40th Anniversary Watch Party

[T.Q.]

Credit where due.

Ted Danson was a MARLBORO gif from the “Animated Gif” thread.

[Pahonu]

I always love the opening scene where Higgins finds out the woman making the crude comments about TM’s body is Agatha.

Fat Jack and Eunice are a great subplot too.

The first season seems to have several episodes where characters are brought in with a previous history with TM, and then never heard from again. Thicker Than Blood had the girlfriend who was never even seen and here, Amy is supposed to be a former girlfriend. Agatha also seems very close to TM. Charlie from The Curse of the KKC seemed very familiar too and as someone mentioned, would have been interesting to see again. Saul and Lena from Never Again and Dan Cook from the pilot don’t reappear for obvious reasons, but it seems a lot of episodes without actual clients, but rather friends. I don’t know what this means. Maybe the writers were trying to flesh out a background early on? It does explain why TM is constantly broke! They brought back many characters in later seasons but in this season only Mac is recurring. Even then, Jeff MacKay played a different character in the pilot.

[Styles Bitchley]

Good observations. It was a familiar tactic for writers on detective shows to introduce a character with a back story with the lead only to have them need help or get killed. I guess there are only so many ways to do it.

I had a group of notes I jotted down while watching yesterday but they got wiped from my phone.

I had watched this episode somewhat recently but still got a kick out of it. The attention put on Selleck’s moustache from Agatha is a riot - and particularly poignant given how iconic those whiskers would become in decades to come. We get some interesting Higgins/Magnum character development with the phone line debacle and Higgins having to apologize.

It strikes me as strange when Magnum pulls Amy in for a kiss, knowing full well that she’s married to Stewart. A lot of the show focussed on light hearted fun but honour when it really matters. Kissing a married woman with her husband in the other room is pretty uncharacteristic for the character they were developing. Perhaps they’re just still experimenting at this stage.

[Pahonu]

Good observations. It was a familiar tactic for writers on detective shows to introduce a character with a back story with the lead only to have them need help or get killed. I guess there are only so many ways to do it.

I had a group of notes I jotted down while watching yesterday but they got wiped from my phone.

I had watched this episode somewhat recently but still got a kick out of it. The attention put on Selleck’s moustache from Agatha is a riot - and particularly poignant given how iconic those whiskers would become in decades to come. We get some interesting Higgins/Magnum character development with the phone line debacle and Higgins having to apologize.

It strikes me as strange when Magnum pulls Amy in for a kiss, knowing full well that she’s married to Stewart. A lot of the show focussed on light hearted fun but honour when it really matters. Kissing a married woman with her husband in the other room is pretty uncharacteristic for the character they were developing. Perhaps they’re just still experimenting at this stage.

You’re taking notes? I have to up my game!

Agatha’s mustache comments and earlier body comments seem like she finds TM more attractive than Amy perhaps?

I agree that Magnum kissing Amy like that is not in character for him, at least later character. Maybe the writers early on were still in the mode that Selleck was a heartthrob Burt Reynolds type going after all the ladies. Selleck pushed back against that, we know, but it seems to be going on a lot in season one.

In a discussion I had with Ivan in a different thread, I mentioned how I became a fan of Mercedes McCambridge after seeing this episode and rented several VHS tapes!!! of films she was in. I also told him a story of how I ran into at a restaurant in La Jolla called The Marine Room in the late 90’s. I had no idea that she had retired there and she was very gracious when I told her I was a fan of her work, but seemed surprised I recognized her. My wife had no clue who she was. It’s such a cool and unique restaurant location right on the sand. When I say on the sand, I mean at tidal level. It has glass windows that get hit by the surf at high tides and have broken at least a couple of times over the many decades it has been around. It’s $$$ and my wife and I went for our anniversary. She seemed like a regular, my wife said, as the staff knew her and her order!

https://www.marineroom.com/?utm_source= ... %20website

[Styles Bitchley]

You’re taking notes? I have to up my game!

Notes, in the sense that I'll write down a word or two so I remember to note it back here. Otherwise it's just lost to the ether. Remember, I've still got young kids at home and life in lockdown is bananas. My mind is like a sieve at this stage in life!

https://www.marineroom.com/?utm_source= ... %20website

This is a place I will absolutely visit with my wife when I reach your neck of the woods. Conch was kind enough to recommend a few choice dinner date locations in NYC when my wife and I took a trip down a few years ago, so Magnum-mania recommendations are a becoming a regular event!

[Pahonu]

You’re taking notes? I have to up my game!

Notes, in the sense that I'll write down a word or two so I remember to note it back here. Otherwise it's just lost to the ether. Remember, I've still got young kids at home and life in lockdown is bananas. My mind is like a sieve at this stage in life!

https://www.marineroom.com/?utm_source= ... %20website

This is a place I will absolutely visit with my wife when I reach your neck of the woods. Conch was kind enough to recommend a few choice dinner date locations in NYC when my wife and I took a trip down a few years ago, so Magnum-mania recommendations are a becoming a regular event!

My kids are adults now but I remember the days! Must be crazy during the pandemic.

That’s cool that Conch recommended some places. You have to ask locals whenever you travel. My wife and I make a point of doing so. For The Marine Room, I would definitely recommend making a reservation first and ask specifically when high tide is when you do so. Our first visit was a dinner in the summer during a sunset high tide, spectacular. Our second time, a decade or more later, was at night, but also at high tide as they have lights outside to enjoy the experience, also spectacular. My wife’s grandmother recommended it to us before our anniversary in the late 90’s and she and her husband had been there in the 50’s! It’s fantastic food and service, plus a totally unique location. There’s a reason it’s been there for 70 years.

[T.Q.]

The "perhaps not of my blood but you are my granddaughter" line always chokes me up a little bit.

It's nice.

[Styles Bitchley]

The "perhaps not of my blood but you are my granddaughter" line always chokes me up a little bit.

It's nice.

Yeah. She’s a good actress.

I also forgot to mention that Rick sports a wicked pair of bell bottoms mid way through this episode. Pretty sure these were already well out of fashion by then. I should get a screen grab.

[Styles Bitchley]

I also forgot to mention that Rick sports a wicked pair of bell bottoms mid way through this episode. Pretty sure these were already well out of fashion by then. I should get a screen grab.

Couldn't resist.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

I love everything 60s, 70s, and 80s but I could never understand how the bell bottom look was ever supposed to look good on a man. On a woman? Sure. But on a man? No way! Especially when those flares are soooo wide at the bottom. Sheesh! I know my dad said he wore them in the 70s but looking at his pictures those were dress pants he wore (like from a suit) and his flares were nothing like those on Rick's jeans. My dad's were VERY conservative in comparison. His kind of "bell bottoms" I have no problem with. Jack Lord as McGarrett also wore something similar during the latter part of the 70s, as part of his suit. Pretty conservative. But what Rick is wearing hurts my eyes! That doesn't look good on a man in any decade. That's something that only Marcia Brady can get away with wearing.

[T.Q.]

Rick rockin' the Bell Bottoms.

Classic.

[Styles Bitchley]

Rick rockin' the Bell Bottoms.

Classic.

I think that disco vibe is right. They must not have totally given up on Rick's Snow Palace persona in Season 1. Maybe they still had a bunch of wardrobe selections for Rick that they wanted to use up?

[T.Q.]

April 2nd, 1981

[CBS 9:00] Magnum, P.I. [Reg]: The Black Orchid
Season 1, episode 16
W: Robert Hamilton D: Ray Austin

With Robert F. Hoy (Bart), John Ireland (Wyndom Jackson), Judith Chapman (Louise DeBolt Jackson), Kathryn Leigh Scott (Christie DeBolt), Robert Apisa (Kimo), Rich Johnson (Leon), Ray Austin (Philippe).

A bored woman, married to one of the richest men in Hawaii, hires Magnum to act out some of her "games," but then the games become a dangerous reality.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

April 2nd, 1981

[CBS 9:00] Magnum, P.I. [Reg]: The Black Orchid
Season 1, episode 16
W: Robert Hamilton D: Ray Austin

With Robert F. Hoy (Bart), John Ireland (Wyndom Jackson), Judith Chapman (Louise DeBolt Jackson), Kathryn Leigh Scott (Christie DeBolt), Robert Apisa (Kimo), Rich Johnson (Leon), Ray Austin (Philippe).

A bored woman, married to one of the richest men in Hawaii, hires Magnum to act out some of her "games," but then the games become a dangerous reality.

I remember back when I was first just starting to get into the show thinking that this was one of the better ones of the season (for sure top 5) but I'm not sure I feel that way anymore. It's not bad or anything but it's kinda middling as far as season 1 episodes go. It's somewhere in the middle if I were to rank them. It does have its moments though. Judith Chapman overacts her part but then that's kinda the point considering her vivid imagination and her sense of drama. It's actually not too different from her performance in "The Woman on the Beach". Neither is a bad performance and she's good in both.

As a side note, the director Ray Austin plays her chauffeur in this episode if I'm not mistaken. He directed a handful of Magnums, including probably the 2 best in the series - "Memories are Forever" and "Did You See the Sunrise?".

[ConchRepublican]

Getting my Don't Say Goodbye comments in under the wire!

I always had an affection for this episode . . . not sure why, it's not up there with some of the earlier classics from this season, but the whole vibe just works for me. "Amy" comes across strange and not someone you'd think Tom would have a thing for, yet Mercedes Cambridge is great (aside from that weird laugh over the phone in the beginning), Ted Dansen is in full douche mode, and of course the gang is on point.

As mentioned, that Higgins realizes he hung up on Agatha is great and I like how they drop in these things about Magnum knowing people, and being respected by those people, that shock Higgins. Building a good backstory for his character. And the recurring gag about the phone bill, only for it to be The Lads fault is a good one, up there with the Kudu Buck for a subplot.

We have I think the only scene where they are in the chopper wearing life vests? It's an obvious thing that stands out but I don't remember seeing before/again.

There's also one of my favorite lines from T.C. "Scoogly wooglies!!"

https://magnum-mania.com/Audio/scuddily_wugglies.wav