Algernon Farnsworth wrote:Anyone else wonder if Milton was a commentary on the obsessive Magnum P.I. fans (*cough*) that the cast and crew likely met whenever they went to events?
There certainly are people like that. In Manetti's book, he talks about an incident where Selleck had to call the police because there was somebody on his roof -- I forget the details but it was pretty scary.
Had I seen any of them in public, I would have been 1000% too shy to even admit I recognized them, let alone stalk anyone.
Hey K Hale,
I remember reading that story in Manetti's book. My wife got it for me right when it came out. I've no idea if the writers of that episode were even aware of that story. Interesting thought though.
Living in the LA area and having worked briefly in the industry in the early to mid 90's, I was able to meet quite a few celebrities. I was generally meeting them in a work setting, so I had no qualms about talking to them. I did meet some in other places and have found that a simple "It's very nice to meet you. I'm a fan of your work." plus something specific that you enjoyed, works very well. We shake hands typically and I've never been rebuffed. For example, I met Clint Eastwood at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the early 90's and commented on Play Misty for Me, his directorial debut. He seemed genuinely pleased to hear mention of the 20+ year old (at the time) film.
I've told this story here before. I accidentally ran into Selleck at the NBC Studios in Burbank. He had an office there, but I was unaware of that at the time. I was there to meet with a producer about a production job and after I left his office in a small corridor, I looked down at the mail on the floor at the next door down and it said T. W. Selleck on one of the envelopes. I only paused a second to read it, but when I looked up, Selleck was coming around the corner so I met him for a moment. I said what I wrote above and commented on how I enjoyed Quigley Down Under. It had come out a few years earlier and not been a box office success. He shook hands, thanked me for the compliment and went into his office.
I have many other similar stories. If you get a chance, why not introduce yourself?
Pahonu,
Neat story! Thank you for sharing. My biggest kick meeting a celeb was when I met Buffalo Bob Smith at a car meet, Led East in Jersey, hit if off and he swore me in as a member of the Peanut Gallery.
His show was before my time, and this occurred in the 1990's, but my decade older brothers were all excited and totally envious I was now an official Peanut.
Just an aside, and I might have said this on Magnum Mania before, but as a kid my father encouraged me to write the still living great figures of WW 2.
I scored Omar Bradley, Jimmy Doolittle and Tito autographed pics.
I found if anyone has written a book, mention that if you are talking to or writing them, it's a ego stroke and makes them more receptive, not unlike you mentioning the stars prior work.
I also had from Field Marshal Montgomery a small beat up old field chess sent he sent me - he was always kind and encouraging to kids and helped the Scouts etc - but my brother's
loser waste of space buddy stole it. It was so cool, a Waterloo set. Shoot, I gotta let that go, I get so angry my blood pressure skyrockets whenever I think about it.
A chess set from Monty, wow! That’s sucks so hard it was stolen from you. I don’t blame you for still getting angry when your think about that. I can relate somewhat. I never got a gift like that, but I did write to lots of MLB players in the 70’s and 80’s as a kid. They sent signed photos mostly, but my favorite player ever, Willie Stargell, actually wrote me a short letter back. I cherished that letter but sadly it was lost along with other personal things during a move in college. Several boxes I stored at a friend’s place went missing.
I encouraged my daughter when she was younger to write to people she admired. She got a signed photo from the reggae musician Burning Spear and a signed baseball card from NL MVP Andrew McCutchen. She also wrote to the White House in 2009 and got a photo from President Obama. My wife and I adopted our two children when they were toddlers. They’re African American and we are not. They’re adults now, but we trying to encourage them as children to reach out to anyone they admired. My daughter still talks about it like we are right now. My son seemed totally disinterested and still seems to be. LOL!
That is a way cool name, "Burning Spear", if Nicole Kidman and I get together any time soon I will name our kid that. Stargell and McCutchen, you gotta be a Pirates fan, whoa, and I thought
Magnum had it bad rooting for Detroit.
K Hale wrote:
There certainly are people like that. In Manetti's book, he talks about an incident where Selleck had to call the police because there was somebody on his roof -- I forget the details but it was pretty scary.
Had I seen any of them in public, I would have been 1000% too shy to even admit I recognized them, let alone stalk anyone.
Hey K Hale,
I remember reading that story in Manetti's book. My wife got it for me right when it came out. I've no idea if the writers of that episode were even aware of that story. Interesting thought though.
Living in the LA area and having worked briefly in the industry in the early to mid 90's, I was able to meet quite a few celebrities. I was generally meeting them in a work setting, so I had no qualms about talking to them. I did meet some in other places and have found that a simple "It's very nice to meet you. I'm a fan of your work." plus something specific that you enjoyed, works very well. We shake hands typically and I've never been rebuffed. For example, I met Clint Eastwood at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the early 90's and commented on Play Misty for Me, his directorial debut. He seemed genuinely pleased to hear mention of the 20+ year old (at the time) film.
I've told this story here before. I accidentally ran into Selleck at the NBC Studios in Burbank. He had an office there, but I was unaware of that at the time. I was there to meet with a producer about a production job and after I left his office in a small corridor, I looked down at the mail on the floor at the next door down and it said T. W. Selleck on one of the envelopes. I only paused a second to read it, but when I looked up, Selleck was coming around the corner so I met him for a moment. I said what I wrote above and commented on how I enjoyed Quigley Down Under. It had come out a few years earlier and not been a box office success. He shook hands, thanked me for the compliment and went into his office.
I have many other similar stories. If you get a chance, why not introduce yourself?
Pahonu,
Neat story! Thank you for sharing. My biggest kick meeting a celeb was when I met Buffalo Bob Smith at a car meet, Led East in Jersey, hit if off and he swore me in as a member of the Peanut Gallery.
His show was before my time, and this occurred in the 1990's, but my decade older brothers were all excited and totally envious I was now an official Peanut.
Just an aside, and I might have said this on Magnum Mania before, but as a kid my father encouraged me to write the still living great figures of WW 2.
I scored Omar Bradley, Jimmy Doolittle and Tito autographed pics.
I found if anyone has written a book, mention that if you are talking to or writing them, it's a ego stroke and makes them more receptive, not unlike you mentioning the stars prior work.
I also had from Field Marshal Montgomery a small beat up old field chess sent he sent me - he was always kind and encouraging to kids and helped the Scouts etc - but my brother's
loser waste of space buddy stole it. It was so cool, a Waterloo set. Shoot, I gotta let that go, I get so angry my blood pressure skyrockets whenever I think about it.
A chess set from Monty, wow! That’s sucks so hard it was stolen from you. I don’t blame you for still getting angry when your think about that. I can relate somewhat. I never got a gift like that, but I did write to lots of MLB players in the 70’s and 80’s as a kid. They sent signed photos mostly, but my favorite player ever, Willie Stargell, actually wrote me a short letter back. I cherished that letter but sadly it was lost along with other personal things during a move in college. Several boxes I stored at a friend’s place went missing.
I encouraged my daughter when she was younger to write to people she admired. She got a signed photo from the reggae musician Burning Spear and a signed baseball card from NL MVP Andrew McCutchen. She also wrote to the White House in 2009 and got a photo from President Obama. My wife and I adopted our two children when they were toddlers. They’re African American and we are not. They’re adults now, but we trying to encourage them as children to reach out to anyone they admired. My daughter still talks about it like we are right now. My son seemed totally disinterested and still seems to be. LOL!
That is a way cool name, "Burning Spear", if Nicole Kidman and I get together any time soon I will name our kid that. Stargell and McCutchen, you gotta be a Pirates fan, whoa, and I thought
Magnum had it bad rooting for Detroit.
I might have had something to do with my daughter choosing to write to Spear. He was a contemporary of Marley, from the same Parish of St. Anne’s. He’s in his 70’s now and no longer touring, but I saw him perform live more than a dozen times over the years including a farewell performance in LA. My daughter saw him live twice. I have all his studio albums, plus some live recordings totaling more than two dozen. I guess you could say I’m a fan. He took his stage name from the Kenyan freedom fighter Jomo Kenyatta.
Been a Bucs fan since they were great in the 70’s and won it all in 79. Been a little tough since then! 90-92 and 13-15 there was hope. Pretty sparse for 40 years though.
I saw this one last night and I have vague recollections of seeing this first time round, ie in the '80s.
Loved Milton's manic laughter which blended in well with the overall dark tone of the episode. While I'm no fan of Phil Collins (didn't he guest star in an episode of Miami Voice ?) or Genesis the track "Mama" did suit this story perfectly.
Like everyone else I was quick to pin it on the press guy (probably due to my dislike of hacks) and I was willing TM to give him a dam good thrashing or for Milton to waste him before TM could come to the rescue. My bad.
Such an amazing episode! The guy that played Milton Collins was great in this role, and very creepy. The episode reminded me of the Clint Eastwood movie "Dirty Harry", where Clint Eastwood hunts a deranged killer.
I always enjoy watching old Magnum, P.I. episodes because I remember all the filming locations from when I lived in Hawaii. In this episode, we see seedy downtown Honolulu, before it was renovated and cleaned up. We also see Sandy Beach, which hasn't changed at all since the 1980s. And we see also see the Waikiki War Natatorium, which was built in the 1920s and has historical significance, but the city doesn't know what to do with the place because it would cost a lot to renovate and maintain it, but at the same time, it would be a shame to demolish it and lose it forever.
I like the plot, although it is an often replicated trope of the villain idolizing the hero, only to turn on the hero when the hero rejects the villain (or doesn't remember the villain). We saw this in The "Incredibles" and in Amazing "Spider-Man 2".
Quite impressed with this one, left allot of questions for me. The twists and turns were great. Thomas's character development is great. This show was the way we saw the world then, was far better than today's Television writing/directing. Today may have allot of crisp edges and sharp looks, but they lack depth in the characters. Glad I'm watching these now, most of them for the first time. The Schnertz
“JQH: Sometimes you amaze me, Magnum, truly. Your intuitive grasp of human nature is so...so... TSM: Perceptive? JQH: Pre-adolescent.”
What a great episode. I am a massive fan of Film Noir, so this pushed all the right buttons for me. It was a hard one to rate however: as a stand alone thriller with connections to previous cases, it was excellent. As a Magnum PI, I am not sure given the absence of series regulars.
Milton Collins wrote: ↑Wed May 21, 2014 4:34 pm
I LOVE this episode (hence my screen name!!!). I think the Milton Collins character was fantasticly creepy yet creative and rather funny at the same time. I've always had so many questions regarding Milton's knowledge of Magnum's past and as I read many of the posts on here it gives some good insight into how he knew about certain things. Certainly he could have read about Laboules death and even his past military exploits as it all would have most likely come out when Magnum shot him. But how did he know that Philipe had served with Magnum? I have to think the ring, the car, and all the other Magnum likenesses were simply done from character study as he was clearly obsessed with Magnum and idolized him. Any thoughts anyone?
I too loved this episode. It had trajectory and momentum, without a lot of side-story distractions. I agree with your speculations about how Milton Collins knew about Magnum’s past - clearly, Milton was obsessed with Magnum and spent a great deal of time learning everything he could about him. But I wondered why Milton began murdering prostitutes. My speculation is that Magnum was wrong about Milton’s wife (someone else also suggested this) - she was having an affair with the artist painting her portrait. Milton idolized Magnum, as you suggest, but Magnum failed him. That conflict led to the crumbling of a key aspect of Milton’s life. As is apparent in this episode, Milton no longer appears to be married and lives in a seedy hotel in the red-light district. His life has degenerated to a subsistence level with revenge against whores as his temporary motivation for living.
for me. 
The twists and turns were great. Thomas's character development is great. This show was the way we saw the world then, was far better than today's Television writing/directing. Today may have allot of crisp edges and sharp looks, but they lack depth in the characters. Glad I'm watching these now, most of them for the first time. 
The Schnertz