Fantasy Island (TV Series) The Red Baron/Young at Heart (1979) User Reviews

Snoopy's Red Baron come to life steals the show here!

[imdb-25288 · 8/10 · 26 January 2023]

I'll start by saying that I really REALLY wish they would have cast anyone else except the funny guy from some obscure 60's sitcom which I never watched, because he really ruined things for me here. Even worse was the hideous woman who used the very French stage name of Martine, yet couldn't pass as French to save her life, since she spent the entire hour sounding like a German spy, which made this bit very confusing.

However, this entire story was saved by the acting of someone named Ely (I already forgot and if I do backbrowser, I'll lose this here), a blond actor whom I'd never heard of before, and who played the German Red Baron to perfection, complete with flawless German accent. (Maybe he was originally from there?) I'll have to check out his other episodes, it appears he was in five, and I look forward to those, unlike the many annoying repeat actors here (Carol Lynley? I'm looking at you, here!)

2nd masquerade ball for Dana Canova: the previous one was with John Saxon, as she is another repeat guest star, but thankfully not annoying in the least. It's funny to see how decrepit they portrayed fifty year olds in 1979, LOL! Close to 70 looking and acting.

We have Tattoo dressed as Frankenstein (NO need to say "monster": once again, the film isn't called "The Bride of the Frankenstein's Monster" now, is it?!) and Dracula. Their masquerade ball was just as pathetic as the intro dancer (only a handful of low energy guests, just like only on oh hum dancer in the show's intro). I guess Spelling Goldberg were tightwads here and saved all their disposable cash for their later Dynasty.

Hightlights of the show: those biplanes and the Red Baron's triplane. I have zero interest in sports and all Fantasy Island stories to do with ball games, boxing and gaming addicts bore me to no end. But this was beautiful to watch. Again, just wish they would have hired an actor to play it straight and not a comedy. Maybe they could have traded casting here? Imagining Canova's love interest as the lockpicking pilot and the goofy Adams actor as her goofy love interest would have made for a much better show. (And get rid of that hideous Martine actress, would have been a 1000 times better.)

All in all, a decent show, ruined by a few actors, and what was that with the poor old man who wanted to marry Canova's character? UGH! They just sent him packing with no fun resolution for him. What a pity! This story is probably a six out of ten due to those bad actors and casting but I'm giving it an 8 for the Red Baron actor and those terrific biplane sequences. Pity there is always one story that has to be a dud in each episode. This one had dud actors in the good story, and a good actor in the ho hum story. Oh well!

lots of bumbling.

[mikeholmes-48012 · 6/10 · 2 January 2016]

I got spoiled recently with a lot of the Saturday night Fantasy Islands being the ones where Tattoo doesn't have an opening gag. This one did, he was dressed up as Frankenstiens monster (see how i correctly described that, the whole who is Frankenstien, the Dr or monster or both debate has been raging lately). Anyhow. I felt real bad cause he said it would keep people from making fun of him for his height. I never noticed such behavior from people but whatever. Then he got in his small car and drove like a maniac, Then he kept asking Mr Rourke if the fantasy's mentioned were do able and i was like "okay, hes funny in this one". Lots of mispronunciations of words the whole beginning that made me wonder if this was an Abbott and Costello.

So First this World War One Fighter pilot expert shows up wanting to be one. He looked like the "get smart" guy, a show i never saw, no basically nothing about but know he is in it. I guess if i was an old actor, i would want to be remembered that way. I watched a really good Twilight zone episode this new year and it had i guy that i learned was Floyd the Barber. I never watched that show, and had no idea who he was, though i was completely familiar with his character by peoples talking of it and the Nirvana song. Anyhow, the guy crashes, ends up at a house but with bad accents, i thought hteh family was french but may have been German, or occupied by Germans French, i have no idea. He gets caught breaking into a safe but escapes with the Red Baron guy letting him go so they can fight in air. But the Get smart guy realizes this is the day the red baron dies and just flies up there and waves at him and they are all cool. this is after taking off with a bunch of Germans shooting at him , on the ground , and he cant shoot back for some reason, so its better he didn't fight the Red Baron. Stupid story. the Get Smart guy wants to come back to meet the girl he was with after WW one and stay there. Mr Rourke is like "thats cool" but what he really meant to say is , "stick it out six months, get real desperate for that woman and then come where with a checkbook and ill really fleece you, then you can reunite with this woman, marry her , ruin her predetermined time line, disrupt the space time continuum and its all good".

The other story was the most predictable one i ever watched on this show. The hot chic I've seen a few times on this show (i think she was the one that desired with a friend to spend tons of money shopping) and she was an old lady, but she didn't look old, just the big glasses , fake sprayed gray hair and poof, with some potion she was young. Then she meets some dude that gets out of the pool, splashes her and uses my favorite hit on line "did i get you wet" They hit it off, and it hit me right there, i was like "i bet he has the same fantasy and is old too, cause if they fall in love, she will be old in a few days again". Long story short, i was right. The middle parts was her i guess boyfriend, showing up, some old guy that brings her to dinner and the movies every Saturday and said hes the best she can get at her age of 50. That makes him the bad guy. Just being honest and he intends to marry her. On Fantasy Island, just liking someone for a day is grounds for marriage and instant commitment upon plane ride home so i don't get it. The whole 50 thing bugged me cause i am 39 and a half. I recently decided to buy a Orange Subaru, and my wife was like "do you see yourself in ten years being 50 with an orange car" like its a bad ass car or something. I got all mad, just as mad as i did during hockey yesterday when the Boston band turned out to be some crappy folk rock band that kids are into and i got all mad and she asked do i realize how old i sound bitching about hipster crap rock and saying in my day we had Pantera and such. Anyhow, the boyfriend from back home is made to be a jerk, but not too believable, seemed more awkward, and she finds out guy is old, tattoo keeps doing stupid crap to seem threatening and is actually humorous. pretty decent episode.

An old favorite

[patcadle · 9/10 · 5 August 2023]

I remember watching this episode when the first aired in 1979, and I was at age 13 fascinated with WW1 planes at that time, so it was naturally a big hit with me then.

Rewatching it again for the first time in 43 years, I still enjoyed it, especially since now I am familiar with Don Adams, having seen reruns of Get Smart and his other routines Many times in the last 40 years.

The Red Baron episode is of course my favorite among the two stories - Adams plays a locksmith from Milwaukee who is a World War 1 history buff. His fantasy is to do battle in the sky with the Baron. Adams is playing a somewhat toned down version of his Maxwell Smart character. He's more intelligent, less clumsy (but still a bit of a klutz) and there are a few serious moments, especially at the very end - I won't spoil it, but he makes a very poignant decision. The plot is a "behind enemy lines, steal the battle plans" caper. The French woman he becomes attached to is played by Martine Beswick, who appeared in two James Bond movies in the 60's. Nice tight plot with humor added in, overall still one of my favorite stories in the series.

The flipside story is a love story, a woman who is in her 50's wants to be young again and find romance. She does, and while I found the likable little love story predictable, it played out nicely and was well acted.

At this point the series was in full stride, and I used to very much enjoy my childhood Saturday nights at 10 pm watching episodes like this one.

got better with age

[stones78 · 23 May 2014]

To explain my summary line, I meant as the segment got rolling along, did it get better, especially after a rather slow start. For starters, it seemed to me that Don Adams was playing Don Adams, bumbling along and doing what he always does, but as his story moved along, he had some serious moments as a locksmith fantasizing about becoming an ace flying pilot during the war. I liked the scenes shot at night and his meeting with the infamous Red Baron, played by Ron Ely; a few other familiar faces are Al Ruscio and Martine Beswick. The expected confrontation with the Red Baron added a different twist than what I expected. The other story stars Diana Canova(again?)as a 50 year old librarian who wants to be young again(yawn). The only thing that really stood out for me was an uncomfortable scene where Dave Madden's character, who was in love with her back home, grabs her arm very hard and hurts her, as she says, "you're hurting me!", before leaving her alone; I'm not sure they can get away with that today. Since this was released right before Halloween 1979, Tattoo was dressed as both Dracula and Frankenstein, and it was kind of funny, I guess.