Danger Island (TV series)

Danger Island
Directed by	Richard Donner
Starring	Frank Aletter Jan-Michael Vincent Ronne Troup Rockne Tarkington Kim Kahana
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	36
Production
Executive producer(s)	Joseph Barbera William Hanna
Running time	10 minutes (per episode)
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	September 7, 1968 – January 11, 1969
Chronology
Related shows	The Banana Splits Adventure Hour

Danger Island is a live-action adventure serial produced by Hanna-Barbera and originally broadcast in 1968–69 as a segment on The Banana Splits Adventure Hour. It was filmed in Mexico and directed by future Superman, Goonies, and Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner and featured Jan-Michael Vincent as Lincoln 'Link' Simmons.^[1]

The series comprises a 3-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 the popular ^[2] catchphrase "Uh-oh, Chongo!" among children of that time.

Characters

Main characters

• Prof. Irwin Hayden - Frank Aletter
• Lincoln 'Link' Simmons - Jan-Michael Vincent (as Michael Vincent)
• Leslie Hayden - Ronne Troup
• Elihu Morgan - Rockne Tarkington
• Chongo - Kim Kahana (as Kahana)

Villains

• Captain Mu-Tan - Victor Eberg
• Chu - Rodrigo Arrendondo

References