New cast makes world of difference

At least, Tatoo isn't in it.

Barry Sonnenfeld has hit a lot of homers in recent years: "Men in Black," "Get Shorty," and "The Addams Family." But even McGwire and Sosa have to strike out sometime.

"Fantasy Island" promises a lot. Actually, it promises too much, like Babe Ruth calling a homer out in left field. Babe delivered, but hey, that was the Great Bambino. This show not only has Sonnenfeld as the executive producer, but Malcolm McDowell is the new Mr. Roarch, a much more mysterious and dangerous version than the character Ricardo Montalban made famous. The new "Fantasy Island" also has better special effects and a better location than before (Oahu, Hawaii rather than the L.A. area).

Courtesy of ABC, Inc. Malcom McDowell and Madchen Amick may become lovers in the new "Fantasy Island."

Furthermore, the show opens with a great scene in a mysterious travel office where everything looks a little too mundane and dreary to be ordinary. Fyvush Finkel, best known as lawyer Douglas Wambaugh on "Picket Fences," plays the aptly named Fisher, the travel agent who interests people into taking a vacation to Fantasy Island. He does a great job with the role. You're not sure whether he has benign intentions or is the devil himself. Sylvia Sydney also does a superb job as an aged and apathetic secretary who must average 15 typed words per minute, if that.

The show begins to decline after that. For those who don't remember the original show, guests to the Island get their deepest desire made into reality in order to teach them, usually, that they shouldn't want their deepest desire. Now, the show works in the beginning because everything is so mysterious. You don't know what the guests are there for, and you don't know what the resort's employees are there for, except to pay off some debt, likely incurred sins done in life, or some such hackneyed stuff. But the mystery wears out quick as you slowly realize everything is going to work out. Everyone will learn their lesson and be a better person, and Mr. Roark will have a 100 percent success rate.

Without the possibility of failure, there's nothing at stake, so boredom ensues. The mystery around the resort's employees - Cal the bellhop (Tatoo's replacement, Louis Lombardi), Harry (Edward Hibbert) and Clia (Madchen Amick), who can change into any woman - really isn't much of a mystery. So all that's left is how things will resolve themselves. Using this strategy unfortunately requires much greater levels of plot and character development than this show offers. The guests are only around for one show, and the resort employees only get enough air time to be mysterious or comical. Mr. Roark is not really meant to change, although there's hints of a possible relationship between him and Clia. Still, this is thrown in at the end and comes out of the blue.

Sonnenfeld probably saw a lot of potential in the idea of a new "Fantasy Island," and he may even get a success out of this show. The magical and mysterious are big right now, and there's certainly little competition on Saturday nights to face from other networks. If audiences don't want much, then they'll be satisfied.

Fantasy Island

REVIEW

Three Stars

ABC
Saturdays at 9 p.m.

09-25-98