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 the entire show is currently streaming is on Youtube, Daily Motion, and a few other sites.

The plane has arrived!

Episode 4.10 “High Off The Hog/Reprisal”

(Dir by Michael Vejar, originally aired on January 10th 1981)

This week’s episode of Fantasy Island is all about being someone that you’re not.

For instance, Hadley Boggs (Stephen Shortridge) wants to thank his family for taking out a mortgage on the family farm, just so he could go to MIT.  Hadley has a great future ahead of him but he just wants his dad (Noah Beery, Jr.), mother (Dody Goodman), and sister (Misty Rowe) to have a chance to be live like rich people for the weekend.

Fantasy Island to the rescue!

When the Boggs family arrives, they are shocked to discover that they are going to be living in a mansion.  Mr. Roarke has arranged for them to host a cocktail party with ten of the richest men on the island.  Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of telling Tattoo to place an invite for the party in the Fantasy Island Chronicle.  (Yes, Fantasy Island has a newspaper and, in this episode, it appears to be printed in red ink.)  Tattoo decides to spice things up by claiming that the Boggs family owns a uranium mine.  Mr. Roarke is not happy.

“But, boss,” Tattoo says, “I am your best assistant!”

“That does not matter,” Roarke snaps before explaining that the Boggs family could be in a lot of trouble if they start buying things with money they don’t have or selling property they don’t own.

And, of course, that’s just what happens.  Roger Fox (Shecky Greene) offers the father of the family a few million dollars for the mine.  Thinking that it’s all part of the fantasy, Dad agrees.  Roger then sells the non-existent mine to someone else because it turns out that Roger is a con artist at heart.  Fortunately, with Roarke’s help, the family is able to con Roger into giving them back the non-existent mine and Hadley even falls in love with Roger’s daughter, Kathi (Kathrine Baumann).  To be honest, I had a hard time following exactly how Mr. Roarke conned Roger into giving up his fake mine but I’m glad things worked out.

This fantasy was …. eh.  The problem is that Hadley’s family was presented as being borderline idiots, what with their amazed reaction to existence of cars, airplanes, servants, and checking accounts.  It’s one thing to make them a poor farm family.  It’s another to treat them as if they’re the members of a cargo cult that has never had contact with modern human beings before.  West Virginia is not the Amazon Rain Forest.

The other fantasy featured Maureen McCormick in one of her six trips to the Island.  This time, she plays Trudy Brown (Maureen McCormick), an orphaned gymnast who is treated terribly by her aunt (Janis Paige) and her cousin (Holly Gagnier).  Trudy wants to win the Fantasy Island Gymnastics Competition and, in the process, she wants to defeat her cousin.  Mr. Roarke gives her the power of telekinesis, which Trudy promptly used to make her cousin fall off the high beam.  Roarke gives Trudy a stern talking to.

It’s a struggle but eventually, Trudy realizes that she doesn’t want to win through magic powers.  Nor does she want to hurt her cousin or anyone else competing.  Roarke takes away her powers and Trudy, having learned a valuable lesson, wins the competition on her own.

This fantasy was actually a lot of fun, just because it gave the viewer a chance to see what Carrie would have been like if Maureen McCormick had played the title role instead of Sissy Spacek.  McCormick seems to be having lot of fun loosening screws with her mind.  Toss in some gymnastics with the telekinesis and you have classic Island fantasy!

This episode had one boring fantasy and one good fantasy.  Luckily, the good overshadowed the boring.