The People vs. Orville Wright (7.21)

[IslandHopper]

By the way, if I'm reading the permits right on the Honolulu city web site, that house in the background in the upper left picture appears to have been built starting on January 8, 1987, and finishing July 15, 1988. (This episode aired on April 1, 1987, implying that the show took less than - say - three months from shooting to airtime.) Isn't the internet cool?!

RC,

It's difficult to tell for sure, but as you indicate, the house in the "background of the upper left corner" does not appear to be complete yet as we see it in the episode (1/8/87-7/15/1988). It does appear that the color of the roof is lighter than the others, which might indicate that the shingles are not yet on the roof, which would corroborate the information you have from the Honolulu city web site. Additionally, it appears that there is a guy kneeling on the roof as if he is working on it. Look for the telephone pole on the right which comes up behind the roof of the house, and you will see what looks like someone kneeling on the roof. Maybe I'm seeing things. Does anyone else see this? Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I believe I do remember someone on the roof suddenly looking in the direction of the camera when the Ferrari pulls into the complex. I remember this because it reminded me of the the female bystander who was peering out of the window in "Mr. White Death." If I remember correctly, this guy was doing the same thing, but it wasn't as obvious since he was farther away.

RC, this would provide further evidence that you have the correct complex...not that further verification is required, but you can never have too much evidence, right. Again, great work RC. I think you have a future in military intelligence shoud you so desire.

[rubber chicken]

Yeah, I should have included a bigger picture of the house construction. You can see the workman, and the house is still being framed - the inside of the attic is visible and the left back part of the roof doesn't have plywood sheeting down yet.



And I found the identity of the worker on the roof, his name is Michael Kalani and he worked for Mana Construction in 1987.








Just kidding! There are limits to what I can find out, hehe.

[J.J. Walters]

LOL! RC!

Too funny about the guy on the roof. As with the lady in "Mr. White Death" (a scene that just cracks me up every time I see it!), I get these visions of the "MPI Crew" flying into these filming locations like a tempest! Before anybody knows what's happening, the cameras are rolling! You could be out walking your dog when all of a sudden Tom Selleck is chasing somebody across the street! If someone's in the background, startled, looking at the camera, so be it. They need to get the footage pronto so they can hit the other dozen, or so, locations before sundown! What excitement it must have been to be working on a primarily "on location" show like MPI!

[rubber chicken]

I'm wishing now that I would have taken screenshots and made a collection of all the times people have been in the background reacting to the camera. In looking for locations like I do I've seen probably at least ten or so. Some really stand out, but others I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been inspecting the frames for location clues. I often crack up at what these people do. Like you said James, the crew must have tried to get around this as much as possible but I can just see them slapping their foreheads in frustration, or motioning frantically to people from behind the camera (while it's rolling) to get them to act normal and move on. I probably would have been one of those people to get in the way, hehe, it's the natural thing to do.

This episode has an awful lot of locations. I've found 18, all but a few quick driving shots if I remember correctly. Here's a few more in addition to Rick's condo and Icepick's (2nd) home.

Magnum & Rick get into the ambulance at the Yacht Harbor Tower of The Ilikai Waikiki Hotel.


The "Hawaii Metro Police" building seen in many episodes. In real life it's the Territorial Office Building (425 South King Street), built in 1926 and on the National Register of Historic Places. (article) - (full screen VR)


Frank Foley withdraws Icepick's money from "Monument Security Bank" in this building, the Davies Pacific Center (841 Bishop Street). There's four different outside locations within this block and the one to the NE where Magnum parks. The interior where the escalator is shown actually is the inside of this building, as the Dillingham Building can be seen as it should be seen through the windows to the southwest. There isn't a good shot of the outside, but here's Frank's car pulling up.


And here's where Rick is sent on gun charges - the Halawa Correctional Facility, high and medium security prison.

[J.J. Walters]

The "Hawaii Metro Police" building seen in many episodes. In real life it's the Territorial Office Building (425 South King Street), built in 1926 and on the National Register of Historic Places. (article) - (full screen VR)

Awesome! We finally have an ID on this location. It's used in many episodes, each time with a different address. Home of the Attorney General, heh.

Great work as usual RC!

[IslandHopper]

The "Hawaii Metro Police" building seen in many episodes. In real life it's the Territorial Office Building (425 South King Street), built in 1926 and on the National Register of Historic Places. (article) - (full screen VR)

Awesome! We finally have an ID on this location. It's used in many episodes, each time with a different address. Home of the Attorney General, heh.

Great work as usual RC!

As usual, great work RC. Thanks for finding and identifying this building. The confusing thing about this is that this is the building that I have seen in several other episodes, but the address of the building as depicted in the other episodes as well as this episode is clearly "465," not "425" as it is known today. I wonder if the building (Territorial Office Building) had a different address (465) when MPI was filming. I guess, it's possible that they changed the number from 425 to 465 while using the building in various episodes, but I find this hard to believe, since continuity was never very consistent during MPI, even during one episode, much less over the course of several years of episodes.

In this episode, the building is supposed to be the HAWAII METRO POLICE. As with all of the other episodes where I have seen this building, the address has always been 465.

Other episodes the building can be seen with the 465 address are:

1. "The Love That Lies" and the building is supposed to be the CIRCUIT COURT building. Address can be seen in the opening scene just after the title shot.

2. "A Little Bit Of Luck, A Little Bit of Grief" and the building is supposed to be the HAWAII METRO POLICE building as in "The People vs. Orville Wright." Address can be seen as Magnum and TC are exiting the building after their second time in jail.

3. "Luther Gillis: File #521" and the building is identified as KEKUANAOA.

[rubber chicken]

This is also something I was wondering about. Both the wiki page and the QTVR page lists the address as 425. However in the show it's seen as 465, and zooming in on the QTVR shows 465, which suggests that number has always been there and wasn't made to look different for the shows sake. So the number on the front of the building is 465 but it when it's listed elsewhere it's 425.

Perhaps sometime after it was built in 1926, another building was built near it necessitating an address change for this (and possibly other) and other nearby buildings. Does this happen? I wouldn't think so, but what do I know about the art of address creation?

Regarding the Kekuanaoa, the QTVR also shows that this word really is above the address on the building, and this is what was covered up for different Magnum P.I. episodes.



I went through Luther Gillis: File #521 (4.2) and it seems to me they didn't bother covering up "Kekuanaoa" because they had twice used a sign by the road reading "HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT" to establish the building, and later Magnum and Luther are shown coming out of the building from a distance. Even though "Kekuanaoa" can still be read, it's in the shadows and not very obvious.

I googled Kekuanaoa and found this page which reads:

Walking back down King Street, past the statue of Kamehameha I, you come to the Territorial Office Building which is also known as the Kekuanaoa Building after Mataio Kekuanaoa, the father of Princess Ruth Keelikolani, great-granddaughter of Kamehameha I.

As far as I've seen though they always manage to keep the "Territorial Office Building" (on the face of the building above the arch) out of the frame or obscured by trees etc.

[J.J. Walters]

I'm sorry, I meant to say "different name", not "different address". As IH says, the address is always the same (465).

I'm definitely going to stop by this spot whenever I make it back to Oahu. This is sacred Magnum ground here.

[J.J. Walters]

So the number on the front of the building is 465 but it when it's listed elsewhere it's 425.

Unless you need to send a letter to the Ombudsman's Office, then the address is 465! LOL!

http://starbulletin.com/2005/03/01/news/kokualine.html
http://www.ombudsman.hawaii.gov/contact_us.htm

How bizarre, this place seems to have two different street address numbers!

[rubber chicken]

Ahh, I see. The Office of the Ombudsman must be pretty special to have their address in such a prominent spot!

[lutherhgillis]

I did not like this one. It just felt wrong. It was like the MPI characters were playing roles in another show. There was no magic.

I usually overlook small flubs and flaws knowing that is just the way it goes when a TV show is made but the thing about the choppers having totally different reg numbers in such a prominent location is a little too careless for a show that did a decent job in keeping that kind of think at a minimum.

[Coops]

I have to say I laughed out loud when TM and TC were in the chopper chasing the accountant and TM spots the car and hands TC his binoculars. TC then tells TM to "Take the stick." and TM has to reach down to get it and makes an ugly face. THAT was one of the funniest things I've ever seen in MPI.

[SelleckLover]

I think the funniest thing I've seen is in Tropical Madness when Magnum is standing by the Ferrari in his under shorts and says he was being followed by a sumo wrestler and a midget or a dwarf.

Higgins' response is classic Higgins: "What? No Chinese Acrobats, bearded ladies?" Or something to that effect...I crack up laughing every time!

[Rutledal]

I couldn't find anything about this on the site, so here goes. I'm not 100% sure here, but I do believe that this is the only episode where Rick's full name is revealed: Orville Wilbur Wright. While he is often referred to as Orville by T.C I think this is the only time his middle name is given as Wilbur.

[Doc Ibold]

Hmmmm... you may be right, but for some reason I think that there may be another one out there...

Lemme marinate on this one for awhile.