Legend of the Lost Art (8.10)

[tshoffie]

i loved this episode and the fact that it was in the vein of indiana jones was fitting...seeing as Tom Selleck was originaly gonna be cast as indiana jones...its a shame things didnt work out because i think he would have made a great Indiana jones...I could seeing him doing both Magnum and the Indy Films

[layne]

I just watched this for the first time the other day and loved it! I don't know how I missed this episode. I think got so tired of hearing the whole "TS missing out on Indy" story from the press that I kind of skipped it whenever it was on. I am sorry Tom didn't get to do the movie...but I'll tell you what. I love TS as Magnum and am sure he would have done a fantastic job as Indy too, but we REALLY would have missed out if there would have been no MPI! I guess he could have done both projects with that strike that was going on back then...but I am happiest with MPI. Know what I mean?

Back on track. This episode was a lot of fun. Besides what everyone else has said, one thing I noticed when Magnum came tumbling out of that cave, there was blood running down his arm. Looked like a real injury. Throughout the whole show, it was bandaged up. It made me wonder how many injuries Tom had while doing the show. Anyone ever heard him talk about it? He never seems to complain even now at 63 of bad knees or old injuries etc. Just curious.

[golfmobile]

layne makes a very good point. Frankly, though I liked this episode, I really thought it was a tad lame. The TM-Margaret Colin arguing while things went on around them I found to be annoying and unrealistic. Though I liked their chemistry -- and maybe THIS is who he should have been with instead of Michelle (see the post on that subject).

However, back to layne's point:

Say TS, due to the writer's strike, COULD have done Indiana Jones. By contract, yes, he had to come back and at least start MPI. But if the movie had such great success with TS as it did with HF, would he have stayed with MPI for seven, much less eight, years? Had he done the first Indy movie, I think MPI would NOT have been made the way it was. And the viewing public would have been robbed of MPI for 7-8 years. We here all know what we would have missed -- the characters, the loyalty, the adventure, the humor, a little snippiness, etc., etc.

So for us as MPI fans, I guess we should be slightly grateful that TS didn't play Indy. And there's no guarantee that his doing the first Indy would have made him the greatest sex-symbol/movie star. MPI brought a fan base and appreciation he eventually ended up with by being "with us" for 8 years, once a week, every week (okay, less reruns).

I don't see that TS' career has been any less successful than Harrison Ford's. They just got there by different paths. TS' may have been more on the "small screen" -- but currently who was asked to escort the former First Lady Nancy Reagan at Charlton Heston's funeral!!!????? It wasn't Harrison Ford!

So this episode was no Indiana Jones and Tom Selleck is no Harrison Ford. But then Harrison Ford is no Tom Selleck!!!

golf

[IslandHopper]

Say TS, due to the writer's strike, COULD have done Indiana Jones. By contract, yes, he had to come back and at least start MPI. But if the movie had such great success with TS as it did with HF, would he have stayed with MPI for seven, much less eight, years? Had he done the first Indy movie, I think MPI would NOT have been made the way it was. And the viewing public would have been robbed of MPI for 7-8 years. We here all know what we would have missed -- the characters, the loyalty, the adventure, the humor, a little snippiness, etc., etc.

golf

I believe that TS's MPI contract was for 7 years. He ultimately decided to honor his contract to do MPI rather than "Raiders of the Lost Ark." As Golf mentioned, it turns out that there was a writer's strike which would have allowed TS to do the movie and return in time to do the first season on MPI. However, by that time HF had already been cast for the part. I have no doubt that if TS had actually made the movie and it turned out to be the big hit that it was that he would have honored his contract and returned to do MPI for the seven years at least. The question is whether he would have been able to do the next two movies?

I still say he would have honored his contract to Universal. Then they would have had to cast a different actor (HF) in the Raiders sequels. It worked for the movies based on Tom Clancy's novels. Alec Baldwin played Jack Ryan in "The Hunt For Red October" and Harrison Ford was cast to play Jack Ryan in "Patriot Games," "Clear and Present Danger." Tom Selleck seems to be a very honorable guy and a man of high character, and his character traits come across in Magnum, which is one of the many reasons why MPI was such as big success.

[J.J. Walters]

The question is whether he would have been able to do the next two movies?

Without a doubt. Selleck filmed four films during Magnum's run. For Indy, it really would only have been one movie - The Temple of Doom (1984). The Last Crusade began filming on May 16th, 1988.

[308GTS]

I think that dick butkus has missed the point somewhat. This episode was obviously designed to be an homage to 'Raiders' in a Magnum PI style. I thought they did a hilariously brilliant job, copying the film almost scene by scene.

Not on of the best episodes but still hugely funny and entertaining. I guess you have to be a Raiders fan well to appreciate it.

[lutherhgillis]

For me, Margaret Colin was reason enough to like this episode...

Wow!

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

I watched this again last night with my wife. It was pretty entertaining and she said she thought TS would've made an excellent Indiana Jones. I often wonder if they ever thought about making the whole episode a dream sequence?

[ConchRepublican]

Wow Sherm, that's a blast from the past! I never had that one in my Atari collection, but I remember a friend of mine did. Even then, it was a strange, confusing little game!

The Indy game that I will always fondly remember is the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom coin-op arcade game (1985). I used to play that all the time at the local arcade, along with Zaxxon, Xevious, Galaga, Tron, etc. It's a really fun, exciting game - whipping Thugee's, racing through mine shafts....

I miss those times, hanging out at the arcade.

I still can't believe they never made a MPI pinball game.

Bringing back memories!!!! I had a pattern for Zaxxon which let me play for over a half hour on one quarter! Until you got bored and strayed off the path of course.

Galaga was another one. Leave one of the ships (one that shoots) for last on the first screen and let it pass you by for I think it was 32 times. After that, it stops shooting at you. When it stops shooting, take it out and after that none of the other screen will have shooting Galatians. One guy turned the score over on the machine this way!

Then there was the D&D game. I remember when, on a boring afternoon, we'd splurge for a roll of quarters each and play all afternoon!

The elf needs food, badly!!!

Yeah, I'm a geek . . .

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

Zaxxon was one of my favorite games. I also liked the John Elway Qb game. Me and a buddy of mine could play that game forever!

[golfmobile]

Conch,

Would you believe that my husband, Larry, and I were so hooked on Galaga, even into the early 1990s, that I bought a full-size arcade game that we had in our dining room! If I recall correctly, I never got over 2 million points, but I think his record was something like 8 million. After that, he lost interest -- well, I guess so!

And we tried the let-the-ships-go-past-you-32 (or 37) times, and that never worked for stopping the shooting on our machine or any other one we tried.

What was the name of the game that started with the eight space stations (I guess they were) lined up four each side vertically and you moved up, shooting through them, then the screens changed after that for each round? I can't remember the name of that one, but I got pretty good at it (well, as good as reasonably could be expected at The Mesquite Tree bar while drinking margaritas). I pretty much mastered the first PacMan game by learning all the patterns to run (again with the assistance of frozen margaritas at Carlos Magee's . . . . amazing what tequila does for your memory and motor skills!)

golf

[IslandHopper]

Zaxxon was one of my favorite games.

Zaxxon was one of my favorite games too. I believe the Zaxxon game (along with many other classic games from the '80s) can be seen in "Jororo Farewell" when the guys go to the Arcade to look for Danny.

[SelleckLover]

I'm so NOT a gamer!

[J.J. Walters]

Wow, who knew there would be some kind of correlation between Magnum fans and Zaxxon!

[J.J. Walters]

Hey RC, any idea where this spot is located?