FANTASY ISLAND: THE 1ST SEASON - DVD review

For a time, everything that producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg touched turned to gold. Seventies' gold—which makes it open-shirt, heavy-link, neck-chain gold, meaning Spelling and Goldberg managed to tap into the viewing public's penchant for kitschy melodrama infused with a heavy-metal dose of camp. They straddled the one-hour drama and half-hour comedy genres, turning out "Starsky and Hutch" (1975), "Charlie's Angels" (1976), "The Love Boat" (1977), and "Fantasy Island" (1978) in rapid succession.

The year that "Fantasy Island" debuted, "Charlie's Angels" finished #4 in the Nielsens, while "The Love Boat" cruised in at #14 with Mr. Roark and Tattoo following in their wake at #17—the highest the show would place.

Though "Fantasy Island" was popular for a time—Consider how many can still visualize little person Hervé Villechaize pointing to the sky and shouting, "Da plane! Da plane!"—Villechaize's departure from the show and the writers' pandering to the public's sense that Fantasy Island host Mr. Roark (Ricardo Montalban) had a dark side eventually led to a ratings drop and the show's demise. It also hurt that the producers kept reusing the same stars, so that their characters and performances seemed even more difficult to believe.

Like "The Love Boat," and before that, "Love, American Style," the format called for several plots to be showcased in a single episode. The 1977 two-hour pilot interwove three different plots involving a hunter who wants to be the hunted, a WWII vet who wants to relive a two-day wartime romance, and a corporate head who wants to be a fly on the wall at her own funeral. A quick follow-up, "Return to Fantasy Island," featured the same three-plot weave. But when the show officially became a mid-season replacement, the producers scaled back to two plotlines for the remaining 14 episodes.

It was pure "Gilligan's Island" mind-numbing escapism, with plane after plane of B-list celebrities visiting the island to have their wildest fantasies fulfilled. That was part of the fun, in fact, seeing who would turn up on the set. But the moral was always "be careful what you wish for," because once a fantasy was set in motion, Mr. Roarke's disclaimer was that he could not be responsible for the way things played out. "Do you still want to do this?" he'd ask every guest whose fantasy had a dangerous element to it. The plots resolved themselves way too quickly most of the time, so it felt like the kind of fantasy you have in a dream that you barely remember. Guests kept turning up again in different roles, and the same fantasies started to be reused (in an extra, Goldberg remarks that they did the male/female wanting to be attractive to the opposite sex at least 38 times). But it kept audiences coming back for four years, and you have to wonder if watching Tattoo dressed like a miniature version of Mr. Roark in his white vest, pants, and coat didn't inspire Mike Meyers to create Mini-Me for the Austin Powers series.

Here's the rundown on the 16 episodes:

1) "Fantasy Island" (extended pilot)—Bill Bixby stars as a WWII vet who wants to relive a romance with a young woman he met in London (Sandra Dee), while Hugh O'Brien plays a big-game hunter who wants to be hunted and gets more than he bargained for when his "date" for the night before things begin (Victoria Principal, "Dallas") ends up hand-cuffed to him. The third thread involves a corporate head (Eleanor Parker) who stages her own funeral to see how her husband (Peter Lawford), secretary, brother (Dick Sargent, "Bewitched"), and sister (Carol Lynley).

2) "Return to Fantasy Island" (extended follow-up movie)—George Chakiris ("West Side Story") stars as an assistant who wants to get to know his career-woman boss (Adrienne Barbeau, "Maude") better. Meanwhile, an infertile couple (Joseph Campanella and Pat Crowley) wants to see what happened to the child they put up for adoption a dozen years before, and a woman (Karen Valentine, "Room 222") who lost her memory on the night of her honeymoon wants to relive the night to get everything back.

3) "Escape/Cinderella Girls"—Bert Convy ("Win, Lose or Draw") stars as a magician who wants to perform the world's greatest escape . . . and Mr. Roarke puts him in a recreation of Devil's Island. Robert Clary ("Hogan's Heroes") also appears. Meanwhile, Diana Canova and Georgia Engel ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show") are working-class women who want to be jet-setters for the weekend.

4) "Bet a Million/Mr. Irresistible"—Henry Gibson ("Laugh-In") and Jane Powell ("Growing Pains") are a couple wanting to gamble to win the money to build a dream hotel, and an average guy (John Schuck, "McMillan and Wife") wants to be irresistible to women.

5) "The Prince/The Sheriff"—Ed Begely, Jr. ("Columbo") and Dack Rambo star in an episode about a nobleman who wants to be loved for himself rather than his wealth, while Harry Guardino ("The Love Boat") and Sheree North ("Archie Bunker's Place") star in an episode where a NYC detective wants to find the men who killed his partner.

6) "Family Reunion/Voodoo"—Juliet Mills, John Gavin, and David Hedison ("Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea") star in an episode about two children who bring their parents to the island hoping they'll reconcile, while Mr. Roark trots out the voodoo that will happen more often in later seasons in an episode about an amnesiac hoping to regain her memory. Gary Collins ("The Wackiest Ship in the Army"), Marjorie Lord ("Make Room for Daddy"), Howard Duff, and Lauren Tewes ("The Love Boat") star.

7) "Lady of the Evening/The Racer"—Carol Lynley guests again, this time as a call girl wanting to be judged for the person she is, not the way she earns her money. Jerry Van Dyke ("My Mother, the Car") also stars. In the other episode about a race car driver hoping to rid himself of nightmares by confronting the crash that nearly killed him, Christopher George ("Desert Rats"), Alan Hale ("Gilligan's Island") and singer Carol Lawrence star.

8) "Treasure Hunt/Beauty Contest"—While a couple (Michael Callan and Jo Ann Harris) wants to search for buried treasure, a 19 year old (Maureen McCormick, "The Brady Bunch") wants to be a beauty pageant winner. Gene Barry ("Bat Masterson") also stars.

9) "The Funny Girl/Butch and Sundance"—A comic wishes he were unknown in an episode starring Dennis Cole ("Bearcats") and Marcia Strassman ("Welcome Back, Kotter"). Meanwhile, two men fantasize about being Butch and Sundance in an episode starring Christopher Connelly and James MacArthur ("Hawaii Five-O").

10) "Superstar/Salem"—A few real-life Dodgers and Gary Burghoff ("M*A*S*H") star in an episode about an accountant dreaming of becoming a baseball star, while a couple seeking immortality in the past ends up being accused of being witches. Leslie Nielsen ("The Naked Gun"), Vera Miles, and Stuart Whitman appear.

11) "Trouble, My Lovely/The Common Man"—Bernie Kopell ("The Love Boat") and Nancy Walker ("Rhoda") star in an episode about a henpecked husband wanting respect, while Don Knotts ("The Andy Griffith Show") and Lynda Day George star in an episode about a process server who wishes to be a private eye.

12) "The Over-the-Hill Caper/Poof, You're a Movie Star"—Old-timers Ray Bolger, Foster Brooks, Tom Ewell, Phil Foster, and Harriet Nelson star in an episode about the leader of a gang who wants to reunite everyone for one last job. In the other episode, Barbi Benton ("Hee Haw") stars as a woman who wants to make it in Hollywood. Talk about type-casting.

13) "Reunion/Anniversary"—Michele Lee ("Knots Landing") stars with Pam Franklin and Sue Lyon in an episode about cheerleaders wanting to relive their high school glory years, while Lucie Arnaz, Ronnie Cox ("St. Elsewhere"), and Jim Backus ("Gilligan's Island") star in an episode about a couple hoping to recapture the magic of their wedding day.

14) "King for a Day/Instant Family"—David Doyle ("Charlie's Angels") guests in an episode about a plumber who wants to be king, while Jane Wyatt ("Father Knows Best") guests in an episode about a college grad who dreams of working for a famous child psychiatrist.

15) "Fool for a Client/Double Your Pleasure"—Comedian Rich Little is joined by Mary Ann Mobley and Lana wood in an episode about a paralegal who wants to be the big successful lawyer and Ken Berry ("F-Troop") stars in an episode about an Alaskan pipeline worker who wins a date with twins.

16) "Call Me Lucky/Torch Song"—Richard Dawson ("Hogan's Heroes") stars in an episode about a gambler who wants to be the luckiest man in the world, while Edd Byrnes ("77 Sunset Strip") and Kathryn Holcomb star in an episode about a woman who dreams of becoming a Roaring '20s torch singer as famous as her grandmother. Football player Dick Butkus also puts in an appearance this week.

There are 775 minutes of episodes, most of them mildly entertaining, with some a little more hokey and laughable than others.

Video: The box boasts that the episodes are "re-mastered in High Definition," but I don't see the difference between the picture quality of this series and any other shows that came out of the Seventies. In fact, the second episode, "Return to Fantasy Island," is so grainy and washed-out that I couldn't watch it all the way through. Thankfully, that's the only episode that doesn't seem to have survived. Otherwise, that's a lot of eyestrain for a little diversion. The aspect ratio is 1.33:1, as usual, and the quality overall is okay.

Audio: Here too, the audio is acceptable, but if it's Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, there's very little separation. I can't even tell, with my ears to the speakers, whether it's mono or stereo. Thankfully, except for the well-known theme song and musical segues, it's all dialogue and sound effects.

Extras: There are average two short features, "Creating the Fantasy" and "Spending the Day at Fantasy Island," along with the original promotional teasers. There's no behind-the-scenes footage, but Goldberg appears on camera talking about the genesis of the show and the show's first season, along with writer Ron Friedman and the agent for the two stars. On the other short feature, some of the guest stars appear on-camera to reminisce. Barbeau

Bottom Line: As much as the characters on "Fantasy Island," viewers were able to escape each week for an hour of light entertainment and dramatic intrigue. Nothing great happened from episode to episode and it was hokey as those fake anthuriums placed randomly on every bush and tree, but it was enough to give pleasure to fans of the show.