"Fantasy Island", pilot episode
It takes a singular piece of celluloid to be a MHKPFE. A party flick is a tricky beast, not to be confused with a party movie. A party movie is the centerpiece of an occasion - a group of friends getting together to watch said movie (see MIRACLE ON 34th STREET, PRINCESS BRIDE, FIFTY SHADES OF GREY). A party flick is something you put on at a non-movie-centered get-together. It functions partly as background ambiance, something you need not pay full or even partial attention to in the midst of unrelated laughter and socializing. The plot must be obvious enough that someone arriving three minutes before the climax, needs little (or no) story exposition. At the same time, the flick must be good enough (or bad enough, or some weird combination of the two) that watching the entire thing could be fantastically entertaining.
Welcome to FANTASY ISLAND! The double-length pilot from 1977, produced by Aaron Spelling, Leonard Goldberg, and Shelley Hull, is eye-poppingly over-the-top on several levels. If you have memories of watching it, be prepared to be flabbergasted at how cheesy it is...surely, such fromage ripens in the memory with age? But no, it's just that bad (er, good...no, bad). A suave mysterioso offers strangers a $50,000 opportunity to have any fantasy fulfilled, on an island paradise. The performances are rendered with gusto and not a sliver of self-mockery (if you ever wonder why people born in the 70s have an acute sense of irony, the absence of it in formative shows like this is partly or entirely to blame). Some of the regressive morality will make you cringe, particularly the attitudes toward women. When one character goes into a homicidal rage at a woman who hid the fact that she was married, his actions are treated by the camera with sympathetic understanding. Well sure, who wouldn't kill a woman under those circumstances?? Another character walks a fine line...is she a well-paid, well-informed employee, or is Mr. Roarke peddling prostitutes? A question that will make for scintillating party debate!
But most of the time, you're too busy having fun to worry about such things. Rip-roaring action, sex, and fine character work from top to bottom, starting with the iconic performances of Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaize. Ricardo (THE NAKED GUN, ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN) is a shade more dangerous and machiavellian than you remember. Herve (THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, FORBIDDEN ZONE) gives it all the warmth and sincerity he's got, an impressive accomplishment given that the writers nearly made him a stereotype of "dwarf as idiot". Bill Bixby (THE INCREDIBLE HULK, MY FAVORITE MARTIAN) capably handles the most challenging role of the episode, as an aged man going back in time to find "the one who got away" (Sandra Dee - GIDGET). The most ridiculously wonderful thread has Hugh O'Brian (WYATT EARP) as a big-game hunter who wishes to become the hunted...an easier pill to swallow if Victoria Principal (DALLAS, EARTHQUAKE) is your, um...chaperone? Throw in some Peter Lawford (OCEAN'S ELEVEN), Carol Lynley (THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE), Ian Abercrombie (SEINFELD), and Dick Sargent (BEWITCHED), and you've got a cheese potpourri that walks the campiest of high wires.
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