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Fantasy Island is an American fantasy drama television series created by Gene Levitt. It aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984. The series starred Ricardo Montalbán as the mysterious Mr. Roarke and Hervé Villechaize as his assistant, Tattoo. Guests were granted so-called "fantasies" on the island for a price.
A one-season revival of the series aired in 1998, and a horror-themed prequel film was released on February 14, 2020. The same year, it was announced that a sequel of the series was being produced at Fox; it premiered on August 10, 2021 and was canceled in May 2023 after two seasons.
Roarke is known for his white suit and cultured demeanor, and he was initially accompanied by an energetic midget sidekick, Tattoo, played by Hervé Villechaize. Tattoo ran up the main bell tower to ring the bell and shout "De plane! De plane!" to announce the arrival of a new set of guests at the beginning of each episode. This line, shown at the beginning of the series' credits, became a catchphrase because of Villechaize's spirited delivery and French accent. In later seasons, he arrives in his personal go-kart, sized for him, and recklessly drives to join Roarke for the visitor reception while the staff scramble out of his way. From 1981 to 1982, Wendy Schaal joined the cast as an assistant named Julie; in the season five story "The Case Against Mr. Roarke", Roarke says Julie is his goddaughter. The producers dismissed Villechaize from the series before the 1983–84 season, its last, and Tattoo was replaced by a more sedate butler type named Lawrence, played by Christopher Hewett, who presses an electronic button to ring the bell rather than climb the tower.
A Grumman Widgeon aircraft was used for the series. Just before guests alight from the plane, Mr. Roarke addresses his assembling employees with the phrase "Smiles, everyone! Smiles!" As each visitor disembarks, Roarke tells Tattoo (or another assistant) the nature of their fantasy, usually with a cryptic comment, suggesting the person's fantasy will not turn out as they expect. Roarke then welcomes his guests by lifting his glass and saying: "My dear guests, I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island." The toast is usually followed by a warm smile, but sometimes—depending on the nature of a guest or their fantasy—his eyes show concern or worry for a guest's safety.
Mr. Roarke's age is unclear. In the pilot film, he says the guests who come to his island are "so mortal", and there are hints throughout the series that Roarke may be immortal. In "Elizabeth", a woman from Roarke's past appears, but it is revealed that she died over 300 years ago. Other episodes suggest that he was friends with Helen of Troy and Cleopatra. Roarke is also shown to know many seemingly immortal beings over his time on Earth, including ("The Ghost's Story"), a Jinn ("A Genie Named Joe"), the mermaid Princess Nyah ("The Mermaid", "The Mermaid Returns", "The Mermaid and the Matchmaker"), the goddess Aphrodite ("Aphrodite"), and Uriel the Angel of Death ("The Angel's Triangle"). In "The Devil and Mandy Breem" and "The Devil and Mr. Roarke", Roarke faces the Devil (played by Roddy McDowall), who has come to the island to challenge him for either a guest's immortal soul or his (in the latter storyline, the soul on the line is that of Julie). It is mentioned this is not the first time that they have confronted each other and Mr. Roarke has always been the winner. In the second story, the Devil was one of the island's guests, claiming that he was only there to relax and had no interest in Roarke's soul, but this turned out to be a ruse.
Roarke has a strong moral code, and is always merciful. He usually tries to teach his guests important life lessons through the medium of their fantasies, often in a manner that exposes the errors of their ways, and on occasions when the island hosts terminally ill guests he allows them to live out one last wish. Roarke's fantasies are not without peril, but the greatest danger usually comes from the guests themselves. In some cases, people are killed due to their own negligence, aggression, or arrogance. Roarke intervenes when the fantasy became dangerous to the guest:
With only a few exceptions, Roarke always made it quite clear that he was powerless to stop a fantasy once it had begun and that the guests must play them out to their conclusion.
In later seasons, there were often supernatural overtones. Roarke also seemed to have his own supernatural powers of some sort (called the "Gift of the McNabs" in "Delphine"), although it was never explained how this came to be. In the episodes "Reprisal" and "The Power" he temporarily gave the guest psychokinetic abilities and in "Terrors of the Mind" the power to see into the future. In one episode, when a guest says "Thank God things worked out well", Roarke and Tattoo share an odd look and Roarke says in a cryptic way "Thank God, indeed." In the same episode, Roarke uses some mysterious powers to help Tattoo with his magic act. Ricardo Montalbán would claim in interviews that he had a definite opinion in mind regarding the mystery of Mr. Roarke, and how he accomplished his fantasies, but he would never publicly state what it was. Years after the series was off the air, in an interview with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Montalbán finally revealed that his motivation was imagining Roarke as a fallen angel whose sin was pride and that Fantasy Island was Purgatory.
Each episode would alternate between two or three independent storylines as the guests experienced their fantasies and interacted with Roarke. When reruns of the series went into syndication, a half-hour version was offered, in which each hour-long original show was split to two separate half-hour shows in which only one guest's story was told in each half-hour episode. This made it obvious that the original episodes had been planned in such a way that each guest or family got off the plane separately, did not interact with the other guest or family, and was given almost exactly half the time of the original episode.
The typical episodes on the series' regular timeslot focus on adult guests with fantasies geared for them. However, there were two episodes aired in Season 2 that were broadcast on early Sunday night called, Fantasy Island Sunday Special. In these variant episodes, kids arrive at the island on a hot-air balloon to have fantasies provided by Mr. Roarke that are designed for their age.
Often the fantasies would turn out to be morality lessons for the guests, sometimes to the point of (apparently) putting their lives at risk, only to have Roarke step in at the last minute and reveal the deception. For example, one episode featured a couple who clamored for the "good old days" being taken back to the Salem witch trials. It is mentioned a few times that a condition of visiting Fantasy Island is that guests never reveal what goes on there. A small number of guests decided to make the irrevocable choice to stay permanently, living out their fantasy until death; one such person was an actor who had been in a Tarzan-type television series called "Jungle Man" in the 1960s. Aside from a clip show ("Remember...When?") the only episode with a single storyline was "The Wedding", in which terminally ill Helena Marsh (Samantha Eggar) returned to Fantasy Island to spend her last days as Roarke's wife.
Another episode, "Nurses' Night Out" (from the show's seventh season) was the only episode where all of the fantasies, while separate, were linked by one thread. In this case, a mysterious and wealthy guest (Peter Graves) inviting three nurses to live out each of their fantasies on the island.
Although some fantasies were rooted in the real world, many others involved supernatural (such as ghosts, , or witchcraft) or mythological (mermaids, genies, goddesses) elements. Time travel was often a required element, if not a specific request, to fulfill one's fantasy.
Occasionally, some of the fantasies would take place on adjoining islands or parts of Fantasy Island that, according to Roarke, he had no jurisdiction over, thereby heightening the risk factor for the guests. Even then, when Roarke intervened in these cases, he often revealed that he had close connections with the local officials or prominent figures on those islands, who would grant him permission to rescue his guests.
The network wanted Orson Welles for Mr. Roarke, but Spelling rejected him, knowing of his irritable nature on sets. Interview with Aaron Spelling. Archive of American Television (November 18–24, 1999). He also rejected the idea of a sexy female sidekick to join Roarke and Tattoo.
The show was broadcast every Saturday night on ABC at 10:00 p.m., after The Love Boat, which was also produced by Aaron Spelling. Like several other series of the era, such as The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote, Fantasy Island employed many celebrity guest stars, often bringing them back repeatedly for different roles.
Interior sets were filmed on Stages 26 and 17 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. At some point, the production of exterior scenes moved to the Warner Ranch a short distance away from Warner's main lot. B-roll was taken from the Coco Palms Resort in Kauai.
Digital multicast television network Cozi TV announced the series would be airing on the network beginning fall 2013. Episodes of the original series were seen on Fridays on sister cable network Universal HD, until July 2017, when the network changed to the Olympic Channel.
In Canada, the entire series with all seven seasons is available for streaming on the CTV App, with the first five seasons remastered in High Definition, the first three seasons have been enhanced to 1.78:1 aspect ratio.
In May 2021, it was added to the streaming service Tubi, with all seven seasons.
In August 2021, it started airing on digital multicast television network getTV on Saturday and Sunday nights (4:00 am ET).
In January 2026, it started airing on MeTV on Sunday afternoons as part of an Aaron Spelling-themed block which also reunited the show with its former ABC counterpart The Love Boat.
In 2005, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released season one of the original series on DVD in regions 1, 2 & 4. The release included the 1977 pilot Fantasy Island and 1978's Return to Fantasy Island. However, due to poor sales, no further seasons were released.
In February 2012, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1; they subsequently released the second season on DVD on May 8, 2012. Season 3 was released on October 23, 2012.
In 2013, Mill Creek Entertainment announced they had obtained the rights to re-release the previous season sets of Fantasy Island on DVD.
| The Complete First Season | 16 | November 15, 2005 | December 10, 2007 | December 2, 2015 |
| The Complete Second Season | 25 | May 8, 2012 | ||
| The Complete Third Season | 23 | October 23, 2012 |
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