Kona resort has starring role in ABC series pilot

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Kona Village Resort — fresh from its role in the ABC romance reality TV show "The Bachelor" — will star this summer as the backdrop for another reality show, this time on ABC's cable sibling, ABC Family channel.

"The Last Resort" will be telecast as a pilot of five half-hour episodes over consecutive weeknights in August. (Dates have yet to be announced.)

Big Island film commissioner Marilyn Killeri said she's excited about the show's prospects for being picked up for a full year, a move that could bring millions of dollars to the island's economy. She said the producers hired nearly all of their crew locally.

"We're looking forward to it taking off,'' she said.

The Buena Vista Productions show follows four couples on the brink of separation as they work with life coaches in an atmosphere free of everyday distractions and responsibilities. The couples must decide by the final episode whether to stay together.

The 82-acre beachfront Kona Village Resort, with its 125 individual private thatched cottages that are free of televisions, radios, telephones and clocks, bills itself as Hawai'i's most Polynesian resort.

While only one segment of "The Bachelor'' was shot at the Kona Village Resort, almost all of "The Last Resort'' was filmed there during shooting last October.

The series was produced by Fisher Entertainment in association with Wheeler/Sussman Productions ("Singled Out''), and executive producers Sharon Sussman, Burt Wheeler, Alan Winters and Mark Stendal.

When ABC Family picked up the show, it represented the first programming order of new network president Angela Shapiro, who also is president of ABC Daytime and former president of Buena Vista Productions. At one point last year, "The Last Resort" was under consideration for a slot on ABC Daytime, which Shapiro continues to head until a replacement is found.