Jencyclopedia

Two guys who used to play cops on a TV series called Jungle Man Hard Squad want to be heroes again.
A woman wants her husband to understand what a jerk he was during her pregnancies.

As this episode began, I started thinking, hm, did any actors from the original series show up again in this series? Honestly, I can’t remember — I don’t think there were any — but then Anne Francis (2×6 “Boston Bruisers”; 3×19 “The Swinger”; 4×23 “Ole Island Opry”) showed up in the very first scene. I don’t think the 2021 series had any original series actors, so point for the 1998 series.

Reg! Reginald Fairfield… Barclay. The 1998 series also has the 2021 series beat with the number of Trek actors. Although, I’m holding out hope that one day, we’ll get a PIC movie, and Roselyn Sanchez will get to continue the tradition of Roarkes playing Trek movie enemies.

Continuing another Fantasy Island tradition, we’ve got a dramatic zoom on Roarke.

Cassie: Do you think the immigration department cares if children are separated from their families?

The one fantasy is 3×21 “Jungle Man”; the other fantasy is 1×2 “His and Hers”. In the male pregnancy fantasy, the Slaters are competing in a golf contest to determine which one of them will carry the baby. There’s golf montage. Currently pregnant Jeremy is having a hard time, and in one shot, he falls down, and I think it’s supposed to be funny… but if that was a pregnant woman, I can’t imagine that shot would be played for laughs.

Kirk: Bobby, when we get back home, you know, let’s not be strangers. Let’s email one another. I got a webpage.

Aww, nobody says “I got a webpage” any more. 😢

[Reading a ransom note.]
Kirk: “If you want to see her alive, go to the Acme Warehouse… alone.”
Bobby: …why can’t we go together?

This is like if The Monkees was a cop show.

Barclay Greasy sets the timer on the dynamite for one minute, then runs away. The detective proceed to have a several minute long conversation, and then look at the timer, and there’s still 26 seconds left. After they’ve finally freed themselves, they look at the timer, and there are three seconds left, so they just stop in their tracks, rather than trying to get as far away as possible.

There’s a guy in the background working on the Hard Squad sequel. He’s wearing a shirt that says “Fantasy Island Grips”. I wonder if this is a shirt worn by the actual crew on this show.

[Fisher is watching the Hard Squad sequel on a TV in his office. Roarke starts talking to Fisher through the TV.]
Roarke: Hey! Psst! Fisher! No peace for the wicked, huh? Get back to work!
[Fisher turns the TV off.]

And that’s the end of that.

This series had a few nice little callbacks to the original, and the guest cast was full of actors I’ve heard of. They also managed to sneak an original series actor in there in the last episode. But I wasn’t particularly a fan of any of the main characters, and the main characters are what make a show for me.

The humour in this series isn’t my type of humour. The first series had bad effects and bad acting, and I enjoyed that. This series had bad effects too, but they weren’t as enjoyable as the trippy ’70s stuff. I still don’t understand why viewers seemed to think this was a darker version of the original series; I thought this series was more kid-friendly than the original.

• Guests:
  • Jeremy and Linda Slater
  • Bobby and Kirk
• Similar fantasies:
  • TV actors going back to the series that made them famous: 3×21 “Jungle Man”
  • Old guys trying to relive their youth: 1×12 “The Over-the-Hill Caper”; 3×19 “The Swinger”
  • Man not understanding women’s issues: 7×2 “The Big Switch”; 1×6 “Estrogen”; 1×2 “His and Hers”
• Age gap:
  • Anne Francis: 68 / Pat Harrington: 69 = 1 year
  • Anne Francis: 68 / John Ashton: 50 = -18 years
  • Stacey Travis: 32 / Arye Gross: 38 = 6 years
• Cast:
  • John Ashton … Bobby “Detective Flint” Simington* (I’m not 100% sure which one is Simington/Draper)
  • Anne Francis … Cassie “Police Gal” (Bobby and Kirk’s co-star)
  • Pat Harrington … Kirk “Detective Steele” Draper*
  • Dwight Schultz … Gerald “Greasy” (the villain)
  • Stacey Travis … Linda Slater
  • Arye Gross … Jeremy Slater (Linda’s husband)
  • ??? … Ed Fennell (Bobby and Kirk’s deceased co-star)
  • ??? … Eulogy Guy
  • ??? … Kirk’s “Granddaughter”
  • ??? … Speedboat Guys
  • ??? … Kenner (police guy)
  • ??? … Lo Fat (Hard Squad recurring villain)
  • ??? … Nurse
  • ??? … Baby Elizabeth Slater