Magnum Mania!

In at least one episode (can't remember which one), Magnum talks about his mother's side of the family being the "Sullivan side". Now Magnum's name was Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV.

Is this supposed to be a strange coincidence that his father married a woman whose last name matched his own middle name as well as matched his father's and grandfather's middle name?

MaximRecoil wrote:In at least one episode (can't remember which one), Magnum talks about his mother's side of the family being the "Sullivan side". Now Magnum's name was Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV.

Is this supposed to be a strange coincidence that his father married a woman whose last name matched his own middle name as well as matched his father's and grandfather's middle name?

Don't know if it was planned or what, but thats how it seemed to have turned out!

You see this again, among other times, in "The Aunt Who Came to Dinner," who is TM's aunt and her name is Phoebe Sullivan, supposedly his mother's sister?

Personally, I think this is just an inconsistency that the writers/producers, etc., never thought through in terms of accuracy and never thought anyone would pay that much attention to it -- they didn't know we'd be here twenty years later analyzing every little detail. Again, personally, I think it should be counted as a major flub, but that's just my opinion. If it is not an oversight, it should have been mentioned somewhere that his mother's maiden name was the same as his father's middle name. There are just too many family stories about TM's family not to have mentioned something like that -- father, grandfather, and how the TSM IV name was so emphasized so frequently.

Again, JMO.

golf

I remember posting a similar question months ago. I have always found it quite bothersome, because my own last name is (and always has been) Sullivan. I liked it too much to change it when I got married.

We Irish do tend to marry our own kind, however. One of my own cousins, last name of Sullivan, did marry a woman whose maiden name was Sullivan. No changing documents for her!! We all thought it was kind of cute at the time.

I suppose the writers could fall back on that sort of reasoning. They have been nonchalant where TSM IV's name is concerned. It makes me just a little crazy.

I was watching "The Aunt Who Came to Dinner" just now on Sleuth. Aunt Phoebe is presented as having married Tom's "staid" Uncle Sullivan. Perhaps he is mother's brother? This would explain why Phoebe confuses Tom for Sully . . . presumably there is a family resemblance.

Of course this still does not explain how TSM IV also happens to have his mother's maiden name for a middle name!

Sparkle & Fizz wrote:I was watching "The Aunt Who Came to Dinner" just now on Sleuth. Aunt Phoebe is presented as having married Tom's "staid" Uncle Sullivan. Perhaps he is mother's brother? This would explain why Phoebe confuses Tom for Sully . . . presumably there is a family resemblance.

Of course this still does not explain how TSM IV also happens to have his mother's maiden name for a middle name!

Okay, so Magnum's Uncle (Phoebe's husband) was named Sullivan Sullivan??

I assume "Sully" is short for "Sullivan", and Magnum refers to him as "staid, solid Uncle Sully" and Phoebe refers to him as "Sully" as well. Most people refer to their uncles by their first name (e.g. Uncle Tom), and most wives refer to their husbands by their first name as well.

And yes, "Uncle Sully" would be Magnum's mother's brother, and Phoebe was his aunt by marriage and took on the last name Sullivan by marriage as well.

I wonder if this whole "Sullivan" thing was intended by the writers to be some sort of inside joke.

I have coached at least three kids with the last name "Sullivan"......we called each one "Sully"......I'm pretty sure that Uncle Sully is a reference to his uncle's last name...not first. I think the idea that his dad's middle name matched his mom's maiden name makes the most sense.....but that would mean that Aunt Phoebe should be his mom's sister-in-law....I think.

My dad was called Sully his whole life. This was a reference to his last name. No one ever used his given name.

MPS wrote:My dad was called Sully his whole life. This was a reference to his last name. No one ever used his given name.

That's interesting. Did your mother also call him Sully?

I'm getting a little off-topic here, but that reminds me of an aspect of the show I always liked; i.e. the way everyone called each other by different names. It seemed to add a bit of realism to the show (for example, depending on who he was talking to, people variously called my father Ed, Eddie, Edward, Bill, or Bill-Edward).

Higgins called Magnum "Magnum". Rick called him "Thomas". T.C. called him "T.M." I think some people called him "Tom" and even "Tommy", but I can't remember who.

Magnum called Higgins "Higgins". Agatha called him "Jonathan". T.C. called him "Higgie" or "Higgie-Baby".

Magnum called Rick "Rick". T.C. usually called him Orville. I think Icepick called him "Rickie".

Earlier in the series there was the: "Only my friends call me Icepick" thing, but that kind of went away later on I think. Strangers were supposed to call him "Smitty" if I remember right.

Yup, that only happened once, in "Distant Relative"

Aunt Phoebe called Magnum "Tommy."

I think we're left in the dark regarding Uncle Sully's first name!

That's interesting. Did your mother also call him Sully?

Caught me She called him by his first name and I called him Dad.

This just gives me more reason to be irritated with the writers over the whole name thing.....

Still, to cut to the "Sullivan" chase, as I see it, the Sullivan middle name would have come from the mother of the FIRST Thomas Sullivan Magnum, who was our TM's great-grandmother (father was III, grandfather was Jr., so the great-grandfather would have been the first TSM), so it's rather jumping the shark for Thomas' father to have married someone with the same last name as his (our Thomas') great-grandfather's wife. Stretching it just too much (unless these people lived in Alabama in the 1800s . . . . . where everyone was and still is related. We in Georgia hurl all the redneck jokes at Alabama . . . . What is ATF in Alabama? weekend shopping list . . .)

I think the writers/producers/powers that be just lost track of the thread and let it ride because it was fun to "play" with the Sullivan middle name. They just never knew or forgot whence it came to start with.

So even if Aunt Phoebe was on the male side, it would have been on Thomas' mother's side, which didn't have the military or wanderlust background (that we knew of).

Just a bunch of gobble-dee-gook mishmash . . . . for the sake of . . . . some convoluted plotline that makes no sense when actually analyzed.

We're SUCH spoilsports . . . .

golf

Just a bunch of gobble-dee-gook mishmash . . . . for the sake of . . . . some convoluted plotline that makes no sense when actually analyzed.

That is the best thing I have read (or heard) all day!!

Fantastic phrasing, Golfmobile

I think we will always ponder this one.
Remember, Magnum PI isn't the first time we see the name Sullivan.
Sullivan appeared on the small boat in the movie TS made before MPI,
Gypsy Warriors.