Fantasy Island (TV Series) The Funny Girl/Butch and Sundance (1978) User Reviews

A solid enough early episode, and better than I thought it was going to be.

[imdb-25288 · 7/10 · 21 October 2022]

After watching some from later seasons, it shows how a much more solid show this was in the first few seasons. (3 or so) Sometimes, they had 3 fantasies per show. Here, we only have 2 fantasies exiting the plane, in the beginning: an actress who wants to become anonymous all over again and a couple of friends who, bored with their routine lives, want to experience that of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid (what was that last robber's real last name?!) But that's not all!

During the show, we meet a guy mid-fantasy, on top of an elephant in a caveman's leopart print leotard, a goofball at that, and also a man with a dangerous vibe, who wants to experience the life of Wyatt Earp. (I recognized him right away as "Falconetti", he of the glass eye in Rich Man, Poor Man. He scared me as a kid, in that role!) And we have yet another sub-storyline,, with Tattoo having an upcoming birthday but Mr. Roarke denying him a fun day of partying with girls in favor of a dinner for the two, together, and some chess playing.

The most interesting story was, for me, Butch & the Kid. The other story was so-so, with Dennis Cole always being uncharismatic and unremarkable, which is probably the reason why he never was a regular on any series. (He did appear on F. I. several times, and I watched this after watching him in the final Nyah episode.) His story wasn't that great, the actress playing the star was kind of unremarkable herself, which made it hard to imagine her as any sort of a famous actress.

There was a fun part for this one actor who played the banker, he seemed escaped from Little Hous on the Prairie, and I'm sure I must have seen him there or in another Western, as he had a face made for Western costumes. He played his part well and was quite amusing. Disappointment at the end, when the actress uncharacteristically doesn't end up with Dennis Cole and son and dog. For me, it was a huge damper having a dog run over by a car scene. So, after that I no longer cared what happened to this fantasy. Plus two boring people shouldn't end together, Dennis character would have hopefully ended up with a more spunky woman to liven his and Pip's lives up a bit.

The lady who played the inn keeper looked like she was going to be trouble at first, but I was fooled when she did end up treating the woman nicely. Then she disappeared altogether from the episode. A bit weird to drop her like that. All in all, a solid episode made better by the appearance of Wyatt Earp, who was the bad guy here, and Sundance and the Kid were the good guys, in a reversal of fortune sort of way. I did like the bit at the end with Tattoo's birthday denouement. And, right away, I knew it was Mr. Roarke as the clown, so I wasn't surprised because, after watching several of these the last couple weeks, I fully expected him to pop up in a costume. He didn't disappoint, and I have to wonder if it was him speaking with the falsetto voice minus his customary Spanish accent. In spite of dog and ending let down, Tattoo perked it up at the end for me. Happy Birthday, little guy, and a generous 7/10 from me.

William Smith's role

[stones78 · 17 August 2012]

William Smith only played a minor role, but he was terrific as Wyatt Earp, as his fantasy was to catch and kill Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, played in fine form by James MacArthur and Christopher Connelly. There's another familiar face in the same segment in Henry Jones, who's been in just about everything, as he plays a bank teller robbed by the infamous duo. Smith really added his persona, although this time around, he plays a good guy for once, even though he's a much better bad guy. Nothing that memorable occurs, and as Earp is ready to shoot one of the pair, the other tosses a stick of dynamite Earp's way to distract him, and ultimately capture him, instead of the other way around. I did like MacArthur and Connelly's chemistry as well as Smith's performance.

The other segment has a famous comedienne, played by Marcia Strassman, wanting to go to a small town to become just a regular person who blends in. What kind of a fantasy is that? Anyway, she meets up with Lloyd(Dennis Cole), a veterinarian with a young son Pip(Philip Boyer)who refuses to speak since his mother died; an interesting note is that this is Boyer's last acting credit. A few tidbits worth mentioning is when Kay/Katherine(Strassman)enters a pig calling contest, and seeing Mr. Roarke dressed as a clown; talk about an odd moment! The meat of the story has Kay/Katherine eventually getting the boy to talk, although it took his dog getting hit by a truck in order for him to express his feelings, and it's a bit of a letdown that she and Lloyd don't get together at the end of the fantasy, as she leaves him and his son behind; normally, couples leave the island together, but not this time, even though Lloyd asks her to stay.

I didn't think either story was particularly strong, but it's still fun to see this type of show, and it's a bummer when you see some of the stars in the segments have died, like some I mentioned above.

Great guest stars & a packed show

[xbatgirl-30029 · 9/10 · 3 January 2023]

For some odd reason, Tubi plays this episode directly after ep 5: The Prince/The Sheriff, making it very obvious this is almost a redo of that one. I even wonder if it was one of first to be filmed because I thought it was very strange how unfinished and undeveloped it seemed, as if the writers were still figuring things out. By episode 9, boy, has there been a steep learning curve. Both storylines seemed twice as long, in a good way, because the plots are much more developed and complete. The cast is full of great guest stars and familiar faces from seventies tv. Plus they even squeeze in some additional side plots in a way that will become standard for the series. Not to mention they manage to be funny, tragic, and suspenseful all in one hour. A big success! No wonder the show became so successful.

In episode 5, there's a prince who wants to live as a regular guy. Here there's a movie star who wants to live as a regular gal. We aren't told why either one has this fantasy. They just do. I always liked Marsha Straussman, ever since she played Mrs Kotter. As the movie star here, she's much more likable than Dack Rambo's entitled, stalker prince was previously. Dennis Cole was always solid and charismatic wherever he showed up. Their segment is set in a version of Mayberry and starts out very saccharine but later becomes a tearjerker. It's all pretty predictable except the very end, but it actually works for the characters and seventies attitudes.

Also in episode 5, a man wanted to be a marshal in an old west town and to chase after 2 criminals (spoiler: they were wrongly accused). In that show, Mr Roarke even pointed out life in the old west is their most popular request. I guess he wasn't kidding because we're back. Here 2 decent men want to be outlaws, while yet another man wants the sheriff fantasy again. You know right away Wyatt Earp is the bad guy because of the music and that he wears all black, so no big surprises. There's a good joke early on when Tattoo calls one man Sundance. He replies, "I'm Butch. He's Sundance." This was a recurring bit on Starsky and Hutch which was also on at the time. The two actors playing Butch and Sundance, Danno from Hawaii 5-0 and Christopher Connelly from about a zillion things, have great chemistry and you can easily imagine them as long time buddies. They actually feel a bit like they are slumming it here but I guess a quick paycheck is always welcome. Several of the side characters are familiar as well, including Henry Jones, the bank teller, who was in the actual Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid movie. William Smith's part as Earp is brief but he's talented enough to give proper weight and menace to his character. With all the fun side characters, such as the mortician, and the enjoyable camaraderie between Butch and Sundance, their segment could almost be developed into a series of its own.

Sidenote: it's too bad the dog isn't credited. It looks a lot like the dog who played Benji. I wonder if they were related.

This episode was super enjoyable, especially right after the total flop of episode 5. A great example of Fantasy Island at its best.