The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (TV Series) Danger Island (1968) User Reviews

Incredible Adventure Series

[wborean-745-564851 · 9/10 · 22 July 2013]

I loved this show. It was shown as part of the Banana Splits, as a short serial, and man, it was fun.

Looking back at it, and comparing it to the American television we see today, this was a very innovative show. Fast action, an interesting (if somewhat confusing if you missed a day) plot, decent music, and fairly decent actors all combined to a real fun show. They just don't make it like this any more. 21st Century TV shows are too much formula, which makes shows boring as all get out.

Danger Island is an incredibly fun romp.

I'd love to own a copy on DVD, but I've never found it on sale.

Pirates! Professors!..and Uh Oh, Chongo! It's Danger Island Next!

[darkstrangers · 10/10 · 27 November 2010]

A marvelous little show with a cliffhanger-like episodic style. When I was young, the old time cliffhangers were long gone, but Danger Island brought back an exciting way to keep kids glued to the tube, anxiously awaiting the conclusion as to weather Link was going to fall off that cliff, or get eaten by a shark, or be killed by the pirates. (But, what the filmmakers didn't know was that we kids didn't care a lick about Link, we only cared about Chongo.)

Stranded on an island, hunted by nasty modern-day pirates, Prof. Irwin Hayden (played by Frank Aletter), his daughter Leslie (Ronnie Troup), and her boyfriend Link (Jan-Michael Vincent, yes, really) run into two mysterious men, Morgan (Rockne Tarkington), and Chongo (Kim Kahana) who also seem to be hiding from the pirates. They band together for survival.

Chongo spoke gibberish most of the time, leading one to believe that he was a bit addle brained. But when danger was near, the call would go out, like a magic spell "UH OH, CHONGO!" and Chongo became an unstoppable, lean, mean, fighting machine. It was just fun to watch.

The bad guy was a classic nasty with idiot henchmen to deal with and god-knows-what he wanted with the prof & his daughter. The "episdoes" were about 8-10 minutes long and after about 26 episodes the good guys turn the tables on the pirates, leaving them stranded while Chongo and company finally escape the island. Ha ha!

Having closure was a new and satisfying feeling in itself, as no other TV show ever really finished their story before being canceled. But this particular show was filmed like a movie and was fed to us in little bite-size pieces, so that explains the difference, I guess.

What made this a great show, and one that I remember with great fondness, is that the acting, stunts, cinematography, and story line were all done with extreme professionalism. It was a pleasure to watch and I think any kid today would love to see it.