Fantasy Island (TV Series) Daddy's Little Girl/The Whistle (1982) User Reviews

surprisingly predictable but then a twist

[mikeholmes-48012 · 7/10 · 12 September 2015]

So the episode starts off with No Tattoo not that i mind. apparently he was doing something i forget what, but as usual it made his seem like a sexually deprived and desperate pervert. so in his place was the Fran voice from American dad. I would later learn on that her name is Julie, i dated a Julie briefly in college, she was always arguing about gay rights, and i'd think it was me if it wasn't for remembering that when she moved in with the lesbian from denny's. Anyhow, Julie tried to guess what a guest desired, she guess he was a teacher but thought he wanted his 5th grade class to come on a field trip. Julie is a moron. then i noticed behind everyone arriving a lot of Parrots and those type birds, have i missed that all along??? SO the first story arc was a girl who was getting married and wanted her real dad she never met to give her away. Your thinking what i'm thinking, as she talks about how her adoptive father (who she didn't know was adoptive til recent() was so great at raising her. So Mr Roarke invites people from the past and makes her tell them she is looking for her father.then all these guys how up and your thinking this is a South Park Cartman looking for his dad episode. anyhow crap happens i personally didn't expect, maybe you would and so forth. it was nice.

other story arc , some guy goes to one of those lovable fantasy island ghost towns that seem out of place in Hawaii . the red filters noting that the chic was evil was overbearing and the town of four old people trying to get him to do the spell to make them demons was suffocating yet oddly really good watching. I bet all them old actors are dead now. Rainbow lights and red lights illustrating evil was cool. the love interest telling him to leave and then turning red and talking like some creepy guy picking up chicks showed a lack of budget at this time of year. Roarke used the word "Profishious" for something i forget. it was cool. hes so smooth.

For later season episodes, a winner

[VetteRanger · 7/10 · 8 January 2023]

The two stories in this episode were of uneven quality, but that wasn't usual for Fantasy Island. I never quite did get "The Whistle". I know that demons or something wanted to be freed, but nothing that happened really made a lot of sense, and the rubber monster masks were nothing but cheap looking. However, the people/demons in the ghost town with a museum WERE a merry bunch, just laughing and laughing all the time. :-)

In Daddy's Little Girl, a young woman has discovered from old letters in the attic that her father was a serviceman in the Philippines, and not the man who has raised her as his daughter. Her fantasy to find her real father is kicked off when Roark invites a group of men (and their wives) who might have known her mother in that place and time. Things get a little complicated when THREE of them admit to being her father. LOL Busy mother!

Ann Turkel and John Carradine

[kevinolzak · 5/10 · 2 December 2015]

From the fifth season of FANTASY ISLAND comes this odd blend of stories, one typical and quite predictable, the other promising but ultimately unsatisfying. "Daddy's Little Girl" features GENERAL HOSPITAL's Genie Francis as Christa Ackland, come to Fantasy Island to get married, her wish to find the father she's never known, from a relationship her mother (Carolyn Jones) had with a soldier stationed in the Philippines, before returning to the US pregnant, ultimately marrying a new beau (William Windom). Problems arise when not one, not two, but three (!) gentlemen greet the understandably confused Christa as her real father, but everything wraps up neatly by the end (fine turns from veterans Alan Hale, Gene Nelson, and John Ericson as MY THREE DADS). "The Whistle" stands out by default, casting Edward Winter as unattached archaeologist Adrian Brilles, his fantasy to make a discovery that will win him great acclaim ("you are willing to forsake what you have for the unknown, even if it is terrifying?"). Mr. Roarke tantalizes him with an ancient stone whistle, covered in what appear to be Egyptian hieroglyphics, which have never been deciphered by anyone before. He ominously warns Brilles that this find is said to have great, possibly even evil, powers, and that his destination will be a neighboring island with a ghost town where 'time has stopped,' where his predecessor, Leila Proctor (Ann Turkel), journeyed before him and never returned. Walking down the dusty main street, Brilles encounters four elderly strangers: Kathryn Fuller as nosy Mrs. Abbott, voice-over wizard Hal Smith as 'investor' Mr. Quarry, Alvy Moore as pipe smoking Mr. Stone (very similar to his Hank Kimball on GREEN ACRES), and legendary scene stealer John Carradine, his top hatted Mortician the enigmatic leader of the quartet. Once directed to the local museum, Brilles meets lovely curator Leila, who identifies the whistle's tablet as Sumerian, a mystery which the eager scientist proves anxious to solve. So intent is he on the task at hand that Brilles fails to notice a schizophrenic quality in Leila, at times a frightened young lady who deeply cares for him, at others a ravishing sexpot eager for him to finish and blow the whistle at three separate intervals, but only the third wish is final, according to Mr. Roarke: "the third wish can save you and all that you love." It's nice to see Carradine well cast in a tale tinged with horror, his association with producer Aaron Spelling going back to the late 50s (JOHNNY RINGO's "The Rain Man" and "Crowhaven Farm"), having worked with Hal Smith on the 1969 animated feature "shinbone alley," and with John Ericson on the 1976 Charles Band production "Crash!" "The Whistle" was directed by longtime TV veteran Don Weis, whose few feature credits include Tommy Kirk's "Pajama Party" and "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini," the latter guest starring none other than Boris Karloff.

Greg Marmalard and The Skipper say hi

[stones78 · 17 September 2015]

As the other reviewer mentioned in his own special way, this was a decent episode, and there were several familiar faces overcrowding the island. Those faces include Alan Hale Jr., Carolyn Jones(she died about 1.5 years later), John Carradine, Genie Francis, Ed Winter, William Windom(he's in everything), Ann Turkel, James Daughton(Animal House), and Hal Smith, who played Otis the drunk many moons ago. I don't really feel like going too much in depth about either story, but "Daddy's Little Girl" is sappy for the most part, with decent performances by veterans Jones and Windom; plus, it's always nice seeing Hale Jr., who is a bit thinner here. Poor guy escapes Gilligan's Island only to wind up on Fantasy Island. The other story, "The Whistle", was better for my taste, and there was even a tinge of horror, although it was a bit silly. Carradine and his merry band of old geezers become these strange looking demons, whose faces resemble Mr. Barlow from Salem's Lot, but not as scary. The make-out scenes between the characters got stale though, and I found myself looking away a few moments. Lastly, it seems that many dislike Julie(Wendy Schaal), but I think her character is decent in small intervals. In the first story mentioned above, she shows some emotion when the "Daddy" gives away his little girl for marriage. It's much easier to understand what she's saying, as opposed to Tattoo, but in only short doses.

Dreadful and annoying all around characters, men and especially women!

[imdb-25288 · 5/10 · 27 April 2023]

In fact, dreadful doesn't begin to cover it. What were they thinking with this one!? The guy who is supposed to carry The Whistle story has the personality of the coil that's under my fridge. The Turkish museum curator is desperately trying to act "sexy" but it doesn't work for her. (And what was up with her skin at the end? She looked more overbaked than even George Hamilton! Did she spend the entire night, before plane departure, in a tanning booth? Made no sense!)

John Carradine is wasted here. The spooks are all annoying, their demon masks look like cheesy relics from The Twilight Zone. The story was static and idiotic. It had some cool Egyptian and Easter Island like artifacts. The special effects, even for early 1980s were cheap and ridiculous (a kaleidoscope projected onto the screen to create a split light prism in rainbow colors).

The other story was possibly even more annoying. The woman in search of her father had dumb expressions on her face the entire show. The fathers were annoying and pulling long faces. Carolyn Jones played an extremely annoying character, and looked ridiculous with her gaudy deep blue eye shadow clashing with her jade green outfit. This story was a bore, evenmoreso than the annoying Whistle story.

Julie was extra annoying, pulling faces and even Mr. Roarke couldn't save this one. (But watching several per week, makes you notice that he always not so covertly threatens the lives of his guests during the intro and pulls the same faces when drinking his wine: congenial smiles then casting dark stares at his always clueless guests.) Tattoo and his ever cute antics was sorely missing, here. (Is his departure the reason why the show went downhill fast at the end? Or... did they also fire the better and even mediocre writers and settle for the very worst?) It's hard not to notice, at the end, that Ann Turkel hit the tanning booth and is, overnight, ten shades darker than she started with. (Why did people do this to themselves in the 70s? Such brainwashing! It looks hideous on naturally pale peoples!)

There are no highlights to this show. The only good thing: the production kept things tight, unlike in later seasons, it's well filmed and moves at an okay pace, but watch it on Tubi so it makes a bit more sense, at least it's more coherent than watching it on GET TV, with the missing scenes. I think I've covered everyone. If I missed someone, trust me: they were just as annoying as the rest of the cast. This should have been called Daddy's Ungrateful and Annoying Little Girl and The Annoying Whistle People. I'm giving this a very generous five out of ten but it's probably more of a 4/10.