Hawaii Five-O (the original series)

[OceanBlue]

Watched a further few episodes from the first season this past week, two of which were excellent ("Yesterday Died and Tomorrow Won't Be Born" and "Deathwatch"). There was another one which you could say was as good as those, which saw the late actor Yaphet Kotto guest-starring (called "King of the Hill").

The show was starting to find it's feet by around the halfway point of the first season (when I first watched the show on DVD I thought the show didn't find it's feet until the third season).

"Yesterday Died..." had some great camerawork right from the off, with the teaser being one of the high points of the episode

[Show spoiler](from the point of view of the shooter, watching McGarrett as he is doing his morning jog on a local beach). It was interesting seeing Danno filling Steve's shoes as head of Five-O, investigating the shooting.

One of the recurring characters up to and including this episode was the Attorney General. I think I might be getting confused with another recurring character (who was played by different actors over the twelve season run of the show), but I'm wondering if the Attorney General was seen on the show much, after this episode.

"Deathwatch" was like a Mission: Impossible episode, but with the roles switched (instead it's the villains trying to get to a character). Some of the episode was just in one location, but it was done so well, that the episode is one of my favourites (along with the previous episode). Guest-starring in the episode were veteran actors Nehemiah Persoff and James Shigeta.

[FrancisP]

I liked the episode "Over 50? Steal". It was a whimsical episode with the criminal using Monopoly playing cards to give clues to his crimes. McGarrett figurexs it out and gives the criminal a "Go to Jail" card when he arrests the criminal.

[PileOfFudge]

Some of my favorite original 5-O episodes were the very first ones I ever watched when the series ran in syndication back in the early 90's:

Honor is an Unmarked Grave
Cloth of Gold
Trouble in Mind
Follow the White Brick Road
And A Time to Die...
R&R&R

The original Hawaii Five-O was quite ahead of its time.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by FrancisP

I liked the episode "Over 50? Steal". It was a whimsical episode with the criminal using Monopoly playing cards to give clues to his crimes. McGarrett figurexs it out and gives the criminal a "Go to Jail" card when he arrests the criminal.

Have been trying to remember who guest-starred as the criminal in this episode, from when I first watched the original Hawaii Five-O on DVD. It's a bit difficult to explain without using spoiler tags.

[Show spoiler]This character appeared again in a further two episodes. They were played by two different actors, one of which I remember being David Wayne (among his other credits was the series Ellery Queen).

I've got a feeling that the episode you describe was among my favourites from the first half of the series.

[OceanBlue]

Watched a few season one episodes during the past couple of weeks, the most recent of which was "Along Came Joey" (it was a good episode, but could have been better. Felt too familiar with the plot).

When I got to the episode "The Box", I decided to switch it with "Six Kilos", because of the reasons already posted about in this thread by a fellow poster (one character appears again in "The Box", but under different circumstances). Thought it was very good. It was like a Mission: Impossible episode from the later seasons, where the mission was already underway. The only negative was the transfer. This appears to be the only episode in the first season DVD set which wasn't remastered/transferred to HD. The transfer looked faded (this happened with a couple of episodes in the Mannix DVD sets (a couple of episodes had some scenes which weren't remastered/transferred to HD).

"King of the Hill" (which saw the late Yaphet Kotto guest-star) I thought was very good. A well written story.

"Up Tight" saw actor Ed Flanders guest-star (the first of several episodes he guest-starred in). Liked the twist later on in the episode, but the episode as a whole felt dated. Although the drugs part of the storyline is still relevant today.

"Face of the Dragon" and "One for the Money" were two of my favourite episodes in the first season so far. The former was eerily familiar with what's been going on the past thirteen months. The killer on the motorbike reminded me of some gialli. The latter at times felt like a

[Show spoiler]Columbo episode (where you knew who the killer was, and were waiting to see how McGarrett and the Five-O team would figure out the identity of the killer and how they did it).

I knew that there was an actor called Farley Grainger, but I hadn't heard of an actor called Farley Granger.

Up next is the the first two-part story of the series, "Once Upon a Time" (the pilot "Cocoon" was a feature-length episode, but I think has also been shown as a two-part episode).

[cutback73]

I've now begun a new watch of the show. Last time through was >10 years ago and before my visit to Oahu in 2012, so I'll be location spotting albeit 53 years later!

On the first disc, the pilot didnt appeal to me at all! The whole spyfi element seemed very OTT and the plot was rammed full of holes. Like HOW did McGarrett know to look in the bulkhead that housed the cocoon? Did it have a sign saying "secret compartment" written on it?
Plus, I get that the "romance" with the hippie was intended as a plot device to explain his character background a bit, but really, a cop hating hippie suddenly falls for Jack Lord almost instantly... that was more far fetched than the cocoon itself!

Fortunately, the first proper episode was more palatable - not without its issues, but lots of action and a good guest star in Kevin McCarthy.

Episode 3 was not so enjoyable, although the concept of the island being overrun with tourism/development is as much an issue now as it was then, so it felt very relevant. Interesting that they mention 2m visitors a year in the episode, pre "you know what" I believe it was running at 5m a year when I visited in 2012.

Also, I'm watching on a better TV this time around. The picture quality is excellent with vivid colours. Especially the red cocoon suit in the pilot and the muddy earth at the building site in the third episode too. Very impressed with the dvd quality.

[OceanBlue]

Have got three episodes left to go with my rewatch of the first season of the original series ("Not That Much Different", "The Box" and the season finale "The Big Kahuna").

In the past week, have watched the concluding part of "Once Upon a Time". On my first couple of viewings of the show (when it was shown on Granada Plus and when I first watched it on DVD), I thought there wasn't much shot on location in Los Angeles. On this rewatch, I discovered that more was shot on location there than I originally thought. When I think of sunny Los Angeles, I think of the beach areas. But there was none of that in this two-parter. Still thought it was better on this rewatch.

[cutback73]

I'm watching about a disk a week of season 1 now.
Last weekend I caught the 4 episodes of disk 2.

Up first was the episode with Sal Mineo as a kidnapped singer. I don't know but this episode felt dated and rather far fetched to me. And Sal Mineo seemed to be rather miscast.

Talking of miscast, despite my prior misgivings about the "asian" makeup of Ricardo Montalban, he presents an extremely complex portrayal of the gangster in Samurai, more than what is written in the script. A man who is seemingly without any good in him at all, as evidenced by the scene with his daughter in the theatre.

I have to say I loved the twist as to why he was being attacked, something that seems to have gelled in the scriptwriters mind from what was presumably a real life occurrence (the lost sub from Pearl Harbour very much sounded like it was based on real events, if not, the writer had excellent imagination).

The gradual disintegration of the character's untouchable power base, both literal and metaphorical, are indeed well written and played.

Unfortunately, whilst it is good to see James MacArthur have more to chew on in the following episode, with a title much too close to "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" and a very familiar plot well trodden in many cop shows, I was glad of Big Chicken's stealing the show to liven up this episode.

Lastly on disk 2, a return to form with a packed episode about gold smuggling. The opening scene is quite shocking for the time. Subsequently, the overconfident character running the boat is well written and well played, as is the undercover agent.

It's very noticeable how male orientated the original show was (somewhat surprisingly the reboot was sometimes the same, in episodes where Grace Park didnt feature), and the female undercover agent in this episode adds a lot to the dynamic of the episode.

As I said before, the storyline in this episode was packed, in fact I feel like this could have worked as a 2 part episode quite easily. For example, the killer in the opening scene never reappears(!). We find out in conversation later that he was killed by the boat runner to get the "bosses" out of a hole. Either there was a lot cut out of the episode shoot or the script itself, or there's easily half an episode of additional plot line dealing with the original mistake and the repercussions culminating in the need to eliminate the killer from the opening scene.

A final thought, its noticeable the Governor is appearing regularly at this early stage, though that doesnt continue from memory. It's also noticeable that his character description keeps changing in the end credits - for the last episode he was credited under an actual character name, rather than just "the Governor" as previously.

[OceanBlue]

Jack Lord aside, I think the only actor who appeared in all twelve seasons of Hawaii Five-O was Richard Denning, who played the Governor of Hawaii (was his first name Paul?). For several seasons on the show, there were recurring, regular characters like Che Fong (in the first season I think he was played by more than one actor, including Daniel Kamekona, who would guest star as other characters through the series' run. They used local actors as well (someone else would know for sure, but I think one of them would have a recurring guest star role on the original Magnum, P.I. after Hawaii Five-O ended (he would play Magnum's police contact).

I agree about how male-orientated the show was. Occasionly (especially later on in the show's run, including during the second half of the show's run when Jack Lord was the unofficial showrunner), there was some sexism towards female cops who wanted to go undercover on one of Five-O's cases. But that didn't happen a lot though (the sexism).

What you said about the episode "Samurai", regarding the background of Ricardo Montalban's character and the lost submarine, I thought that was one of the best things about it. It added depth, which is something I like to see.

On a separate note, to do with McGarrett's fashion sense. I keep meaning to look out for when Jack Lord starting wearing those leisure suits which drew criticism from fans. I know it was around the tenth or eleventh season when he started wearing them.

[OceanBlue]

Watched the past couple of nights, the first two episodes of Hawaii Five-O's second season (the season premiere has an episodic promo narrated by Jack Lord, the second one does not).

Thought the ending of "A Thousand Pardons--You're Dead! was abrupt, a bit too abrupt. And yet, I still though the season premiere was very good. The story was well written (the case was a bit difficult to follow though). Among the guest stars were Harry Guardino, Barbara Luna, and (in early screen roles) Loretta Swit and James Hong.

"To Hell with Babe Ruth", on the whole, I liked more than the season opener (probably because the ending was better). Guest starring was actor Mark Lenard (did he have a recurring guest-star role on Star Trek: The Next Generation?). I liked the Pearl Harbour part of the episode's storyline.

Worth mentioning, is the season two premiere marked the debut of the classic end credits sequence of the boat rowers in the ocean.

[cutback73]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

Watched the past couple of nights, the first two episodes of Hawaii Five-O's second season (the season premiere has an episodic promo narrated by Jack Lord, the second one does not).

Thought the ending of "A Thousand Pardons--You're Dead! was abrupt, a bit too abrupt. And yet, I still though the season premiere was very good. The story was well written (the case was a bit difficult to follow though). Among the guest stars were Harry Guardino, Barbara Luna, and (in early screen roles) Loretta Swit and James Hong.

"To Hell with Babe Ruth", on the whole, I liked more than the season opener (probably because the ending was better). Guest starring was actor Mark Lenard (did he have a recurring guest-star role on Star Trek: The Next Generation?). I liked the Pearl Harbour part of the episode's storyline.

Worth mentioning, is the season two premiere marked the debut of the classic end credits sequence of the boat rowers in the ocean.

Great cast list for the season premiere. The camera did love Barbara Luna, she had a great rather devious role in an episode of The Invaders "The Storm", as well as famously being "alternate reality Kirk's" concubine in the original series of Star Trek.

Tough competition up against "hotlips" though!

Mark Lenard was most well known for playing Spock's father in series and movies, although he wasnt much older than Leonard Nimoy in real life (7 years). A good character actor.

[OceanBlue]

Watched Leonard Nimoy recently in an episode of T.J. Hooker (called "Vengeance is Mine"), in which he played a detective who wanted revenge after his daughter was assaulted. Obviously the reason for seeing this episode, was the reunion of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (although on-and-off through the eighties, they starred in some of the Star Trek films).

Watched in the last few days, the season two episode "Forty Feet High and It Kills!". Thought it had a great beginning and last third, but the middle part of the episode was disappointing (after a great set-up, which I think the revival did a better job of (they did an episode where

[Show spoiler]there was a fake tsunami warning (it was a cover for a robbery).

One of the other guest stars, Will Geer, I saw recently in a first season episode of drama series Medical Center.

One of the highlights of this episode was McGarrett facing Wo Fat in the warehouse before the end. Knowing what was to come in the series (although I think the actor who played Wo Fat only appeared around a dozen times throughout the series (don't know why he disappeared for such a long time inbetween the season nine opener "Nine Dragons" and the series finale "Woe to Wo Fat". Although I know around the mid-seventies the actor starred in a short-lived series called Khan!). McGarrett and Wo Fat's meetings and confrontations are worth the price of admission.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by cutback73

I too noticed the upcoming Mediumrare release of Season 8 in the UK. I have Seasons 1 to 6, didnt realise that Season 7 had been released - will have to look out for it, although I think all the original 7 seasons are OOP now.

I hope Season 8 sells well so that they can complete the Series. It's a reasonable price for a 6 disk set at £24.99.

Also, I wonder if they will re-release Seasons 1 to 7 in the UK since they are OOP. Maybe the plan is to release 8 to 12 and then release a full 12 season set, it would seem logical.

I am glad that some of the part released series are now being completed in the UK.

We were stuck on Season 1 of The Fugitive for years until we got the full season set, which I have and which is a decent set with good quality picture and sound (albeit in the big amaray cases). I think these are the same versions being shown on CBS Justice channel currently here in the UK?

I enjoyed their runs of original Perry Mason although they've never shown Season 5 which is bizarre! They went Season 6 and 7, 8 and 9, 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and now back to 6 and 7 on CBS Drama!

Well, it's now been seven months since the eighth season was released by Mediumrare in the UK, and still no sign of the next season. Been checking Amazon UK and HMV and a release of the ninth season of Hawaii Five-O hasn't been put up for pre-order. You'll have to excuse my sarcasm, but I'm wondering if the only way to communicate with Mediumrare is by carrier pigeon. They have no social media pages and no website. It appears there is no way to get in touch with them.

I haven't been able to find out if the German release of the tenth season uses the remastered episodes which were in the North American re-release (which you can only get in the complete series set).

Apologies for not posting this sooner, but I found out a few weeks ago on Facebook that CBS Drama or Justice repeated the fifth season of the original Perry Mason series a few weeks ago.

[OceanBlue]

Currently am around the halfway point of Hawaii Five-O's second season. The last episode I watched was "The Joker's Wild, Man, Wild!". Really enjoyed this episode, one of my favourites of the series so far. It was full of details and variety. One of the standout scenes was when

[Show spoiler]McGarrett and Danno were tracking the car which two of the suspects were in (it was the simplicity of the tracking device, a glowing yellow lightbulb indicating how close they were to the car).

I recognised a few of the guest stars in the episode, but I wouldn't know what their names were. Some of them I think appeared more than once through the series' run.

Thought the ending was apt, and I loved

[Show spoiler]McGarrett's response to one of the culprits who were playing the game.

Another standout episode in the second season so far was "A Bullet for McGarrett", in which Khigh Dheigh made his third appearance as Wo Fat (however it was only a brief appearance). Also among the guest stars was veteran actor Eric Braeden as a college professor who was

[Show spoiler]hypnotising students, turning them into killers.

[edmonddantes]

I recently got the DVDs and obviously Im going to watch some of those, but there s a streaming version in 720p, any of you know which is the better version beyond the obvious? I think paramount plus has the streaming

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

I'm almost finished with S06 of HFO. Excellent series, and IMHO there have been no bad episodes in any of these seasons. I don't know if the strong momentum will continue until the end, but so far I'm extremely impressed by the quality of the writing, acting, and production in this show. Well-done.

Some especially notable S06 episodes:

"The $10,000 nickel": A skilled thief steals an extremely valuable nickel,

[Show spoiler]and soon after it gets put into a vending machine. The story-line involving the thief trying to track down the coin & the authorities trying to track down the thief is complex & compelling.

"Secret Witness": An bystander witnesses a "hit", and is pursued by the killer.

[Show spoiler]The witness gets away, but leaves behind a clue that leads the killer to him & his family. As it turns out, the killing was ordered by a big-shot mobster that is known to McGarret & co.

This was an especially well-done & suspenseful episode.

Notable guest stars in this episode are Mark Lenard (Sarek in Star Trek: TOS), and Cindy Williams (American Graffiti, Laverne & Shirley).

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by AnamorphicWidescreen

I'm almost finished with S06 of HFO. Excellent series, and IMHO there have been no bad episodes in any of these seasons. I don't know if the show will continue this momentum until the end, but so far I'm extremely impressed by the quality of the writing, acting, and production in this show. Well-done.

I think it's around the ninth or tenth season where some episodes start to get repetitive, but it's with the penultimate, eleventh season where things start to go a bit downhill. However, in the show's defence, even it's bad episodes were better than some episodes in similar series.

[OceanBlue]

This past weekend, watched the second season episode "Which Way Did They Go?". To sum it up in a few words...it was a five-star classic, one of my favourite episodes.

It was that good, a well-written episode/story. Even though there were a couple of things which, even after thinking through the whole episode, I still couldn't fathom it out. It was full of details and was at times a mystery.

One scene in particular was strong stuff. It wasn't shown, but it was implied

[Show spoiler](what happened to the bank manager's wife at their home on the coast).

It was handled just right with the aftermath (McGarrett speaking to her husband). It could have come across as fake and unsympathetic, but it wasn't. The acting was done just right.

Among the guest stars was veteran actor William Windom. It seemed like at this point in his career, he was mostly playing bad guys, compared to the second half of the eighties onwards (when he had the recurring guest-star role of Dr. Seth Hazlett on another long-running detective (sort-of detective) series Murder, She Wrote (which also lasted twelve seasons like Hawaii Five-O).

I won't go into too much detail about this episode (and if I did, I would put it in spoiler tags. You need to see this episode yourself. One of the best episodes this season (and two top-notch episodes in a row, following "The Joker's Wild, Man, Wild!"). The ending was clever, and it made you think back to something Windom's character did earlier in the episode.

Also worth mentioning, was actor Harry Endo's guest-star appearance (in "Which Way Did They Go?" he played either a bank manager or a security expert). In the next episode after this, he would debut as forensics expert Che Fong. He would play the part all the way through to someway through the tenth season (the character just disappeared with no explanation. Which was disappointing, considering he played an important part in some of Hawaii Five-O's most successful seasons (referring to the line-up of recurring guest-stars who played characters who worked with the Five-O team, including Doc, Glenn Cannon's character (can't remember his name) and Jonathan Kaye).

[OceanBlue]

Last night's episode from the second season, "Killer Bee", was a low-key story with a heavy-hitting ending which pushed the episode up to being one of my favourites so far in the series. I didn't see the ending coming (like with an episode of Midnight Caller I watched recently). Towards the end, I could remember where the ending was set

[Show spoiler](at the hospital where the real culprit was working), but not how it ended.

The episode already had a weird vibe to it, a weird feel, with the visual shots etc.

The previous episode "Run, Johnny, Run" wasn't as good (Christopher Walken guest-starred in it), but "Killer Bee" saw the show back on form.

Haven't forgotten about the episode "Blind Tiger". I'll post a mini-review soon (the episode inbetween "Blind Tiger" and "Run, Johnny, Run", called "Bored, She Hung Herself" was apparently never shown in syndication after it's original airing in the States, and hasn't been included in any physical media release of the original Hawaii Five-O).

[OceanBlue]

Watched the episode "Blind Tiger" in the past week. On the whole I thought it was very good, and better than "Run, Johnny, Run".

[Show spoiler]Even though the culprit was revealed early on (intentionally by the show's makers?),

it was still an interesting, tense story. One of the things I liked was the use of camera angles, light, shadow and darkness (the highlight being

[Show spoiler]the confrontation and fight scene in one of the hospital's treatment rooms where the nurse who was helping McGarrett with his recovery (he had been blinded by a bomb explosion in his car outside the Iolani Palace in the episode's teaser) were all of a sudden confronted by the bomber.

I was more involved in the conversations between the nurse (played by Marion Ross, a few years before sitcom Happy Days started in the States) and McGarrett, than the search for the bomber. Also liked

[Show spoiler]the progress with McGarrett's recovery regarding the loss and recovery of his eyesight.

The hospital seen in this episode was used a lot on the show during it's long run.

McGarrett's orange dressing down was a bit of an eyesore (that's a trivial nitpick though).