Magnum Mania!

As we all know, Magnum P.I. crossed over with both "Simon and Simon" and "Murder She Wrote" - what are some other classic tv shows that you think would have made interesting crossover episodes?

"The Rockford Files" seems like a natural choice. I would have loved to see Higgins and Jim Rockford interacting.

"Columbo" wasn't as action oriented as Magnum, but I still think it would have worked. I think an episode featuring Magnum as a murder suspect having to deal with Columbo's unique investigating methods would have a lot of comedic potential.

What are your picks?

marlboro wrote:As we all know, Magnum P.I. crossed over with both "Simon and Simon" and "Murder She Wrote" - what are some other classic tv shows that you think would have made interesting crossover episodes?

"The Rockford Files" seems like a natural choice. I would have loved to see Higgins and Jim Rockford interacting.

"Columbo" wasn't as action oriented as Magnum, but I still think it would have worked. I think an episode featuring Magnum as a murder suspect having to deal with Columbo's unique investigating methods would have a lot of comedic potential.

What are your picks?

The original Hawaii Five O crew. That would've been great to see!

OR

Kojak.......Magnum, Luther and Kojak at a P.I. convention.....I can picture it now.

I would have enjoyed a second crossover with Simon & Simon around the time of MPI's seventh and S&S's sixth season. By that time, both programs were solid hits, so instead of the lackluster L.A. episode we did get on Magnum, P.I., we could have had Thomas on a case on the Simon brothers' turf with the comedic banter that was the trademark of both shows.

I'm surprised there isn't more support here for Simon & Simon, particularly from those of us who grew up watching both series on Thursday nights in those ancient, long ago early 1980s...

marlboro wrote:As we all know, Magnum P.I. crossed over with both "Simon and Simon" and "Murder She Wrote" - what are some other classic tv shows that you think would have made interesting crossover episodes?

"The Rockford Files" seems like a natural choice. I would have loved to see Higgins and Jim Rockford interacting.

"Columbo" wasn't as action oriented as Magnum, but I still think it would have worked. I think an episode featuring Magnum as a murder suspect having to deal with Columbo's unique investigating methods would have a lot of comedic potential.

What are your picks?

I agree about Rockford and Columbo is a great idea.

Miami Vice I think is an obvious choice as well. Thomas and TC meeting Spencer and Hawk would have made for some good stuff. Picture having Quincy meet Doc Ibold!

Remington Steele or Moonlighting? At least the first season of Moonlighting could have been pretty interesting.

I'd have loved to see a Night Stalker crossover . . . even if the show was off the air a few years already. But I think some of the supernatural aspects of Magnum would have made a nice mix with this show.

For one of the flashback episodes, Thomas waking up with Robert Conrad in the Wild Wild West would have been great . . . just to see Tom and Bob working together on screen.

ConchRepublican wrote:For one of the flashback episodes, Thomas waking up with Robert Conrad in the Wild Wild West would have been great . . . just to see Tom and Bob working together on screen.

Magnum: ...and a midget, or a dwarf.
Higgins: A what?
Magnum: A midget, or a dwarf!




It would be hard to pull off, but I think I think Selleck in a Wild Wild West crossover would have worked better than the Indiana Jones parody.

Would you play it for laughs, or would you want it to be a somewhat straightforward action/adventure story? I think it could have worked either way.

A Magnum-Fall Guy crossover would be highly entertaining. I don't count the Selleck cameo on The Fall Guy as anything and I don't like it that Lee Majors and Tom were never on camera together (If I recall correctly).

Once again, I want to sing out my desire for there to have been a second Magnum crossover with Simon & Simon (the latter being a show that would crossover comfortable with a LOT of programs, including the aforementioned Fall Guy, not to mention The Rockford Files, a show that, like Simon & Simon, used cons to amusing effect.

marlboro wrote:

ConchRepublican wrote:For one of the flashback episodes, Thomas waking up with Robert Conrad in the Wild Wild West would have been great . . . just to see Tom and Bob working together on screen.

Magnum: ...and a midget, or a dwarf.
Higgins: A what?
Magnum: A midget, or a dwarf!

Exactly!!

Has their ever been a crossover episode for any TV show that worked? I can't think of any although I do believe that a Rockford/Magnum would have worked only because of the magnanimous nature of Tom and James................

Steve wrote:Has their ever been a crossover episode for any TV show that worked? I can't think of any although I do believe that a Rockford/Magnum would have worked only because of the magnanimous nature of Tom and James................

Kramers guest spot on Mad About You was pretty cool.

Giddyup into the future!

http://youtu.be/TJcJqLz2J40

ConchRepublican wrote:For one of the flashback episodes, Thomas waking up with Robert Conrad in the Wild Wild West would have been great . . . just to see Tom and Bob working together on screen.

There was an episode of the Wild Wild West with a bit of a Hawaiian theme. It was called "The Night of the Deadly Blossom." The villain was a Eurasian who wanted to conquer Hawaii in order to keep it from falling into the hands of Japan or America. He was played by the great character actor Nehemiah Persoff who would later appear in the Magnum PI episode "Torah Torah Torah."

Having Magnum fall asleep while watching the episode and having a dream about it would be pretty neat. Too bad it never happened.

It would have been neat if McGarrett had been brought back for an episode. Even though Hawaii 5-0 was obviously over, that could have been a real fun crossover scenario. Allegedly the network actually tried to get Jack Lord to guest, but he declined.

1. Rockford Files
2. Spenser: For Hire
3. The Equalizer

and a Jack Lord cameo!

I would have asked Tom to play Lance White again for a funny episode where Lance is in Hawaii on a case and he has to team up with Magnum. The way Lance always made Rockford look so ridiculous they really should have spun Lance off into his own series in 1978 or 1979 it would have been great but we never would have gotten Tom as Magnum. Lance White was so perfect he was the funniest PI ever.

They had Hillerman play so many half-brothers of Higgins he even played his own father when they went to England so it would have been hilarious to have Magnum in various split-screen scenes with Lance White.

I don't know if the camera technology back then would have allowed action scenes that looked believable but it would have been fun to try. In the dual Higgins episodes they had to do it where Higgins and his half-brother were sitting on opposite sides of the table or standing apart from each other with a vertical line down the center of the screen the way they had to do it in the old Patty Duke episodes.

The technology was not really good enough for believable split-screen motion with one actor doing two characters until Back to the Future 2 in 1989 that's when they perfected computer-controlled cameras to do this.

midnightx wrote:It would have been neat if McGarrett had been brought back for an episode. Even though Hawaii 5-0 was obviously over, that could have been a real fun crossover scenario. Allegedly the network actually tried to get Jack Lord to guest, but he declined.

While Jack Lord was essentially a recluse after Five-0 wrapped up, I still think it was a huge missed opportunity for MPI to bring on James MacArthur on as Dan Williams. They could have developed his character more in one guest appearance than the original Five-0 did in his eleven seasons.

Lindsay Writer wrote:I would have asked Tom to play Lance White again for a funny episode where Lance is in Hawaii on a case and he has to team up with Magnum. The way Lance always made Rockford look so ridiculous they really should have spun Lance off into his own series in 1978 or 1979 it would have been great but we never would have gotten Tom as Magnum. Lance White was so perfect he was the funniest PI ever.
.

Now that would have been funny. Another idea would have James Garner as a Lance White type character...............