I actually had Magnum in mind when I was talking about the damsels in distress, although you’re absolutely right about MacGyver as well.
Magnum was Tom Selleck at his heartthrob peak, set in Hawaii, and as a result, had a lot of beautiful women in hot weather clothes/swimsuits, and Thomas Magnum and his mustache as the irresistible private investigator.
Of course, part of the joke was that he wasn’t superhuman and screwed up a lot and got beat up a lot relative to the typical heartthrob action hero archetype. But even the non damsels in distress had a very 80s “isn’t that cute, she’s a strong woman” vibe about them. They weren’t played as competent equals; more like pretty curiosities.
Now that you say that, I’m thinking of Erin Grey’s character from “J Digger Doyle”. She was competent, but somewhat uncharacteristically, Magnum was hostile to her. It helps excuse some of it when you realize the episode was a failed back-door pilot.
It seems obvious that the show was built around Mr T. But, even when it was current, I always though he was the worst of the four. Peppard was, as always, great, Benedict was fresh off BSG and I was surprised how good he could be, and Dwight Schultz was a lucky find of someone who was a way better actor than you’d think, given a character where his skills could shine. Mr T was completely out of place, like they took some over the top character, with all these personality quirks, from a Saturday morning animated show, and made him real. You really couldn’t take him seriously. Dude, lose the chains! And if you’re trying to hide from the Army, lose the distinctive haircut. Still, the guy was a genius with a torch and welder. “Let’s turn this farm tractor into a rocket powered tank.” OK!
I used to watch the show for a weekly dose of gratuitous butt-kicking of deserving people, but after a while the sheer number of bullets that went now where got to be annoying. That, and the standard “ramp jump with a half-twist” in every episode became overdone. If you saw the bad guys driving a jeep with a really heavy duty roll cage, you know it would twist before the show was over. And no one ever got even a scratch.
eta: do you all remember that they had a reporter lady that would tag along and find them jobs, or something? They eventually ditched her as an unnecessary fifth wheel. But the switch to them working for Robert Vaughn was stupid in a whole different way. He was sort of the action-show Cousin Oliver.
Tangent: You know what would have been great? A Ghostwriter/Ghostbusters crossover (they’re both set in NYC, after all). Presumably something with a haunting at a library? Bonus points if you can work Ghostbusters’ librarian ghost in there.
Try to watch Selleck’s two guest appearances on The Rockford Files. He plays exactly the heartthrob action hero; everybody loves him, things always go his way, and it drives Jim nuts. I think that’s what led to him being cast as Magnum.
Yeah, come to think of it, the whole Magnum getting beat up and messing up is very similar to Jim Rockford in the sense of neither was a archetypical action hero. I was always a bit young for The Rockford Files, so I sporadically watched it in re-runs, much like I did Hawaii Five-O.
Magnum PI on the other hand, was right in my wheelhouse as a nine through fifteen year old boy. Hawaii, beautiful women, gangsters, action, a funny and human protagonist- it had it all from my perspective back then.
I vaguely remember we watched (some of) that at school when I was about 10 years old. I was very chuffed to work out what THABTO stood for before it was revealed on the programme. I was easily pleased back then.