Jencyclopedia

A guy bets his friends that he can get a model to sleep with him.
Mary Ann Mobley wants to fulfill a prophecy by taming a thunderbird.

I remember seeing the beginning and end of this episode. I remember “The Big Bet” being offensive, and I’m kind of looking forward to complaining about it. I remember “Thunderbirds” being an interesting concept, but it’s a plane fantasy, so I was bored anyway.

When I started watching this series last year, I would usually tell my mom what happened on the previous day’s episode while I was making breakfast (and eventually, she was like “look, Jenny, I actually hate that show, okay”). For this episode, I was like “yeah, Mary Ann Mobley was flying a jet yesterday” and I remarked how I now knew so many minor celebrities from the ’70s and ’80s.

This guy’s friends haven’t had any lines yet, and they don’t seem to have names either. They keep showing closeups of them, and you would expect them to say something in these shots, but they never do.

Judy Moreau: Pick me up at two. Bungalow six.

Boo, the boring old generic bungalow names again.

Al Henshaw: What was that all about?
Judy Moreau: I don’t know… but I think I just met a ~really~ ~nice~ ~guy~.

Ookay.

Charlie: If if wasn’t for that skin shot of her in Playpen Magazine, she could pass for a nice girl.
Corky Daniels: Sure. Only nice girls don’t only go out with high rollers or pose for centerfolds.

Colonel Kent Ross: Does she believe in that sort of thing?
Roarke: Part of her does, secretly — the Indian part. But the modern part, the college graduate, the lady technologist, and jumbo jet pilot… rejects the beliefs of Chief Daniel and his people as ignorant superstition.

“Lady technologist”???

Roarke: She believes she can walk away from it now, having made her gesture, but I’m afraid she’s about to be disillusioned in a way that will shock her so profoundly, it may even threaten her sanity…

It’s weird to get this in the middle of the episode; this is a classic opening scene Roarke line.

Roarke has received a telegram that Nancy Carsons’ adoptive father has died. Who sent this telegram, and why would they send it to Roarke? If they sent it to Nancy, then why is he opening her mail?

Aaand he’s decided to keep the news from Nancy Carsons. Pfffft, this episode, ahhhhh.

Julie: Has Miss Moreau been cooperative?
Corky Daniels: Cooperative? She could give the United Nations a lesson in cooperation. And I get the feeling she probably has. All 165 countries, individually.

Umm.

Roarke: Mr. Daniels, whether you were isolated in the North Sea or the South Pole, the mere thought of any man using a lady merely to win a bet–
Julie: –is not a man.

Oh, hey, Roarke and Julie are actually calling this guy out for being a jerk. That’s surprising.

Corky Daniels: She’s a… a… a…
[Slut.]
Roarke: If she’s a-a-a, then why are you so upset?

Roarke: Miss Moreau, excuse me?
Director: Mr. Roarke, I’ve got a show to do!
[Yeah, really!]
Roarke [very pleased]: Miss Moreau, he lost the bet; Mr. Corky Daniels just paid off his friends.
Judy Moreau: He told them he lost the bet?! Oh, Mr. Roarke, that’s wonderful! That’s wonderful!

Uh… she still slept with him though? And he was a jerk? Why is everybody so pleased with this outcome? WTF is going on here.

[Commenting about her flying]
Major Wood: Pretty, Nancy. Pretty.

Yuuh.

[Nancy Carsons stole a plane. She landed, and when they open the plane door, she’s gone.]
Colonel Kent Ross: Impossible! What happened to her?
Roarke: We have a saying, colonel: nothing is impossible on Fantasy Island

Mm… I don’t think I’d call that a saying. Maybe they’ve said it once or twice. Tattoo has said “you stupid monkey” more than that.

[Corky Daniels hit Al Henshaw earlier in the episode. Al is talking to Roarke when Corky arrives.]
Al Henshaw: Mr. Roarke, I’m your responsibility.
Roarke: Oh certainly, certainly, Mr. Henshaw. Julie, protect the gentleman.
Julie: Stay close to me, Mr. Henshaw.

Okay.

Corky Daniels: The article in that magazine, was it you?
Judy Moreau: Only the photograph.
Corky Daniels: Then why did you act that way last night?
Judy Moreau: Well, you had a bet; I wanted you to win… that isn’t true. I heard about the bet. I was hurt and disappointed. I felt like a fool, and I hated you for using me like that…
[So she had sex with him?!]
Judy Moreau: …but I couldn’t stop loving you.

Corky Daniels: Well, how do you feel about that, Mr. Roarke?
Roarke: Well, I feel as though I am at a very exciting world-class tennis match, and the score as of this moment is two… love.

Kill me.

Judy Moreau: When Shakespeare said “all’s well that ends well”, he sure knew what he was talking about.
Roarke: Yes, Will always was quite the philosopher.
[Julie looks at him quizzically.]

“Will” shows up later in 6×12 “Room and Bard”; I don’t think he acknowledges that he knows Roarke though.

Wow! Both of the female actresses were older than their male love interests this episode.

• Julie’s outfit: pants
• Where’s Tattoo?
  
• Drivers:
  • To the dock: “Billy” then Wally
  • For Nancy Carsons on the airfield: Wally
  • Corky Daniels’ departure: Wally
  • Nancy Carsons’ departure: That Guy
• Guests:
  • Mr. Corky Daniels and his coworkers, construction workers from North Seawater Oil Rigs
  • Miss Nancy Carsons, also known as Silver Leaf
• Recurring phrases:
  • Julie: Lucky for him she’s playing here on Fantasy Island.
    Roarke: Oh, indeed it is.
  • Julie: She must be a very interesting lady.
    Roarke: Oh, indeed she is.
  • Corky Daniels: Well, you know how it is when a bunch of guys are away from civilization for months; well, they start making exaggerated claims about what they’re gonna do when they get back, and well, you know…
    Roarke: Indeed.
  • [About the Thunderbirds.]
    ??? (voiceover): The best in the world.
    Roarke (voiceover): Indeed they are.
• Ominous Roarke:
  • Roarke: The task Miss Carson has set for herself is something that no woman has ever achieved before… and it could cost her her life…
  • Roarke: She believes she can walk away from it now, having made her gesture, but I’m afraid she’s about to be disillusioned in a way that will shock her so profoundly, it may even threaten her sanity…
• Roarke’s drink: same old
• Ominous shot of Roarke drinking: no, they just fade out after the “welcome to Fantasy Island”, they don’t even show the guests again
• ‘Cause I gotta have faith:
  • Chief Daniel Tenquot: It was stupid of me to put so much faith in an old legend.
• Magic:
  • Nancy Carsons: I’m truly sorry, but I just can’t believe in all that magic.
    Chief Daniel Tenquot: Ah, that’s a pity; a world without magic is a sorrowful place to dwell.
  • Roarke: The world has many kinds of magic, you know.
    Nancy Carsons: Like blacking out in the cockpit of a T-38 and waking up in your office?
• Why grant the fantasy?
  • Corky Daniels: Well, if you knew what I was up to, why’d you let me go through with it?
    Roarke: Because I had hoped that meeting Miss Moreau might help you to grow up.
• Cost:
  • Ben: You sure know how to mess up a weekend.
    Charlie: An expensive weekend.
    Corky Daniels: Ease off, this fantasy is on me.
• Hypnosis:
  • Mechanic: Hi, major. [He realizes Nancy Carsons is not Major Wood.] …major? Say, who are you?
    Roarke: Excuse me, may I have your attention for one moment… please…
• A legal matter:
  • Colonel Kent Ross: You know, I’ll be forced to arrest Miss Carsons the moment she touches down.
    Roarke: Oh, that won’t be necessary, colonel; as chief magistrate here on Fantasy Island, I am responsible for meting out all punishment. Take my word for it; Miss Carsons will get everything she has coming to her. Mm-hm!
• Roarke’s powers: He stares at Nancy Carsons, who is sitting in a jet, and he beams her directly to his office.
• Leaving with an extra guest: Corky Daniels with new girlfriend Judy Moreau for some godawful reason
• Not leaving on the plane:
  • Julie: What about your two buddies?
    Corky Daniels: Ben and Charlie? They decided to stay here a few more days, hoping to find a centrefold of their own.
• Someone just happens to live near you:
  • Roarke: In a few weeks, Major Woods will be leaving the Thunderbirds team. Yes, he’s being transferred to, uh… McClellan Air Force Base, California.
    Nancy Carsons: McClellan! That’s just a half hour drive from San Francisco!
• Age gap:
  • Lydia Cornell: 28 / John James: 26 = -2 years
  • Mary Ann Mobley: 45 / Patrick Wayne: 42 = -3 years