MovieChat Forums > Fantasy Island (1977) Discussion > How did Fantasy Island work?

How did Fantasy Island work?

posted 9 years ago by TMC-4
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http://officialfan.proboards.com/thread/534451/fantasy-island-work

by Hawk Lesnar on 2 hours ago

Obviously visitors got to choose their how their fantasy played out to a degree but my questions begin with the people they interact with and the places they visit while there. There's an episode where a descendant of Victor Von Frankenstein researches his work in his castle on the island and his creation still lives there. How the *beep* did it get there? Is there some sort of temporal displacement that allows passage from the island to any location without noticing or one that allowed the castle to exist both where it was structurally built and on the island? During the episode, it's revealed that the creation lives on the island so does that mean the castle is actually there? And the people from the everyday lives of the visitors, are they actually there or are they just a creation of the powers of Mr. Rourke that are not only sentient but have the same memories, personalities, and cognitive abilities of the people they're mimicking? Maybe it's all just a drug fueled hallucination. Maybe Mr. Rourke and Tatoo were breaking into homes and abducting people. No matter the reasons, I'm curious as to how this island of insanity functions.

[–] artcurus-1 9 years ago

the show is being ran on a Dish Network station, but we are also working our way backwards through the series, and are currently about halfway through season 7. Most of the fantasy I suspect are coming from people who write in. The one who has the fantasy, must have at least some background info, and Rourke and Co. fill in the rest with magic. There's a lot of leap of faith involved.

That being said, the writing at times is atrocious, we would sometimes watch NCIS or How To Get Away with Murder on the same night, and there's no comparison. The two modern shows blow this one away.

[–] jasidwell 9 years ago

In later seasons, there were often supernatural overtones. Roarke also seemed to have his own supernatural powers of some sort (called the "Gift of the McNabs" in "Delphine"), although it was never explained how this came to be. In one episode, when a guest says "Thank God things worked out well", Roarke and Tattoo share a very odd look and Roarke says in a cryptic way "Thank God, indeed". In the same episode, Roarke uses some mysterious powers to help Tattoo with his magic act. Actor Ricardo Montalban would claim in interviews that he had a definite opinion in mind regarding the mystery of Mr. Roarke, and how he accomplished his fantasies, but he would never publicly state what it was. Years after the show was off the air, in an interview with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Montalban finally revealed that his motivation was imagining Roarke as a fallen angel whose sin was pride, and that Fantasy Island was purgatory.

[–] Brennan-8 9 years ago

That's very interesting. I recently started watching this show, and the character of Roarke definitely has supernatural/possible evil overtones. I didn't catch this particular drift when I saw the show as a child.