How the Original 'Magnum, P.I.' Changed the '80s Action Show

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

SHAWN VAN HORN
PUBLISHED 3 DAYS AGO

Our favorite mustachioed private investigator changed the TV landscape.

CBS recently canceled the Jay Hernandez led Magnum, P.I. reboot after four seasons. While the series was a dependable ratings grabber, it couldn’t reach the heights of the original. Everyone knew that going in. CBS’ best hope was that the Magnum, P.I. reboot could recapture a bit of its predecessor’s iconic magic, and that the tug of nostalgia would pull fans back. While that approach was somewhat successful, there was no chance of capturing magic in a bottle twice. The original Magnum, P.I. is a pop culture phenomenon that can never be duplicated.

Created in 1980, Magnum, P.I. would become a major hit that lasted eight seasons on the Tiffany Network. In a decade ripe with action shows such as The A-Team, MacGyver, and Knight Rider, Magnum, P.I. stood out, partially due to the series’ cast of supporting actors and exciting stories. However, it was the show’s use of its exotic location and an affable star played against expectations in Tom Selleck that made the show so popular that it would stand the test of time and be brought back so many decades later.

After the long time success of the police drama Hawaii Five-O (which ran from 1968-1980 and would also later be rebooted), CBS wanted to produce another show with a Hawaii setting. Magnum, P.I. was pitched to fill that void, with the original idea seeing Thomas Magnum as an over-the-top James Bond wannabe. Producer Donald Belasario wasn’t a fan of the concept, and with his influence, it morphed into the series it would become.

On paper, Magnum, P.I. reads like your everyday action show. Thomas Magnum is a former Navy SEAL and Vietnam vet now working as a private investigator in Oahu. He resides in the guest house of a massive estate named The Robin’s Nest, where its unseen owner lets Magnum stay in exchange for his services. He is surrounded by your usual cast of characters. There’s Higgins, the harsh caretaker of The Robin’s Nest, and Magnum’s foil. The two clash but also have a great deal of respect for each other. There’s T.C., a helicopter pilot and Magnum’s quasi-sidekick, who flies our favorite P.I. all over the island to his cases, and invariably ends up in trouble himself. Lastly, there’s Rick, a club owner on the island where Magnum hangs out.

It’s the locale and Selleck’s charismatic character that breaks the series free from its '80s detective show chains. Like Hawaii Five-O, Magnum, P.I. is known for its great intro. Both have very distinctive songs, Magnum, P.I. with that unforgettable guitar riff, interspersed with shots of Magnum and crew in the midst of their adventures, Oahu in the background, waves crashing on the beach.

In detective shows of TV’s past, most were centered in one location that audiences were accustomed to. Starsky & Hutch CHiPs, Adam-12, The Rockford Files, and Charlie’s Angels were all set in southern California. Kojak, McCloud, and Baretta fought crime on the opposite shores of New York City. By the 80s, action shows began to expand their territory. The A-Team and MacGyver, for example, were world travelers, leaving behind the stuffy offices and overused backdrops.

Magnum, P.I. stayed put, but also became different by doing so. Just because it was set in the same exotic locale as Hawaii Five-O did not make it a clone. That’s where most of the series' similarities end. Hawaii Five-O focused on a modern Hawaii. Not Magnum, P.I. Belasario fought for something different to set them apart.

In Belasario's interview with The Television Academy, the creator said he wanted a Hawaii the way it used to be before high rise buildings invaded. “I don’t want to see a condo. I don’t want to see a telephone pole. I don’t want to see a four-lane road. I want to see palm trees. I want to see beaches, empty beaches. I want to see narrow roads through sugar cane fields…Give me Hawaii before the war.”

Hawaii Five-O could still feel like your typical cop show, only with palm trees in the background. Not Magnum, P.I. It was more raw, an '80s show that with a few technological changes felt like it could’ve been set in the 1930s or '40s. The club owning Rick was a wink to Casablanca after all. Where other shows had to break free of stereotypes by continuously finding new places for their characters to roam, Magnum, P.I. became innovative by finding the forgotten places of where it already was.

What truly put the series over the top more than any setting ever could was its lead star. Tom Selleck wasn’t a household name yet in the 1980s, but people knew his face. He had done some westerns and other TV work, and was the face of many brands during commercials throughout the '60s and '70s. Selleck might not have been well known, but he was well respected. When casting for the first Indiana Jones film, George Lucas originally didn’t want Harrison Ford, after having just made two Star Wars films with him. He wanted someone new and different. He and Steven Spielberg saw something great in Tom Selleck, even offering him the role. The only issue was that he had already filmed the pilot for Magnum, P.I. and CBS wouldn’t let him do both. While Harrison Ford was obviously the perfect choice to play Indiana Jones, you can see Selleck doing it too. He had that “it” factor about him.

He brought that along with him to Magnum, P.I. Selleck was cool, but an everyman, charming and funny, but also vulnerable and soft. That became Magnum too. The James Bond comparisons were quickly ditched. You can see that in the wardrobe. Thomas Magnum isn’t going to be found in a suit. Magnum became known and copied for his bright Hawaiian shirts and short shorts. The closest you usually ever got to Magnum dressing up was if he turned in those shorts for a pair of tight denim jeans.

While Magnum may have had the cool car in his bright red Ferrari (it seemed mandatory that every '70s and '80s action show had to have its star behind the wheel of a sporty automobile), he was more than a cliché, and far from the stuffy detective type of shows past. Belasario says Selleck told him, “I just don’t want to play what I look like. Everybody wants to always play me as the handsome leading guy. I really want to do something with some humor.”

Selleck wanted Magnum to be a normal, flawed man. He wasn't perfect, wasn’t a superhero. Magnum could be cocky and immature, a bit of a jerk who used his friends and got himself into trouble. He was fallible but also very human. There were hints of PTSD from his Vietnam days. His father was killed in Korea. His wife was presumed dead. There was a loneliness in Thomas Magnum that made audiences forgive his flaws. If anything, he was loved more for them.

Selleck got to play Magnum with that humor that he requested though. Where most detective shows have their heroes make a wisecrack here and there, perhaps with a wink to the camera and a catchphrase trailing behind, Magnum was simply funny. He was always smiling and cracking jokes. His voice got high when he was losing his cool. The best example of Magnum’s humor was the running gag involving Magnum pranking his friends with a rubber chicken.

Magnum, P.I. has stood the test of time as one of television’s all-time most loved action shows. It succeeded by both embracing and breaking from its constraints. You want another show set in Hawaii? Okay, but we’re going to give you a Hawaii you’ve never seen before. You want another James Bond, or to add to the list of detectives in suits? No. We’re giving you a good-looking dude with a mustache who wears Hawaiian shirts and drives a Ferrari. You want serious? You’ll get that. There’s a broken man under Magnum’s flashy exterior. Still, there’s a man who loves his friends like they’re the family he’s lost, and Higgins is really going to hate that chicken.

Magnum, P.I.'s ability to break free from stereotypes and become its own thing that was both familiar yet strikingly different, made the show timeless. It’s why a remake happened four decades later. Nothing can match what the original did, however. There’s no recreating Tom Selleck either. The reboot knew that. They didn’t even try to give Jay Hernandez a mustache.