8.8 /10 2 Votes
6.7/10 TV Country of origin United States No. of episodes 36 Final episode date 11 January 1969 | 8.5/10 IMDb Original language(s) English First episode date 7 September 1968 Number of episodes 36 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Frank AletterJan-Michael VincentRonne TroupRockne TarkingtonKim Kahana Executive producer(s) Joseph BarberaWilliam Hanna Cast Jan‑Michael Vincent, Ronne Troup, Frank Aletter Similar The Banana Splits, Arabian Knights, Underwater Universe, The New Adventures of Huckle, The Lion - the Witch and the | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danger Island is a live-action adventure serial produced by Hanna-Barbera and originally broadcast in 1968–69 as a segment of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour. It was filmed in Mexico, directed by future Superman, Goonies and Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner, and featured Jan-Michael Vincent as Lincoln 'Link' Simmons.
Contents
The series comprises a three-hour adventure yarn broken down into 36 short chapters. Each chapter is roughly ten minutes long and includes a suspenseful cliffhanger ending that is resolved in the next installment.
Plot
Intended as a live-action version of the animated Hanna-Barbera series Jonny Quest, Danger Island depicted the adventures of a trio of explorers in an unnamed tropical island group: Prof. Irwin Hayden, an archaeologist; Lincoln "Link" Simmons, the professor's youthful assistant; and Leslie, the professor's daughter, who serves as both a love interest for Link and the series' token damsel-in-distress.
Several years earlier, the professor's brother (also an archaeologist) disappeared in the same island chain while searching for the mythical lost city of Tobanya. They are joined on their quest by Morgan, a shipwrecked merchant mariner, and his teenage sidekick Chongo, who speaks only in a series of monkey-like chatters and birdcalls. They are pursued by a group of bumbling but heavily armed modern-day pirates led by the murderous Captain Mu-Tan, and by three tribes of cannibal natives known as "the Headhunters", "the Skeleton Men" and "the Ash Men". The show spawned a popular catchphrase, "Uh-oh, Chongo!", among children of that time.