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 1984.  Almost the entire show is currently streaming on Daily Motion.

Welcome to Fantasy Island, where Mr. Roarke does whatever he wants.

Episode 4.22 “Hard Knocks/Lady Godiva”

(Dir by Don Weis, originally aired on May 9th, 1981)

Sheila Godfrey (Michelle Phillips) comes to Fantasy Island with a simple fantasy, one that Mr. Roarke manages to totally screw up.

Sheila grew up in Montana and loves horses.  Because she was often ill while she was growing up, she was often not allowed to ride as much as she would have liked.  Now, she wants to be the world’s most famous female equestrian.  To me, this seems like a pretty simple and straight-forward request.  Sheila is asking to be famous for riding a horse.

Roarke, however, decides that Sheila’s fantasy is that she wants to be the most famous female equestrian in history.  And, in Roarke’s opinion, that means that Sheila wants to be Lady Godiva.  Now, setting aside the idea that Mr. Roarke is suddenly such a stickler for detail that he’s forcing Sheila to go with a literal translation of her fantasy (which is something that no other guest has ever had to deal with), is Lady Godiva truly the most famous female equestrian ever?  Katharine Hepburn used to ride horses.  Belle Starr used to ride horses.  Joan of Arc rode a horse on occasion.  What about Annie Oakley?

But let’s accept that Sheila’s fantasy is to become Lady Godiva.  Roarke doesn’t even do that!  Instead, he gives her a magic horse named Lancelot, which Sheila rides into medieval England.  And, in the past, Lancelot turns into a donkey and Sheila is promptly arrested for poaching on a nobleman’s land.  Sheila ends up a servant to Lady Godiva (Gunilla Hutton), who is being imprisoned in her own castle for criticizing the taxes that her husband, Leo (Ken Berry, who is very much not British), has placed on the people living on his land.  When Leo says that he’ll release his wife and lower the taxes but only if she’ll agree to humiliate herself by riding her horse naked, Godiva agrees.  However, before the ride, she is given a magic potion that knocks her out.

It falls to Sheila to disguise herself as Godiva and take the famous ride.  The servants respect her decision and turn their back as she rides by on a horse.  Well, one guy does take a look and gets yelled at as a result.  “You’ll always be known as Peeping Tom!”

Sheila returns to the present and is somehow not upset about the fact that she really didn’t get her fantasy.  (Not only did she not get the fantasy she asked for but she didn’t even get the fantasy that Roarke claimed she was asking for.  I mean, even if we accept that Sheila’s fantasy was to be Lady Godiva, that didn’t happen.  Instead, she became a servant who pretended to be Lady Godiva.)  Roarke agrees to send her Lancelot and also informs her that handsome Sir John Apensdale (Patrick Wayne), who Sheila fell in love with while in the past, was actually a Montana rancher who was having a fantasy of his own.  And he’ll be happy to teach Sheila how to ride!

Meanwhile, Steve Pryor (Philip Levian) comes to the Island with the fantasy of being a hard-boiled detective.  Roarke gives Steve his fantasy and even provides him with a mentor to offer him advice.  Who is that mentor?  The ghost of Humphrey Bogart (played by Robert Sacchi)!  Only Steve can see Bogart, which leads to a lot of scenes of people wondering why Steve is talking to himself.

The case involves delivering a package, picking up a key to a safety deposit box, and dealing with a femme fatale (Martha Smith).  It’s a pretty simple case, to be honest.  But at least Steve gets to hang out with Bogart.  And, to give credit where credit is due, Robert Sacchi’s Bogart impersonation was spot-on.

This episode was silly enough to be likable.  That said, I do think Sheila could probably sue Mr. Roarke for not actually granting her fantasy.  Seriously, I wonder how many lawyers Mr. Roarke kept on retainer.