Fantasy Island (TV Series) Amusement Park/Rock Stars (1979) User Reviews

Fun to see some child stars ,otherwise typical Fantasy Island schlock

[BigWhiskers · 6/10 · 17 November 2015]

The episode was fun if just to see Scott Baio ,his brother Jimmy and Jill Whelan when she also starring on the Love Boat as Vicki .Also Keith Coogan when he was a cute little 9 yo kid -their fantasy is to be rock stars. Also starring Ted Lange aka Isaac of the Love Boat as a father of one of the kids who is a magician in another fantasy of kids running an amusement park. Overall it's typical Fantasy Island schlock , one thing that is different though is the way the guests arrive on the island , not by plane but by hot air balloon , they also leave the same way. Of an interesting note , the plot of the rock star segment which involves the kids lip synching to songs they wrote to impress a music industry executive is an eerie premonition of real life group Milli Vanilli 10 yrs later which also involved the artists lip synching but unlike the happy ending on Fantasy Island where the kids fess up during their audition and end up with a contract to write songs for a hot new artist ,the 2 guys Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli went along with the charade and then eventually got exposed as frauds and tragically Rob committed suicide 8 years later. It's bizarre how some TV shows and movies have foreshadowed future events.

Think of the children!

[stones78 · 28 April 2014]

This episode was titled as a "Sunday special", and instead of the guests arriving by plane, they(mostly children)arrived by a hot air balloon. There are many familiar faces which include: Scott Baio, Jimmy Baio, Keith Coogan, Jill Whelan, Ted Lange, Joanna Barnes, Vernee Watson-Johnson and Bernard Fox. Both stories revolve around childhood dreams, as one story has 4 siblings trying to be rock stars, and the other has a boy's fantasy to run an amusement park in order to be with his father; Jarrod Johnson(Darius)and Lange really shine here, as his father goes by the name of the "Great Scott" and is an unemployed stunt racer. It was nice seeing Lange in a more serious role, as opposed to the silly Isaac from the Love Boat. Since I was a kid back in 1979, I could somewhat relate to the dreamy kids on this episode, as I used to watch this show back then, and it was nice having a show revolve around them; that being said, I prefer more sinister stories, but it was nice this time around, especially kids having fun at the Fantasy Island amusement park. The story about the family rock stars wasn't exactly strong, but I enjoyed it a bit for nostalgia reasons I mentioned above.