Fantasy Island (TV Series) The Ghost's Story/The Spoilers (1982) User Reviews

potential, that is all

[mikeholmes-48012 · 6/10 · 23 January 2016]

Potential, that is what i would call this episode. this episode had the chance to be real dark, real creepy, but in the end it was ridiculous not just ridiculous but ridiculously stupid. It started off with a gag of Julie being once again busy with a guest who wanted to be invisible and tattoo sees a pair of jeans walking. Years later, X-files would have a brilliant episode where a genie grants a guy the ability to be invisible. he was hit by a car and the second wish was to bring him back to life but he was rotting. anyhow, this episode started so good, a haunted house , a bounty hunter....

so lets start with the haunted house. it took me a while but the hot chic in this part is Donna's mom on that 70's show, she wants to go to a haunted house. Rourke feels he cleared his conscience by warning her but she doesn't get it that the house is real bad , then there are two other dudes that have the same fantasy. of course they run out of the house in two seconds. SO she will too, right? no, and she encounters a wussy ghost from long ago, afraid of dueling and cursed wanting his dads love still. then he goes after a Fantsy island guest for a duel but is pushed in the pool but she still likes him. He reminded me of the ghost in the cartoon "Scary Gary". look it up, its good. anyhow with all his mumbling and wussying somehow he breaks the curse, not sure how, i wasn't paying attention and then he is at the end of the show, just some dude unaware he was a ghost, and ready to go home with her, her real and new haunting i would think.

other story was a dude who was a bounty hunter, i found it confusing cause i thought the hunter was the hunted and forgot who was who. i blame alcohol and a crappy storyline getting me invested in the character. eventually some lady shows up, that likes one of them, four bad guys show up, they do something with dynamite, miss opportunities to kill the bounty hunter , not run out the back door and accept its crazy plan or death when 4 guys show up in front yard woods. etc.

so that was that. might rate it higher if i didn't keep getting disappointed

What could have been a cool Halloween episode turned out a dud!

[imdb-25288 · 6/10 · 7 September 2022]

This episode when downhill with the appearance of Dack Rambeau. I've quite enjoyed him at other times but his character was too foppish and effete. Tanya Roberts acting was worse and more awkward than usual, here. The story was ridiculous: first the 2 guys run away like girls from the Haunted Manor. I fully expected Tanya's story to be all about what it was presented: fright as she attempts to stay 2 hours of full-on horror at the manor.

Instead, as soon as Dack appeared, it all went downhill and almost turned into Little House on the Prairie type of melodrama. I feel like demanding a refund here. We were duped by the title! So my interest went from this story to the Bo Hopkins story, made better when Jo Ann Pflug appeared. Now, that's an actress.

As others have pointed out, the ghost's story became contrived and ridiculous. And he asked to kiss Tanya but then he doesn't kiss her (we all know why, here!) She's the one who reaches out and plants a tiny peck on the tip-most of his lips.

They also could have done better from Mr. Roarke's appearances at the castle. It was a huge letdown! Is it me or was he just phoning it in? Tattoo didn't have much to do here.

Still, it's a show that brings back good feelings from the era and superior to any tripe with bad actors of today, which I simply won't watch. 6/10 for what it is.

Bitter endings

[stones78 · 21 September 2015]

You may not like this review, my fellow "Islanders", but I call 'em as I see 'em, as this episode had me disappointed after a solid start. The faces include an unimpressive Tanya Roberts, Bo Hopkins, who was probably the best of this bunch, Jo Ann Pflug, Robert Fuller, and Dack Rambo(credited as Rambeau), although I don't recall seeing him at all. Regarding Rambo or Rambeau, or whatever, I have to wonder if the decision to change his last name had anything to do with John Rambo from First Blood(1982)? Interestingly enough, the film came out 5 months AFTER this episode, unless Dack got wind of the vicious Rambo before the film came out. The world may never know, or care. Anyway, "The Ghost's Story" had a very strong start, as a woman(Roberts)wishes to stay in a haunted house for a night, and if she does, she'll receive a large sum of money. The best moment of this entire episode has her staring at a painting for a few seconds, then moments later she sees these scary visions of demonic faces coming at her, including one with hands and claws! The problem is that the next scene she meets a wimpy ghost, who was cursed by his father for cowardice, and is doomed to spend an eternity in the old mansion. The ghost looks AND acts like a wimp, and that lessened the effect the story had on me, and Roberts' performance didn't help matters either. I'm not that surprised that her acting bio is less than stellar. The other story, "The Spoilers", wasn't anything all that great either, but Hopkins and Fuller were both pretty good together. I didn't like the fact that Fuller and Pflug's characters got married by the end of the story, as she didn't seem romantically interested in either man though. Like I said above, the endings of both stories, even though I disliked the first story early on, dragged the episode down for me.

Enjoyed Very Much!

[amylovestv · 9/10 · 30 November 2021]

Though I may be alone on my opinion, I did really enjoy this episode. Probably because I like Dack Rambo and found this role wildly different than the others I've seen him play. Didn't care at all for the segment with Bo Hopkins and Robert Fuller, so instead I'll talk about the segment with Tanya Roberts and Dack. I thought they worked well together and I liked seeing Dack in a comedy role for a change. The part of the episode that puzzled me was the fact that Dack's character Timothy was a ghost at first but then after some pleading from his father, Roarke let him be human again. Does that mean Roarke actually can bring people back from the dead? If so, that totally contradicts his comments in the past about having no control over life and death. He needs to bring Helena back if it's that easy! Anyway, really enjoyed the Dack and Tanya segment.

Stupidest Episode Ever

[robbenn69 · 1/10 · 18 October 2021]

I have loved Fantasy Island since I was a child. And yes some of the stories are ridiculous or poorly written and unhistorical. However, I still enjoy the show. This episode is without a doubt the most ridiculous one I have yet seen. A cowardly ghost who is cursed to haunt a house yet; he can leave, wear moden clothes, and go to the pool area of the resort? There is no explanation how he was able to be so scary that there is a $100,000 reard for anyone who can stay in the house for 2 hours and 2 men run out traumatized after 5 minutes, but Tanya Robert's has no problem and helps the ghost. How about this for a line, "A 25 year old girl with a 250 year old ghost is a big age gap." And because she falls in love with him of course,, he ends up leaving the island with her. At least it wasn't the "So and so had a Fantasy too," tripe they usually use. The other story was only slightly better. Dr. Kelly Garrett from Emergency is being hunted by a bounty hunter because of bank robbery which, of course, didn't commit, falls in love with a lonely window, and chaos the bounty hunter who's after him. Total dreck!

Drivel

[jaigurudavid · 5/10 · 21 January 2022]

It's obvious the producers have stopped trying. A man is shot in the arm at close range with a high powered rifle and it's treated like it was a scratch. Two actors wearing powdered wigs that were popular in the 18th century also sport ahistorical facial hair. The special effects in the haunted house dated from the 1950's. The series is obviously dying on the vine by this point.

Typical late season stories, poor endings

[VetteRanger · 4/10 · 6 March 2023]

This episode features Tanya Roberts, more famous for taking off her clothes than her mediocre acting, and Jo Ann Pflug reasonably famous for refusing to ever take hers off on camera.

Tanya Roberts is a secretary(?) who wants to win $100,000 by staying two hours in a famous haunted house. Let's forget that the house was supposedly taken apart, moved to fantasy island, then reconstructed. LOL Fast work from the construction crew, to be sure!

Two other experts enter at the same time and don't last two minutes. Tanya survives the first scary onslaught before finally meeting the decidedly non-scary ghost played by Dak Rambo ... in a story which pretty much rips off The Canterville Ghost.

The other story is a bounty hunter who wants to capture a wanted bank robber/murderer ... Robert Fuller. Turns out he's not really guilty, but has the $500,000 the real bank robbers stole, and they're also on the island to get it back!

The stories were pedestrian and predictable, but the end of each story are moronic.