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.  Almost entire show is currently streaming is on Youtube!

This week, Mr. Roarke gets married!

Episode 3.7 “The Wedding”

(Dir by Earl Bellamy, originally aired on November 3rd, 1979)

Helena Marsh (Samantha Eggar) and her son, Jamie (Paul John Balson), return to Fantasy Island!

The last time Helena visited the Island, she and Mr. Roarke ended up falling in love but Helena ended up leaving the Island so that she could return to the clinic that her late husband started in India.  However, Helena has now come back to the Island and she has only one fantasy.  She wants to marry Mr. Roarke!  Mr. Roarke is going to make her fantasy come true.  He’s so happy that he doesn’t even yell at Tattoo during this episode.

The entire Island is excited about the wedding.  However, Tattoo grows concerned when he hears Helena’s parents (played by Laraine Day and Joseph Cotten) talking about how unfair it is that Helena is dying and probably won’t even survive the honeymoon.  Tattoo goes to Mr. Roarke and discovers that Roarke knows that Helena is dying.  Mr. Roarke assures Tattoo that Helena has one of those television diseases where death comes with little to no suffering.  Unfortunately, Jamie does not yet know that his mother is ill.

The Hawaiian-style wedding goes off without a hitch.  Mr. Roarke and Helena honeymoon on the other side of the island and, for the first time since this series began, Ricardo Montalban actually gets to wear something other than a white tuxedo.  While Jaimie helps Tattoo train Chester the Chimpanzee to stop stealing things, Helena enjoys her last few days with Mr. Roarke.  Unfortunately, the honeymoon is cut short as Helena grows ill.  From his grandfather, Jamie learns that his mother is dying.  “If life were fair,” Mr. Roarke says with tears in his eyes, “there would be no need for Fantasy Island.”

Awwwww!  Seriously, what a terrifically sweet and sad episode this turned out to be.  Ricardo Montalban and Samantha Eggar had fabulous chemistry together and Montalban, in particular, really seemed to be energized by the chance to do something other than act mysterious and enigmatic.  In this episode, Mr. Roarke finally gets to show his emotions and when he cries, you’ll want to cry too.  Helena dies peacefully on the island, in the arms of Mr. Roarke.  Her final fantasy has been granted.

As for Jamie, he decides that he can’t stay on the Island.  He has to go back to school so that, someday, he can become a doctor just like his mother.

Oh my God, I’m like seriously tearing up just writing this recap.

This episode was Fantasy Island at its sentimental and emotional best.  This was a great episode, featuring outstanding performances from Ricardo Montalban and Samantha Eggar.  Would you believe that an episode of Fantasy Island could make a reviewer cry?  Well, this episode did.