Fantasy Island (TV Series) Trouble, My Lovely/The Common Man (1978) User Reviews

Philadelphia connection

[stones78 · 25 September 2012]

I don't consider this as one of the strongest episodes from the inaugural season, but one of the few things I'll recall is that a few of the stars were from the great city. Dennis Patrick(Theodore Chandler)and Nancy Walker(Mumsy)hail from the city and I wonder if them starring together was just a coincidence, but the world may never know. It'll take too long to divulge both stories, but there are plenty familiar faces in Don Knotts(Stanley Scheckter), who basically plays Don Knotts(if you know what I mean), Bernie Kopell, who probably skipped across studios from the Love Boat, Julie Cobb(Salem's Lot, 1979), Lynda Day George, and John Fiedler. One story has Knotts playing a bumbling detective looking for that great case he's never had before, and naturally, he gets more than he bargained for, although the woman he's chasing after(George)had her own fantasy with her husband, as the entire segment turned out to be a play, although Stanley(Knotts)was completely unaware of this aspect. The other segment has Fred(Kopell)wishing to have respect from his family and Mumsy(Walker), although Mr. Roarke shuffles the family from building to building, and we find out that Roarke does this as a way to have Fred stand up to him to win the respect from his family. I thought this ending was more clever than the other story, although neither fantasy was that enticing to watch.

Fun episode...

[shanakin · 24 August 2021]

Must admit it's been a long time since I've seen a number of these episodes of Fantasy Island, probably since it's original run. Have a station that's airing this again and figured I would give it a try. I've just seen a handful of episodes and see how simple a lot of the stories are presented. But must admit that even for its simple approach and having grown up watching this on its Saturday nights so long ago that I've been enjoying them.

This particular episode with Don Knotts and Bernie Kopell and a lot of familiar faces such as Lynda Day George, Rick Jason and Nancy Walker, even character actors like Frank Aletter and Jack Ging and even John Fiedler was a lot of fun to watch. Yes it's light entertainment and must agree with the other reviewer that Knotts's segment is him playing his normal self, but it fit perfectly with how the episode should have gone.

Simply had a lot of fun just watching this episode and shows why the format went so well with The Love Boat preceding it. Looking forward to seeing more of the series again...