This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

My life was changed by this series of Adventures. Like the amicable Captain of the Tiki III My life became one of adventure in the South Pacific. Traveling through the Micronesean Islands, Yap, Ulithi, Enewetok, Anguar Palau, Kwajalein, Wake, Kure, always brought me back to the days when I first watched this series on Television, never to miss an episode, I was able to recreate the adventures to some degree in my own life. It is true that one can achieve the vast number of friends throughout the islands in a short few years especially when sailing the speed of a Schooner in the Tropics. The interesting item is that on many of the islands I visited in the early 1960's I found the natives living the same as they depicted in the Series. The true grass skirts, kimonos, mumus, the grass huts and bamboo framing of the native houses. How idillic to have all my dreams proved to be fact. The memories will live with me forever. Now I beg the copyright owners to provide the entire series in sequential DVD's or VHS to allow the younger generation to know the facts that they too can follow in the adventures in the South Pacific. Live the life that you desire through the adventures of this series. I did it and so can you. James A. Mitchner's writings came from experience, and need to be shared with the world in boxed sets. Lets all put forth the effort to have these series and other old series made available to everyone.

Adventures in Paradise was my favorite childhood shows, partly because it came on at 9PM and I wasn't allowed to watch it very often. I think I loved the adventure, and the sea and sailboats, which I have always been interested in...maybe because of the show. The theme song still awakens my sense of adventure. I have tried to find the these song but can't find it on CD but did find a copy included with other tropical music on a record. I have been buying copies of Adventures in Paradise on VHS. I hate to say it but the the shows aren't quite as exotic as I remember but still a great childhood memory and they still evoke a sense of adventure. There were many futures stars that played in the series, Raymond Massey, Ray Walston, Harvey Korman, Martin Landau, Buddy Ebsen, Yvonne De Carlo, Carroll O'Connor (Archie Bunker) to name just a few. Anyway, at the risk of revealing my secret source, you can buy Adventures in Paradise shows at Ronnie Cramer's Cult Film Site. I also ran across a super French site that has tons of information about the series and Gardner McKay if you search under "Adventures in Paradise" "Lionel Newman". Lionel Newman wrote the theme song which you can download for free from the site.

I, too, remember this one from my youth. I recall it as being re-run in the afternoons in the 60's, about the time I got home from school. It enabled me to immediately release the problems and tensions of school and go off into another world. I eventually made it only as far as Hawaii, (I'm kind of a homebody), but my brother has spent much of his life traveling the world, including many of the real locations the fictional Adam Troy had visited and, as a professor of history at the University of Hawaii has written extensively about that area of the world.I've been able to get some episodes of the series from internet collectors and thus have been able to revisit Adam Troy's world four decades later as an adult. Naturally, that impacts my thinking on the subject.My first impression is that, as good a job as they did with this, what an incredible show this would have been if they'd decided to shoot it on location and in color! That wouldn't have been such a far-fetched idea. Bonanza debuted the same year in color with many scenes shot on location in Nevada and California. Route 66 started the next year, (that also should have been in color), with episodes shot all over the country and not too many years later, I Spy was shot in color around the world. There is a trend toward remakes of old shows, both in the movies and on TV and Adventures in Paradise would be an ideal subject if they did it right- which would include setting it in its original time period, in the places where it takes place and in vibrant color.My major problem with the show, however, is that Gardner McKay is simply too young to play this character. He's clearly a sailor of considerable experience and has spent enough time in the pacific to have old friend, old enemies and old flames in every port. It takes a while to build a life like that up. In one episode, ( 11/16/59 Safari at Sea), Troy meets an old friend from his college days and they reminisce about their graduation five years before and how they couldn't have imagined being where they are now. (the friend, played by John Ericson, is married to a movie star). In other words, Troy, in five years, has learned all he knows about sailing schooners around the South Pacific and had all kinds of previous adventures where he has met all these people.I prefer to think of Troy as what Lt. Cable of James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" would have become had he lived. Cable was from Philadelphia, (Troy is from Texas), and found himself in a different world after he joined the Navy during WWII. He overcame his prejudices to fall in love with the new place and with the native girl in the story. Supposed he had lived and something had happened to end that relationship. He might have, after the war, sought a position in the merchant marine, decided to save up to buy his own boat and wound up in the Tikki. He might have gotten that in the early 50's and had a decade of adventures in Paradise and all the knowledge and relationship building the character has clearly gone through by the time the show started in 1959. He would have been young enough to still be handsome and sexy but old enough to be an experienced seaman and adventurer.That would have pushed the agreeable but boyish Gardener McKay out the picture. Who would have played Cable/Troy then? Among the actors that come to mind who were working in television then are Robert Stack, (who got a good gig for himself that same year as Elliott Ness), John Russell, (who already had one on "Lawman"), Guy Williams, (whose "Zorro" was just winding up at that time), Anthony George, Richard Egan, Tom Tryon and- how about this- Jack Lord! All were about a decade older than McKay or a little more but still handsome and virile. They all would have been convincing as WWII veterans, (as I suspect they all were in one way or another), who elected to stay in the Pacific.But then there's the opinion of a friend who also remembered the show from his youth and told me that Adam Troy didn't look too young to him at the time because he was just a kid. I suspect that the secret of enjoying this series is to be "just a kid" and to allow it to return you to your youth whenever you get to see it.

Television in the late 1950s, for those of us who remember it, was largely black and white and a composite of live shows from New York, old films from the 1930s and 40s, and filmed series (usually made in Hollywood) designed for the new medium. Most of the filmed television series were centered around the folklore of 19th century western figures or contemporary big city detectives.In 1959, 20th Century Fox decided to try something different. So, borrowing from the literary works of James Michener, they constructed a series centered around a modern day roving South Pacific sea captain. As luck would have it, a producer happened to spot 6' 5", 200 lb., 27 year old actor Gardner McKay sitting in the studio commissary reading--of all things--a book of poetry.To help promote the new hour long series on ABC Television, Life Magazine writer Shana Alexander was called in to do a feature story. When she met the star, she changed the whole focus of her story to the new leading man, including a cover photo of McKay in a contemporary Apollo Belvedere pose. Describing him as a likely candidate for the best looking man in America, she used a centerfold photo of McKay's face as a template for the handsome man, comparing him with former film star glamor boys Robert Taylor, Tyrone Power, Gregory Peck and Rock Hudson.That magazine layout embarrassed McKay to the point that he once told an interviewer he never even FELT good looking. What was worse was that, despite the fact that he actually had been an experienced sailor, he was a very inhibited and inexperienced actor.Critics mauled his lack of thespian-ism, but fans loved the guy (especially women). He was unassuming and likable despite his lack of theatrical talent. His acting abilities improved modestly (with much coaching), but 20th Century Fox did little to enhance the series (which was remarkably popular), failing to transfer the South Pacific setting to actual locations and ignoring the color process that had been recently introduced to t.v. audiences. McKay, however, continued to be personally popular--with both male fans of the series and admiring women.He had done some minor roles in television and films before Paradise and did some after it, appearing on interview shows and doing theater in the round in addition to some primary roles and even one leading role in motion pictures. But the critics (justifiably) continued to ravage his efforts.Fed up with the whole business, McKay turned down a personal film offer from Marilyn Monroe and left acting forever. He traveled the world, married and settled in Hawaii as a playwright and novelist, where he was very successful until his death in November of 2001 from prostate cancer.But Adventures in Paradise lives on in the minds of everyone who was a fan. Gardner McKay was part of that fond memory. Perhaps the handsomest man to ever pass through Hollywood's portals, he was perfect as the gentle sea captain chasing a tropic paradise. And each week, he took us along for the trip. It was a great escape from the realities of everyday life and an unforgettable memory.