Last month was a HUGE month for DVD releases with Batman Begins, which is on my short list of best movies of the year.  With this month barely under way we get Star Wars Episode III, the one that closes the franchise.  That is until the next reissue where Lucas adds extra CGI robots or some damned thing.  Will Lucas go on to do more Star Wars?  I think so.  My back yard, outhouse psychological profile on Lucas is that he’s a tinker, a tweaker who can’t leave well enough alone.  Did he finish creating Home Theater standards with THX?  No, he went on to make Select and Ultra part of the THX certification.  Then he decided to go straight into creating a THX format in THX-EX (also known as Dolby Digital-EX 7.1).  I don’t think Lucas is done, unless he has some health problems that prevent him from getting into a major project, I believe in a year or two he’ll start getting the script together for the Star Wars Episode V.  Okay, maybe I watch too much crime drama on TV, but that’s my profile.

Now the other big DVD release today that has nothing to do with Star Wars is Fantasy Island season one.  Okay I hear you saying:  Why do I give a damn about Fantasy Island?  Well maybe you don’t.  But this is perhaps one of the finest TV shows to come out of the 70s cheese factory.  Complete with Mike Post theme song and guest appearances from many top names in TV at the time, this is must see entertainment for anyone who feels the least bit nostalgic about the 70s.  This ain’t no Love Boat!  Well, it would be if the Love Boat was the Titanic or had some sinister side and that’s exactly what made Fantasy Island cool.  The constant threat of this undeveloped back story, a certain question as to what the hell is going on.

Two feature length 90minute pilots that started the series rolling are included in this four disc set; Fantasy Island and Return to Fantasy Island.  The island is ostensibly a resort where guests get to have a certain wish fulfilled.  Each episode begins with the vertically challenged Tatoo (Herve Villechaize) announcing the arrival of “the plane!” then he and Mr. Roark (Ricardo Montalban) go to the plane to greet the guests and the fantasy fulfillment begins.  But there is always some price to pay for having a wish granted, each guest gets their version of the old adage that warns us “be careful what you wish for”.  But the first episode which I look forward to seeing again was a real kicker, I always seemed to recall it took on a much darker tone, I have a mental image of Ricardo even firing a rifle from a helicopter at someone in a sub-plot about a hunt or a hunter.  My memory is foggy because I was just a kid but the first pilot was quite shocking.  The series was a little less dark but still often gave guest a scare or taught them some long-term lesson about appreciating their lives at home.  I look forward to viewing these episodes and look forward to seeing some of the guest appearances by the likes of Gary Burghoff (MASH), Richard Dawson (Hogan’s Heroes), Marueen McCormick (Brady Bunch) and of course Adrienne Barbeau, Bill Bixby, Victoria Principal and many others.  Ahh, the innocent 70s.  When big stars weren’t afraid of their image so much, and weren’t getting so stuck on contracts and legal issues that they could simply make guest appearances on another network’s TV show.