Hawaii Five-O: Any Fans?

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

"The voice sounded kinda like it came from McGarrett – and why not? Jack Lord was standing next to me . . . What I saw was a gracious, respectful, and somewhat formal man who chose
to be there when he could have been on the beach at the Kahala condos."
Selleck, Tom. You Never Know: A Memoir. New York: Dey Street Books, 2024, p. 183.

The bottom link is from the Remembering Jack Lord site

Put in your search engine: Five-0 Headquarters | Remember Jack Lord

The link covers not just the usual stuff about McGarrett's office but the furnishings and is well done -

The Art in McGarrett's Office. ​The Great Tea Race of 1866 was one of several paintings done by English artist Montague Dawson to commemorate...
The early Hawaiian warrior prints in Steve's office were made from drawings...
Michael Mercator’s Antique Map hangs on the side wall of McGarrett's office, over his model sailing ship...
See also: http://www.hawaiifive0.org/painting.shtml

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"Boy just when everything's okay, there's always something to mess you up."
...Beaver Cleaver, reflecting on life.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Book him, Danno. 278 counts of plagiarism.

The screenplay credits on IMDb for Hawaii Five-O curiously give top billing to producer Howard Freeman, often giving secondary or no credit to the true author(s) of a given episode.

How was this possible? I'm glad you asked.
 
Author Nat Segaloff in his bio on Stirling "Route 66" Silliphant described how Silliphant and other TV scribes were often cheated in regards to screen credit -

"Most of his scripts were works for hire under a controversial provision imposed  by U.S. Copyright law(alone in the world) that deems the employer
to be the author of a registered work, not the person who actually creates it."

And that's how Freeman grabbed 278 screenplay credits for himself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Eric Vornoff:
Home? I have no home. Hunted, despised, living like an animal! The jungle is my home. And I will show the world that I can be its master!
I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world!
Bride of The Monster (1956) (Bela Lugosi)

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Book him, Danno. 278 counts of plagiarism.

The screenplay credits on IMDb for Hawaii Five-O curiously give top billing to producer Howard Freeman, often giving secondary or no credit to the true author(s) of a given episode.

How was this possible? I'm glad you asked.
 
Author Nat Segaloff in his bio on Stirling "Route 66" Silliphant described how Silliphant and other TV scribes were often cheated in regards to screen credit -

"Most of his scripts were works for hire under a controversial provision imposed  by U.S. Copyright law(alone in the world) that deems the employer
to be the author of a registered work, not the person who actually creates it."

And that's how Freeman grabbed 278 screenplay credits for himself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Eric Vornoff:
Home? I have no home. Hunted, despised, living like an animal! The jungle is my home. And I will show the world that I can be its master!
I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world!
Bride of The Monster (1956) (Bela Lugosi)

I don't know how accurate IMDB credits are but I know for a fact that Leonard Freeman only penned a handful of episodes during the entire series run, including of course the pilot episode "Cocoon". I also know that each episode gave credit to the writer(s) who wrote that particular episode, not Freeman. Freeman was listed as executive producer on each episode but that's about it. I don't recall him receiving any writing credits, except for the few episodes that he actually wrote for. So whatever IMDB says is not accurate. I have noticed that sometimes they will stick the creator of a show under the "Writer" section where it looks like he wrote all the episodes. Check out Stephen J. Cannell - he's listed under "Writer" for Rockford Files for every episode (which of course he didn't write every episode) but in parentheses it says "(creator)".

EDIT: Actually I just looked up Leonard Freeman on IMDB and yes under Writer it lists all 281 episodes for him but if you check you'll see that almost next to all of these episodes it says "created by (creator)" so these are all his creator credits, not writing credits. But next to "Cocoon" and "Once Upon a Time" you'll see it says "created by, written by (creator)". So these are the episodes that he actually wrote for. I know, it sucks that IMDB doesn't just have a separate section for Creator instead of lumping it together with Writer.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Book him, Danno. 278 counts of plagiarism.

The screenplay credits on IMDb for Hawaii Five-O curiously give top billing to producer Howard Freeman, often giving secondary or no credit to the true author(s) of a given episode.

How was this possible? I'm glad you asked.
 
Author Nat Segaloff in his bio on Stirling "Route 66" Silliphant described how Silliphant and other TV scribes were often cheated in regards to screen credit -

"Most of his scripts were works for hire under a controversial provision imposed  by U.S. Copyright law(alone in the world) that deems the employer
to be the author of a registered work, not the person who actually creates it."

And that's how Freeman grabbed 278 screenplay credits for himself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Eric Vornoff:
Home? I have no home. Hunted, despised, living like an animal! The jungle is my home. And I will show the world that I can be its master!
I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world!
Bride of The Monster (1956) (Bela Lugosi)

I don't know how accurate IMDB credits are but I know for a fact that Leonard Freeman only penned a handful of episodes during the entire series run, including of course the pilot episode "Cocoon". I also know that each episode gave credit to the writer(s) who wrote that particular episode, not Freeman. Freeman was listed as executive producer on each episode but that's about it. I don't recall him receiving any writing credits, except for the few episodes that he actually wrote for. So whatever IMDB says is not accurate. I have noticed that sometimes they will stick the creator of a show under the "Writer" section where it looks like he wrote all the episodes. Check out Stephen J. Cannell - he's listed under "Writer" for Rockford Files for every episode (which of course he didn't write every episode) but in parentheses it says "(creator)".

EDIT: Actually I just looked up Leonard Freeman on IMDB and yes under Writer it lists all 281 episodes for him but if you check you'll see that almost next to all of these episodes it says "created by (creator)" so these are all his creator credits, not writing credits. But next to "Cocoon" and "Once Upon a Time" you'll see it says "created by, written by (creator)". So these are the episodes that he actually wrote for. I know, it sucks that IMDB doesn't just have a separate section for Creator instead of lumping it together with Writer.

Ivan,
I just noticed your post as for awhile I haven't been getting a notice from Magnum Mania when a reply appears on a thread I posted on. Are you having that problem as well?

I get your point and I understand in a given episode's end credits on TV the actual writers are listed. But in legal terms, for ownership of the revenue streams resulting from the creation of a screenplay,
Freeman is the author(and took the money?), and IMDb honors that. Perhaps to cover themselves legally, IMDb's lawyers are dotting every i and crossing every t and making sure Freeman gets his legally
entitled credit.
In any event this is a terrible law, I suspect it was made as a result of the big studios pressure when they wielded tremendous power in the 1st 40 years of movie making.

I wonder though if  not all  producers took advantage of the law and instead acted ethically.
For instance the following two episodes were written by Ken Pettus, the second one a direct remake of the first.
You will note the Hawaiian Eye producer Charles Hoffman isn't listed by IMDb as author in the first version of the story, perhaps he didn't insist on asserting his rights as "writer"
at the time to grab up all the royalties and thus IMDb doesn't list him.
IMDb listing -
Hawaiian Eye episode "Somewhere There's Music"(10-9-62) Written by Ken Pettus
Hawaii Five-O episode "The Guarnerius Caper" (10-14-70) Written by Leonard Freeman and Ken Pettus.

By the way I think Leonard Freeman did a terrific job on Hawaii Five-O, I have a lot of respect for him assembling all the elements that went into one of my all time favorite series.
I just wish we had a lawyer here to somehow clarify if Freeman did use that law - which he was entitled to - or if by the late 1960's most producers wouldn't take any future royalties
or credit from the writers.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Book him, Danno. 278 counts of plagiarism.

The screenplay credits on IMDb for Hawaii Five-O curiously give top billing to producer Howard Freeman, often giving secondary or no credit to the true author(s) of a given episode.

How was this possible? I'm glad you asked.
 
Author Nat Segaloff in his bio on Stirling "Route 66" Silliphant described how Silliphant and other TV scribes were often cheated in regards to screen credit -

"Most of his scripts were works for hire under a controversial provision imposed  by U.S. Copyright law(alone in the world) that deems the employer
to be the author of a registered work, not the person who actually creates it."

And that's how Freeman grabbed 278 screenplay credits for himself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Eric Vornoff:
Home? I have no home. Hunted, despised, living like an animal! The jungle is my home. And I will show the world that I can be its master!
I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world!
Bride of The Monster (1956) (Bela Lugosi)

I don't know how accurate IMDB credits are but I know for a fact that Leonard Freeman only penned a handful of episodes during the entire series run, including of course the pilot episode "Cocoon". I also know that each episode gave credit to the writer(s) who wrote that particular episode, not Freeman. Freeman was listed as executive producer on each episode but that's about it. I don't recall him receiving any writing credits, except for the few episodes that he actually wrote for. So whatever IMDB says is not accurate. I have noticed that sometimes they will stick the creator of a show under the "Writer" section where it looks like he wrote all the episodes. Check out Stephen J. Cannell - he's listed under "Writer" for Rockford Files for every episode (which of course he didn't write every episode) but in parentheses it says "(creator)".

EDIT: Actually I just looked up Leonard Freeman on IMDB and yes under Writer it lists all 281 episodes for him but if you check you'll see that almost next to all of these episodes it says "created by (creator)" so these are all his creator credits, not writing credits. But next to "Cocoon" and "Once Upon a Time" you'll see it says "created by, written by (creator)". So these are the episodes that he actually wrote for. I know, it sucks that IMDB doesn't just have a separate section for Creator instead of lumping it together with Writer.

Ivan,
I just noticed your post as for awhile I haven't been getting a notice from Magnum Mania when a reply appears on a thread I posted on. Are you having that problem as well?

I get your point and I understand in a given episode's end credits on TV the actual writers are listed. But in legal terms, for ownership of the revenue streams resulting from the creation of a screenplay,
Freeman is the author(and took the money?), and IMDb honors that. Perhaps to cover themselves legally, IMDb's lawyers are dotting every i and crossing every t and making sure Freeman gets his legally
entitled credit.
In any event this is a terrible law, I suspect it was made as a result of the big studios pressure when they wielded tremendous power in the 1st 40 years of movie making.

I wonder though if  not all  producers took advantage of the law and instead acted ethically.
For instance the following two episodes were written by Ken Pettus, the second one a direct remake of the first.
You will note the Hawaiian Eye producer Charles Hoffman isn't listed by IMDb as author in the first version of the story, perhaps he didn't insist on asserting his rights as "writer"
at the time to grab up all the royalties and thus IMDb doesn't list him.
IMDb listing -
Hawaiian Eye episode "Somewhere There's Music"(10-9-62) Written by Ken Pettus
Hawaii Five-O episode "The Guarnerius Caper" (10-14-70) Written by Leonard Freeman and Ken Pettus.

By the way I think Leonard Freeman did a terrific job on Hawaii Five-O, I have a lot of respect for him assembling all the elements that went into one of my all time favorite series.
I just wish we had a lawyer here to somehow clarify if Freeman did use that law - which he was entitled to - or if by the late 1960's most producers wouldn't take any future royalties
or credit from the writers.

Hey Dobie, nope I've been getting notifications no problem here on Magnum-Mania.

But anyway I'm not sure where you got the following from: Hawaii Five-O episode "The Guarnerius Caper" (10-14-70) Written by Leonard Freeman and Ken Pettus.

On IMDB for the episode I see the following:

Written by

Leonard Freeman ... (created by) (creator)

Ken Pettus ... (written by)


Like I said, they'll stick the producer under the "Written By" section but they'll specify that he's the creator in this case (not just of this episode, but the whole show) and the sole writer is Ken Pettus.

I even just checked the episode itself and there's no mention of Freeman as writer at the beginning credits or end credits. In fact Mr. Mike on his site has already done an exhaustive job for every episode by listing the opening credits and end credits for each episode (as they appear on screen in each episode).
Here's the beginning credits for this episode: https://www.fiveohomepage.com/season3/3-53-opening.htm
And the end credits: https://www.fiveohomepage.com/season3/3-53-credits.htm

I think IMDB is just lousy with the way it categorizes certain credits. I really don't think it's done this way to give Freeman any kind of writing ownership of each episode. At the end of the day IMDB is just an information site. It's not some kind of binding contract. The actual credits in the episode itself would be the actual "Bible" in this case as to who gets credit for what. And Freeman's name is not there as a writer. He only gets Executive Producer credit.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Book him, Danno. 278 counts of plagiarism.

The screenplay credits on IMDb for Hawaii Five-O curiously give top billing to producer Howard Freeman, often giving secondary or no credit to the true author(s) of a given episode.

How was this possible? I'm glad you asked.
 
Author Nat Segaloff in his bio on Stirling "Route 66" Silliphant described how Silliphant and other TV scribes were often cheated in regards to screen credit -

"Most of his scripts were works for hire under a controversial provision imposed  by U.S. Copyright law(alone in the world) that deems the employer
to be the author of a registered work, not the person who actually creates it."

And that's how Freeman grabbed 278 screenplay credits for himself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Eric Vornoff:
Home? I have no home. Hunted, despised, living like an animal! The jungle is my home. And I will show the world that I can be its master!
I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world!
Bride of The Monster (1956) (Bela Lugosi)

I don't know how accurate IMDB credits are but I know for a fact that Leonard Freeman only penned a handful of episodes during the entire series run, including of course the pilot episode "Cocoon". I also know that each episode gave credit to the writer(s) who wrote that particular episode, not Freeman. Freeman was listed as executive producer on each episode but that's about it. I don't recall him receiving any writing credits, except for the few episodes that he actually wrote for. So whatever IMDB says is not accurate. I have noticed that sometimes they will stick the creator of a show under the "Writer" section where it looks like he wrote all the episodes. Check out Stephen J. Cannell - he's listed under "Writer" for Rockford Files for every episode (which of course he didn't write every episode) but in parentheses it says "(creator)".

EDIT: Actually I just looked up Leonard Freeman on IMDB and yes under Writer it lists all 281 episodes for him but if you check you'll see that almost next to all of these episodes it says "created by (creator)" so these are all his creator credits, not writing credits. But next to "Cocoon" and "Once Upon a Time" you'll see it says "created by, written by (creator)". So these are the episodes that he actually wrote for. I know, it sucks that IMDB doesn't just have a separate section for Creator instead of lumping it together with Writer.

Ivan,
I just noticed your post as for awhile I haven't been getting a notice from Magnum Mania when a reply appears on a thread I posted on. Are you having that problem as well?

I get your point and I understand in a given episode's end credits on TV the actual writers are listed. But in legal terms, for ownership of the revenue streams resulting from the creation of a screenplay,
Freeman is the author(and took the money?), and IMDb honors that. Perhaps to cover themselves legally, IMDb's lawyers are dotting every i and crossing every t and making sure Freeman gets his legally
entitled credit.
In any event this is a terrible law, I suspect it was made as a result of the big studios pressure when they wielded tremendous power in the 1st 40 years of movie making.

I wonder though if  not all  producers took advantage of the law and instead acted ethically.
For instance the following two episodes were written by Ken Pettus, the second one a direct remake of the first.
You will note the Hawaiian Eye producer Charles Hoffman isn't listed by IMDb as author in the first version of the story, perhaps he didn't insist on asserting his rights as "writer"
at the time to grab up all the royalties and thus IMDb doesn't list him.
IMDb listing -
Hawaiian Eye episode "Somewhere There's Music"(10-9-62) Written by Ken Pettus
Hawaii Five-O episode "The Guarnerius Caper" (10-14-70) Written by Leonard Freeman and Ken Pettus.

By the way I think Leonard Freeman did a terrific job on Hawaii Five-O, I have a lot of respect for him assembling all the elements that went into one of my all time favorite series.
I just wish we had a lawyer here to somehow clarify if Freeman did use that law - which he was entitled to - or if by the late 1960's most producers wouldn't take any future royalties
or credit from the writers.

Hey Dobie, nope I've been getting notifications no problem here on Magnum-Mania.

But anyway I'm not sure where you got the following from: Hawaii Five-O episode "The Guarnerius Caper" (10-14-70) Written by Leonard Freeman and Ken Pettus.

On IMDB for the episode I see the following:

Written by

Leonard Freeman ... (created by) (creator)

Ken Pettus ... (written by)


Like I said, they'll stick the producer under the "Written By" section but they'll specify that he's the creator in this case (not just of this episode, but the whole show) and the sole writer is Ken Pettus.

I even just checked the episode itself and there's no mention of Freeman as writer at the beginning credits or end credits. In fact Mr. Mike on his site has already done an exhaustive job for every episode by listing the opening credits and end credits for each episode (as they appear on screen in each episode).
Here's the beginning credits for this episode: https://www.fiveohomepage.com/season3/3-53-opening.htm
And the end credits: https://www.fiveohomepage.com/season3/3-53-credits.htm

I think IMDB is just lousy with the way it categorizes certain credits. I really don't think it's done this way to give Freeman any kind of writing ownership of each episode. At the end of the day IMDB is just an information site. It's not some kind of binding contract. The actual credits in the episode itself would be the actual "Bible" in this case as to who gets credit for what. And Freeman's name is not there as a writer. He only gets Executive Producer credit.

Ivan,
I am glad you are getting updates from MM but I no longer do, and I haven't touched any of my settings. So if I don't respond fairly quickly to any posts directed at me, it's not a matter of me being rude.
I may never know they even occurred.

I believe you and Mr. Mike when you say in the episodes themselves' end credits there is no writing credit for Freeman and he didn't steal authorship, in public.
I am just saying that in the world that IMDb inhabits, it goes by the absolute letter of the law I cited above, and gives credit to Freeman, as in Law he is entitled to credit. By doing this it may be making
sure it is keeping happy all the studios/producers it must currently deal with - who no doubt are still reaping benefits from that law - that provide access to their data/archives etc. that IMDb needs to do its job.
While back in the real world as you and Mike demonstrate, Ken Pettus is the undoubted author of the episode. As Billy Shakes said, "the law is an ass", and this law needlessly causes
confusion, as well as unfairly - uniquely in the world - assigning ownership of the screenplays to the producers/studios.

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Maltese Falcon (1941)
Wilmer Cook: "Keep on riding me and they’re going to be picking iron out of your liver."
Sam Spade: "The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter."

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Here's an interesting article about why we appreciate and are drawn to old shows like Five-O (and Mannix and others) over the so-called more "realistic" dramas of today.

https://www.itsabouttv.com/2024/05/real ... ility.html

Thanks to Mr. Mike for sending me this.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Here's an interesting article about why we appreciate and are drawn to old shows like Five-O (and Mannix and others) over the so-called more "realistic" dramas of today.
https://www.itsabouttv.com/2024/05/real ... ility.html
Thanks to Mr. Mike for sending me this.

"...the growth of ensemble television, and the concurrent fact that casting a single actor as the star of a regular series, a la Mannix,
with only a supporting cast, would probably be prohibitively expensive, unless you're HBO or Netflix."
Ivan,
This guy is good, I'll be revisiting the site. Thank you for sharing.

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Jonathan Quayle Higgins III:
I have studied Aristotle, Socrates, William Friedrich Hegel, Bertrand Russell. I have toured college campuses debating the virtues of dialectic versus symbolic syllogism.
I have written scholarly articles on the need for a new, more dynamic logic. But nothing in my life has prepared me for the workings of the Thomas Magnum mind.