"Ze plane! Ze plane!", also quoted as "De plane! De plane!" or "The plane! The plane!", is a catchphrase, originating from the opening titles of every episode of the U.S. TV series Fantasy Island. Each episode began with the diminutive Tattoo, one of the main characters, spotting the seaplane approaching the island and running up a tower and excitedly yelling, "Ze Plane! Ze Plane!" and ringing a bell.
The actual aircraft
The actual aircraft used in the series was a :fr:SCAN 30|SCAN 30, a license-built version of a Grumman G-44 Widgeon seaplane, U.S. registry N4453. It was manufactured by the in Rochelle, France in 1951 but not initially completed with engines because of unsatisfactory results achieved previously on other SCAN Type 30 Widgeons with various engines available there. Instead, it was disassembled and stored until 1967 when it was imported into the US, re-assembled, and finally completed using nine cylinder, 300 hp Lycoming model R-680 radial engines in what was called a Mansdorf Gannet conversion. It was one of the few Widgeons converted with radial engines. It was rented from a local charter company by a contract production company, and almost all of the footage of the plane used throughout the series and films was shot in one day and recycled over the entire run. During the filming of the actual episodes, the guests climbed out of a paper-mache and plywood mock-up of the back of the plane. Prior to being owned by the charter company, the plane belonged to author Richard Bach, which he mentions briefly in his book The Bridge Across Forever. The aircraft was later rented or sold to parties who later used it to smuggle drugs into the United States, and it crashed in a swamp on at least one occasion. It was confiscated by the DEA and sold by the U.S. Marshals Service at auction. It again fell into the hands of other drug smugglers and was eventually confiscated and sold again. It was involved in a gear collapse accident in the 1990s and repainted deep red, so it is not as recognizable as Ze Plane of the television series when it was painted white. Ze Plane! Ze Plane! has at times been on display on the airshow circuit in the American Midwest, and was previously owned by the Ozarks Auto Show, Inc., a regional antique dealer, of Hollister, Missouri, and was stored in a hangar at the M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport near Branson, Missouri along with several other special interest aircraft. The plane was sold at the 38th annual Branson Collector Car Auction on April 16, 2016 to an undisclosed buyer for $275,000.
Cultural references
In 1992, Hervé Villechaize referenced his famous catchphrase in a Dunkin' Donuts commercial for mini-size doughnuts, where he requested "De plain! De plain! No, de cinammon! De cinnamon! No, de chocolate! De chocolate!" The phrase is also commonly used in many other contexts, such as articles about dwarfs and aircraft.
