives; Tattoo asks, "What's his/her fantasy, boss?"; Rourke describes the fantasies-of-the-week, and implies doom at the end of each description; Rourke unexpectedly shows up in the middle of the fantasy; the guest tries to stop the fantasy, but Rourke says no; guest learns lesson; guests board the plane; cue the closing credits.

Why shouldn't Rourke fight Satan?The churches suggest we do this all the time and tells us to take him literally.Ah hell(pardon the pun.),it is "FANTASY Island".

Fighting Satan...come on, that was it for the series.

Maren Jensen did play Athena and also played the puppet and I have always thought she would have made a much better Fallon replacement than Emma Samms did on Dynasty. Maren Jensen resembled closely Pamela Sue Martin.

I loved this show as a kid. It never jumped for me. I was totally in love with Mr. Rourke. The Jack the Ripper episode was one of my favorites. I didn't like the lighter hearted storylines. The darker ones were much cooler.
And wasn't Annette Funicello dummy Maren Jensen, Athena from Battlestar Galatica?

Great show.Montalban treated Villecheize like a little monkey/joke and made him miserable and his replacement was a disaster with that butler coming in and Roarke's niece whosw soul had to be saved from Satan.Ugh!Wasn't the butler Mr.Belvedere?If so,why does this man always play butlers?Technically had potential for endless storylines because there were no limits set but TV writers will manage to run out of ideas for plots after ten minutes.It was a good show and I always watched it as a kid when ABC ruled the roost and before it became "THE DISNEY CHANNEL."

It jumped when Tatoo was replaced, but not necessary because he was replaced. But a show witch repeats three plots again and again ("somebody has a dream which is a nightmare and learns that his own life is much better", "somebody fells in love with someone in his dream an in the end it is another guest" and "somebody loses everything because of his own stupidy but gets a last cahnce in the end") have to be boring at some point.

I think the show jumped on the episode where Ricardo Montalban squinted his eyes and made the doorknob turn (instead of reaching out with his hand to open the bloody door!). Before that, it was interesting to see how he came up with the fantasy for each of the guests. When they turned it into voodoo it was definitely a jump!

I used to love watching Fantasy Island for the gorgeous crumpet count. A frequently used theme was to try to turn them into "plain janes". This was done by removing all make-up & have them wear glasses. Typical of this ploy was the first appearance of Markie Post who was supposed to have been an "ugly dickling", & an object of ridicule by her so-called friends. Mr Roarke gives her a magic potion to drink & she is transformed into the gorgeous babe she already was, but with a sexy hairdo, make-up & no glasses. Trouble was, Markie was so gorgeous they needed to put a sack over her head to make her ugly! This idea was used on Mary Ann Mobley, who has led a sheltered life as a writer & wants to live out the "thrilling" life of one of her heroines as her fantasy. Barbi Benton was another recipient of the glasses & no make-up idea transformed into a gorgeous babe by Mr. Roarke. Phyllis Davis wore glasses a couple of times & in one episode called "The Proxy Millionaire", she looked drop-dead sexy in them playing a secretary. Glasses were used as a prop to either make ladies look intelligent or to make them less glamorous. My favourite Fantasy Island wonderbabe was Judy Landers, who appeared in the very last episode with her sister Audrey. Entitled "Deuces Wild" she got off the plane wearing glasses, & like Markie Post it would take a darn sight more than that to make her look anything other than gorgeous!