The fall of 1998 looked to be retro-Spelling, with the ABC Saturday night shows of late '70s/early '80s being remade, albeit on separate networks. Alas, neither lived up to the original. Love Boat: the Next Wave was a pale imitation of the classic. The new ship was colorless, lacking the character of the Pacific Princess, and something is seriously wrong when your best episode is the reunion of the original cast. Going in the other direction was the new Fantasy Island. Instead of becoming frothier, it became heavier.
The first sign that this was not your father's Fantasy Island was the utterly forgettable opening theme, which took the place of the familiar, welcoming, swelling strains. Worse was the casting of Malcolm McDowell as the new Mr. Roarke. From its inception as a series of TV movies, Fantasy Island guests never got their fantasies exactly the way they wanted them. There were always unexpected complications, if usually happy endings. Ricardo Montalban's Roarke always seemed like he genuinely cared for his guests and was saddened by the pain and struggles they always had to endure. But the new "management" of Fantasy Island seems to revel in their customers' misery. McDowell's Roarke had been sentenced there as some form of supernatural punishment, a fact not just alluded to but stated outright. McDowell seems to like playing sinister old men, starting in Blue Thunder, which is a shame because he played a nice guy very well in Time After Time. The rest of the staff is just as nasty, once betting on how much abuse a guest can take. Those who consider this show better than the original because it brings "twists" really didn't watch the original. Fantasy Island guests have always had rocky roads to their dreams. Want to play detective? You'll become a suspect in a case. Want to sing in the 1920s? You'll get caught up in gangland gunfights. Want to be a famous actor? You'll lose every last shred of privacy. Want to stage your own funeral? Somebody else will actually die. That's how it's always been.
The most egregious change came from executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld. He started his career as a cinematographer and he still tries to show as much as he can. The old show used a lot of smoke, mirrors and mystery so we were never really sure what happened (at least until the later years when Roarke faced down the Devil himself, among other things). Sonnenfeld left nothing to the imagination, using then overusing special effects, often for no other reason than he felt like it and almost always without helping the plot along. As Hitchcock showed, especially in "Psycho," a good filmmaker can often use the viewer's imagination more effectively than by actually showing something on screen. Another unwelcome change is the comedic travel agency scene bracketing the stories on the island. While this is probably meant to bring some light and thus contrast to the darkness of the show, it just seemed out of place and unnecessary. Like everything else, it takes away some of the mystery. Besides, nobody really cares exactly how they found out about Fantasy Island. The only thing that matters is that they came.
As far as I'm concerned, this series is not part of the FI canon and does not exist. Where have you gone, Hervé Villechaize? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
The first sign that this was not your father's Fantasy Island was the utterly forgettable opening theme, which took the place of the familiar, welcoming, swelling strains. Worse was the casting of Malcolm McDowell as the new Mr. Roarke. From its inception as a series of TV movies, Fantasy Island guests never got their fantasies exactly the way they wanted them. There were always unexpected complications, if usually happy endings. Ricardo Montalban's Roarke always seemed like he genuinely cared for his guests and was saddened by the pain and struggles they always had to endure. But the new "management" of Fantasy Island seems to revel in their customers' misery. McDowell's Roarke had been sentenced there as some form of supernatural punishment, a fact not just alluded to but stated outright. McDowell seems to like playing sinister old men, starting in Blue Thunder, which is a shame because he played a nice guy very well in Time After Time. The rest of the staff is just as nasty, once betting on how much abuse a guest can take. Those who consider this show better than the original because it brings "twists" really didn't watch the original. Fantasy Island guests have always had rocky roads to their dreams. Want to play detective? You'll become a suspect in a case. Want to sing in the 1920s? You'll get caught up in gangland gunfights. Want to be a famous actor? You'll lose every last shred of privacy. Want to stage your own funeral? Somebody else will actually die. That's how it's always been.
The most egregious change came from executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld. He started his career as a cinematographer and he still tries to show as much as he can. The old show used a lot of smoke, mirrors and mystery so we were never really sure what happened (at least until the later years when Roarke faced down the Devil himself, among other things). Sonnenfeld left nothing to the imagination, using then overusing special effects, often for no other reason than he felt like it and almost always without helping the plot along. As Hitchcock showed, especially in "Psycho," a good filmmaker can often use the viewer's imagination more effectively than by actually showing something on screen. Another unwelcome change is the comedic travel agency scene bracketing the stories on the island. While this is probably meant to bring some light and thus contrast to the darkness of the show, it just seemed out of place and unnecessary. Like everything else, it takes away some of the mystery. Besides, nobody really cares exactly how they found out about Fantasy Island. The only thing that matters is that they came.
As far as I'm concerned, this series is not part of the FI canon and does not exist. Where have you gone, Hervé Villechaize? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.