Long time fan, but haven't watched in a long time - question

[MagnumFan]

I've liked Magnum for a long time, but haven't watched the episodes in a long while.
I've read that the last two seasons show a more mature Magnum, both in terms of the tone of the show and the character, and that Magnum ditches the Aloha/Hawaiian shirts and shorts in the last two seasons for jeans and polos - is this true?

[Little Garwood]

Welcome to the forum!

I watch MPI fairly often but it was only this last go around that I noticed him wearing the Aloha shirts and shorts a lot less and by the time he *does* wear them, it actually looks a bit strange! I mention this in my post on the season seven episode Out of Sync. Most of the time, Magnum wears the safari-looking shirts and long-sleeve button ups with the sleeves rolled up, too.

Magnum is also not in so-called "Beefcake" mode as often, so his female viewers are denied seeing a shirtless Selleck. I think that comes down to the aforementioned maturity aspect, which goes back to season six; The Hotel Dick episode in particular covers this. I also think that Tom wasn't as trim as he was in previous seasons and that is probably another reason why.

Hope this helps!

[MagnumFan]

Welcome to the forum!

I watch MPI fairly often but it was only this last go around that I noticed him wearing the Aloha shirts and shorts a lot less and by the time he *does* wear them, it actually looks a bit strange! I mention this in my post on the season seven episode Out of Sync. Most of the time, Magnum wears the safari-looking shirts and long-sleeve button ups with the sleeves rolled up, too.

Magnum is also not in so-called "Beefcake" mode as often, so his female viewers are denied seeing a shirtless Selleck. I think that comes down to the aforementioned maturity aspect, which goes back to season six; The Hotel Dick episode in particular covers this. I also think that Tom wasn't as trim as he was in previous seasons and that is probably another reason why.

Hope this helps!

I notice too that around Season 7 his mustache is much more trimmed than it was in the early seasons, almost a little "Higgins-esque" compared to the bushier mustache of earlier seasons. Perhaps yet another way to subtly convey Magnum's blooming maturity?

[Little Garwood]

It wasn't just Thomas Magnum getting shorter hair. A.J. Simon (Jameson Parker) of Simon & Simon got a short, "little boy" haircut in season five of that series--which coincides with season six of Magnum--Rick Simon (Gerald McRaney) cut what remained of his own hair and trimmed his mustache, too. It's quite a difference from what all three characters looked like in the early 1980s, when longer hair was still popular and sort of a leftover from the more liberal 1970s. By the time of U.S. President Reagan's second term in 1985, the continuing conservativism of the nation was evident in many a U.S. TV series, right down to the short haircuts.

Another possibility is that Selleck merely had to either grow out or cut his hair short for between-season movie roles, but then that doesn't really explain away the shorter hair and 'stache suddenly being more evident in those later seasons.

[Fr. Paddy McGuinness]

Also you'll notice he moved to looser pleated shorts in the later seasons and the Aloha shirts became much looser. They still used the same material patterns.