Fantasy Island (TV Series) Everybody Goes to Gilley's/Face of Fire (1982) User Reviews

One of the better late season episodes

[VetteRanger · 7/10 · 30 April 2023]

Outside of Roarke's miraculous and instantaneous transformation of a run-down bar into an entertainment showplace, the episode harkens back to the early seasons where at least some of the fantasies seemed like things which could realistically be arranged.

In a unique move, Mickey Gilley plays himself in a story very loosely biographical, as it took Gilley quite a while to make a name in country music apart from his cousin, Jerry Lee Lewis. Gilley also opened a country/western themed bar with a partner, which this episode mirrors. Here, Dennis Cole plays the soon to be partner. I always liked Dennis Cole. He was a good-looking guy and a competent actor, and I always wondered why he never got a long running series or more substantial parts. He did have a couple of series that didn't make it long, and I enjoyed both of them (Bearcats and Barbary Coast).

In the other story, we have one of my long-time favorites, David Hedison. Any fan of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is always happy to see Hedison pop up in future guest starring roles, and again I always wondered why he never had another long run in a starring role ... he was good enough. We also have Lynn Redgrave in a rare TV guest starring role, and the gorgeous Phyllis Davis ... who appeared on Fantasy Island several times. That story loosely retold Jane Eyre. Very loosely. LOL Phyllis was the longtime mistress of Dean Martin, and it's easy to understand his interest. ;-)

A weird entry

[stones78 · 2 October 2015]

This was one of those episodes that seemed rushed and had potential, as one story, "Everybody Goes to Gilley's" was fairly routine, and the other, "Face of Fire", was more interesting, but left me wanting more. The familiar faces include David Hedison, Dennis Cole(8th of 9 total episodes), Lynn Redgrave, Mickey Gilley, Phyllis Davis, Johnny Lee, Linda Thompson, and Rod McCary. Special mention deserves to go out for Victoria Vanderkloot, who played an insane woman convincingly. If you know me, you know I don't go into full detail usually, and I'll keep it that way for this too. A few things I liked, and as I said above, was the creepy insane woman being held hostage; come to think of it, that's probably the only thing I liked, as there were a few creepy scenes with her. Vanderkloot was basically a stuntwoman, and has a few acting credits here and there, but not much. Speaking of her, she was married to Hedison's character, as we find out later, but I don't like the fact that he falls in love with Redgrave's character. A few interesting tidbits has a person get killed in a fire on the show, as that doesn't happen often, and we get to see Tattoo dancing while donning a cowboy hat, and I don't think I'll ever recover from seeing that. Gilley's story wasn't that memorable, but it certainly wasn't that bad either.