The Curse of the King Kamehameha Club (1.11)

[Little Garwood]

Boy, that granddaughter really annoyed me, not only the character but the actress. I know she also plays Hollie Hunter in "The Look" in season 5 and quite frankly, I can't stand her in either role!!

Agree. She was one of those 70s/80s familiar but not a star faces that I was never a fan of either.

Have to disagree. Gretchen Corbett was great in both of those MPI episodes as well as in The Rockford Files, but she's even better in that cherry-patterned bikini.

[thechickinthemiddle]

I never realized how much of a uniform Higgins' dark suit jacket had become until I saw the second scene of this episode, with him wearing a light blue jacket It's so easy to forget how different season one was.

[KingKC]

This episode was a "pure" Hawaii show. There was no connection to Vietnam, the military or WWII and Pearl Harbor or any international connection. It was Hawaii and Kahunas and curses. It did show how flaky Rick could be. It had a good showing by Gretchen Corbett who was a familiar face from Rockford. It brought the King Kamehameha Club to the forefront. There was investigation, local scenes and the ending was delightful. I think this episode helped the show establish its overall image.

KingKC

[Danny Lin]

On Rick´s Cafe "Americana":

[quote="Carol the Dabbler"

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Comment on Note 11: It sure sounds to me like Rick actually refers to his club as "Rick's Cafe Americana." How quickly they forget![/quote]

Right. Even the subtitle provided with the DVD says: "Americana". And it´s not only that they´d "forget" quickly. It is an issue as well that that club certainly was named after the world famous "Rick´s Cafe Americain" in "Casablanca". So that mistake is kind of difficult to forgive, I find.

[Danny Lin]

On TC´s reading-flub:

Sometimes it is kind of hard to begin writing a reply for me - at least english is a foreign language. Anyway, my son found a minor flub in this episode and I will try to explain it - here we go
TC is reading "The Kahuna" to Thomas, he is looking into the book like he`d read the last sentence of the left page, they talk to each other and Thomes tells him to read on, he repeats the sentence, now looking to the top of the right page.

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To even realize something like that! How very attentive of your son, I say!! It is definitely a clear flub.

[Danny Lin]

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Also, being a fireman, I enjoyed the burning sugar cane scenes. It seems as though the should that TC fell on and injured was the same arm that Thomas grabbed and helped him stand up with. I also enjoyed the "pat down" he gave the reporter, nice and smooth, just like a cold refreshing Coops beer!!

As I see it, TC hits the ground with the right shoulder first. It is the right shoulder also that he´s holding after Magnum helped him up, taking his left arm. So that looks OK to me.

[Danny Lin]

On Charlie breaking the 4th wall:

So, TankTop44... Since this episode is fresh in your mind... Do you think that Charlie breaks the fourth wall at the end? Steve thinks so and Seaver41. I have doubts.

I suppose you could look at it two ways. Yes he is looking at the "camera" and it appears he is breaking the fourth wall, however, is it the "camera" he is looking at or is it Magnum. If he is looking at Magnum, then we are seeing him through Magnum's eyes and not just us the veiwer.

I agree!

Me, too!

I would say the ruby red flash was not true 4th wall. It's not 100% clear if it were intended for Magnum or not........we are clearly given a glimpse to see it, and because it was his right eye, if his head was turned sidewaysjust a hair, we'd miss it. It's splitting hairs, but the normal use of 4th wall in Magnum usually 'clears' any character from the stare of the actor..........but in this case Magnum would've been in proximity of his gaze to see it.

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And Charlie was quite emphatically looking at TM at the end. No 4th wall breaking. That would make little sense. The glint in his eye was as mentioned, as a wink to mag.

I think, what must be taken into consideration here is that Magnum breaks the 4th wall directly after the "flashy" look he gets from Charlie. That "breaking the 4th wall" by Magnum can make sense only if Magnum can assume the audience to have seen what he has seen. That´s why the camera providing the view of the audience towards Charlie is positioned behind Magnums back just before Charlie first turns away from Magnum to right afterwards be turning back towards him. That way the audience shares about the same viewing angle with Magnum. That again makes it kind of impossible to determine if a "double 4th wall breaking" (first by Charlie, then by Magnum) is intended by the writer/director.

[Danny Lin]

On Charlie "protecting" Magnum from Makua:

One thing I forgot to mention, not really a blooper but a strange moment – at the end, only one of Charlie’s eyes glow ruby red. What is he, half Kahuna or something?!

He IS the Kahuna, who protected Magnum from Makua...

Exactly!!!

Considering that Christine in her TV coverage on Makua, who had died in the burning sugar cane fields, speaks of him as a "self proclaimed Kahuna" and considering that Charlie later in the episode says to Magnum: "Well, there are some people to be afraid of, Magnum, and there are some people, not to be afraid of. Makua was somebody not to be feared. - Hey, Magnum... I told you he don´t have no power over you.", one has to come to the conclusion that Charlie, who finally turns out to be a Kahuna, knew all the time that Makua´s "curse" wouldn´t be able to do anything. Thus it wasn´t even necessary to protect Magnum.

[Danny Lin]

On the "hitting the camera flub" and the episode not being Rick centric:

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* When Henry, Magnum’s rival surf-skier dies, watch carefully – his surf-ski continues forwards in the ocean and hits the camera, causing it to wobble slightly!

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By the way, I’m not sure if I’d class this as a Rick-centric episode; yes it does feature him, but doesn’t centre around him, much more time is spent with Magnum and T.C.

After reading this thread I was kind of astonished about the fact that, although I had seen that sequence in which Henry collapses on the surf ski several times already, I never realized that his boat bumps into the camera. Which it does quite plainly. I would say that the camera wobbles not only slightly! Unbelievable which things our brains just seem to refuse to realize sometimes...

I agree that this episode cannot be called Rick centric. Rick is the Manager of the KKC, and the incidents centre around the club.

[Danny Lin]

On one of the tie switching flubs:

James...There are two other flubs..When Higgins,Rick and TM are in the upstairs office,Higgins is wearing a yellow and navy striped tie.Moments later the fire alarm sounds Higgins is seen in the kitchen with a burgundy and navy striped tie. The tie also switches back and forth in a later scene in the office.

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I didn´t even realize that the tie switches in that later office sequence. In fact it does so within not more than two seconds!! *shakes head*

[Danny Lin]

On Higgins´s sunglasses and Ricks office:

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Did anyone catch Higgens with the dark sunglasses? I thought it was a very cool look.

I liked seeing more of the King Kamehameha Club than just the bar area. What is the room that Rick, Higgens, and TM are in with the wall of glass overlooking the beach and ocean? I don't think that room has been used in any other episode, it is not far from the bar.

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I found that those sunglasses suit Higgins very well too. In fact they gave him a mafioso like appearance.

And that room is Rick´s office. It has been used frequently already in the episodes before this one.

[Danny Lin]

On an unmentioned flub:

During all the sequences shot in Rick´s office after Magnum and TC escaped the burning sugar cane fields there´s one sequence that, different from all the other ones, seems to be shot at night. It is the sequence in which Magnum says: "Now... The club is on the only land this of Waikiki, still relatively undeveloped, right?" Just before Magnum sits down on the desk one can see through the window on the right, that it is dark outside. Some seconds later bright daylight is back.

[K Hale]

This is one of my favorite episodes. I really enjoy ensemble pieces where all four guys get to interact as much as possible. Plus there was a lot of Hawaii in this episode, from the whole kahuna curse thing to the burning of the sugar cane to the surf ski race backstory. The opening sequence of Higgins listing all the rules Magnum is breaking, while we see him in the act of breaking them, is priceless. "Put it on Robin's tab!"

Good catch on the two people who noticed Higgins' tie switch. I've seen this ep countless times and never noticed that. Wardrobe should have kept track of what tie he was supposed to have on...

This was a really good one. They did a great job in disguising whom was behind the "curse." They threw it towards so many possibilities that it was never really clear like a lot of episodes were. I liked how they incorporated some native Hawaiian culture into the episode. It was also interesting to see Higgins in an episode where he was in the role of member of the KKC board of directors for the entire show. It was kind of different to have them discuss the club as being in financial difficulty where later the club seemed totally fine as far as that went.

I thought this set up an interesting dynamic between Rick and Higgins as they often clashed over the way he ran the club over the years. It was also interesting that Rick's own club would fail, but he was able to manage the KKC back into the black so quickly. It may not have been a "bust" in the terms of not much buisness as much as it went "bust" as in trouble from the government in some form.

Could be. Or maybe disco was on the way out and people began wanting to go to other clubs. Or maybe it was in a bad area of town (it certainly seemed to be) and the overhead was too high for the more pedestrian people who came in there. In any event he was apparently a very effective manager because we never hear about the KKC having financial difficulty after this.

[Little Garwood]

Jay is referring to T.C.'s quote to Magnum earlier in the episode (while they are in the Ferrari). T.C. is reading a book on Kahuna's and tells him:

"Kahuna's look just like you and me... (both laugh) According to legend, the only way to know for sure if someone is a Kahuna is by the presence of a ruby flash, detectable in the eyes. (in a newscaster voice) "A ruby flash detectable in the eyes". Why am I reading this nonsense?"

Has anyone ever searched for the Kahuna book that T.C. is reading? It looks more like a self-published pamphlet than an actual book, but I wonder if it's a published book or just something cobbled together for the episode.

[ENSHealy]

Gonna have to pass on the earplug one, though. Those do sometimes take several tries to get those things in.

I think it should count as a flub. If he were just pushing the plug in further, I'd be with you on not including it, but if you notice, he either bites off a piece (of wax?) or moistens the plug by putting it in his mouth before putting it in his ear. He actually does this clearly twice with each ear (the biting/moistening thing). If he were just adjusting the earplug that was already in, he wouldn't do that?

Although I suppose that if it is wax he's using, he could be biting off a second piece to go over the first? Seems like that would make it darn hard to get that first piece out later, though.

Here's a new flub that is definitely a flub: When TM enters the Dollinger residence the second time, to confront the old man about the land, he's wearing his brown deck shoes. He runs into the reporter while leaving, and they get in her car together. Later, when they show TM braking the car, he's wearing Converse sneakers.




The thing that always bothered me about the "flash" is that it isn't a flash. It sort of looks like someone just pointed a really large laser pointer at his eye. It's perfectly round. It does "pulse" a little, but I would think they'd have had the technology to make it look more like a flash, or a "sparkle." You know, a twinkle in the eye.