GREAT article about Magnum by Collider.

[Styles Bitchley]

What a hilarious digression from that article into who can lay claim to possessing the goods in the iconic tidal pool shot. My money is on Teddie Bear needing to back up a bar bet that his wife or some relative is, in fact, the possessor of the perfect posterior.

And just to know that Pahonu was a stand in for Hasselhoff in his Baywatch days...he must have a fine physique himself!

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

https://collider.com/magnum-pi-1980-why-its-good/

This article speaks volumes about what makes this still so special. The reboot couldn't truly compete or top what Selleck, Bellasario and Co created.

Darn good article, thank you. However, this part -

"The A-Team and MacGyver, for example, were world travelers, leaving behind the stuffy offices and overused backdrops."

Left behind the overused backdrops? World travelers? More often lensed on the the Universal backlot than not.
One Adam-12 episode has Reed and Malloy chasing after a bad guy thru the various Universal backlots, the viewer will recognize many settings used on 60's, 70's and on into the 80's and more TV series.
The European set must have been used in half of the "Run For Your Life" episodes, also on a Rockford Files when Jim goes overseas.

The Universal Tour is a lot of fun, I really enjoyed seeing the Beaver Cleaver homestead, I was hoping June would come out in her pearls and serve we tourists some lemonade.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

https://collider.com/magnum-pi-1980-why-its-good/

This article speaks volumes about what makes this still so special. The reboot couldn't truly compete or top what Selleck, Bellasario and Co created.

Darn good article, thank you. However, this part -

"The A-Team and MacGyver, for example, were world travelers, leaving behind the stuffy offices and overused backdrops."

Left behind the overused backdrops? World travelers? More often lensed on the the Universal backlot than not.
One Adam-12 episode has Reed and Malloy chasing after a bad guy thru the various Universal backlots, the viewer will recognize many settings used on 60's, 70's and on into the 80's and more TV series.
The European set must have been used in half of the "Run For Your Life" episodes, also on a Rockford Files when Jim goes overseas.

The Universal Tour is a lot of fun, I really enjoyed seeing the Beaver Cleaver homestead, I was hoping June would come out in her pearls and serve we tourists some lemonade.

This is true of The A-Team (and most other shows of that era). Lots of episodes required the team to fly somewhere (remember B.A.'s fear of flying where they constantly had to knock him out or drug him?) and yet they never left California. One episode they were in Africa but in actuality somewhere in the California boonies (was it Santa Clarita?) and another they were in South America but in actuality in the Bronson caves area in Griffith Park. Another they flew to Miami but it was all shot around Long Beach and Santa Monica. So not only did they not leave the country but they didn't even leave the state! But to the A-Team's credit though at least they didn't use any of those sets that became so recognizable and that were such a staple of 60s and 70s shows. It's pretty jarring to see episodes of T.J. Hooker where you can plainly tell that it's not a street in L.A. but a "street set" on the backlot. When this was done on Mannix or Ironside you could kinda forgive it. But by the 80s it just seemed really "old hat" to do that.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

https://collider.com/magnum-pi-1980-why-its-good/

This article speaks volumes about what makes this still so special. The reboot couldn't truly compete or top what Selleck, Bellasario and Co created.

Darn good article, thank you. However, this part -

"The A-Team and MacGyver, for example, were world travelers, leaving behind the stuffy offices and overused backdrops."

Left behind the overused backdrops? World travelers? More often lensed on the the Universal backlot than not.
One Adam-12 episode has Reed and Malloy chasing after a bad guy thru the various Universal backlots, the viewer will recognize many settings used on 60's, 70's and on into the 80's and more TV series.
The European set must have been used in half of the "Run For Your Life" episodes, also on a Rockford Files when Jim goes overseas.

The Universal Tour is a lot of fun, I really enjoyed seeing the Beaver Cleaver homestead, I was hoping June would come out in her pearls and serve we tourists some lemonade.

This is true of The A-Team (and most other shows of that era). Lots of episodes required the team to fly somewhere (remember B.A.'s fear of flying where they constantly had to knock him out or drug him?) and yet they never left California. One episode they were in Africa but in actuality somewhere in the California boonies (was it Santa Clarita?) and another they were in South America but in actuality in the Bronson caves area in Griffith Park. Another they flew to Miami but it was all shot around Long Beach and Santa Monica. So not only did they not leave the country but they didn't even leave the state! But to the A-Team's credit though at least they didn't use any of those sets that became so recognizable and that were such a staple of 60s and 70s shows. It's pretty jarring to see episodes of T.J. Hooker where you can plainly tell that it's not a street in L.A. but a "street set" on the backlot. When this was done on Mannix or Ironside you could kinda forgive it. But by the 80s it just seemed really "old hat" to do that.

Ivan.
It never occurred to me before but now that you mention it, modern series seem to hardly use the old backlots. It would be a huge money saver to use them, and while savvy TV mavens like you notice
when a scene is shot at the studio backlot, I think most citizen(in the sense they only casually note the production aspects) types would be engrossed in the magic of the story telling as an
episode unfolded and not notice such things.
I can't count the number of times Mannix didn't even bother to go outside to a backlot, but shot over and over in the same studio warehouse, complete with many criss crossing overhead catwalks
for mounting cameras and lights. Only in Mannix World did crooks constantly meet in warehouses.
Combat! and Man From UNCLE shared the same two studio lots, the French Village/Lot 2 and Lot 1. According to www.CombatFan.com this arrangement drove UNCLE producer Sam Rolfe crazy,
when it was their turn to use the French Village it invariably had blown up sections that first had to be repaired, courtesy of the Combat! people.
The www.CombatFan.com site is very well done and worth a look. Combat! has more than held up over the years, it's first rate, but the last year, the only one in color, for some reason I
can't put my finger on isn't as good as the first 4 seasons in black and white. Combat! was the only WW 2 TV show my veteran father and uncles enjoyed, the others would always cause
them to hoot in disgust.
The Battle of the Bulge movie, with a big armored battle scene in a desert at one point, would always set my father off - "look, it's the Great Desert of Luxembourg and Eastern France!
I remember that scrap like it was yesterday, they issued us camels to replace our Sherman tanks."
Boy, did I go off on a tangent here. I better go find an interesting Magnum article for this thread. Come to think of it, was any episode shot on a studio backlot in Hawaii?
My impression was it was all location shoots. Besides the interior shots of course. I assume the inside of TM's quarters were a studio set, or am I wrong?

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

https://collider.com/magnum-pi-1980-why-its-good/

This article speaks volumes about what makes this still so special. The reboot couldn't truly compete or top what Selleck, Bellasario and Co created.

Darn good article, thank you. However, this part -

"The A-Team and MacGyver, for example, were world travelers, leaving behind the stuffy offices and overused backdrops."

Left behind the overused backdrops? World travelers? More often lensed on the the Universal backlot than not.
One Adam-12 episode has Reed and Malloy chasing after a bad guy thru the various Universal backlots, the viewer will recognize many settings used on 60's, 70's and on into the 80's and more TV series.
The European set must have been used in half of the "Run For Your Life" episodes, also on a Rockford Files when Jim goes overseas.

The Universal Tour is a lot of fun, I really enjoyed seeing the Beaver Cleaver homestead, I was hoping June would come out in her pearls and serve we tourists some lemonade.

This is true of The A-Team (and most other shows of that era). Lots of episodes required the team to fly somewhere (remember B.A.'s fear of flying where they constantly had to knock him out or drug him?) and yet they never left California. One episode they were in Africa but in actuality somewhere in the California boonies (was it Santa Clarita?) and another they were in South America but in actuality in the Bronson caves area in Griffith Park. Another they flew to Miami but it was all shot around Long Beach and Santa Monica. So not only did they not leave the country but they didn't even leave the state! But to the A-Team's credit though at least they didn't use any of those sets that became so recognizable and that were such a staple of 60s and 70s shows. It's pretty jarring to see episodes of T.J. Hooker where you can plainly tell that it's not a street in L.A. but a "street set" on the backlot. When this was done on Mannix or Ironside you could kinda forgive it. But by the 80s it just seemed really "old hat" to do that.

Ivan.
It never occurred to me before but now that you mention it, modern series seem to hardly use the old backlots. It would be a huge money saver to use them, and while savvy TV mavens like you notice
when a scene is shot at the studio backlot, I think most citizen(in the sense they only casually note the production aspects) types would be engrossed in the magic of the story telling as an
episode unfolded and not notice such things.
I can't count the number of times Mannix didn't even bother to go outside to a backlot, but shot over and over in the same studio warehouse, complete with many criss crossing overhead catwalks
for mounting cameras and lights. Only in Mannix World did crooks constantly meet in warehouses.
Combat! and Man From UNCLE shared the same two studio lots, the French Village/Lot 2 and Lot 1. According to www.CombatFan.com this arrangement drove UNCLE producer Sam Rolfe crazy,
when it was their turn to use the French Village it invariably had blown up sections that first had to be repaired, courtesy of the Combat! people.
The www.CombatFan.com site is very well done and worth a look. Combat! has more than held up over the years, it's first rate, but the last year, the only one in color, for some reason I
can't put my finger on isn't as good as the first 4 seasons in black and white. Combat! was the only WW 2 TV show my veteran father and uncles enjoyed, the others would always cause
them to hoot in disgust.
The Battle of the Bulge movie, with a big armored battle scene in a desert at one point, would always set my father off - "look, it's the Great Desert of Luxembourg and Eastern France!
I remember that scrap like it was yesterday, they issued us camels to replace our Sherman tanks."
Boy, did I go off on a tangent here. I better go find an interesting Magnum article for this thread. Come to think of it, was any episode shot on a studio backlot in Hawaii?
My impression was it was all location shoots. Besides the interior shots of course. I assume the inside of TM's quarters were a studio set, or am I wrong?

Yep I think those of us who were weened on 50s, 60s, and 70s shows recognize when a building or street looks like it's on a set (they all have that "closed in" look - not sure how to explain it) but modern audiences probably wouldn't notice. As for COMBAT! I'm familiar with the show but never watched an episode. Should give it a whirl some day. Heard good things about it. Wasn't Rick Jason the star of the show (top billed) yet Vic Morrow somehow became the breakout star? No one remembers Rick Jason but they do Vic Morrow. Though I wonder if Vic's grizzly death might have something to do with his name recognition. Very sad about how he died. Hey, speaking of WWII I wonder what your dad thought of HOGAN'S HEROES? I do remember watching BATTLE OF THE BULGE. I remember it being okay but nothing more than that. I only recall Robert Shaw as the German being something of a standout in the cast (though I can't recall the details) whereas everyone else was just going through the motions. Hank Fonda, Bobby Ryan, Telly Savalas, Charlie Bronson, and even "Book 'Em Danno" Jimmy MacArthur!

As for MPI I highly doubt Diamond Head studios has a backlot. From what I can tell from pictures it's a pretty small place and looks like it's mainly used for indoor sets. The indoor MPI stuff was shot inside the studio but all the outdoors stuff was shot on location around Oahu. Can you blame them? Why would you want to be cooped up in one place when you can shoot all around the island? Plenty of "jungle" locations on the island itself. Also Kualoa Ranch is used extensively for filming these days - from the numerous JURASSIC PARK's to TV's LOST and pretty much every other production shot in Hawaii. Plenty of war epics were shot there - from PEARL HARBOR to WINDTALKERS to TEARS OF THE SUN to countless KING KONG films and romantic comedies. If you take the movie tour when you visit Kualoa Ranch you'll see signs of all the films and sites where they shot the various movies and shows. I did this tour twice! So hey, you can think of Kualoa Ranch as the backlot. A huge and natural backlot!!

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

https://collider.com/magnum-pi-1980-why-its-good/

This article speaks volumes about what makes this still so special. The reboot couldn't truly compete or top what Selleck, Bellasario and Co created.

Darn good article, thank you. However, this part -

"The A-Team and MacGyver, for example, were world travelers, leaving behind the stuffy offices and overused backdrops."

Left behind the overused backdrops? World travelers? More often lensed on the the Universal backlot than not.
One Adam-12 episode has Reed and Malloy chasing after a bad guy thru the various Universal backlots, the viewer will recognize many settings used on 60's, 70's and on into the 80's and more TV series.
The European set must have been used in half of the "Run For Your Life" episodes, also on a Rockford Files when Jim goes overseas.

The Universal Tour is a lot of fun, I really enjoyed seeing the Beaver Cleaver homestead, I was hoping June would come out in her pearls and serve we tourists some lemonade.

This is true of The A-Team (and most other shows of that era). Lots of episodes required the team to fly somewhere (remember B.A.'s fear of flying where they constantly had to knock him out or drug him?) and yet they never left California. One episode they were in Africa but in actuality somewhere in the California boonies (was it Santa Clarita?) and another they were in South America but in actuality in the Bronson caves area in Griffith Park. Another they flew to Miami but it was all shot around Long Beach and Santa Monica. So not only did they not leave the country but they didn't even leave the state! But to the A-Team's credit though at least they didn't use any of those sets that became so recognizable and that were such a staple of 60s and 70s shows. It's pretty jarring to see episodes of T.J. Hooker where you can plainly tell that it's not a street in L.A. but a "street set" on the backlot. When this was done on Mannix or Ironside you could kinda forgive it. But by the 80s it just seemed really "old hat" to do that.

Ivan.
It never occurred to me before but now that you mention it, modern series seem to hardly use the old backlots. It would be a huge money saver to use them, and while savvy TV mavens like you notice
when a scene is shot at the studio backlot, I think most citizen(in the sense they only casually note the production aspects) types would be engrossed in the magic of the story telling as an
episode unfolded and not notice such things.
I can't count the number of times Mannix didn't even bother to go outside to a backlot, but shot over and over in the same studio warehouse, complete with many criss crossing overhead catwalks
for mounting cameras and lights. Only in Mannix World did crooks constantly meet in warehouses.
Combat! and Man From UNCLE shared the same two studio lots, the French Village/Lot 2 and Lot 1. According to www.CombatFan.com this arrangement drove UNCLE producer Sam Rolfe crazy,
when it was their turn to use the French Village it invariably had blown up sections that first had to be repaired, courtesy of the Combat! people.
The www.CombatFan.com site is very well done and worth a look. Combat! has more than held up over the years, it's first rate, but the last year, the only one in color, for some reason I
can't put my finger on isn't as good as the first 4 seasons in black and white. Combat! was the only WW 2 TV show my veteran father and uncles enjoyed, the others would always cause
them to hoot in disgust.
The Battle of the Bulge movie, with a big armored battle scene in a desert at one point, would always set my father off - "look, it's the Great Desert of Luxembourg and Eastern France!
I remember that scrap like it was yesterday, they issued us camels to replace our Sherman tanks."
Boy, did I go off on a tangent here. I better go find an interesting Magnum article for this thread. Come to think of it, was any episode shot on a studio backlot in Hawaii?
My impression was it was all location shoots. Besides the interior shots of course. I assume the inside of TM's quarters were a studio set, or am I wrong?

Yep I think those of us who were weened on 50s, 60s, and 70s shows recognize when a building or street looks like it's on a set (they all have that "closed in" look - not sure how to explain it) but modern audiences probably wouldn't notice. As for COMBAT! I'm familiar with the show but never watched an episode. Should give it a whirl some day. Heard good things about it. Wasn't Rick Jason the star of the show (top billed) yet Vic Morrow somehow became the breakout star? No one remembers Rick Jason but they do Vic Morrow. Though I wonder if Vic's grizzly death might have something to do with his name recognition. Very sad about how he died. Hey, speaking of WWII I wonder what your dad thought of HOGAN'S HEROES? I do remember watching BATTLE OF THE BULGE. I remember it being okay but nothing more than that. I only recall Robert Shaw as the German being something of a standout in the cast (though I can't recall the details) whereas everyone else was just going through the motions. Hank Fonda, Bobby Ryan, Telly Savalas, Charlie Bronson, and even "Book 'Em Danno" Jimmy MacArthur!

As for MPI I highly doubt Diamond Head studios has a backlot. From what I can tell from pictures it's a pretty small place and looks like it's mainly used for indoor sets. The indoor MPI stuff was shot inside the studio but all the outdoors stuff was shot on location around Oahu. Can you blame them? Why would you want to be cooped up in one place when you can shoot all around the island? Plenty of "jungle" locations on the island itself. Also Kualoa Ranch is used extensively for filming these days - from the numerous JURASSIC PARK's to TV's LOST and pretty much every other production shot in Hawaii. Plenty of war epics were shot there - from PEARL HARBOR to WINDTALKERS to TEARS OF THE SUN to countless KING KONG films and romantic comedies. If you take the movie tour when you visit Kualoa Ranch you'll see signs of all the films and sites where they shot the various movies and shows. I did this tour twice! So hey, you can think of Kualoa Ranch as the backlot. A huge and natural backlot!!

Yes Morrow did overshadow Jason, perhaps because as a non-com he was more relatable than Lt. Hanley. They were supposed to alternate the role of leading the men in every other episode, that way you
could film two episodes at once, with less down time, what with all the crews/resources already on hand.
From what I read it didn't faze Jason that Morrow overshadowed him, he was a professional actor and as long as he and the production were turning in good work as craftsmen, he didn't care.
He didn't need the money anyway, like Bruce Dern and Michael "Whiteout" - his mom invented it -Nesmith of the Monkees his family was rolling in money.
My father would watch Hogan's Heroes, McHales Navy right along with us kids. Service comedies usually made fun of the officers, it was the revenge of the enlisted men, for all the stuff they had to
suffer from bad officers, of which there was a large supply in WW2. As we had to expand our tiny armed forces almost overnight to 16 million by 1945! Think about having to staff that from
scratch, even if someone was barely adequate in a role and his men suffered, that would have to serve, especially if in support/logistics roles of the "tail" and not the approximate
10% actual fighting soldiers on the ground. That's right, the fighting spearhead of our armed forces was a 1/10 ratio to the tail.

Which is not disparaging anyone, that chubby 45 year old stateside warehouse supply sergeant who was a old hand at keeping the tools of war flowing was vital to the war effort.

At one point they were directly commissioning Detroit auto executives - bypassing all but a week or two of training! - and sending them direct to the ETO
because of all the losses. The thinking was they were used to directing large numbers of working men.

But I digress.

That Kualoa Ranch is now on my list of sights to see on a Hawaii run. I had no idea of it's role in the movies/TV shows. I do want to stay at the Hawaiian Village, it looked so inviting
on Hawaiian Eye, and the cast did film some there to fool the audience into buying it wasn't actually done in Burbank. Robert Conrad was always one of my favorites and I'd
get a kick out of drinking at the same bar there as he did, if it's still the same.