... By Its Cover (3.21)

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Who would turn the other cheek and give it a pass again and again after getting lied to repeatedly???

I liked this episode. I am a fan of the Rockford Files and Stuart Margolin was absolutely brilliant as Angel Martin.
"...By Its Cover" would have been a golden opportunity for a Magnum/Rockford crossover. I would have loved to have seen the Rod Crysler/Nam buddy character rewritten as Angel Martin visiting Hawaii with a cameo of Jim Rockford popping up at the end to deliver the "Rod/Angel doesn't have a son" line.
p.s. I assume most Magnum fans are fans of the Rockford Files, but if anyone out there hasn't checked it out, be sure to do so. And if anyone is a big fan of "...By Its Cover" be sure to check out the RF episodes Chicken Little is a Little Chicken, Backlash of the Hunter, and Counter Gambit - they all feature Stuart Margolin at his best.

Hi Marlboro,
Excellent post, the response to the query of who would repeatedly be taken in by Rod, and you posting Rockford's photo made me laugh.
When I watched this episode I assumed Margolin's character was supposed to be a wink to his Emmy winning Angel Martin role.
I suspect the problem in any Rockford-Magnum crossover would have been they would have had to give a piece of the action to Rockford creator/producer Roy Huggins, a man infamous for glomming every penny he could any way he could.
He was a genius but was burnt early in his career by Warner Brothers policy of taking a reworked plot from one of it's old movies to be used as the pilot for any of their
new tv series. So Huggins could invent/create almost everything about the Maverick tv series, but by using a old movie plot for the ("based on") pilot Warners could deny the credit of 'created by' to the writer and cheat him out of big bucks.
A bitter Huggins from then on would demand huge bucks for any use of anything he created, and that would pertain to a no brainer gotta be a winner Magnum crossover, he'd likely charge so much Universal wouldnt even bother trying. Huggins was shameless, recycling whole scenes almost word for word from scripts that he did for Maverick and The Virginian for his Alias Smith & Jones on ABC. When it comes down to it, Rockford was Maverick updated to the 20th century.
I hope I am not off on a tangent here, just want to make everyone aware of what a sewer Hollywood really is, and how that fact probably affects chances of the public seeing a 21st century Magnum movie/series. Do any of you guys know who actually owns the creative rights to Magnum, be it the studio, Selleck, the creator or maybe the rights were sold off long ago?

[marlboro]

You are right about Warner Brothers screwing Huggins out of his creators rights on Maverick by airing an episode based on an old movie script as the pilot. What you may not know is that Huggins actually wrote that script, but it was based on a novel that WB had bought the rights to. WB took Huggins script for the second episode, ran it as the pilot ,and claimed that he wasn't the shows creator since it was "based on" a property that they already owned.

They did something even shadier with Huggins' "77 Sunset Strip." They took the pilot episode and screened it at a handful of theaters in the Caribbean before broadcasting it on American television. Which is all they need to do to claim that Huggins didn't create the show, since it was "based on" a movie.

All of this to save $500.00 dollars per episode.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

You are right about Warner Brothers screwing Huggins out of his creators rights on Maverick by airing an episode based on an old movie script as the pilot. What you may not know is that Huggins actually wrote that script, but it was based on a novel that WB had bought the rights to. WB took Huggins script for the second episode, ran it as the pilot ,and claimed that he wasn't the shows creator since it was "based on" a property that they already owned.
They did something even shadier with Huggins' "77 Sunset Strip." They took the pilot episode and screened it at a handful of theaters in the Caribbean before broadcasting it on American television. Which is all they need to do to claim that Huggins didn't create the show, since it was "based on" a movie. All of this to save $500.00 dollars per episode.

Hi Marlboro,
Wow, neat stuff. Maybe the element of being a con man who shears the rotten businessman who cheated folks, shared not just by Maverick and Rockford but other characters Huggins created, is based on Huggins himself. It's hard to blame him for getting even whenever he could.
Universal's reputation is even worse than Warner Brothers, they literally were racketeering when it came to cheating people out of money, till they ran up against probably the toughest SOB in Hollywood in Korean war combat vet James Garner.
He fought these thieves on a point of honor,a concept Hollywood has a problem understanding.
They settled out of court for their cheating him out of Rockford profits, savy people claim he got at least $40 million right as the trial was going to start, as he could have literally sent many of the biggest behind the scenes names in Hollywood to prison. If Seinfeld has made way over a billion the past 20 years, Rockford has to have generated half of that if not a lot more so 40 million was likely a bargain.
I think this matters in relation to Magnum PI being remade, as the books would be revisited in determining how to share the profits of a new series or movie. The studio may prefer not to have any light shown on what it previously claimed it owed Selleck etc.

[marlboro]

When the parole officer misrecognized TM, she says (paraphrasing): "you look like the bunco type."


Tom Selleck and Robert Urich starred in the failed tv pilot "Bunco" in 1977. Just a coincidence, probably, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

p.s. is "misrecognized" not a word? My spellchecker says it isn't.

[308GUY]

p.s. is "misrecognized" not a word? My spellchecker says it isn't.

It is now! ....although I think the grammatically correct version would be..."mistook TM for" or "incorrectly indentified TM as" or something else that wouldn't be as short, to the point or nearly as creative as "misrecognized"!

This:

I liked this episode. I am a fan of the Rockford Files and Stuart Margolin was absolutely brilliant as Angel Martin.
"...By Its Cover" would have been a golden opportunity for a Magnum/Rockford crossover. I would have loved to have seen the Rod Crysler/Nam buddy character rewritten as Angel Martin visiting Hawaii with a cameo of Jim Rockford popping up at the end to deliver the "Rod/Angel doesn't have a son" line.

Couldn't agree more.

"Of all the things that could be said, the saddest is: "It could have been."" Not sure who said it originally, but I find many instances where it applies.

[Croix de Lorraine]

Hi Marlboro,
Excellent post, the response to the query of who would repeatedly be taken in by Rod, and you posting Rockford's photo made me laugh.
When I watched this episode I assumed Margolin's character was supposed to be a wink to his Emmy winning Angel Martin role.
I suspect the problem in any Rockford-Magnum crossover would have been they would have had to give a piece of the action to Rockford creator/producer Roy Huggins, a man infamous for glomming every penny he could any way he could.
He was a genius but was burnt early in his career by Warner Brothers policy of taking a reworked plot from one of it's old movies to be used as the pilot for any of their
new tv series. So Huggins could invent/create almost everything about the Maverick tv series, but by using a old movie plot for the ("based on") pilot Warners could deny the credit of 'created by' to the writer and cheat him out of big bucks.
A bitter Huggins from then on would demand huge bucks for any use of anything he created, and that would pertain to a no brainer gotta be a winner Magnum crossover, he'd likely charge so much Universal wouldnt even bother trying. Huggins was shameless, recycling scripts almost word for word that he did for Maverick and The Virginian for his Alias Smith & Jones on ABC. When it comes down to it, Rockford was Maverick updated to the 20th century.

The girls in Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too keep calling Higgins "Huggins". At first I thought it was a reference to Miller Huggins, the famous former Yankees manager, but now I realize it was a reference to Roy Huggins.

[KingKC]

I will say one thing for Stuart Margolin: he can really play a character you love to hate. He was the show in this episode.

KingKC

[Turkey]

I will say one thing for Stuart Margolin: he can really play a character you love to hate. He was the show in this episode.

KingKC

He did such a great job in the episode, agreed

[jeffran]

I will say one thing for Stuart Margolin: he can really play a character you love to hate. He was the show in this episode.

KingKC

He did such a great job in the episode, agreed

I agree, although I don't hate him. I actually like him, I just don't trust him.

Really good episode, I rated it 8.5 although it doesn't seem that highly rated by others. I agree, Stuart Margolin was great. I enjoyed the story as well. Solid.

[marlboro]

FYI: Stuart Margolin recently popped up in an episode of the X Files revival called "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat." He's aged to the point of being unrecognizable, but he gave a very nice performance in a brief role.

I like to think the entire X Files Mythology is just some elaborate con Angel cooked up.

[karolis]

3. While still on the estate, Rod hands Magnum a photo of his (supposed) son, and as Rod says "Rodney Charles Crysler, Jr." you can see the photo of Rodney, Jr., in Magnum's hand. This particular photo of Rodney, Jr., is cropped closley around little Rodney's head and shoulders so you don't see any background. However, seconds later, the camera cuts to a frontal shot of Magnum holding the photo and he says "Hey, a little Hot Rod." As Magnum says this the camera cuts to a close-up of the the photo supposedly being held by Magnum (probably done in post production). This photo is a photo of the same child, but it is a different photo than the one Rod just gave Magnum a second before. You can tell it is a different photo as the child is facing in a different direction, and instead of just seeing the child's head and shoulders as in the previous photo, the child is further in the background in this photo so he appears smaller and you can actually see a lot of background in this photo.

While Rod says "Rodney Charles Crysler jr., huh" and hands over the photo to Magnum:



While Magnum says "A Little hot Rod"



While Rod says "Did i ever showed the picture of my kid" while driving with Emmet Donner:




Selleck and Mosley doubles clearly seen:






Coops present: check (logo not seen, though):










Tom Lupo (Magnum's double) and Magnum:




Crossdresser:






Traffic patrol in the background?




Nice photo of T.C.'s chopper:

Flub?

At the end of this episode Magnum gets into an elevator and the bill of his hat gets smooshed between the doors. Maybe it was intentional.

Magnums Tigers hat vs. Elevator doors:






Magnum with his Tigers hat on backwards:

Hey, did any of you notice the echo during the filming of the part where Rod comes to the estate mainhouse looking for Magnum and Higgins opens the door? They filmed a brief portion in the doorway of the real estate house and you can hear a definite echo. As the scene switches back and forth to the studio set, the echo is gone...then reappears. Cool.

I can confirm this. You can hear it just after Rod says to Higgins "Well, actually i got your name... there was this chick... and later when Rod says "Well, not really a chick, she was definitely past her prime, the gray hair...".

Now, about the episode, I did notice something interesting that I never noticed before. Magnum may be using an actual .45 ACP Colt Government Model as a prop gun at the end of the episode. Since it wasn't fired in the scene, there wouldn't have been any problems with using a .45 as a prop (the main prop was a 9mm Colt Government Model for reliable functioning with readily available blanks).

Previously, I'd never noticed any evidence that a .45 ACP Government Model was ever used as Magnum's actual prop on the show, but I've seen plenty of scenes where is was identifiable as a 9mm. However:



As you can see from the image above, a 9mm Colt Government Model has a noticeably "belled" barrel (i.e., the outer diameter of the barrel increases significantly near the muzzle), while a .45 ACP barrel remains the same diameter for the entire length of it. This can only be seen when the slide is pulled back of course. Magnum's pistol in that scene appears to have a .45 ACP barrel, though I wish I had a higher quality screenshot to look at.

Photo of a gun:










Season 3 Top up to this episode:

1. Black on White
2-3. Did You See the Sunrise?
4. Flashback
5. Off Sound Mind
6. The Eighth Part of the Village
7. Forty Years From Sand Island
8. Legacy From a Friend
9. ... By Its Cover
10. The Arrow That is Not Aimed
11. Past Tense
12. Almost Home
13. Heal Thyself
14. Birdman of Budapest
15. Basket Case
16. Ki'i's Don't Lie
17. Mixed Doubles
18. Mr. White Death
19. I Do?
20. Foiled Again
21. Two Birds of a Feather

[Mad Kudu Buck]

You are right about Warner Brothers screwing Huggins out of his creators rights on Maverick by airing an episode based on an old movie script as the pilot. What you may not know is that Huggins actually wrote that script, but it was based on a novel that WB had bought the rights to. WB took Huggins script for the second episode, ran it as the pilot ,and claimed that he wasn't the shows creator since it was "based on" a property that they already owned.
They did something even shadier with Huggins' "77 Sunset Strip." They took the pilot episode and screened it at a handful of theaters in the Caribbean before broadcasting it on American television. Which is all they need to do to claim that Huggins didn't create the show, since it was "based on" a movie. All of this to save $500.00 dollars per episode.

Hi Marlboro,
Wow, neat stuff. Maybe the element of being a con man who shears the rotten businessman who cheated folks, shared not just by Maverick and Rockford but other characters Huggins created, is based on Huggins himself. It's hard to blame him for getting even whenever he could.
Universal's reputation is even worse than Warner Brothers, they literally were racketeering when it came to cheating people out of money, till they ran up against probably the toughest SOB in Hollywood in Korean war combat vet James Garner.
He fought these thieves on a point of honor,a concept Hollywood has a problem understanding.
They settled out of court for their cheating him out of Rockford profits, savy people claim he got at least $40 million right as the trial was going to start, as he could have literally sent many of the biggest behind the scenes names in Hollywood to prison. If Seinfeld has made way over a billion the past 20 years, Rockford has to have generated half of that if not a lot more so 40 million was likely a bargain.
I think this matters in relation to Magnum PI being remade, as the books would be revisited in determining how to share the profits of a new series or movie. The studio may prefer not to have any light shown on what it previously claimed it owed Selleck etc.

Wow, what a bunch of greedy, lying sleazebags.

[Pahonu]

You are right about Warner Brothers screwing Huggins out of his creators rights on Maverick by airing an episode based on an old movie script as the pilot. What you may not know is that Huggins actually wrote that script, but it was based on a novel that WB had bought the rights to. WB took Huggins script for the second episode, ran it as the pilot ,and claimed that he wasn't the shows creator since it was "based on" a property that they already owned.
They did something even shadier with Huggins' "77 Sunset Strip." They took the pilot episode and screened it at a handful of theaters in the Caribbean before broadcasting it on American television. Which is all they need to do to claim that Huggins didn't create the show, since it was "based on" a movie. All of this to save $500.00 dollars per episode.

Hi Marlboro,
Wow, neat stuff. Maybe the element of being a con man who shears the rotten businessman who cheated folks, shared not just by Maverick and Rockford but other characters Huggins created, is based on Huggins himself. It's hard to blame him for getting even whenever he could.
Universal's reputation is even worse than Warner Brothers, they literally were racketeering when it came to cheating people out of money, till they ran up against probably the toughest SOB in Hollywood in Korean war combat vet James Garner.
He fought these thieves on a point of honor,a concept Hollywood has a problem understanding.
They settled out of court for their cheating him out of Rockford profits, savy people claim he got at least $40 million right as the trial was going to start, as he could have literally sent many of the biggest behind the scenes names in Hollywood to prison. If Seinfeld has made way over a billion the past 20 years, Rockford has to have generated half of that if not a lot more so 40 million was likely a bargain.
I think this matters in relation to Magnum PI being remade, as the books would be revisited in determining how to share the profits of a new series or movie. The studio may prefer not to have any light shown on what it previously claimed it owed Selleck etc.

Garner was one of the greats. I recommend his autobiography "The Garner Files". I was and am a huge fan so my wife got it for me shortly after his passing. It's likely the settlement would have included a gag order so it's not really discussed in the book, but I followed the story in local newspapers as it unfolded over the years and it was truly an epic battle, to the point of honor, as you say.

[ENSHealy]

3.21 ...By Its Cover
Famous guest stars:
Hawaiian shirts: 1

Tigers Cap: 1
Island Hopper shirts: 2 green with white logo, light blue with white logo
Shirtless: .5 TC
OMG/Extraordinarys:
Higgins Organizations:
Higgins musings:
Negotiations:
Body Count:
Bullet wounds:
Little Voice: 1
I know what you’re thinking: .5 TM only says “I know” but the rest is implied
When I write HTBAWCPI:
Investigator corrections:
4th wall breaks: 1
Magnumometer: 7
Magnumometer Moments: https://vimeo.com/382098256

Potential magnumania usernames: Rod Crysler, Dolphin Crenshaw

Some would probably argue with my leaving Stuart Margolin off the famous guest star list, so this one would be an 8 if you’re in that camp.

I don't recognize the aloha shirt TM has on in the newspaper photo.

[terryfromkerry]

Hi ENSHealy,
The shirt in the newspaper photo was worn by Magnum in the pilot when he enters The Snow Palace. To my best recollection it does not feature in any further episodes. Its the Paradise Found mini anthurium shirt in colour navy. Its also available in colours black and red. Only the navy version was worn by Magnum. I bought it recently from alohashirtshop.com. To quote Cousin Eddie again ala Christmas Vacation .................... "Its a good quality item".