Re-watching the 1980s Magnum, P.I.
Now for something a little different. Recently, I'd embarked on trip through the entire eight season run of this show and I have thoughts.
Through quite some tumult, I’d decided to go back and watch the entirety of Magnum, P.I.’s eight seasons. This 1980’s show was filmed in a super grainy 4:3 aspect and feels dated at times, but it also has a ton of charm.
These days seemed focused on Magnum, P.I., all the time. I read Tom Selleck’s memoir You Never Know and also went back to read Larry Manetti’s memoir on the show Aloha Magnum: Larry Manetti's Magnum, P.I. Memories. The two books, published more than two decades apart, really complemented each other. Larry was more forthright about controversial things like parties and finding dead bodies in Hawaii, while Selleck talked about his being the lead of a series and how James Garner had been a mentor when they worked together on The Rockford Files (a show I knew about, but hadn’t watched). Interestingly, Manetti and Wikipedia say there were 162 episodes made, but Selleck says in his memoir repeatedly that he made 163. What amounts to that extra episode? I couldn’t find out, and A.I. won’t tell you (yet).
What do I think? He includes the crossover episodes. The Simon & Simon crossover wasn’t much to count, but he probably does count the only other one he did, Murder She Wrote as the 163rd hour of Magnum episodes.
As a kind, I first joined this show in first run more than halfway through its eight seasons; I was twelve or thirteen years old. The show had an indelible effect on me then, not the least of which because Magnum and I were both Detroit Tigers fans. Speaking of which, can you think of any other television character that would be commonly referred to by both their first and last name at any given time? Magnum seemed like a “guys, guy” with a bunch of flaws, but he still had strong principles and people around him that always came through. For a teenager, yea, that was great.
While watching each episode, I’d follow along with the website Magnum Mania! as well as notes that Larry Manetti left at the back of his memoir. All this extra information added depth to the episodes I’d never seen, and so much more to the ones that I had seen. This article is certainly not a compendium of facts (you an seek them out), but bringing all this together gave me such a rich view of this great 1980’s show.
One curious aspect of the series was Magnum’s fourth-wall breaking. Most are familiar now with similar and more outlandish versions of this with modern Deadpool movies. But, Magnum was different: He would only turn and look at the camera and hold that glance as something of nod to the audience. Think of Magnum parking the red Ferrari, only to have good looking woman come up to him and say that she “Just loves it. [That she’d] give just about anything to ride in one.” Magnum says thank you and immediately turns to look at the audience:
I didn’t know it at the time, but both Magnum and T.C., two of the main characters did not smoke or do drugs. For a kid, these were pretty damn good role models. Two of the episodes featured music from the band Genesis, and I loved that music so much it made me go on the hunt though the many records stores on Yonge St. or find the record (I did find it).
Then there was the ultra-memorable season 4, episode 7 entitled Squeeze Play. In that 1983 episode, Magnum and the gang are playing baseball on a bet. They lose, and Magnum loses his home and Higgens loses his job. I’m sure I’d only seen this once and remember how Magnum turns a triple play and how his teams gives up a crazy eight runs in the top of the ninth. It all ends dramatically and, naturally, Magnum gets to give his “Knute Rockne” speech.
And perhaps the greatest single online video related to Magnum, P.I. is below. It’s a fairly innocuous look at filming a season four episode on location. What’s great is we get to see the crew and the final result spliced in. But, the best moment is one you might just miss if you aren’t looking. After the cut, the crowd cheers and at minute 5:20 you can see in the distance Tom Selleck reacting to those cheers by waving his hands. See that video here:
Watching and reading about the series, you get the sense that near the end of season three, Selleck got tired of the endless spinoffs and started to take a more direct role in the show (ultimately becoming a producer). At the same time, he became a leader of this cast and crew and took that part of things seriously. It’s a fascinating time in pop culture history too (the 1980s, that is), where this show carried on outside of the Untied States bubble of that decade.
But, over the years I was a fan, but hadn’t actually seen any of the early episodes. The show itself started filming when I was 6 years old. As I watched (or re-watched), I was amazed by the heavy topics and risks the show took. In the episode Did You See the Sunrise?, the N-word is directed at T.C. several times and that very man is murdered in cold blood by Magnum at the end. That would have been some seriously adult material for a prime time CBS show and a then 9-year old me.