TV SERIES · 1977– · USA
Fantasy Island
21 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
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Little is known about the man known only as Mr. Roarke. Many people close to him, including past lovers, referred to him only as "Roarke." He is the sole owner and proprietor of Fantasy Island, and his age is a complete mystery. In the pilot episode he remarks on how the guests who come to his island are "so mortal," and throughout the series there are hints that Roarke may be immortal.
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Although popular with the public, Hervé Villechaize (Tattoo) proved to be a difficult actor on this series, constantly propositioning women and arguing with the producers. He was eventually fired after demanding a salary equal to that of his co-star Ricardo Montalban. Villechaize was replaced by Christopher Hewett, known for Mr. Belvedere (1985) and The Producers (1967).
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The series was mainly filmed in Burbank, California; the opening shots of the enchanting island coastline belonged to Kauai, Hawaii (both the Na Pali coast and Wailua Falls). The bell-tower house where Tattoo rings the bell is the Queen Anne Cottage at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia. The "arriving" plane carrying the guests was filmed in the lagoon behind the Queen Anne Cottage. Exterior scenes were sometimes shot at the Arboretum. Interiors were filmed on Stages 26 and 17 at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California. At one point, production of exterior scenes moved to the Warner Ranch, a short distance from Warner Brothers' main lot.
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Before becoming a series, this show reached audiences through two made-for-television films in 1977 and 1978. In the original series, broadcast from 1978 to 1984, Ricardo Montalbán played Mr. Roarke, the enigmatic overseer of a mysterious island in the Pacific Ocean, where people from all walks of life could come and live out their fantasies, albeit for a price.
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The customized Volare seen throughout the series was part of a product placement deal with the Chrysler Corporation, as Ricardo Montalban had been a spokesman in television commercials dating back to 1975. He promoted the Chrysler Cordoba and, in the mid-1980s, the New Yorker sedans. Also, although Chrysler F-platform vehicles (the Volare, Aspen and their J and M derivatives, the Diplomat, LeBaron, Mirada, Fifth Avenue and Imperial) were rear-wheel drive, the Volare is the ancestor of today's mid-size SUV and crossover.
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Strangely, Spelling did not give each episode a title; he gave each story a title. So each episode would have 2 or 3 titles, depending on the featured stories. Sometimes these were presented in their original hour-long format; and then sometimes, in syndication, they were presented in half-hour formats containing only one of the stories. Spelling would also reorder and rearrange the story sequences as part of the syndication package and attach them to different episodes with different alternate stories. This gave Spelling more advantage when selling reruns into syndication for local markets. If you pay attention, when watching the original episodes in their original format, the stories hardly ever intersect; the actors in a story never interact with each other, or are even filmed together. So each episode was actually made up of two mini-episodes spliced together. This gave Spelling more freedom to later edit, rearrange and reassemble them as he saw fit.
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When 3-D was revived in the early 1980s, there was some consideration given to filming an entire episode in 3-D. The problem was that anaglyph glasses (colored lenses) could not be used, because that required televisions to be properly color-adjusted; in 1983, for dozens of television manufacturers and in an era without cable or satellite, such a thing was unthinkable.
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In the last few seasons, the Fantasy Island dancers wore traditional Tahitian costumes (including "grass" skirts) but always danced the Hawaiian Hula to Calypso steel drums from the Caribbean islands. This fusion dance was done deliberately so that Fantasy Island's location would remain a secret to viewers, though apparently it was not so for the general public, since week after week guests always landed there. Likewise, many of the male workers were seen wearing traditional Bahamian island uniforms, while the natives walking in the background usually wore Polynesian pareos.
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The theme music of Highway to Heaven (1984) sounds eerily similar to that of this series, especially at the start of its opening credits with the clouds. The violin, harp and xylophone are also the main instruments playing a similar theme, slightly altered so as not to be noticed. In both series, the main character has magical powers that he uses without his hands or pointing his fingers to make changes.
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