Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1986.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

This week, Tattoo is nice and Mr. Roarke is understandably suspicious.

Episode 3.2 “Goose For The Gander/Stuntman”

(Dir by Cliff Bole, originally aired on September 14th, 1979)

This episode opens with Tattoo being very nice and polite to Mr. Roarke and asking if there is anything that he can do to help Roarke as they head out to meet the plane.  It says a lot about how much Roarke hates his assistant that Roarke’s immediate reaction is to suspect that Tattoo has done something wrong and is trying to escape being punished as a result.  By the end of the episode, Roarke learns that Tattoo is freaking out because Tattoo saw a classified ad announcing that Roarke was looking for a new “assistant manager,” and Tattoo feared he was going to be fired.  Mr. Roarke has a good laugh over that.  Roarke enjoys anything that makes Tattoo’s life miserable.

As for the fantasies, this is another week where we get one silly fantasy and one serious fantasy.

The silly fantasy involves Marjorie Gibbs (Doris Roberts), who owns a truck stop in Arizona.  A new highway is being put in and all of Marjorie is going to have to relocate her diner.  Unfortunately, that is going to cost money that Marjorie does not have.  All of Marjorie’s customers tipped in and raised enough money to send Marjorie to Fantasy Island so that she can compete in a cooking contest and win a huge cash prize.

Can Marjorie win the contest?  It’s not going to be easy, as one of her competitors is a sneaky French chef (Vito Scotti) and the judge (Hans Conried) is one of those food snobs.  Fortunately, Marjorie strikes up a friendship with another diner owner, Joe Lange (Abe Vigoda).  Joe supports Marjorie and helps her to win, even after the French chef steals one of Marjorie’s recipes!  They also fall in love and save a goose from becoming a meal.  Awwwwww!  This was a silly but sweet fantasy.  Doris Roberts and Abe Vigoda made for a good comedic team.

As for the serious fantasy, it’s all about stunts.  Retired stuntman Peter Rawlings (Dale Robertson) comes to the island with his wife, Norma (Dana Wynter).  Norma thinks this is just a normal vacation but Peter actually wants to come to the island because his son, Bill (Grant Goodeve), is the stunt coordination for a film that is shooting there.  Bill has lived his whole life in his father’s shadow and Peter fears that Bill’s desire to pull off the biggest stunt of all time will lead to his death.  Peter also discovers that Bill’s insecurity has led to him becoming a tyrant on the set.  In fact, as soon as Peter shows up, Bill is fired and Peter is named the new stunt coordinator.  Can father and son set aside their differences and pull off a truly spectacular stunt?

Of course they can.  This is Fantasy Island.

This was one of those episodes that pretty much succeeded on the charm of the cast alone.  Neither one of the fantasies was particularly interesting.  We were told that Marjorie and Joe’s food was the best but, since we couldn’t taste it, we had no way of knowing for sure.  And the big stunt really didn’t look all that special.  But Doris Roberts, Dale Robertson, and Abe Vigoda all gave charming performances so, in the end, I was happy everything worked out.

Next week: Tattoo gets a fantasy!  Roarke better watch out!