DVD Release Date: November 15, 2005 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Color
MSRP: $39.99
Number of Discs: 4
Number of Episodes: 16
Running Time: 775 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: 35 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English,
Spanish, and Portuguese languages (Spanish missing
from one episode; Portuguese missing from two); Spanish
and Portuguese subtitles; closed-captioned
Special Features: "Creating the Fantasy" and Spending
the Day at Fantasy Island" featurettes (interviews);
promotional teasers for 11 episodes
Introduction:
De plane! De plane! WELCOME to Fantasy Island, the one
and only island where you can live out your fantasies!
Anything that you want to happen here not only can
happen, but will happen! And if your fantasy is to see
these fantasies on DVD, your fantasy will be granted
to you on November 15, 2005 courtesy of Sony Pictures
Home Entertainment!
Fantasy Island is a somewhat obscure show from our
television past (there are many more that are much
more obscure, but this isn't exactly something that
you see on any television network 30 times a day) that
featured Ricardo Montalban as Mr. Roarke. Mr. Roarke
was the one that would grant the fantasies to all of
the people that came to the island, along with his
assistant Tattoo (played by Herve Villechaize). The
visitors to the island were all played by special
guest stars—in fact, each and every episode has more
than one prominent guest star. The basic premise of
the show is to be careful what you wish for, as what
you believe is your fantasy can and will backfire on
you when you least expect it—just be happy that you
have what you have.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
Okay, there is so much to cover here! First we start
with the 1977 pilot, "Fantasy Island." Bill Bixby,
Victoria Principal, and Dick Sargent all make guest
appearances in this one. Next we go to "Return to
Fantasy Island," which aired one year later. Adrienne
Barbeau and Karen Valentine make appearances in this
episode. Next, we go to "Escape/Cinderella Girls,"
where Bert Convey has a fantasy to make an escape from
Devil's Island. Meanwhile, two girls, played by Diana
Canova and Georgia Engel, wish to be part of the
elite. Ed Begley, Jr. makes an appearance in "The
Prince/The Sheriff." In "Family Reunion/Voodoo,"
Marjorie Lord makes a guest appearance as she attempts
to regain her memory using voodoo. Alan Hale and Jerry
Van Dyke appear in "Lady of the Evening/The Racer." A
girl played by Maureen McCormick has a fantasy of
becoming a beauty pageant winner in "Treasure
Hunt/Beauty Contest." Marcia Strassman plays a famous
comedienne that would rather be unknown in "The Funny
Girl/Butch and Sundance." Tommy Lasorda and Leslie
Nielsen appear in "Superstar/Salem." Bernie Kopell,
Nancy Walker, and Don Knotts appear in "Trouble, My
Lovely/The Common Man." A leader of a gang wants to
reunite the mob one last time in "The Over-the-Hill
Caper/Poof, You're a Movie Star." Herb Edelman also
guest stars on this episode. Mary Ann Mobley and Ken
Berry both appear in "Fool for a Clint/Double Your
Pleasure." Finally, the first season ends with "Call
Me Lucky/Torch Song," where Richard Dawson plays a
gambler that wishes to be the luckiest man in the
world.
You may have noticed that each episode has two titles,
and if you are like me and not well acquainted with
the show, you may be wondering why—basically, each
episode has two plots going on concurrently. The idea,
according to Leonard Goldberg in the interviews, is
that the double plots would present something in every
episode that everybody would like.
Packaging:
The packaging style used for the discs is the style
that seems to have become the typical for most of the
latest Sony releases—double slim cases. There is
something about the design of these Sony slim cases
that bothers me time and time again, and that is the
fact that these double slim cases never seem to secure
the DVD very well at all—many others think I'm crazy
when I say this, but I have had that problem with
three of these Sony sets with this design. However,
the slim packaging is a positive thing—it is nice to
have four discs in a package that is about the size of
one Amaray case. Each slim case has a photo of Mr.
Roarke and Tattoo.
Disc 1 contains the two pilot episodes and the first
hour-long episode, Disc 2 contains episodes 4-8, Disc
3 contains episodes 9-12, and Disc 4 contains episodes
13-16. The disc art contains various snapshots of Mr.
Roarke and Tattoo (I'm wondering how many of these
photos they have, there are five different seemingly
similar photos within this set of them together with
just minor variations here and there).
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menus on the set are creative and kind of
interesting. When you load the disc, you see Tattoo
ringing the bell announcing "the plane, the plane,"
and then the main menu loads. On the main menu, the
theme song plays in the background, and you have
options of Play All Episodes, Episode Selections,
Languages, and Special Features. There is nothing
special to note about any of the submenus above; they
are very clean (but basic) menus. Like a lot of other
sitcom DVD sets, there is no scene selection menu, but
chapters are included at all of the appropriate spots
in each episode.
Video and Audio Quality:
These episodes are nearly 30 years old, yet they look
surprisingly good. The picture quality seems to be a
bit faded, but other than that, these seem to be very
well preserved episodes, and I have to say that I'm
pleased with the video quality. The audio quality
(presented in Dolby Digital Mono) is of very good
quality, and there really isn't anything at all to
complain about with it. And if you want to have a
little fun, you can even watch most of the episodes in
Portuguese or Spanish ("Pilot" is missing the
Portuguese audio, and "Return to Fantasy Island" is
missing both the Portuguese and the Spanish audio).
There are even Spanish and Portuguese subtitles on
each episode as well. Or, if you just want to read the
dialogue in English, you can use the closed-captioning
that is provided. Finally, each episode is unedited in
the 49 minute range and the two pilot movies are at 94
and 97 minutes each.
Special Features:
The special features on this set are not the "strong
point" of the set, but regardless, they are decent. To
start, we have promotional teasers that were used for
various episodes in the first season. Basically, these
are just introductions for each episode, with an
announcer beginning each one by saying "Next on
Fantasy Island." On Disc 2, we have them for "Bet a
Million/Mr. Irresistible" (0:57), "The Prince/The
Sheriff" (1:02), "Treasure Hunt/Beauty Contest"
(1:03), "Lady of the Evening/Racer" (1:02). On Disc 3,
we have them for "Superstar/Salem" (1:03), "The
Over-the-Hill Caper/Poof You're a Movie Star" (1:03),
"The Funny Girl/Butch and Sundance" (1:02), and
"Trouble, My Lovely/The Common Man" (1:02). Finally,
on Disc 4, we have them for "Call Me Lucky/Torch Song"
(1:03), "King for a Day/Instant Family" (1:03), "Fool
for a Client/Double Your Pleasure" (1:03). I know
nothing about the show, so I have no clue what purpose
these originally served. They almost seem like teasers
that should be playing at the beginning of each
episode, but if that is the case, why weren't they
simply put back at the beginning of the episodes?
Also, why don't the other three episodes on the set
(not including the movies) have these teasers on the
DVD set? And one final point to make about this (I
promise, this is the last one), the teaser for "Bet a
Million/Mr. Irresistible" seemed to be missing the
first few seconds, as it began somewhat abruptly
without any "Next on Fantasy Island” introduction.
There are two featurettes (in other words, interviews)
on this set that are kind of interesting. The first
one, "Creating the Fantasy" (14:50), basically just
talks about how the show came to be, and most of the
time, you are just hearing from Leonard Goldberg.
There are a few other contributors in this featurette,
such as one of the writers and the personal manager
for Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaize, but
Leonard Goldberg is the primary one speaking here. The
second featurette was (in my opinion) a bit more
interesting. It is called "Spending a Day at Fantasy
Island" (9:04), and basically, it has interviews (new
ones, not "recycled from stock footage" interviews)
with people that have been to the island (or in other
words guest starred). The ones interviewed are Ken
Berry, Mary Ann Mobley, Adrienne Barbeau, and Joe
Campanella. These can all be found on Disc 4.
Finally, least and definitely least, there are some
trailers on Disc 1. The trailers included
advertisements for "Bewitched TV," "The Partridge
Family," "80's Hits" (movies from the 80s, including
Stand by Me and St. Elmo's Fire), "Christmas with the
Cranks," and "Jumanji Deluxe Edition."
Final Comments:
Before I received this DVD set, I had never really
seen the show. That isn't to imply I never heard or
knew anything about the show, but I had never actually
sat down to watch an entire episode. But, after
watching the episodes on this DVD set, this show is
kind of an enjoyable show, and if you are really into
guest stars, this set is perfect for you. And of
course, Fantasy Island is one of those shows with a
loyal fan base, and certainly, they'll want these DVDs
too. And if you are like me and don't fall into either
of those categories, you'll probably still find
yourself enjoying it. The episodes on here are much
better than what I would have expected, and the
special features, although somewhat minimal were very
nice. While I wouldn't call this an absolutely perfect
set, it is by all means above average. Now smiles,
everyone, smiles!
