Fantasy Island (TV Series) The Man from Yesterday/World's Most Desirable Woman (1981) User Reviews

The Asian Jaclyn Smith and her real husband strike again & Martin Milner is wasted here!

[imdb-25288 · 6/10 · 3 April 2023]

Yet another episode where the ever annoying, botched Jaclyn Smith wannabe, plays yet again an aged woman trying to become "young" and "desirable". Yawn! Done to death and by this same woman! Did they have no other ideas? I just watched her last night playing old lady whom Roarke youthens so she can be in a Ziefield follies like show! The ridiculous parts are these: 1) She was 31 at time of filming and is playing 39 as "old". She's made up to look a bad fifty plus. (The woman must be in her 80s now, it would be funny to see how desperate she now is. Is she still trying for "Barbie on Fantasy Island" shtick?!)

2) Her husband doesn't recognize her. Mind you. He married her in her 20s and has lived with her all this time. Same face, same everything except Roarke got her dark circles and nose to mouth and forehead lines removed, that's it! (Some writers really took 80s audiences for fools!)

The other, what do we have here but Dennis Cole, once again! Didn't I see him earlier this week playing a mean piano recital with a haunted emerald ring?! (Yes, I did!) He is dull as dry rocks, as usual, but he had lovely blond hair, in a bowl cut, plus a russet brown beard this time. Martin Milner is wasted here. I guess he wanted to cut loose from his copper image and is totally miscast and just unpleasant to watch.

Also, deja vu much?! This story is a repeat of one played by either Sony Bono, or some other guy that Frances Nguyen asks him to run after her, then he has to marry her pleasantly plump sister instead. But I remember the same shtick with the boy helper being upset, and the 2 girls being sister (they only appear at the end, going bye bye here!). What the what? This is like Bewitched, warming up leftovers with the Darrin #2 seasons! How come only me remembers this?

Highlights of the show: Bert Levy had some really cool velveteen suit jackets! (They're in fashion now, for men and women!) A brown one, navy and a dark green one, I can't pick a favorite, I want them all, hold the grey! Mr. Roarke becomes mister Buttinski big time here. But I love Mr. Roarke and so we get double helpings of Ricardo Montalban. All for the best, and he does improve both stories. (But boy am I tired of Barbi, Dennis and the rest!)

Nitpick: we do see both Martin Milner and Dennis Cole's stunt doubles on the bridge. For what? For shooting fake guns that only have sparks at the end of the barrel and jumping down a pond? I had to rewind that. I see Fantasy Island stunt doubles all the time. (The other day, it was a man in a long blonde wig for an actress. They didn't have stuntwomen back then?!)

Mr. Roarke probably elevates this to a 7/10 but I'm not overrating this time, removing 1 star for the ever annoying Barbi Benton (who had hair like Jaclyn Smith and looked like her homely, Asian sister) and because of Dennis Cole (why did the real Jackie ever marry this one? We'll never know!) Not much Tattoo at all in this one, and that's another minus for me! Not one I want to rewatch.

Both were good

[stones78 · 2 October 2014]

In what was a pleasant surprise, and a rare occurrence to boot, both segments from this episode were written very well, and had some originality in regards to this show. Some of the faces include Martin Milner, Barbi(Klein)Benton, Dennis Cole, Bert Convy, and Teri Copley, who had a minor career worth mentioning. One aspect that really stood out is the involvement of Mr. Rourke, who usually gets a few scenes here and there, but he was in many scenes in both stories, and he even sings in one of them! I found Klein, I mean Benton, slightly annoying here as an aging woman wanting to be desirable again, although she becomes more arrogant, and this bothers Mr. Rourke, even though he really knows why she acts this way, but he lets her fantasy continue a bit longer. There is an interesting twist involving her and Hal(Convy)that I won't spoil, but it comes together nicely. Look for a disco dancing party also, even though I thought disco was dead by 1981. The other story has a man(Milner)looking for another man(Cole)to bring to justice for war crimes he committed many years ago. There's also a few twists and turns in this segment as well, but as I said above, both stories have decent subject matters that worked for me, even though this isn't one of my favorites.