‘MAGNUM, P.I.’ (SEASON 1): BEACHES, BEAUTIES, & THE PRIVATE EYE OF THE ’80S

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https://drunktv.net/2023/02/03/magnu...series-review/

In case you’ve been living under an old CRT television set a rock, Magnum, P.I. documents the adventures of Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck), former Navy intelligence officer-turned-private investigator, who makes his dough solving mysteries for low pay (of course), of which 99% of his clients are beautiful damsels in need of mystery-solving. How can he afford such a low-paying gig? Like Jim Rockford before him, he keeps his expenses down. But unlike Rockford, he does this by landing the sweetest gig this side of Honolulu–as security-tester at the lavish Hawaiian estate of Robin Masters (voice of Orson Welles), a bestselling, globetrotting novelist who has so many homes all over the world that we never see him visit his island paradise.

At Robin’s beachside estate, Thomas Magnum lives comfortably (and free of rent!) in a nicely-appointed guesthouse, where he eats, drinks, and occasionally hosts a sleepover with whichever hottie he’s solving mysteries for that week (alright, yeah–every week). But that’s not all; he also has full and free use of Robin’s flashy red Ferrari, which he tools around in and uses to chase down bad guys and show up late to lunch appointments with his buddies, Rick and T.C. But Magnum’s sweet life (and free use of Robin’s toys and hospitality) is occasionally interrupted by another guest of the estate–the live-in head of security, Higgins (John Hillerman), who enjoys taunting Magnum by withholding use of the Ferrari and asking him to perform menial, annoying tasks around the estate grounds…and also by siccing his two dobermans, Zeus and Apollo, on Magnum, usually catching him off-guard.

These relationships are formed here in Magnum, P.I.‘s first season, which premiered on December 11, 1980 (a SAG/AFTA strike that year set back the premiere date after the pilot’s filming in February and March). In the series premiere, Don’t Eat the Snow in Hawaii (a 2-hour pilot movie co-written by series creators Donald P. Bellisario and Glen A. Larson), we see Thomas’s first encounter with Zeus and Apollo as Magnum attempts to break into the estate to test the security. We learn that Thomas has made a deal with Masters, exchanging a series of security checks for free living in the guesthouse. Higgins, we learn, flies in a couple times a year to also check on security (he apparently decided to stay full time after this episode). In this test, Magnum must break through the mansion’s exterior defenses, outsmart canines Zeus and Apollo (the “lads”), and say hi to a pair beautiful foreign Playboy models staying as Robin’s guests before “stealing” the Ferrari. When Thomas accomplishes his task, Higgins’s chagrin and subsequent interaction with Magnum sets the tone for the love/hate relationship we see for the rest of the season, with Higgins the prim, proper, by-the-book Brit, and Magnum the shorts-and-floral-shirt wearing, playboy-bachelor lady’s man of adventure.

And about that Ferrari GTS, did you know that a famous journalist wrote about driving it cross-country in 1980, delivering it for its eventual use on Magnum, P.I.? The writer, P.J. O’Rourke, hilariously concluded that “…the story ends on a sad note. The movie that this incredible car traveled all that way to be in will be called Don’t Eat the Snow from Hawaii,”). Also, is Thomas too tall for this car? Selleck’s head sticks way over the roofline, and we never see the car’s targa top in place (who needs that in Hawaii, anyway?). Nonetheless, 40-plus years later, it’s still fun watching that Ferrari tear ass on the backroads and highways of vintage Hawaii.

Like so many ’80s action heroes from my childhood, Magnum is a Vietnam veteran, which adds dramatic backstory to the frothy, exotic Hawaii-set stories, beginning from the opening moments of the pilot episode where we see the first flashback to ‘Nam. But it’s also a convenient backstory for meeting Thomas’s friends, Rick and T.C. (you can’t solve these cases by yourself, right?), who were Magnum’s buddies back during the war. Somehow, they all wound up together, living it up in Honolulu. Rick (Larry Manetti) manages the exclusive King Kamehameha Club, a great place for Thomas to meet potential clients and run up a beer tab. In the pilot, Rick owns his own club, Rick’s Cafe Americain, named after Humphrey Bogart’s club in the 1942 film Casablanca, but is quickly dispensed with by the second episode, with the King Kamehameha Club serving the same function.

So, Magnum leans on Rick for information and a meeting spot at the club (along with that ever-present booze tab)…but how does he get around the islands? That Ferrari can only do so much, after all, and driving on water isn’t one of its strong suits. Thankfully, Thomas’s friend T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) owns and operates Island Hoppers, a one-man guide service in which T.C. utilizes his military experience as a helicopter pilot to fly tourists around the islands in his colorful chopper. Magnum, of course, leans on T.C. time and again, asking favors of his friend for transportation to far-flung islands unreachable via Ferrari (and of course, he runs a tab with T.C., too–much preferred over paying for a commercial flight). With friends like Rick, T.C. and Higgins, how can this private detective business fail?

Two major TV developments occurred in early 1980 that had a profound effect on the creation and success of Magnum, P.I. as the gritty, “realistic” 1970s gave way to the colorful, sun-drenched, MTV-influenced 1980s, where realism often took a backseat to style. In April of 1980, the long-running cop show Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980) came to an end after 12 seasons. But CBS, having created expensive location sets for Hawaii Five-O in the mid-70s, wasn’t about to let them go to waste; nor was it willing to lose the 12 years of goodwill it had built with audiences on Thursday nights with its hour of action-packed crimebusting on the beautiful Big Island at 9 p.m. (where the Five-O crew followed longtime lead-in The Waltons at 8 p.m.). So, not only did CBS re-use those sets for Magnum, P.I. (I’m sure Universal, Magnum‘s production company, was happy to oblige), it scheduled Magnum in Hawaii Five-O‘s now-vacated Thursday-at-9 time slot. To complete the transition, characters on Magnum, P.I. even referred to Steve McGarrett and his Five-O squad as if they were still busting criminal ass on the Island. Viewers who missed Hawaii Five-O in late 1980 were at least treated to the same locations, settings, and general themes (crime- and mystery-solving) with Magnum, P.I., and could even consider it a sort-of spinoff. A superior marketing job by the network!

Another major TV event happened that year that indirectly affected both Magnum, P.I. and the private detective genre in general. In January of 1980, an ailing James Garner had tired of the role of Jim Rockford on NBC’s The Rockford Files, and the show came to an abrupt end just 10 days into the new decade. This left a major void in the action-centered small-screen P.I. genre–and Tom Selleck was the perfect guy to fill it. Not only did Thomas Magnum continue the tradition of the struggling, low-paid-but-resourceful private investigator, Selleck even guest starred in a couple later episodes of The Rockford Files as…you guessed it, a private investigator! (These two episodes are included as bonuses on Mill Creek’s Blu-ray set.) But tall, handsome Selleck’s character in The Rockford Files (Lance White was perfect in every way, solving cases with ease to the frustration of Jim Rockford) would differ from his Magnum character; and in fact, the Magnum, P.I. we wound up getting was starkly different than what was originally proposed.

Much has been said of Selleck’s misfortune of missing out on motion picture stardom when he was selected to play Indiana Jones for 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. Magnum, P.I. hadn’t yet aired, but CBS had Selleck on contract and, sensing they had a star in the making (Spielberg and Lucas want this guy? We’re keeping him!), they greenlit Magnum to series, forcing the movie’s producers to eventually cast Harrison Ford in the role instead. Adding salt to the wound, the writer’s strike of 1980 pushed Magnum‘s premiere back to December, which would have allowed plenty of time for Selleck to shoot Raiders of the Lost Ark, but CBS wouldn’t budge. Ford, having found superstardom with the monster success of Lucas’s Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980), would rack up a successful theatrical career while Selleck ultimately settled for small-screen stardom (to the celebration of women like my mom all over the world).

But more interesting to me is how we almost didn’t get the Magnum, P.I that we wound up getting. Parsing through the numerous interviews and articles, it’s not easy finding a definitive answer to exactly how Magnum, P.I. came to be, but the short of it seems to be that series creator Glen A. Larson (The Fall Guy, Alias Smith and Jones) had the idea and initial script…and when Selleck wasn’t happy with it, the actor approached producer Donald P. Bellisario (Airwolf, Tales of the Gold Monkey), whom Larson then brought on to rewrite the script and take over the show, netting Bellisario an important co-creator credit.

According to Larson, a detective show in 1980 set in Hawaii was the right move to make at that moment. And Larson, in some respects, based part of the idea on himself; he actually owned a home in Hawaii and had a guy there who took care of it living in the guesthouse. He even based the Robin Masters character on the real-life author, Harold Robbins. ABC wasn’t interested, so Universal (TV’s “sausage factory,” as it was known at the time) came calling, looking for something to place on CBS, knowing that Hawaii Five-O‘s days were numbered.

Selleck had done a number of failed pilots in the 1970s (two of them for producer Stephen J. Cannell). After Selleck reached out to Bellisario to rework the Magnum idea, Selleck remembered an old Bellisaraio script for an unproduced show called Gypsy Warriors, which Selleck liked. For this reason, he wanted to work with Bellisario, and Larson handed over the reins. Selleck’s main reasoning, according to Bellisario, was that he didn’t want to play the stereotype of the perfect, handsome, James Bond-like man-of-action that was apparently the direction of Larson’s original script. Bellisario, who had worked for Larson previously on shows like Battlestar Galactica and Quincy, M.E., repurposed an old script for a prospective P.I. show called H.H. Flynn to improve the Magnum script. Ultimately, it became Bellisario’s show, with he and Larson splitting that all-important creator credit. Magnum, P.I. “became a huge hit,” Bellisario said in an interview. “[It] made me. Instantly.”

Speaking of late-70s and 80s James Bond, Magnum walked the line with just the right amount of kitsch to balance out the required seriousness needed to capture those grizzled adult viewers demanding their Hawaii Five-O fix. The comedy between Thomas, Rick and T.C. was always a welcome break from the seriousness of the mysteries at hand, and Magnum’s relationship with Higgins can’t be understated; it would become a huge reason why many viewers loved the series. A fine example of their chemistry and humor is on display in the episode Missing in Action. In it, Higgins tells Magnum he must service the Ferrari if he’s going to use it. Thomas happily replies, “That’s all?” To which then Higgins simply walks away, his lips slowly forming a smirk, as an incredulous Magnum calls out, “Higgins?!? How much does a Ferrari tune-up cost?” This of course culminates in Magnum taking the Ferrari to T.C.’s helicopter shop, where he ropes his friend into attempting to service the Ferrari on the cheap. It’s classic Magnum, P.I.

Another common theme involving humor is the juxtaposition of Magnum as working-class playboy with the perception of “rich” Magnum (due to his living in a mansion and driving an expensive sports car). In one exchange, a would-be client (a beautiful woman, no less) walks up to the Ferrari, and a surprised Magnum says, “Hey, how did you know this is my car?” She replies, “What else would a man like you drive?” It’s here that Thomas looks directly at the camera (and the viewer), breaking the fourth wall–an early example of the charm that would eventually make the series a Top 10 hit.

And speaking of hits, Magnum, P.I. stormed out of the Nielsen gate, finishing 14th in this 1980-81 season, the first of five straight years in the Top 20. Magnum, P.I. would finish in the Top 10 in its third and fourth seasons (peaking at No. 3 in 1982-83) before an eventual slide down the ratings mountain beginning with season 5.

The original theme music for the opening credits features a jazzy, mid-tempo piece by Ian Freebairn-Smith, which is replaced after the 10th episode by the well-known Mike Post and Pete Carpenter theme we all recognize (unfortunately, Universal supplied Mill Creek with a version of the pilot episode that has the later theme, but it doesn’t detract from the episode or the stellar improvement in picture quality). However, episodes 2 through 10 do feature the proper, earlier theme. Additionally, Mill Creek Entertainment’s Complete Series Blu-ray set features a new interview with composer Post, along with new interviews with series writers, directors and producers. Also included are flashback featurettes and audio commentaries, along with the aforementioned two episodes of The Rockford Files, guest starring Tom Selleck. The new bonus features are produced for Mill Creek by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures.

Sadly, this type of classic P.I. show would virtually disappear from network television by the 1990s as a new generation of “edgy,” over-serious, so-called “quality television” programs replaced what had come before. But in 1980, it was the beginning of a Golden Decade of escapist TV mixed with exotic, tropical locales–palm trees, beaches, colorful characters and hot cars. It was a beautiful, fictional rendering of Hawaii for us poor kids stuck on the mainland who could only dream of living such a life in a fantasy world only TV could make real. Having never visited the Big Island, my entire view of Hawaii is (thankfully) still shaped by a childhood spent watching car chases, fistfights and explosions on Magnum, P.I.