Hiya kiddies and welcome back for another helping of Larson
80’s TV Week. Boy I make the weeks
longer and more confusing than Mapquest directions. This time around I thought we would find us
another tough guy with even better hair, better build and rocking a solid
mustache. He hails from Hawaii though
sounds like he is from Chicago. This is
Magnum P.I.
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| Yeah a delicious shake and a two hour workout. |
Mac: Time has little do
with spoiler and jelly donuts.
Based in Honolulu Hawaii our shameless shamus stays at the palatial
Robin’s Nest Estate owned by world acclaimed novelist Robin Masters…who is
never ever at this amazing crib.
Seriously, I have never seen this cat appear in any episode. It was eluded in the pilot episode that our
flatfoot Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck of Daughters of Satan, 3 Men and
a Baby, An Innocent Man, The Closer, Friends, Jesse Stone: Stone Cold and Blue
Bloods) had done Masters a serious favor…guess he hid all the dead
hookers that one time in Vegas…anyway apparently since Masters is nowhere on
the premises he allows Magnum the run of the roost if you will including being
about to roll up in a GORGEOUS Ferrari 308 GTS and probably raids the wine
cellar for the good stuff.
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| Whadda mean I ain't rocking the Bogart?? Jerks. |
Between his cases he has to contend with Masters’
groundskeeper, butler and all around handyman John Higgins (John
Hillerman of Blazing Saddles, Chinatown. At Long Last Love, Ellery Queen and
Valerie) a former British Army Sergeant Major who was the model of a major
general who has information, vegetable, animal and mineral…oh wait, no sorry
that’s The Pirates of Penzance. Higgins
patrols the grounds with two horrible abominations before the eyes of the Lord,
Doberman Pinschers named Zeus and Apollo.
I guess one is faster than lightning and sleeps with anything that moves
and the other is very sunny.
Aside from his daily grind with Higgins, Magnum’s…associates…cohorts??? Ah screw it, his sidekicks. One is T.C.
Calvin (Roger E. Mosley of Hit Man, Cruise Into Terror, The Jericho Mile,
Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, Letters from a Killer and FCU: Fact Checkers Unit),
former Marine recon now tourist helicopter pilot for the island and their buddy
Rick Right (Larry Manetti of Sudden Death, Black Sheep Squadron, Battlestar
Galactica, Swamp Thing and Hawaii Five-0) also former Marine recon that
now owns Rick’s Place a nice homage to Casablanca and hey, who doesn’t love
Bogart? To give the show a nice
throwback to the 30’s dimestore detective Magnum does a lot of narrative in
each case giving it humorous content in the midst of even the most dire of
situations.
I had just a few points about the show now. It has been established that Magnum and his
buddies are from the same Vietnam outfit but we never saw any of them using
Marine takedowns, martial arts or handle their firearms in that level of
training. However, this show was the
first portrayal of Vietnam vets in a positive light and that has to count for
something there alone. It was hinted at
that the producers wanted Orson Welles to appear as the enigmatic Robin Masters
but sadly he passed away shortly after voice acting in Transformers: The Movie
as the planet devouring Unicron.
With
the series lasting 9 years, a bevy of female and male clients and a memorable
TV intro theme, Selleck was proud to be a part of TV history but only after the
writers laxed his character a bit instead of making him too smooth and lady
killer but more of a down to Earth jock type.
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| What's wrong with my shirt? |
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