# Magnum P. I. reboot **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 9, 2018, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287 "2018-03-09T16:21:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/21 "2018-03-09T23:03:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You misread his post. How do you figure? That post was about what would happen unless they cast a much older woman; I didn’t think the odds of that made it worth mentioning. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/22 "2018-03-09T23:22:20Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3p2dxc](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3p2dxc) Now who’s a Tom Selleck fan? Who? Who? _You?_ Yes, you are! You’re a big Tom Selleck fan! Wanna cookie? ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/23 "2018-03-09T23:24:12Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Now who’s a Tom Selleck fan? Who? Who? _You?_ Yes, you are! You’re a big Tom Selleck fan! Wanna cookie? Actually I’ve always admired Higgins. And those dogs. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/24 "2018-03-09T23:37:40Z")
I heard the lads are now the lasses, Hera and Artemis. Outrageous. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/25 "2018-03-10T00:08:02Z")
This seems like something that just doesn’t need a reboot, honestly. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/26 "2018-03-10T02:36:47Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > As for the remake, it’s possible it will work. But it’s a dice roll. There was nothing special about the idea of the original series. It was a success because of the people cast in it, especially Selleck and Hillerman. The same series with different actors could be a complete bomb. I heard they wanted Harrison Ford as Magnum, but he was committed to a movie shooting in Indiana or something. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/27 "2018-03-10T03:08:56Z")
The original series is on late at night on AMI TV, channel 888 on my provider. It’s narrated for the visually impared. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/28 "2018-03-10T03:35:51Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3p2dxc](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3p2dxc) Rocky! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/29 "2018-03-10T04:35:47Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The original series is on late at night on AMI TV, channel 888 on my provider. It’s narrated for the visually impared. It’s also on COZI TV on Sunday nights if you get that one. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/30 "2018-03-10T06:19:34Z")
I would argue that the original hugely jumped the shark when the got into the whole “Michelle” thing. Lame. Not to mention the final episode. > [@zbuzz](#): > > I heard the lads are now the lasses, Hera and Artemis. > > Outrageous. _“Oh My Ghawd!”_ ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/31 "2018-03-10T08:05:09Z")
> [@Temporary\_Name](#): > > I agree it would be very unlikely to live up to the original series, but it could work. > > I believe the essence of Thomas Magnum is that he is – rather can be a very formidable and competent individual who has a knack for goofing off and not taking things very seriously (until after the second commercial break at the earliest). He is valuable and loyal as a friend, and attracts and inspires loyalty from all his friends, whom are by-the-way often frustrated by his sophomoric and irresponsible manner of proceeding. He is a good natured, fun, and gifted companion—but when he is absent it is easy to resent the fact that he owes you fuel money and yet zooms around in an (adjusted for inflation) eighty-thousand dollar sports car with a borrowed high end camera/telescope/laptop computer/etc. in the passenger seat. How does this near-do-well, half assed security consultant keep sleepwalking through life and ending up on top of the world. I mean, I mean I work hard and pay my bills and take care of my business- and this guy keeps falling into buckets of shit and coming out smelling like roses. Of course, when things get serious I’ve got his back, and there is no one I would want by my side more than Thomas Magnum when I face trouble. … You should check out Selleck as Lance White on _The Rockford Files_: _Tom Selleck as Lance White, a successful private investigator with an uncynical approach to the business. Liked and admired by everyone but Jim, who considers him naive and lucky and likely to cause others to get hurt._ Sample quotes: Jim Rockford : [Referring to an unsolicited tip just received] It hasn’t occurred to you this is a trap? Lance White : [laughing] A trap? C’mon Jim, I doubt that. Jim Rockford : I can’t explain why you’re still walkin’ around. It’s not gonna last long. You’re naive, Lance, you really are! Ya hafta be cynical, you have to question things. You can’t take someone named “Belle LaBelle” on face value! What’s her angle, huh? Who’s payroll is she on? You find out the answers to those things and then you start moving fast and crooked. You go through door sideways and low, at odd angles. You look for the Big Lie. Question everything! Lance White : [Blithely] I’m going up to Lake Malibu. Why don’t you come with me? Jim Rockford : [Appealing to heaven] They’ll kill 'im! … Lance White: Maybe we should forget about lunch and follow up a lead or something? Jim Rockford: Which lead did you have in mind, Lance? Lance White: We don’t have one, Jim. Jim Rockford: [laughing] Then I guess it would be hard to follow up then, huh? Lance White: C’mon, you and I both know that when you need a lead one always shows up. That’s the way it works. Jim Rockford: [Frustrated] No, it never just shows up, Lance. Never. Watch my lips: NEV - VER. Freddie Beamer: Hey guys, look at this. [He gives Rockford a picture] Jim Rockford: What’s that? Freddie Beamer: I found this last night with the Senator. It was in his hand. Jim Rockford: [Disbelievingly] Sure it was. Freddie Beamer: Yea, I put it in my pocket and forgot about it. Lance White: This could be the lead we’ve been waiting for, Jim. Jim Rockford: Wait, wait, wait a minute, let me get this straight. Ten seconds ago we had no leads, nothing, huh? Lance White: That’s right. Jim Rockford: And now Beamer pulls this picture of a band leader or something out of his pocket and says it was in the dead man’s hand, and then he tells us it’s been in his coat for 18 hours, and it shows up right now when we need it? Lance White: That’s exactly right, Jim. What’s the problem? Jim Rockford: Oh, no problem. No, no problem at all. I just want to get it straight. I may want to tell an analyst. [Turns and walks away] … Jim Rockford: A state senator and a bus driver? What’s the connection? Lance White: Some things you just have to accept. You know, this is just a hunch, Jim, but I think the bus driver had something on the senator. Maybe the senator was having an affair with the bus driver’s wife? Jim Rockford: And just where did that come from? Lance White: Hunches don’t come from any place, Jim, they’re just hunches. That’s how we solve our cases. We get hunches, they turn out to be right, and the case gets solved. Gee, I don’t know how you survive as a private investigator, Jim. You don’t seem to know any of this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Temporary\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Temporary\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temporary_Name)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/32 "2018-03-10T10:36:30Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > … > > You should check out Selleck as Lance White on _The Rockford Files_: > > _Tom Selleck as Lance White, a successful private investigator with an uncynical approach to the business. Liked and admired by everyone but Jim, who considers him naive and lucky and likely to cause others to get hurt._ > > Sample quotes: > (snip) Reading through those sample quotes, I heard the voices of Jim Garner and Tom Selleck as if they were audible clips. I kept wondering if Lance White wore exclusively shorts and aloha shirts. I had assumed I had seen every Rockford Files, but I don’t remember Lance White at all. Sure enough, there he is on IMDB for two episodes. From those few quotes Lance White seems similar to Magnum only in style, not in substance; easy going and full of smiles and boyhood charm, but genuinely clueless and beyond naïve. Lance gets by on luck and charm as there isn’t much beyond that when you dig deeper. Lance is an investigator for how children imagine the world. (Rockford was of course a private dick for the real world.) On the surface Thomas Magnum is all smiles and charm, but he has proven he is (or actually can be) competent and able—it is just that it requires dire situations to force him to show it. I always assumed Magnum was proud of his service—but a little frightened by it. That he spent his time in country and never had a damn thing to smile about there. That his discharge is the equivalent, to him, of an extended shore leave, let’s party! He always resents and fears having to be “on mission”. He wouldn’t even be a detective now except he fell into a job on a plush estate where he is rarely required to do anything other than the most basic security functions. Magnum is a happy go lucky juvenile because he doesn’t want to go back to being the stone cold badass he has to be to survive “the shit”. In that sense, Magnum is almost like a superhero trying to preserve his mild mannered cover identity. By day he is beer swilling paddle board man, but when evil shows its sinister intent—he can change into Viet-Man! A fatigue wearing jungle cat who always rescues the POW’s and protects Higgins and Robin Masters for truth, justice, and the Hawaiian way. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/33 "2018-03-10T12:53:05Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > I heard the lads are now the lasses, Hera and Artemis. Maybe TC and Rick will be gay lovers. Can’t get more _au courant_ than that. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/34 "2018-03-10T13:34:09Z")
> [@Temporary\_Name](#): > > From those few quotes Lance White seems similar to Magnum only in style, not in substance; easy going and full of smiles and boyhood charm, but genuinely clueless and beyond naïve. Lance gets by on luck and charm as there isn’t much beyond that when you dig deeper. Lance is an investigator for how children imagine the world. (Rockford was of course a private dick for the real world.) So you have seen it, then? It’s pretty much as you describe. Lance is perfect, it’s his only flaw. Clues fall into his lap. When he gets in a fight with some lowlife, he says “put up your fists!” When he gets shot, it’s just a flesh wound. He solves the case, gets the money, and the girl. Even Chapman likes him. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/35 "2018-03-10T13:41:09Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > It’s pretty much as you describe. Lance is perfect, it’s his only flaw. Clues fall into his lap. When he gets in a fight with some lowlife, he says “put up your fists!” Even better, apparently the only reason he wins that climax-of-the-episode fight is _because_ he says “put ‘em up” — causing his opponent to reflexively do so, and get clocked by the big guy, instead of sensibly pointing his weapon at him. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/36 "2018-03-10T13:53:26Z")
How many remember Tom Selleck in _ **Coma** _, with Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas? He was one of the people surgeon Richard Widmark murdered in order to harvest their organs. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/37 "2018-03-10T14:36:52Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Maybe Higgens can be a lesbian. That way we get the eye candy without turning this into Moonlighting. The real Magnum would get her to switch sides. 😉 I’m not seeing what’s so bad about the Higgins/Magnum dynamic being different. Different can be better, neutral, or worse. Sure, the odds of it being better are slim, but not impossible. The original show was OK, but it was of its time, so it make sense to mix things up a bit. I think the reboot of _BSG_ handled the switch of Starbuck’s gender pretty well. > [@terentii](#): > > Maybe TC and Rick will be gay lovers. Can’t get more au courant than that. Are you kidding? Gay is so 2010. We need one of them to be a trans man or woman! ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/38 "2018-03-10T15:03:33Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > How many remember Tom Selleck in _ **Coma** _, with Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas? > > He was one of the people surgeon Richard Widmark murdered in order to harvest their organs. I saw that a few times when I was a kid, and again just a few months ago. It was filmed around Boston. I found the building that was the Jefferson Institute in the movie; will have to swing by and look around one of these days. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/39 "2018-03-10T15:39:11Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Are you kidding? Gay is so 2010. We need one of them to be a trans man or woman! The trannie could be the wife. That would be inclusive and empowering all around. ---
**Author:** ![kbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287/40 "2018-03-10T17:57:46Z")
Once upon a time my husband looked a fair bit like Tom Selleck. I don’t need that memory spoiled by a reboot! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnum-p-i-reboot/810287.md?page=3)