Basket Case (3.15)

[J.J. Walters]

Andy,

I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your episode comments. Thank you for contributing to the discussions.

On any other series this Fagin rip off with a cute kid would have been saccharine enough to make my teeth ache, but on MPI it's an enjoyable, if lightweight, entry into the series.

Indeed!

[A P Leyland]

[quote="James J. Walters"]Andy,

I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your episode comments. Thank you for contributing to the discussions.

Thank you for creating the site in the first place. Who else would listen to me bang on about a 25 year old tv show?

Andy

[AJL]

Just a horrible episode. "Willie" just might be the most annoying character of the series, and the whole dining scene was just bizarre.
Higgins and TM just happened to have fake replicas of everything worth value of Robin's in that estate?? How convinient

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

I agree that Willie is one of the more annoying characters to grace the set.

[J.J. Walters]

Really? Willie is one of my very favorite episode characters. A tough, streetwise, basketball whiz, grifter-child with a heart. Her scenes with Magnum almost bring me to tears. It's painfully obvious how much she wishes to break free of her foster parents and live with somebody as honorable and kind as Thomas Magnum. And at the end, she passed up the game-winning shot to pass the ball to a teammate. For me, Willie is a unique and memorable character.

[SelleckLover]

I also enjoyed this episode, and the acting of Dana Hill. Here's a mini-biography from IMDb:

Dana Hill was born Dana Lynne Goetz on May 6, 1964, in a suburb of Los Angeles to parents Sandy Hill and Ted Goetz. Despite diabetes ending a promising future in athletics when she was just 10 years old, Dana gamely threw herself into acting when still in her early teens, taking her mother's maiden name as her professional acting name. She found success early on with her performances in both Fallen Angel (1981) (TV) and Shoot the Moon (1982), winning high praise from critics. For her stage work, Hill won the 1986 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award as Best Featured Actress for her performance in "Picnic." However, complications from her diabetes set in and the consequent decline in her health meant that from the mid-1980s on, Dana increasingly turned to voice over roles in animated movies and television programs such as Jetsons: The Movie (1990), "Goof Troop" (1992) and "Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man" (1994). In early 1996, Dana's health grew increasingly fragile as was evident to her friends and co-stars. Late that May, she slipped into a diabetic coma. On the 5th of June she suffered a paralytic stroke and on July 15 she died peacefully in the hospital at the age of 32, bringing an untimely end to a career that in less than two decades had spanned the big and small screen, animation and the theater.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Paul Melville

May she rest in peace.

[Artie Canoe]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't that make her near 20 at the time of the episode? She looks very young.

[J.J. Walters]

That's right Artie, she was 19 when she filmed this episode. Diabetes stunted her growth which made her look a lot younger than she really was.

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

James,

I'm not sure I can put my finger on it, but there is something about her that just annoys me! The same goes for Tran Quoc Jones.

[Artie Canoe]

Thanks James. And I have to agree many of the Magnum "kids" can be quite annoying at one time or another.

[Doc Ibold]

I kind of think its good the kids were somewhat annoying.

I think the last thing the show could have used was some "Cute Little Kid to boost ratings", ala Cosby Show, Family Ties, Brady Bunch, etc.

Yes, I know they're completely different genres than Magnum, but is it REALLY far fetched to have a little kid underfoot who irritates Higgins?

I could see it...

(But maybe thats just me)

[golfmobile]

I didn't realize she died so young and that she had fought such a health issue her entire (32 years of) life. Very sad.

However, I confess this is/was not one of the episodes I particularly liked. I found her character annoying and somewhat inconsistent, in that if she had the intelligence and knowledge shown to Higgins, she should have been able to get away from the con-persons foster parents.

Nevertheless, I later appreciated the "visuality" of the character when I was looking for props for Magnum GI. You may remember Willie here:



You don't know how happy I was to find a key ring with a basketball with the correct proportion for Willie and Thomas!

golf

[layne]

That's a fine tribute to Willie right down to the red shoes. I love the tiny basketball too.

This wasn't one of my favorite episodes, but learning about Dana's background and health issues changes my opinion a bit.

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

I didn't realize she died so young and that she had fought such a health issue her entire (32 years of) life. Very sad.

However, I confess this is/was not one of the episodes I particularly liked. I found her character annoying and somewhat inconsistent, in that if she had the intelligence and knowledge shown to Higgins, she should have been able to get away from the con-persons foster parents.

Nevertheless, I later appreciated the "visuality" of the character when I was looking for props for Magnum GI. You may remember Willie here:



You don't know how happy I was to find a key ring with a basketball with the correct proportion for Willie and Thomas!

golf

Golf, that is hilarious!

[J.J. Walters]

Haha! A perfect sized basketball!