Welcome to Fantasy Island — the reality version.
Mark Burnett and Sony are teaming up to turn the classic series into a reality show, in which contestants will compete to become a real-life Mr. or Ms. Roarke, Variety reports.
The ABC original, which aired from 1978 to '84, featured Mr. Roarke — played by the late Ricardo Montalban — in his iconic white suit, who welcomed guests to his private island and made ...
read more
Ricardo Montalban, a Mexican-born actor who starred in MGM films, and later in ABC's Fantasy Island, has died.
He was 88, and no cause of death was released, the Associated Press reports.
Montalban arrived in the U.S. in 1946, making a transition from Mexican cinema to Hollywood. His first stateside role was in Fiesta, opposite Esther Williams. He appeared with her again in On an Island with You in 1948 and Neptune's Daughter a year later.
It was in 1978, however, when Montalban became known as Island's magnanimous Mr. Rourke...
read more
The best thing I saw on Super Bowl Sunday? Pan’s Labyrinth. But that’s a different story (or a different column). Anything to get out of doors (even in the frigid cold) to skip the first few hours of pre-Super Bowl hype.The worst thing I saw on Super Bowl Sunday? A typically unpleasant, thoroughly predictable episode of Criminal Minds that followed the big game. More on that later.In between, we had a game played in torrential rain that had plenty of reversals (how slippery was that football, anyway?) and was plenty exciting, especially to a former Indiana resident and current Peyton Manning fan. The buzz about Super Bowls is that this is usually the one night of the year when you actually watch the ads and zip your TiVo through the game. This year, that would have been a mistake.I lost count of the number of moronic Bud Light ads I had to sit through just to get to the two memorable ads for classic Budweiser. As usual, there was a classy one involving Clydesdales, this ye...
read more
Question: Is Ricardo Montalban the one who calls Grissom and Sara on their feelings?
Answer: As I said before, it's no one of any significance…. Oh, I see what you're doing there. Fantasy Island, fantasy fulfillment. Good one.
read more
Question: Sir, could you please tell me who the main stars were on Wagon Train? Thank you.
Answer: Thanks for the respect, Teri (I get so little), but as the old boot-camp admonishment goes, don't call me "sir" — I work for a living!
There are a few answers to that question, the first being the cast list (which I'll run down in a moment) and the second being a list of guest stars, since episodes revolved around one-shot characters who came and went. But any fan of the show would whittle it down to one actor: the opinionated, tough-as-leather Ward Bond.
In the series, which ran on NBC from 1957-62 before jumping to ABC and finishing out its run there in 1965, Bond played Major Seth Adams, who led the train each season from St. Louis to California with assistant wagon master Bill Hawks (Terry Wilson) and cook Charlie Wooster (Frank McGrath) by h
read more
