Magnum P.I.

Cafe Society
1

Any Doper Magnum fans out there?

I recently obtained the Season 1 and Season 2 DVDs and I’ve been having a blast watching the shows again. I grew up watching the show as a kid/teenager during it’s initial run, but I hadn’t seen it since.

I remember now why I liked the show so much: Great characters, great setting, great stories, best mixture of drama/action/comedy of any show ever! The show, unlike most of the other 80’s shows, holds up very well today. And it’s one of the few shows to never jump the shark!

Thomas Magnum. God, who wouldn’t just kill to be that guy in real life. Hangin’ in the guest house of a beautiful, hawaiian, oceanside mansion. Daily dips in the tidal pool. Keys to a Ferrari 308 GTS. Endless supply of beer in the fridge. Endless adventures chasing bad guys. Endless parade of beautiful women. And the two best buddies (war buddies no less) any guy could ask for. :wink:

Watching the show just brings a warm smile to my face.

Anyway, I have a couple of questions:

  1. Is there a general consensus regarding the Higgins/Robin Masters debate?

  2. The episode where Magnum kills Ivan, what is the season/episode name?

  3. What was T.C.'s parting story? I remember what happened to Magnum, Rick, and Higgy Baby, but I can’t for the life of me remember what happened to T.C.

  4. What was Higgin’s rank in the military? And he is a Baron, yes?

and a quick poll:

1a) What was your favorite episode or episodes?

Of the ones that I remember, Home From The Sea, the episode where Magnum has to tread water for two days, always comes to mind. Memories Are Forever from Season 2 is also really, really good. And who can forget Paper War. Great stuff!

2a) Favorite quotes?

Magnum: "Don’t look at the dogs, work the lock! Don’t look at the dogs!.. YOU LOOKED AT THE DOGS!!"

Higgins: "And no ice. I’m not a bloody American." :smiley:

Also, if anyone has any interesting bits of Magnum trivia please feel free to share.

Thanks

2

General consensus is “maybe”. In one episode, Higgins confesses to being Robin. At the end of that episode however, he says “I lied.”
I seem to remember one episode in which some socialite claims to have visited the Masters estate with her father and to have seen Higgins and Masters playing chess. Of course, Higgins could have hired an actor to play Robin, so it’s not completely conclusive.

Regimental Sergeant Major. He could have been a commissioned officer, but chose to serve in the ranks.

Definitely a Peer. I don’t remember the rank. This was a plot point in the episode where he almost got married.

Any of the ones involving Higgins’ half-brothers. And the excuses Higgins kept making for his father’s infidelities. :slight_smile:

“Hey, Ivan. Did you see the sunrise this morning?”

3

Higgins: “Oh. My. God!”
Cowboy: “Hey, nobody from Texas talks like that!”

4

Thomas: “Hey, Higgins! Guess what?”

5

Man, do I ever love this show. I didn’t see a whole lot of it as a kid, but I’ve been borrowing a friend’s DVDs and boy have I ever had a great time!

I was under the impression that Orson Welles was supposed to play Robin Masters in a later season, but then he died. Is that not the case?

6

Really not having much to do with the show itself, but as a small child living in California when the show was at it’s heyday I thought this was the greatest show of all time. I made my mom buy me a Tigers hat, which I wore all the damned time. To top it off I also made her buy me a little cheapo plastic wallet, into which in put a sticker I had gotten somewhere that had Thomas Magnum’s picture on it. I told everyone that it was my “drivers license.”

7

So, firstly you know season 3 is now out on DVD? It just came out this month. I’ve been watching the episodes in a fairly random order.

Yes, I definitely was a fan of the show in the past, and am enjoying watching it again. A fair amount of it during the first run, I will confess, had to do with Tom Selleck making my teenage girl heart flutter just a wee bit. Okay, maybe a lot. And really, he still can.

  1. I think the episode you’re talking about is “Did You See the Sun Rise”. If you’ll recall it’s the last thing Magnum says to Ivan before he kills him, because Mac was blown up in the car bomb when he wanted to go watch the sunrise. It’s the first episode in season 3. Since I’m watching out of order, I haven’t watched that one yet.

  2. TC’s parting story. I think it had something to do with getting back together with his ex and kids who lived in California. I have a fuzzy memory about it, but that is what I’m dredging up.

From the entire run of the series, I liked the middle seasons the best. The actors seemed comfortable in their characters, the show’s tone lightened up quite a lot, and they did a lot of comedic moments mixed in with the seriousness. That said, I liked the episode where he was stranded at sea as well, along with episodes when he went back to Virginia, the one where Magnum “died” and then came back, and from a silliness point of view, the one where there was an armed robbery at the King Kamehameha Club where the robbers were dressed as, I think, a pig and a rabbit, and the story was retold from the viewpoints of Rick, TC and Higgins. It was quite funny.

Zsofia, Orson Welles did play the voice of Robin Masters in a few episodes, four, according to IMDb.

Trivia, well it’s not exactly Magnum trivia per se, but this past weekend I watched one episode from season 3, Mixed Doubles, which featured Kim Richards in her late teens. Kim Richards was a mostly Disney child actor who played, as I recalled her best, Tia in Escape to Witch Mountain. I liked the book and movie a lot. Anyway, she was a a couple of years younger than Jodie Foster so seemed to be taking over those type of roles as Jodie Foster was growing up. So, after seeing her in Magnum this weekend, I went to IMDb to see what had become of little Kim Richards. The most interesting (as in kinda weird) thing I found out is that she is Paris Hilton’s and Nicky Hilton’s aunt. Her older sister who had done a little bit of acting as well grew up to marry into the Hilton family. Gah. If I were her, I’d prefer to be known for Escape to Witch Mountain.

8

I loved that show! IMHO Higgins wasn’t Robin Masters. Robin Masters was portrayed by the back of Orson Welles’ head. :smiley:

My favorite quote comes when Rick was running license plates and one came back as being registered to “Some guy name McGarrett.”

9

Higgins was supposed to be English? Why did he have an American accent then? :wink:

10

I vividly remember the Home From the Sea episode as well. So well, in fact, I remember what I was donig when I first saw it. I was at a sleepover at a friends house. My parents considered Magnum to violent for me at the time so I didn’t watch it in those early seasons. But the local CBS affliate at the time ran Magnum episodes after the late local news, so when I saw this episode, my friend and I were well into up-past-our-bedtime, watching forbidden fruit (my friends house didn’t have cable, so Magnum was as forbidden as we could hope for) euphoria. Pretty emotional episode, even for an 8/9/10 year old. I’d still think twice about doing any solo open ocean rowing because of this episode… :smiley:

I also well remember Limbo, the episode that was meant to be the series finale. By that time, Magnum was a well ingrained weekly tradition and I was very bummed that it was ending, especially with them apparently killing off our hero.

11

Best quote?

From when Higgins was courting the young English lady. Magnum was suspicious, and Higgins tossed Magnum off the estate (after slugging him).

That night Higgins is expecting his lady to arrive and is practicing his opening line.

“My dear, you look ravishing. A little champagne?” After getting it just right he takes a puff of his cigarette and announces “Charles Boyet, the torch has passed.”

At that time T.C. rings for entry at the gate. Higgins, thinking it is his woman, lets him in. When T.C. knocks at the front door he is greeted by the best “OH MY GOD!!!” ever!

T.C then distracts Higgins by asking about all of his stuff that TM might still have in the guest house. Just then Higgins’ woman knocks at the door and Higgins greets her with his practiced line - except his voice cracks in about three places.

As Higgins stands there with a frozen smile on his face and a clueless woman at the front door TC leaves, telling him “Higgy baby you better see a doctor, it sounds like you’re coming DOWN with something.”

I laugh every time I see that scene!

12

It’s my favorite show ever. Ever!

I always wanted a rubber chicken.

I remember the shock when Mac died. I bawled.

13

For me, the best part about the series was that I was living in Hawai’i at the time they were wrapping up the series. Nothing like watching an episode and going “Hey, they’re going the wrong way to Chinatown… that way will take them all the way around the island!” or “Since when is Castle Medical Center on the water?”, etc. (Yes, I do the same thing to Hawai’i Five-O.)

And here is where the house really is in Waimanalo.

A random tid-bit: my English teacher was fond of showing off a picture of her husband. The picture was of Tom Selleck, front and center, and standing just behind him and to the side was a police officer. And yes, her husband was the police officer. :smiley:

<< The big advantage of a light saber is that you can both cut and toast a bagel in ne stroke. >>

14

Interesting bits of Magnum trivia?

How about the fact that Quantum Leap was going to do a crossover, with Sam leaping into Magnum? Apparently the plans were canceled when a Magnum P.I. movie started development, but they did film the “leaping in” (oh boy) bit.

15

I saw an episode being filmed in the Summer of 1986. It was awesome to see that for an 11 year old from rural Alabama.

It was the Jack the Ripper episode.

16

Thanks

No, I didn’t realize that Season 3 was out! Must. Order. It.

Ah, “Did You See The Sun Rise?” That’s it. I remember the line. Mac died in the opening episode of Season 3?? Whoa, that surprises me. I would have bet anything that he died much, much later in the series.

T.C. had an ex and kids?? I don’t remember that at all. Clearly, I’ve missed more than I thought.

Well he’s been living on Oahu for quite some time. It’s a special blend of English, American, Hawaiian, and Japanese. :wink:

Hehe

Hey, thanks for that great pic of Robin’s Nest! This page has some really good pics as well.

Oh, that would have been soooo awesome! I really liked the Simon & Simon and Murder, She Wrote crossovers.

Another question:

The episode where Magnum is trapped under a plane, what is the name of that episode? What did he name the spider that he was talking to?

I watched The Ugliest Dog In Hawaii last night. Fun episode. There was an exchange in there that just cracked me up. An old mafia guy and his nephews are chasing Magnum and his client through a bannana field, when they come under fire from two men. One of nephews notices some strange plants around them:

*Old Mafia Guy: We must have stumbled upon their moonshine. There must be a still around here.

Nephew #1: There’s no moonshine, it’s weed! We must have stumbled upon their grass patch!

Old Mafia Guy: Why would they be growing grass in a bannana field?*

Heh, not quite sure why, but I laughed my a$$ off at that! :slight_smile:

No other show but Magnum folks. :wink:

17

I was just thinking about that treading-water episode the other day, and it made me cry in my car! Him talking to his dad and all… And it could have been so cheesy to have the whole crowd have that “Timmy fell down the well” psychic moment, but it just wasn’t.

As a kid watching the show, imagine my horror seeing John Hillerman in Blazing Saddles and realizing that he wasn’t British! :wink:

I love Tom Selleck. His Richard was the best thing about Friends. He also spent a bit of time playing with the US Olympic volleyball team, and would of course work out every spring with the Tigers.

18

Since Magnum PI, the only work of Selleck’s I have enjoyed has been his role on Friends.

He makes a lot of TV movies or Westerns that really do not interest me.

However, every time one comes on, I check the ratings or the reviews to see how it is doing because I like Tom Selleck.

The cool thing is, a Tom Selleck Movie of the Week still does pretty good ratings.

19

I loved his Louis Lamour western movies with Sam Elliot. I’m also a huge Sam Elliot fan. The thing I liked about Magnum were the little surprises. At the time a PI/crime show would generally be self contained one hour episodes. Although there wasn’t really a story arc they didn’t forget about what happened before. Those little call backs to other episodes made it special.

20

I became a Tom Selleck fan through Magnum and through seeing him on Late Night with David Letterman. Once he came on Dave’s show and said he was going to do his motorboat impersonation, and then he stuck his face in a tub of water and blew bubbles furiously. Other time he came on with his own short film, which depicted his life while Magnum was a hit and what it became after The Cosby Show came on and dominated his time slot. While Magnum was a hit he had a chauffer driven limo, network suits at his beck and call, and women swooning at his feet. After Cosby came on Selleck had to take the bus to work, show 3 forms of I.D. to get onto the studio lot, and then sweep up after everyone else had gone home.