Infinity and Jelly Doughnuts (8.1)

[Pahonu]

Good episode, especially after the show "ended" after season 7. I am torn about season 8, I am glad there was another season and that TM wasn't killed off. But I also think it might have been better to end it with his death. Its funny, by 1987, Magnum was trying really hard to be like Miami Vice, with the darker episodes and the music. I kinda like it, but I also kinda don't. I know that makes no sense.

I know there were many good reasons to have a Season 8, not least among them more paydays for the crew that had done all the groundwork that made Tom Selleck famous and wealthy. But I’ve always felt that Magnum really ended with Limbo. It was a nice, clean, if sad, ending. Season 8 is a rump Yugoslavia put together with disjointed bits and pieces. The only thing that (partially) saves it is the story line where Lily ends up with Thomas. (And I’m ambivalent about the going back in the Navy aspect.) When people ask me how many seasons of Magnum there were, I reply “Seven.” It’s probably why it’s taken me more than two years to start working on Season 8 after posting the Magnumometer on Limbo on Jan 13, 2023.

I have similar feelings of ambivalence. The season 7 finale was the finale for those who watched it live, and it was excellent. Yes it was sad, but also well done and not typical for the era. That said, when a shortened season eight was later announced, most people were excited to have it back and I recall discussions about how that could be done.

I thought it a very odd season at the time because it jumped back and forth between very serious topics, Infinity and Jelly Doughnuts, Tiger’s Fan, The Love that Lies, and Unfinished Business, and some absolutely silly and completely fluffy episodes. Yes, previous seasons had both kinds of episodes, but this one’s back and forth seemed much more so. I remember reading the TV Guide to see what was coming up that week and you could tell by the descriptions which it was. Still, as I said before, most fans were just glad to have it back. I do personally feel that Limbo was a better episode than Resolutions though.

[ENSHealy]

Okay,we watched this over the Thanksgiving holiday and I noticed a flub: In TC's office, after the intruder snuck out with the photo and TC gets on the phone with his family back in LA, did anyone else notice that TC's t-shirt changed colors? He walks in wearing a white Island Hoppers shirt, then there is a cut to a different camera angle and now he is wearing a light blue shirt! Also, initially the lighting in his office is subdued, lit only by a desk lamp. But after the angle change, the office is now well lit, as if all the lights were on.

I think the shirt is actually light blue the whole time, it just looks white due to the low light in the earlier part of the scene.

OCD being what it is, I went back and took another look at this. I still think the shirt is blue through the whole scene, and the impression that it is white comes from the low lighting in the first part of the scene. In fact, you can tell that the scene was filmed in at least two different parts, perhaps on different days, because the blinds behind T.C. are open flat in the first, less well-lit part of the scene, and then they are partially tilted closed in the second, brighter-lit half. So doing different shots for the same scene on different days may account for the lighting difference.




Also, if it is a white shirt in the first half of the scene, it’s a white shirt with a black or navy logo. I went back through my inventory of Island Hopper shirts, and did not find a white shirt with a dark (black or navy) logo. Later in this episode, T.C. wears a white Island Hoppers shirt, but the logo is brown, and the shirt is more a creamy off-white:



T.C. has worn white or white-ish Island Hoppers shirts before, but either the white hasn’t been the same shade as the one in this scene, or the logo has been lighter.



Granted, this is the first episode of a new season, so it could be a new shirt, but after looking at all the photos of similar shirts, I still think in this scene T.C. is wearing a light blue shirt with dark logo throughout, and the difference in color perception is due to lighting. In short, having now thoroughly beaten this dead horse, I think T.C. is wearing this shirt, which has appeared in previous episodes:



Here's a look at the scene:

[ENSHealy]

EPISODE: 8.1 Infinity and Jelly Doughnuts

Famous guest stars: 1 Gwen Verdon

Hawaiian shirts: 1

Tigers Cap:
Island Hopper shirts: 2

Shirtless Magnum:
OMG: 1
Higgins Organizations:
Higgins musings: 1
Negotiations:
Gun Play:
Bullet wounds:
Body Count (by Magnum):
Little Voice:
I know what you’re thinking:
When I write HTBAWCPI:
Investigator corrections:
4th wall breaks:
Magnumometer:
Magnumometer Moments: 5.5



I know it’s one of those “suspend disbelief” things, but how the hell does “Father Timothy” manage to become the hospital chaplain just as TM is in ICU there. Surely he was planning on Thomas being killed by his goons, yet he somehow is in place at the right hospital just at the right time when TM survives? Or is security just so lax at the hospital that any dude in a clerical collar can just hang around the place saving souls?

While we’re on the subject, how does “Father Timothy” get out of T.C.’s office without running into T.C.? We see “Father Timothy’s” flashlight heading in the direction of the office door, then turn off, and almost immediately T.C. opens the office door. They would have run smack into each other. I suppose we are to assume a time elapses in the instant when the screen is dark, but I would have liked something more definitive.

In the warehouse, Quang Ki is firing a machine gun with a suppressor, but the shots do not sound suppressed, they sound like regular machine gun sound effects, at least to my years.

[ENSHealy]

In this episode, while Thomas is rehabbing at the VA, Rick mentions that he has picked up three movies for them to watch (presumably to get try to get TM away from obsessing about trying to recover his memories of the shooting): Stalag 17, A Thousand Clowns, and the Magnificent Seven. It was probably just me not being familiar with enough "old" movies, but A Thousand Clowns always seemed to be an oddball in that list.

Then, while re-reading You Never Know, I came across the passage below. Some of the references may seem odd if you haven't read the rest of the book leading up to this excerpt (Curt is the acting teacher) but the main point will come across. As quick background, TS is in the new talent program at Fox, but has been struggling in the acting classes:

When I was a senior in high school, at the start of basketball practice, I was eighth man on the team. I had two things going for me: I wasn't afraid to fail, and I was willing to work. By the beginning of the season, I was a starter and team captain. Same thing at Valley College: I ended up starting. It didn't quite work out that way at USC, but I did earn a scholarship for my last semester. Sports had taught me the value of perseverance, and so it was with Curt and the talent program. I might have been frustrated, but I wasn't bored. By now I was prepared to just put one foot in front of the other and enjoy the ride, wherever it took me. It sure as hell wasn't going to take me to Quantitative Analysis 2.

I decided to step off the grid, so to speak. I loved movies and obviously spent too many nights going to them when I should have been studying. I remembered a movie I saw back at USC, Herb Gardner's A Thousand Clowns: I loved it so much I went back and saw it again the next night. It told the story of Murray Burns, an eccentric comedy writer who had to conform to society to retain legal custody of his nephew. Yes, it was a comedy. But it made me laugh and cry, often both at the same time.

We were doing scenes from plays in class. I thought, Maybe A Thousand Clowns was a play. I drove to Samuel French, the source for all plays good and bad. They had it! It was a play! I bought two copies. I asked my pal Linda Peck to step off the grid with me. She did and displayed the same natural gifts to suspend disbelief. I may have accidentally forgotten to ask Curt if I could work on two scenes at once.

Linda and I put it up as a surprise. Curt was impressed by our initiative. For the first time, I fully enjoyed the ride. And for some reason, I think I understood the why of it.

This time Curt started with me. "Tom, that was really very good." Then, in a gentle way, he said, "Why are you doing this? You will never be cast as Murray Burns. Frankly, Tom, you need to understand your instrument." And there it was! "When you walk in the door, here's what you bring: a young, six-feet-four-inch, good-looking leading man. At some level, you have to deliver that."

To which I answered, "I don't want to get you mad at me, boss. But I like this guy."

Everything that Curt said made absolute sense to me. And he was right to assign me scenes that would, as he put it, make me stretch. But in doing what was right for those characters, I was doing something that was out of character for me. That was a problem. I was kind of at war with my instrument. I didn't really mind the feeling of failing as long as I learned something, and I had actually learned something from what Curt told me. But I still liked this guy. I liked Murray Burns.

So the Thousand Clowns reference in this episode makes a lot more sense now. I also wasn't aware that Tom Selleck had done A Thousand Clowns on Broadway in 2001, but discovered this by searching the forum for A Thousand Clowns before posting this, to see if anyone else had already posted about the mention in the book. Just another tiny wrinkle that makes the episode more interesting. But who knows, maybe Chris Abbott just liked A Thousand Clowns too and it it was all just a coincidence.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

In this episode, while Thomas is rehabbing at the VA, Rick mentions that he has picked up three movies for them to watch (presumably to get try to get TM away from obsessing about trying to recover his memories of the shooting): Stalag 17, A Thousand Clowns, and the Magnificent Seven. It was probably just me not being familiar with enough "old" movies, but A Thousand Clowns always seemed to be an oddball in that list.

Then, while re-reading You Never Know, I came across the passage below. Some of the references may seem odd if you haven't read the rest of the book leading up to this excerpt (Curt is the acting teacher) but the main point will come across. As quick background, TS is in the new talent program at Fox, but has been struggling in the acting classes:

When I was a senior in high school, at the start of basketball practice, I was eighth man on the team. I had two things going for me: I wasn't afraid to fail, and I was willing to work. By the beginning of the season, I was a starter and team captain. Same thing at Valley College: I ended up starting. It didn't quite work out that way at USC, but I did earn a scholarship for my last semester. Sports had taught me the value of perseverance, and so it was with Curt and the talent program. I might have been frustrated, but I wasn't bored. By now I was prepared to just put one foot in front of the other and enjoy the ride, wherever it took me. It sure as hell wasn't going to take me to Quantitative Analysis 2.

I decided to step off the grid, so to speak. I loved movies and obviously spent too many nights going to them when I should have been studying. I remembered a movie I saw back at USC, Herb Gardner's A Thousand Clowns: I loved it so much I went back and saw it again the next night. It told the story of Murray Burns, an eccentric comedy writer who had to conform to society to retain legal custody of his nephew. Yes, it was a comedy. But it made me laugh and cry, often both at the same time.

We were doing scenes from plays in class. I thought, Maybe A Thousand Clowns was a play. I drove to Samuel French, the source for all plays good and bad. They had it! It was a play! I bought two copies. I asked my pal Linda Peck to step off the grid with me. She did and displayed the same natural gifts to suspend disbelief. I may have accidentally forgotten to ask Curt if I could work on two scenes at once.

Linda and I put it up as a surprise. Curt was impressed by our initiative. For the first time, I fully enjoyed the ride. And for some reason, I think I understood the why of it.

This time Curt started with me. "Tom, that was really very good." Then, in a gentle way, he said, "Why are you doing this? You will never be cast as Murray Burns. Frankly, Tom, you need to understand your instrument." And there it was! "When you walk in the door, here's what you bring: a young, six-feet-four-inch, good-looking leading man. At some level, you have to deliver that."

To which I answered, "I don't want to get you mad at me, boss. But I like this guy."

Everything that Curt said made absolute sense to me. And he was right to assign me scenes that would, as he put it, make me stretch. But in doing what was right for those characters, I was doing something that was out of character for me. That was a problem. I was kind of at war with my instrument. I didn't really mind the feeling of failing as long as I learned something, and I had actually learned something from what Curt told me. But I still liked this guy. I liked Murray Burns.

So the Thousand Clowns reference in this episode makes a lot more sense now. I also wasn't aware that Tom Selleck had done A Thousand Clowns on Broadway in 2001, but discovered this by searching the forum for A Thousand Clowns before posting this, to see if anyone else had already posted about the mention in the book. Just another tiny wrinkle that makes the episode more interesting. But who knows, maybe Chris Abbott just liked A Thousand Clowns too and it it was all just a coincidence.

Herb Gardner made no secret of the fact that "A Thousand Clowns" was based on his buddy Jean Shepherd, comic radio legend, author of A Christmas Story -"you'll shoot your eye out" - and
classmate of my mom at Hammond High. I saw the movie before I knew of the Shep connection, and thought to myself this has gotta be a take on him.

Paddy Cheyefskyin part based his now immortal network news anchor in "Network" on Shep, the classic scene of Peter Finch leaning out the window and yelling "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to
take it anymore" was right from Shep. He'd tell his WOR radio listeners to do exactly that, but mom put the kibosh on any thought of doing that in our neighborhood.

"He really formed my entire comedic sensibility. I learned how to do comedy from Jean Shepherd."
- Jerry Seinfeld