Magnum Mania!

I don't get it either. Was his death even mentioned again? I think Higgins may have mentioned it once, but I'm not sure. If they had to kill him off, I think he deserved a two part final episode. I wish he had had a bigger part throughout the series, honestly.

Steve wrote:The only thing I really hated was the killing off of Lt. Tanaka. It made no sense unless they were going to have an ongoing revenge story line ala Michell and that would have been hard to do as there were only eight episodes left in the series............

Hi Steve,
I agree with you 100% about Tanaka, besides he was a fun character and the actor made him anything but run of the mill. If they had to knock off a secondary character, why couldnt it have been Agatha? A dithering dingbat, I could never figure out how a man of the world such as Higgins would have her for perhaps his closest friend, much less not be aware she wanted to make a little mattress music with him. Would it have been so bad if some dark night the Lads had mistaken her for a prowler and buried her on the beach? Good doggies, here's some milk bones for you both.
Back to Tanaka, my friend Hong complains there are so few Asians on tv, much less authority figures that he was upset that Detectives Tanaka on Magnum and Yamano on Barney Miller both died on their respective shows.
Though to be fair actor Jack Soo - Yamano - died during Barney Miller's run. Besides Hawaii 5-0, both versions, and Lost, I can't think of too many Asians on tv.
When I was growing up there was only McHales Navy's Fuji and Bonanza's Hop Sing played by Victor Sen Yung, though with dignity.
Ironically, Sen-Yung, limited to pigeon English on his show, was a scholar who spoke many languages and heroically helped FBI agents when they stormed a hijacked plane he was on, getting wounded in the process.

"Oh Jonathon"...Agatha Yeech

LOL! Great stuff guys!

There's not a whole lot I don't like about the show (no surprise there). One of the things I disliked was their stubborn insistence (through cutaways and camera trickery) that the guest house (Magnum's pad) was located behind the main house of the estate. This created all sorts of confusing scenes with Magnum coming and going all over the estate in seemingly random patterns. They abandoned this at some point later in the series. I didn't like any of it.

Let's see, what else.... Hmm. The only other thing I can think of is some of the outfits that Magnum wore later in the series. Some of them were truly dreadful... like this one! I know it's the 80's and all, but come on! I don't like it at all!

They should have reserved the shorts for athletic or beach scenes. I know in the 80s it wasn't the fashion faux pas that it is today, but still - there's really no excuse for a man to wear shorter shorts than Erin Gray:

marlboro wrote:They should have reserved the shorts for athletic or beach scenes. I know in the 80s it wasn't the fashion faux pas that it is today, but still - there's really no excuse for a man to wear shorter shorts than Erin Gray:

That's why he's Tom Selleck and we aren't.



Things I don't like..
New Mac and why they kept him around. I assume because Jeff McKay was part of Bellisarios "troupe" of actors and the failure of ToTGM and needed a gig.
Along with James.. Pastel Magnum in later seasons.
Magnums family in Resolutions, I felt half of the finale was devoted to people we only met once. We may as well have ended with him tracking down the LaSalle sisters from Limited Engagement.
TC's sudden family... Although I suppose that's from REM's stance on portraying a positive black role model.. Which I respect. Missing Melody was a good episode, though.

Jeff McKay probably made more appearance on the show after his character died than he did before "Did you see the sunrise." The way they brought him back was absolutely ridiculous. What makes it worse is that the "Bonnick" character was awful. Stuart Margolin can play that type of character. Jeff MacKay couldn't.

I think they should have used him in flashback and fantasy episodes. That would have worked, I believe.

marlboro wrote:I'm sure we're all big fans of Magnum, but who doesn't like to nitpick, right? A few minor things that I didn't like

Psychic powers.

Coulda done without this theme, ok in horror but didn't work for me on MPI.

Supernatural elements.

Same as above, didn't work (for me) on MPI.

Cute kids.

Cute kids are, well, cute, what's the problem

Sports themed episodes.

A good majority of people like sports, didn't mind it.

Only one J. "Digger" Doyle appearance.

Would need to rewatch to have an opinion.

Carol Baldwin.

I didn't mind her, saw her as a woman who wanted to be more independant but more times than not she really needed TSM, even moreso as a friend.

Magnum being childish.

Yeah, he was, childish, selfish, likable and unlikeable all wrapped in to one interesting guy.

Magnum being forced to grow up/wearing giant reading glasses.

He did need to grow up, he had a lot of flaws. I laughed at those glasses, made me chuckle.

Magnum's family.

They were in so few episodes I didn't give it much thought.

T.C. becoming a saint.

I saw him as the more stable character, don't know anything about being a saint. I do wish RM was a bit more of a character actor, TC didn't pull off some of the NOIR episodes like Murder by Night - which I liked.

Mac.

Yeah, the dual role by McKay was disjointed for me.

Magnum being forced to team up with annoying female characters.

I didn't mind em, Carol Burnett being one of my favs, and some were nice to look at

Killing Magnum/Resurrecting him/Final Episode

Spoiler Alert!

I had forgotten about this. I'm watching the series on Esquire now, first time in many years so much of it is (sorta) new.

I don't share the views that some do of the 80s, the military, or the Reagan admin. I am proud to have been associated with all 3.

TV is mostly (for me) something you watch for fun, and unless it gets too preachy (politics, morals, world view, sexuality, etc) I try to give a pass for it's many foibles. There are/have been many shows that go out of their way to indoctrinate - nearly EVERYTHING on today, MPI didn't do this IMO.

Oh, the one thing that I really disliked, and I mean really wished they'd thought about is - those waaay tooo shooort shorts.

Two more nitpicks:

1) Inappropriate epilogs. It didn't happen that often, but occasionally the show would have brief humorous scenes added to the end of downbeat episodes. "Distant Relative" "China Doll" etc. There are countless examples of tv shows adding "filler" scenes (The Wild Wild West nearly always had these epilog scenes" so I can't really criticize them for it. It's usually better than adding "padded" scenes in the middle of the story imo. It's just that i wish those epilogs fit the overall tone of the story that preceded it a bit better.

2) Ice Pick. I don't think they should have ever shown him on camera. It ruins his mystique to reveal him as a frail, friendly old man.

On the "characters" page here at MM, it says His real name is Francis Hofstetler. He is Rick's stepfather (although this is not revealed until late in the series' run). Is that right? I don't remember that episode.

I don't believe he was Rick's stepfather?

In the episode showing the death of Rick's parents, Icepick comes in to offer his condolences and make it known he'll always be there for Rick and his little sister, but I don't recall it ever being brought up that he became his step father.

mostly the black & white episodes....

marlboro wrote:I'm sure we're all big fans of Magnum, but who doesn't like to nitpick, right?

A few minor things that I didn't like

Psychic powers. I have no idea why they would introduce this angle to the show. I've always disliked the idea of psychic detectives. Why bother with deductive reasoning when you can just have a serendipitous psychic flash? I have no problem with the "little voice" aka a "hunch" but I draw the line at him Magnum seeing into the future and knowing that Sharon Stone is about to be attacked by a dog. I also hated how random it was. You would think that periodically having psychic abilities would be something that would have a big impact on a character, but on this show it would pop up for one episode every season or two and would never be mentioned again.


Supernatural elements.

Ghosts, kahunas, and whatever the heck that was going on in "Flashback." This stuff would have been fine on Kolchak or the X-Files, but it always seemed extremely out of place in this show.

I love the supernatural/magical/mysterious aspects. I believe there's "something more" out there that is beyond our senses and reason to know/understand. Not sure what that is necessarily, but I've always known its there, so I enjoy such themes in entertainment.

As far as the Echos of the Mind episode, Magnum did not know (or see) what was happening to Diane (dog attack) he just had a feeling that something bad was about to happen. Its not far fetched when Diane had already told him she felt she was in danger. It could have been as much a subconsciously reasoned guess which turned out to be right (even though a coincidence) as much as anything supernatural. Or it could have been something more. Who really knows.

I'm curious, have you not had such a feeling or sense about someone you cared for? You just had a feeling they needed your help and it turned out they did? Many times, we pick up on subconscious clues and don't even realize it.

I personally tend to put Death and Taxes in a similar category with some of the other mysterious type plots. I guess now that I think about it is wasn't supernatural, but it was spooky and had a similar vibe.

I'm a fairly skeptical person. Not a big believer in psychics/ghosts/supernatural stuff. I don't even like it when Higgins uses hypnotism.

I don't mind psychic or supernatural stuff in shows like the X-Files, but I don't like seeing it in "real world" shows like Magnum.

marlboro wrote:I'm a fairly skeptical person. Not a big believer in psychics/ghosts/supernatural stuff. I don't even like it when Higgins uses hypnotism.

I don't mind psychic or supernatural stuff in shows like the X-Files, but I don't like seeing it in "real world" shows like Magnum.

Fair enough. a lot of people don't. Maybe that's why I like seasons 5-7 (with some exceptions) and others don't.

Dave Anderson wrote:

marlboro wrote:I'm sure we're all big fans of Magnum, but who doesn't like to nitpick, right?

A few minor things that I didn't like

Psychic powers. I have no idea why they would introduce this angle to the show. I've always disliked the idea of psychic detectives. Why bother with deductive reasoning when you can just have a serendipitous psychic flash? I have no problem with the "little voice" aka a "hunch" but I draw the line at him Magnum seeing into the future and knowing that Sharon Stone is about to be attacked by a dog. I also hated how random it was. You would think that periodically having psychic abilities would be something that would have a big impact on a character, but on this show it would pop up for one episode every season or two and would never be mentioned again.


Supernatural elements.

Ghosts, kahunas, and whatever the heck that was going on in "Flashback." This stuff would have been fine on Kolchak or the X-Files, but it always seemed extremely out of place in this show.

I love the supernatural/magical/mysterious aspects. I believe there's "something more" out there that is beyond our senses and reason to know/understand. Not sure what that is necessarily, but I've always known its there, so I enjoy such themes in entertainment.

As far as the Echos of the Mind episode, Magnum did not know (or see) what was happening to Diane (dog attack) he just had a feeling that something bad was about to happen. Its not far fetched when Diane had already told him she felt she was in danger. It could have been as much a subconsciously reasoned guess which turned out to be right (even though a coincidence) as much as anything supernatural. Or it could have been something more. Who really knows.

I'm curious, have you not had such a feeling or sense about someone you cared for? You just had a feeling they needed your help and it turned out they did? Many times, we pick up on subconscious clues and don't even realize it.

I personally tend to put Death and Taxes in a similar category with some of the other mysterious type plots. I guess now that I think about it is wasn't supernatural, but it was spooky and had a similar vibe.

I agree with you. I thought it added depth and if anything more realism to the character. A lot of people have "feelings". More than just a little voice. Maybe because I grew up around people who would be considered "sensitive" to those things, not in a card reading on a folding table kind of way, just more of an acceptance that there's more out there and being open to it.

Heck, I have see a ghost or two in the past and have some "unexplained phenomena" stories as well. I thought it was one of the more interesting things about TM that made him more than lucky.