Say hi to Tattoo for me!
Welcome to Fantasy Island!
When I was a kid, nearly every Saturday night, my parents would go out for the evening and leave my little sister and I with my grandmother and great-grandmother for a few hours. And they would always make popcorn and the four of us would watch The Love Boat and Fantasy Island until they got back. Now that I think back on that maybe those shows weren’t entirely age-appropriate, but these were the times when kids didn’t wear seat belts and Coke came in big glass bottles and we all threw lawn darts at each other.
I always dug Saturday nights with the Grandmas, staying up late and watching adult-themed television shows, even though I didn’t understand why Doc on the Love Boat was a “womanizer” or that all those singles on the cruise were slutting it up. And I definitely didn’t understand all the life lessons learned by the folks living out their fantasies on Fantasy Island. In fact, I couldn’t tell you one storyline from that show right now, only the classic opening line with Mr. Rourke and Tattoo in their white suits waiting for the plane.
So of course I was a little sad and nostalgic today when I heard that Mr. Rourke himself, Ricardo Montalban died this morning at age 88. So I think this weekend I might pop up a big bowl of popcorn and fire up Hulu to watch some old episodes of Fantasy Island. Maybe this time around I will learn some life lessons.
Leave a Reply