Five-O Oddities, Goofs, Trivia -- Season 1

Copyright ©1994-2013 by Mike Quigley. No reproduction of any kind without permission. Original air dates are taken from information supplied by the Iolani Palace Irregulars and Karen Rhodes' Booking Five-O.

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OUR RATINGS:

= One of the very best episodes, a must-see.

= Better than average, worthy of attention.

= Average, perhaps with a few moments of interest.

= One of the very worst, a show to avoid.

1. Full Fathom Five

Original air date: 9/26/68 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits
Timings: Teaser: 4:31; Main Titles: 0:57; Act One: 8:06; Act Two: 12:23; Act Three: 11:33; Act Four: 12:45; End Credits: 0:54; Total Time: 51:09.

SEASON 1!
Victor Reese, a.k.a. Rawlings (Kevin McCarthy) and his wife Nora (Louise Troy) have a "successful, proven operation" bilking rich widows and single women out of their funds, then poisoning them with aconite (a real poison) and dumping them in the ocean. A serial killer as well as a con artist, Reese recites Ariel's song from Shakespeare's Tempest as the barrel containing Anne Hayes (Jane Thorpe), the victim at the beginning of the show, goes underwater (the song has the sex changed to "her" from "him"*). Nora shows some cleavage in the opening scene, and the music by Morton Stevens is dissonant. McGarrett gropes his secretary May (Maggi Parker) on the way into his office during his first appearance. He addresses her as "love," and gets her to bring him coffee. Peggy Ryan, later McGarrett's secretary Jenny, is named Milly and works for the Governor (Richard Denning). When the Governor meets McGarrett, he offers the latter some papaya, a scene later parodied in Mad Magazine. The Governor just sits under a tree eating his lunch ... obviously there are no security concerns. There are some interesting camera angles during the discussion between McGarrett and the Governor. It turns out that Five-O's search for the first woman suspected of disappearing, Martha Finch (Arlene McQuade), is a red herring, since she went to live with a bunch of hippies on the beach in the middle of nowhere. McGarrett, along with her lawyer Tyler Skaggs (Philip Pine), checks out this "subculture," which he finds amusing -- it prompts him to say "Peace, brother." There is tension between McGarrett and Danno when Danny objects to using policewoman Joyce Weber (Patricia Smith) as bait for Reese's schemes, saying "I don't like it," and McGarrett replies "Nobody asked you." When McGarrett asks Danno to manufacture some bogus I.D. for Joyce, Danno replies, "Forgery was my best subject." The ending where Reese tells Joyce that he and Nora are going to kill her after she drops the poisoned drink that they give her is kind of contrived; you would expect that Reese would continue to be charming, because while Nora says she wants to leave, she hasn't actually gotten up and tried to get off the boat. Fortunately, McGarrett and Danno are nearby hiding in another boat. Reese is shot while he attempts to flee, and after he falls into the water, Kono checks out his body, pronouncing him dead. How Reese's body got out of the water without Kono getting wet is a good question.
MORE TRIVIA:
In his earliest scenes in the show, you can see that Jack Lord is sweating in McGarrett's office.
The oil drum that Victor uses at the beginning of the show is green when it is first seen, but when thrown into the ocean it is more of a blue color. Where does Reese keep this drum on his boat?
The camera mounted on the front of a car as McGarrett and Skaggs go to the hippie compound is kind of shaky.
On the cruise ship, Danno snoops in Reese's room and makes note of a Chinese laundry mark. He sends this back to the Five-O office in Honolulu, but how would he do this? Did they have fax-like capability on ships of the era?
Danno smokes in McGarrett's office; Joyce smokes on the cruise ship.
About a minute and a half into the episode, where Anne drops dead from the effect of the poison, there is a shot from the side as Reese leans over to keep her from hitting the deck. Behind him, as the boat -- which is supposedly out in the ocean -- goes up and down, there is this thing that looks like a parking meter. It is not attached to the boat, because if it was, it would go up and down with the boat, but it is fixed in place -- like something at a dock, where this scene was likely being filmed, unlike the other scenes during the teaser out in the ocean. (See photo by clicking here.)
A "computer" is used by Danno to correlate information on the missing women.
The bogus name for Reese's yacht the Golden Marlin -- "Aloha Baby" -- is ironic, considering what happens to his victims.
The words "mary jane" can be seen scrawled on a piece of plywood at the hippie compound. The back of a supposedly nude woman is seen as some hippie artist is painting her portrait.
During a flight over the harbour, James MacArthur is seen sitting in the door of the helicopter (number N8544F) -- no need for a stunt man or a projected backdrop.
When Danno meets McGarrett at the cruise ship dock, he says "that [bright Hawaiian] shirt's blinding me!" McGarrett is also wearing cool sunglasses as part of his tourist persona.
Chin Ho says "some of my best ancestors are Chinese" and "Confucius once said -- we got a winner, boss!" Chin talks Chinese to one of his relatives who works at a laundry. Chin also tails people in a very obvious fashion, establishing a trait that will be seen in many episodes.
Herman ("Duke") Wedemeyer makes a brief appearance as "Lt. Balta."
When McGarrett is driving Joyce to her airport cab (phone number 941-5055), watch the cars and scenery behind them. The continuity leaves a lot to be desired.
McGarrett says "good girl" to Joyce twice and when she leaves him says "go with God."
Bad DVD subtitles: "You're a rich hau'oli [haole] lady." When Chin radios to the office that he is tailing Reese, the subtitles refer to Reese's car as the "Same green convertible," but it is red in color.
*SHAKESPEARE’S ORIGINAL:

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them -- Ding-dong, bell.

AS HEARD ON FIVE-O:

Full fathom five the widow lies,
Of her bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were her eyes.
Nothing of her now doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Sea-nymphs hourly ring her knell:
Hark! now I hear them -- Ding-dong, bell.

2. Strangers in Our Own Land

Original air date: 10/3/68 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

This episode deals with the issue of Hawaiian nationalism and the way the natives have been exploited in the name of progress. The show begins with one of my favorite special effects of the whole series -- the bomb blast in the taxi which wipes out Land Commissioner Nathan Manu (Lord Kaulili). Manu's death brings forth a lot of questions, none of which are as disturbing as the statement from his friend Benny Kalua (Simon Oakland, in a relatively restrained performance) that whoever killed Manu was doing Hawaii a favor. According to Kalua, Manu had turned against his people, aligning himself with developers who "betrayed the land." When Five-O tracks down Tommy Kapali, a suspect in the bombing, his former foreman describes him as a "troublemaker." The head developer of the project where Tommy worked, David Milner (Paul Kent), tells McGarrett "You've got to stop treating these Hawaiians like children ... I've never seen a race of people die out anywhere when they had good jobs or money in the bank." There is a touching scene where McGarrett interrogates Tommy's mother, played by iconic Hawaiian Hilo Hattie. More complications arise with Lester Willighby (Milton Selzer), a "little man" trying to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the bombing. Unfortunately, things go downhill near the end of the show with the suggestion of a conspiracy involving Kalua which is never fully explained. The final scene with Kalua driving a bulldozer into a shed of dynamite (which, of course, explodes, killing him) is disappointing. Still, the show has brilliant use of color in several scenes, and the score by Morton Stevens is good. There is a theme near the beginning as Kalua tells McGarrett about when he and Manu were kids -- this theme might be described as "childhood memories." This was one of the late Zoulou's favorite shows.
MORE TRIVIA:
Danno is seen smoking in McGarrett's office near the beginning of the show, as is another guy, presumably from HPD, who is identified as "Dan." Danno also wears cool sunglasses during the investigation at the airport.
Stunt man Beau Van Den Ecker is the guy who rushes quickly with an HPD cop, both carrying extinguishers, to put out the fire in the taxi after the bomb blast. The cab is a Hawaii Cab, number 4189, with a phone number 923-8796 on the back. Manu's body is taken away in a City and County Ambulance.
McGarrett kisses his secretary May (Maggi Parker) on his way into the office. May seems to function as a den mother, producing coffee and food for the Five-O crew at a moment's notice. McGarrett tells her, "Thanks, love, what would we do without you?"
A July 1968 date is seen on a calendar for Miyasaki Produce Ltd., which has a phone number of 561-081.
Chin Ho mispronounces "La Jolla" to McGarrett's amusement. This is the episode which has the classic scene where Chin swipes a hard-boiled egg off McGarrett's desk.
McGarrett uses the freeze-frame movie projector technique which would show up in later episodes, as well as slow-motion and "sharpening" the picture. Chin Ho is already the audio-visual guy in the office. The final shot taken by "Grace Willis" at the airport which shows Tommy Kapali does not make sense, because it is a frontal shot, and by the time McGarrett tells Chin to freeze the projector Tommy would have already passed Willis.
When Kalua gets on the bulldozer at the end and drives towards Milner to run him over, the distance between the two of them is much further than in the previous scene where Kalua knocked Milner senseless (producing a bloody gash on Milner's forehead).
At the end, watch Kono's hair as he utters the title while gazing over Milner's housing development.

3. Tiger by the Tail

Original air date: 10/10/68 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

Aspiring nightclub singer Bobby George (Sal Mineo) stages his own kidnapping from the Swinger Club as a publicity stunt, but it goes wrong when his co-conspirators, Jerry Parks (Sam Melville) and Allan Brent (Ion Berger), get designs on the $500,000 Bobby's estranged father, hotel magnate D.J. Georgiade (Harold Stone), offers for his return. Georgiade, who arrives from New York quickly, wants to do everything his own way, but the Attorney-General (Morgan White) assures him: "In McGarrett, you've got the best ... believe me ... the best." McGarrett tells his men "I want this rock turned inside out," and they analyze anything and everything remotely connected with the case, including the flight plans of airplanes and a song heard in the background of one of the ransom tapes. This is an above average show, with excellent performances, especially by Stone, Mineo and Melville. Melville's character, hoping to be Bobby's manager after the kidnapping stunt blows over before he thinks seriously about the money, is an interesting mixture of edginess and sadism.
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Journalist Dave ("David L.") Donnelly, who wrote on happenings in Hawaii for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin for years, plays the sound technician Charlie Grey who analyzes one of the ransom tapes and determines it contains a "high frequency sound." His scenes were filmed in the KGMB-TV studios, the CBS outlet, in Honolulu. Donnelly e-mailed me in 1997: "Since I was playing Checkers in the kiddies show, 'Checkers and Pogo,' both stars were in that episode. Morgan White, who played the Attorney General, was Pogo on our show." In this episode, KGMB is identified as being channel nine.
The analysis of the reel-to-reel tapes is kind of far-fetched. The store where one crucial tape was sold is tracked down by its serial number. (I actually own several tapes which do have identifying serial numbers on the box.) Reel-to-reel tapes were very popular among hi-fi enthusiasts for years prior to 1971, when quality audio cassettes were introduced.
The show is full of hip lingo. After he interviews two beach babes who are friends of Bobby's (one of whom is Karol -- more recently Carole -- Kai, more recently an entertainer in Hawaii), they comment, "Dig?" ... "Groovy," eyeing him as he leaves. The expression "blow my mind"/"blow your mind" is heard. Parks calls Brent and Bobby "baby" at least twelve times.
Robert Luck is Ted Harmon, the manager of the Swinger Club. Moki Palacio is a chef at the club who tries to stop the kidnapping.
A real government public service announcement for anti-littering with the motto "Keep America Beautiful" is seen on TV.
Two musical selections from the soundtrack album are heard: The Chase, when Parks and Brent pursue Bobby, who is trying to escape, and Operation Smash, heard when McGarrett is interviewing the two girls on the beach.
The song Bobby is singing before he is kidnapped is "Ain't No Big Thing." Later, when Chin Ho tells Kono, "Gonna be a long night, brother," Kono replies, "Ain't no big thing."

4. Samurai

Original air date: 10/17/68 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

Leonard Tokura (Ricardo Montalban), head of Tokura Imports, but also "head of organized crime in Hawaii," responsible for "narcotics, gambling, prostitution [and] book" as well as "refugees, women [and] drugs" is summoned to appear at a crime commission hearing. When he arrives at the courthouse, Tokura is the object of an assassination attempt by one of two mysterious "bushido" from Japan. He survives this because he is seemingly wearing a bulletproof vest. In the hearing, McGarrett produces a surprise witness, Mary Travers (Karen Norris), former bookkeeper with Tokura's organization, who got a glimpse into his crooked dealings, but she drops dead on the witness stand after being asked questions in a very leading way by Walter Stewart, the Attorney General (Morgan White). When McGarrett later confronts Tokura, accusing him of poisoning Travers, Tokura blows him off, but then, after the second bushido attempts to kill Tokura with a grenade, his jet-setting daughter Deedee (Carolyn Barrett) asks McGarrett to protect her father. While McGarrett is paying another visit to Tokura's place, the crime boss is shot dead, presumably by other bushido from Japan, his face blown off with a shotgun. When he notices Tokura's tight-fitting ring fall off his finger as it is taken away by ambulance attendants, McGarrett has a brainstorm that all is not that it seems to be. With the help of the Tokyo police, McGarrett figures out that Tokura is really a Japanese deserter from World War II who has been pulling a scam for years, having assumed the identity of an American citizen. McGarrett convinces Deedee to smoke her father out of hiding by giving a million dollars of his to the local university to "right wrongs." When he finds out about this, Tokura stupidly meets his daughter, falling into McGarrett's trap. At the show's end, McGarrett arranges for Tokura to be deported back to Japan. When Tokura spots a couple of bushido-like guys on the ship (who are actually HPD cops), he freaks out and confesses to the murder of Travers.
This was the first Five-O show produced, but not the first one shown. This no doubt accounts for the word "Hawaii" flashed during the teaser where the Aloha Tower is seen. Montalban, who played a Japanese kabuki actor named Nakamura in the film Sayonara, gives a performance which is suitably dramatic, and his repartee with McGarrett is delightful. However, his "yellowface" makeup is silly, and his mannerisms are annoying, including the way he smokes a cigarette like Arte Johnson's Laugh-In character. In fact, Tokura's mannerisms should give McGarrett a big clue that something is wrong. Tokura/Montalban (T/M) has this sort-of-Japanese accent. This is likely due to the fact that T/M really is Japanese. He is "S. Yamashito," who abandoned the midget submarine he was piloting around the Hawaiian Islands during World War II and hid in a cave on Molokai. T/M assumed the identity of the real Tokura who was also hiding in the caves to escape those who wanted to intern him after the Pearl Harbor attack. Presumably T/M killed the real Tokura, though, as McGarrett says to Deedee, "what happened to him [the real Tokura] is anybody's guess." McGarrett then says "After the war, your father came to back to Honolulu." Does he mean that T/M came back from Molokai to Oahu, or that he was eventually captured by the internment people and came back from the mainland? In either case, it seems very likely that someone might have realized that he was not the same person -- but, of course, no one did. The real Tokura was born in San Francisco ("on Fillmore Street," according to T/M's alibi) and came to the islands in 1939. Even if he had Japanese parents, one would suspect that he did not affect Japanese mannerisms and have a Japanese accent.
What is even more annoying than Montalban, though, is the continued misuse of the word "bushido," which the dictionary defines as "a feudal-military Japanese code of chivalry valuing honor above life." McGarrett refers correctly to the "code of bushido" once, but then shows Tokura a knife, commenting "it makes it easier for a bushido to gut himself when he fails on a mission." McGarrett and others keep using the word "bushido" referring to a person or persons. Other misapplied remarks include "I'm about to order a medal for the next bushido who comes to chop you down," "Why does the bushido want you dead?", and "The bushido put him on their death list." Even Chin Ho gets into the act saying "Bushido... what about him?" When the men grab Tokura prior to blowing off "his" face with the shotgun, he screams "Bushido!" to McGarrett, who is trying unsuccessfully to protect him. The two bushido seen in the temple at the beginning of the show are not bushido or even the correct "samurai" at all, but monks, by the way. One wonders why these guys suddenly decide to show up in Honolulu and knock off Tokura. Was this because of the "dishonour" committed when Yamashito abandoned his post during the war? If so, why did it take them over 25 years to track him down, since Tokura's alibi for that time period was pretty iron-clad. Even McGarrett doesn't know the truth until he sends the fingerprints to Japan.
There is a tense scene between McGarrett and Danno at the beginning of the show, when Danno is taken to task in a major way for failing to prevent Tokura from knocking off Travers. Danno exclaims, "I blew it!" But McGarrett is kind of dumb himself ... why doesn't he do a more thorough investigation on the fingerprints from the supposedly dead Tokura which he sends to Japan? There are actually three sets of fingerprints involved here: the ones from T/M which they have on file from his local criminal record, since T/M says that he has been charged several times for everything from double parking to illegal cockfights (these prints are presumably the ones that were sent to Japan, since they prove Tokura's real identity); the ones from the dead Tokura (no doubt one of the mobster's loyal henchmen -- which could have been used to compare to the ones from T/M on file before sending anything to Japan); and the ones from the real Tokura (the internment escapee, who may have been fingerprinted before or after Pearl Harbor).
As part of the trap to catch Tokura at the end, Tokura meets Deedee in a movie theatre which has a poster for "Revenge of the Pearl Divers" outside. Considering it is unlikely that Deedee would have gone to a movie, being a high-rolling kind of girl, this confrontation should have happened somewhere else, like maybe a shopping centre or some other place where she would be more likely to hang out. The movie shown in the theatre is really simplistic, with no dialogue at all and banal music. The screen dimensions, in fact, suggest a 16mm film. When T/M is talking to Deedee in the theatre, you would expect that people would keep shushing them, because they are speaking very loudly, but no one says anything. And how did Tokura know that Deedee would be at this movie theatre at a certain time on a certain day?
On the positive side, this episode has an outstanding score by Morton Stevens, including the first appearance of the "bonging bell" noise to be heard in many more episodes. The color photography is also a plus, as is the set decoration, especially at Tokura's palatial mansion, which was on the estate of Henry J. Kaiser, the shipbuilding and aluminum magnate, a fact that gets a mention in the end credits.
MORE TRIVIA:
McGarrett defines Five-O in this episode: "We're state police. Five-O operates with the local police on all seven islands."
During the opening courtroom scene, the Attorney General refers to Tokura as "Tokuru" a couple of times, then continues with the correct pronunciation.
The Governor's secretary, Milly (Peggy Ryan), later became McGarrett's receptionist, Jenny. McGarrett's current receptionist, May (Maggi Parker), addresses him as "Mr. McGarrett" and "boss."
The second bushido with the grenade attempts to kill Tokura at the entrance to the Hilton Lagoon Apartments.
McGarrett wonders if the poison in Travers' lipstick which killed her is "tridectine." The coroner says no, it is a "procnine derivative."
When McGarrett is travelling to visit Tokura, his car is seen from above and there are no trees on the driver's side of the car. When the car is seen in closeup, there is plenty of foliage on the driver's side. When McGarrett pulls up to the driveway of Tokura's estate (which is presumably the last house on the cul-de-sac since there are no other driveways between McGarrett's moving car and the end of the road), there are also trees on the driver's side, whereas there are no trees there when the the last house and its driveway are seen from above. But ... the Kaiser house is actually not at the end of the road. You can see the property's swimming pool in the shot taken from above, and this house is several houses from the end. So when McGarrett is seen driving, he has actually passed this house. (Thanks to Rick for pointing this out.)
When McGarrett is introduced to Deedee by her father, he gives her "the eye." Tokura's reaction to this is priceless, like he could kill McGarrett right then and there.
Tokura, when discussing his past with McGarrett, recalls "after Pearl Harbour you were a 'Jap'." He later tells Deedee, "Why don't you get some sun, you've been looking rather pale these days." This is a pretty funny line, considering Montalban's makeup.
To get some information about the Japanese midget submarines, McGarrett meets up with an old Navy buddy (Ed Sheehan) near the USS Blueback, the last non-nuclear submarine to join the United States Navy
In McGarrett's office during the investigation, Kono incongruously discusses trying to teach a woman the hula -- presumably for some local colour. McGarrett later fingers his guitar which is on his desk. After McGarrett and Danno have their screaming match, McGarrett apologizes and pats Danno on the shoulder. As the camera moves, there is a shadow on Danno, like a microphone boom.
The first bushido uses an 8mm Nambu, a semi-automatic pistol used by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy during the First and Second World Wars. This reinforces the idea that the assasination was because of Tokura/Yamashito's besmirched military record.
During the investigation of Tokura there is reference to a past date of April 7, 1967. As well, Mary Travers worked for Tokura from January 1967 to July 1967.
As Deedee and McGarrett watch a news report of her giving the million dollars to the university on TV, Deedee has some kind of remote control device in her hand.
After Tokura's goons kill a couple of enforcers at the beginning of the show, as they drive away quickly, you can see the marquee of a porno movie theatre. The two films playing in thie "ADULTS ONLY" theater begin with the words PASSION.and NAKED.
At the end, McGarrett tells Tokura "Aloha, baby." In trying to give Takura a good reason to stick around, he correctly tells him that there is no capital punishment in Hawaii.

5. ....And They Painted Daisies on His Coffin

Original air date: 11/7/68 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

An excellent show, with Danno accused of murder after he shoots a kid and the victim's girlfriend sneaks away with the kid's gun. During the opening chase, Arthur Hee is seen briefly. The cops find "fresh pot" at the kid's pad. I wonder how the kid gets shot -- Danno fires at the door. Is the kid standing right behind it? When grilled by McGarrett, Danno says when he saw the kid's body, "I didn't know he'd been hit." But there is a bullet wound in his back that we can see when he's lying on the floor! Danno tells McGarrett: "It's a stinking job," to which McGarrett replies, "Who told you it was anything else!" McGarrett engages in verbal sparring with the Attorney-General (Morgan White). Searching for clues, Kono visits a massage parlor. McGarrett checks out the Club Hubba Hubba (actually in existence since the late 1940's at 25 N. Hotel St.), where one of the peelers tells him: "Catch my act sometime." McGarrett smiles. McGarrett and Kono take on a gang on the beach. Gavin ("Love Boat") McLeod plays the sweaty dope pusher Big Chicken, who utters phrases like "the law is cool" and "peace." In the hippie pad, there is sitar music and body painting. McGarrett tells the kid's girl friend she's been "apprised of [her] constitutional rights." McGarrett roughs up Big Chicken, drawing blood. I like the ending where McGarrett and Danno come "into the light." According to Denise Maraschin and Ilene Baxley, quoting a casting sheet for the episode, Che Fong is played by the uncredited Edward Tom.

6. Twenty-Four Karat Kill

Original air date: 11/14/68 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

This show has a major continuity error: "Governor" Richard Denning appears in this show as treasury agent Philip Grey. There is no logical explanation for this. I assume that some other actor was supposed to play this part and was unavailable at the very last minute. During his first appearance, McGarrett keeps repeating Grey's name -- as if he is trying to convince us that it really isn't the Governor! Or (this is my rumour) maybe the show's producers thought that Five-O wasn't going to be successful, and they didn't care who played this part? Aside from this blunder, it's a good show. When the woman buys the fish (a kind of tuna called bonito, by the way) at the beginning, and considering she is very picky, why doesn't she realize how heavy the fish is (since it contains a gold bar)? I like the parallels when she gets knocked off -- her knife, the killer's knife; her screaming, her baby screaming. This show has a great, archetypal sequence of McGarrett driving away from his office and through Honolulu (taken from the pilot episode) with accompanying score by Stevens. Why can't anyone drive in this episode without squealing tires? Doug Mossman plays Lt. Howard Kealoha, who deals with McGarrett in a blunt, no-nonsense way. Kono is used to bust down the door of the gambling den, sort of like a human bulldozer. Check McGarrett's artsy-fartsy reflection in the mirror when he is talking to the coroner. Chin gets a skull fracture (from tailing someone too close!) and McGarrett addresses him as "Fatso" in the hospital. When McGarrett busts into the office of sleazy lawyer Paul Dennison (Paul Richards), he tells Dennison's secretary, "Stay out of this, honey." McGarrett is very pissed at Dennison for putting Chin in the hospital. McGarrett says "no dames" when Grey suggests using a female undercover operator. When McGarrett suggests using a million bucks, Grey says if it gets lost, they'll take it out of McGarrett's salary, to which McGarrett replies: "What's a couple of hundred years of peanut butter sandwiches?" McGarrett directs his receptionist's attention to the coffee machine when he enters the office. When Johnny Fargo (Kaz Garas) tries to get fresh with the undercover agent Andréea (Marj Dusay), he says "Perfect, baby, perfect," to which she replies, "Act your age." When Danno phones the office to relay the good news about Chin's recovery, he seems very chummy with May, the receptionist, telling her "You're beautiful." When they are tailing the bad guys near the show's end, the scene with the cops in car nine is used twice, and the scene with car twelve is used four times!! At the end, Fargo ends up shot and in the drink, similar to Kevin McCarthy's character in episode number 1. Eddie Sherman (presumably the newspaperman) plays a detective. One of the boats used by the bad guys is named Alika, which is the name of a gangster played by Ross Martin in the final two seasons.This is the first show in which McGarrett utters the familiar expression "Book him, Danno," when he and Williams overtake Dennison and Wong Tuo inside the parking garage.
MORE TRIVIA:

Look carefully at the guy who jumps from Johnny Fargo's boat to hookthe gold under the buoy -- it's Beau Van Der Ecker.
When Fargo forces Andréea (Marj Dusay) into the hold of the boat near the end, a gust of wind blows up her skirt so you can see her undergarments.
Listen to the sound at the beginning of this show. It is really cranked up ... when McGarrett and Philip Grey are talking, they are almost drowned out by the sound of the wind rustling through the bushes in the background. It stays at this level until Kono appears in McGarrett's office, then the sound drops down to normal.

7. The Ways of Love

Original air date: 11/21/68 -- Plot -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

During the opening chase, which inexplicably takes place in the middle of nowhere on a narrow one-lane road, you can see the shadow of the crew filming as the two cars rush between two low hills -- my favorite Five-O boo-boo! Check the speedometer on the car driven by Dan Larsen (Don Knight, in his first Five-O appearance) -- it goes up to 180 miles an hour (290 kilometres per hour for metric types). This car (license number D8-5382) is later fished out of the drink, a sequence which will be used in episodes #37, Which Way Did They Go? and #87, Bait Once, Bait Twice. When Celeste Caro (Josie Over) jumps out of the car, the camera looks sped up. This episode also features my favorite "underground" performance by McGarrett, who travels to California to become a cellmate with Caro's former partner Dave Barca (James Patterson). Jack Lord is convincing as convict Steve Crowley, wearing cool sunglasses and spouting phrases like "What a burn!" and "Groovy!" His prison number -- 18790 -- is the same as Barca's! During their escape, McGarrett manufactures the bogus mimeographed military flight orders rather quickly. Robert Costa is X-ray technician Jimmy, Edward Fernandez plays the Consul. McGarrett says "Easy..." once at the end after he shoots Barca. Morton Stevens' music is modernistic -- a bit of the music from the pilot episode is heard. A good McGarrett quote early on: "Some of our best work is luck." When McGarrett/Crowley and Barca are on their way to the temple near the end of the show, the scenery behind the car looks like a projected backdrop. At the 1999 Five-O reunion, Ed Fernandez told me he originally worked for the phone company (he had some kind of military connection in this regard) and one of his friends told him about the casting call for Five-O back in 1968. When he phoned them up, the person asked, "Are you a haole?" (maybe because of Ed's name) ... they were trying to hire local people. While he delivered one of his lines in this show, a car sped away, showering him with gravel from the tires which caused him to lose his place. Jack Lord came over, grabbed Ed by the shoulder and said, "Concentration ... that's what it's all about ... concentration!" Ed said this was pretty scary, since he had never acted before, but later he and Lord became good friends.

8. No Blue Skies

Original air date: 12/5/68 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits
Timings: Teaser: 3:41; Main Titles: 0:56; Act One: 13:42; Act Two: 7:07; Act Three: 6:36; Act Four: 18:02; End Credits: 0:52; Total Time: 50:56.

This show features Tommy Sands -- like Sal Mineo, another teen idol. He plays Joey Rand, a lounge singer and compulsive gambler with a shady past who owes over $200,000 to a gambling syndicate on the mainland. Rand is hoping to get a lucrative record contract, but to try and pay off his debt, he resorts to cat burglary, dropping down from the top of hotels and entering guests' rooms via the balcony. He gets tips about who to rob from his girl friend, travel agent Valerie Michaels (Sandra Smith). The opening sequence by Morton Stevens with a plucked bass is very reminiscent of "Fallout" by Henry Mancini which began every episode of Peter Gunn. We don't really figure out what is Rand's problem until well into the episode. When Valerie's roommate Sarah (Linda Citron) is given some of Rand's stolen jewellery to deliver to a local "distributor" who will ship it to the mainland, she figures out what's in the package and meets a nasty end at the hand of sinister thug Nimo Linkoa (Clayton Naluai) in a stairwell at the Honolulu airport. McGarrett and Kono later tackle Linkoa and some other punks in a bar. An old Chinese man (Arthur Trask) who witnessed Sarah's murder is hesitant to identify Linkoa in a police lineup, even with Chin Ho's help. McGarrett tells Chin to let the old man go, saying "Maybe he'll develop a public conscience." McGarrett puts the heat on Valerie to co-operate, but she keeps avoiding getting involved until the end of the show when Rand's dresser Paul Oliwa (Bob Random), commiting a burglary to give Rand an alibi, is fatally shot by the room's guest and manages to make his way to Valerie's place where he expires. Despite all the vocalizing by Sands, there is still a reasonable amount of story in this episode.
MORE TRIVIA:
Rand sings five songs. The first is in the teaser, the second in the first act, and the other three in the fourth act:
It Only Takes a Moment (Jerry Herman, from the musical Hello Dolly) 1:14
This Land is Your Land (Woodie Guthrie) 1:03
Goin' Out of My Head (Teddy Randazzo and Bobby Weinstein) 1:29
Ain’t No Big Thing (Kuiokalani Lee) 0:20 & 0:13
I'll Remember You (Kui Lee) 0:47 & 1:23

The pianist in Sands' combo looks suspiciously like series composer Morton Stevens.
Sands refers to Valerie as a "dumb broad" and uses the expression "baby" 17 times.
As Danno and Kono tail Linkoa and turn a corner, you can see the shadow of the camera on the front of the car. After Linkoa is shot dead by McGarrett, his body is taken away in a City and County Ambulance. During this sequence, the Five-O theme is heard on plucked bass.
Valerie smokes after McGarrett tells her that Sarah was murdered.
A sign is seen for KDI's Hula Room, which offers "Family Dinner.".

9. By the Numbers

Original air date: 12/12/68 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

Another excellent show, starring Johnny ("Rifleman") Crawford as a G.I. drawn into a mob power struggle. The Governor tells McGarrett he must "do something about Hotel Street," to which McGarrett replies: "The merchants retailing drugs, sex and gambling might march on the palace." Randall Kim as John Lo tells Crawford's soldier friend: "I hear a lot of G.I.s talking ... they say one gook [pronounced to rhyme with "look," not "duke"] looks like another. Must be the same with you, huh? I look like 'some other gook'." After McGarrett leaves his office, it looks like the same shot when he drove past the fountain in episode #7. Herman Wedemeyer appears as Lt. George Balta. When Chin tells McGarrett, "There must be a thousand places a guy could hide out," McGarrett replies, "You've got a thousand relatives ... use them!" A newspaper headline reads "Isle GOP prepares for Agnew campaign visit." McGarrett tells Danno during a discussion about the mobsters: "When you're number two, you try a little harder." When McGarrett grills Irene (Anne Helm), he tells her: "You're an attractive woman, Irene -- do you know what you'll look like when you get out of prison in twenty to thirty years?" The very un-Oriental Will Kuluva plays "big brother" Philip Lo in this episode -- his makeup is hideous, and looks like the Asian equivalent of "blackface." (Randall Kim was born in 1943, so he was around 25 in 1968. Kuluva was born in 1917!) I am almost tempted to drop this episode's 4-star rating because of Kuluva's performance, but the sight of Ann Helm in a bikini is enough to raise it back up. Pete Ackles reports a goof: "Crawford wears a PFC [private first class] stripe and is referred to as such during the show. However, in the credits at the end his character is listed as a corporal (2 stripes)."And Robert McDonald, who lived in Hawaii during the period of the series, writes: "The flea-bag hotel [in this episode] was actually on Maunakea Street, which is just off of Hotel Street in the red light district. At the beginning of the show, the R&R bus appears to be traveling from the airport to Ft DeRussy in Waikiki (heading east), while the background footage looks like the bus is actually traveling west, either on Kalakaua Ave near Kapiolani park, or west along Ala Moana Blvd near Ala Moana Beach park."

10. Yesterday Died and Tomorrow Won't Be Born

Original air date: 12/19/68 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

A dynamite episode, with John Larch as Joseph Trinian reappearing after fifteen years to drill McGarrett while the latter is jogging on the beach. (The kid in the surf that McGarrett picks up must run to the waves pretty quickly, since he is not seen in the opening shots taken of McGarrett jogging from far away.) There is plenty of effective hand-held camera work in the first part of the show, especially shots in the car from the driver's point of view which makes you wonder how the shots were made. When we finally see Larch's face, it's one of Five-O's most chilling moments! In this episode, Doug Mossman plays cop George Leoloha who talks about "a kid hopped up to the gills with speed." Al Eben (later "Doc") is here with a moustache as Dr. Cohen. When Chin Ho asks some hot-rodding punks for information, one of them, M.K. (Lanikai) calls him a "venerable pain in the ancestor." Chin Ho's attempts to rough up M.K. are laughable.

11. Deathwatch

Original air date: 12/25/68 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

McGarrett has to guard a mob underboss (Nehemiah Persoff, in the first of several such roles) who is going to testify and help convict his former superior, Joe Matsukino (James Shigeta). (The name "Matsukino" sounds made-up.) When the prosecutor's pregnant wife sits shocked by her husband's demise at the beginning of the show, McGarrett comforts her, saying "What can I say, hon ... what can I say." McGarrett later refers to a nurse as "honey" and his secretary as "love." Randall Kim, who appeared only two episodes earlier as John Lo, plays Oscar, a pickpocket. McGarrett is disgusted by Persoff's mocking attitude, screaming "Shut up!" at him. The headline in the newspaper at the end -- Headline Trial Witness Dies -- has no relation to any of the stories in the paper. The subhead on the same article is "Senate Nixes Registration." Too bad Shigeta couldn't have played Ricardo Montalban's role in Samurai.

12. Pray Love Remember, Pray Love Remember

Original air date: 1/1/69 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

An Indonesian student is murdered at the Pacific Cultural Institute, an international college whose exteriors look suspiciously like the Byodo-In Temple near Heeia on Oahu. (Perhaps this is modelled on the Polynesian Cultural Center in the north of Oahu?) Number one suspect, thanks to some damning circumstantial evidence, is John Hays (Denny Miller), the woman's boyfriend. Despite the fact that his staff think it's an open and shut case, McGarrett thinks there is something "fishy" going on (a bad pun for those who have seen the episode). Ron Feinberg gives a sympathetic performance as the "developmentally challenged" Benny Apa. Obviously the SPCA had nothing to do with the show, which features a cock fight. While working on the case, Danno is bossy, telling Kono "Don't look at me ... get him [McG] a bucket." At one point, Danno tells McGarrett "Peace and joy, strong brother," and the two make the peace sign at each other. Kono says he has size 13 shoes, "dainty little feet." Daniel Kamekona plays Che Fong. The little boy who dumps sand on Hays' face at the beach is Geoffrey Thorpe, son of location casting director Ted Thorpe. Robert McDonald reports that the haole man who buys the koi fish from Benny is played by Jim Demarest, who replaced Dave Donnelly as Mr. Checkers on the "Checkers and Pogo" show (see #3). Ron Feinberg regarded this show as a major stepping stone in his career (see the report of Mahalo Con).

13. King of the Hill

Original air date: 1/8/69 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

This episode, about medal-winning Marine John Auston (Yaphet Kotto) who freaks out in the hospital, shoots Danno and hinders attempts to rescue both of them because he considers everyone "the enemy," shows McGarrett in an incredibly upset frame of mind. McGarrett just about rushes down the hall single-handed to rescue Danno and has to be restrained by Doug Mossman (as Lt. George Kealoha) who tells him to "settle down, cool off" and Chin Ho ("It won't help Danny blowing your cool"). McGarrett yells at Mossman, "Why haven't you ... you go down and get him!" McGarrett and Castle Memorial Hospital chief Doctor Hanson (Jeff Corey) engage in a screaming match at one point. One of McGarrett's reaction shots during this exchange is not what we might expect. There is some interesting hand-held camera work as McGarrett is quizzed by the media at the beginning of the show. A shot with Hansen coming into the hallway past some cops is repeated twice. The music is by Harry Geller, the first score not done by Stevens. We learn some trivia about Danno during this show: he is a "local boy," born in Hawaii, went to the University of Hawaii for one year (psychology major), then moved to the mainland (University of California at Berkeley) where he majored in police science. We also learn that Five-O sponsors a kids' baseball team! There are some racial overtones to this episode which are not developed very well. Near the end of the show, Kotto mutters deliriously, talking to the "Sarge" (Danny): "You didn't even fight ... you ran cause you didn't wanna owe this black man nothing. He didn't even give me the chance to hear him say, 'John O, call me nigger'!"

14. Up Tight

Original air date: 1/15/69 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

This episode stars Ed Flanders as drug-dispensing Timothy Leary-like professor David Stone who spouts hippie platitudes about love and peace like "laughter should be beautiful." (The significance of the name "Stone" is not to be underestimated!) There is plenty of talk of speed, acid and mescaline. After Danno fails to save Eadie Hastings, one of Stone's drug converts, from a cliff high above the ocean at the beginning, McGarrett comments, "You're up pretty tight, Danno." McGarrett visits the snotty rich brat Donna Wales (Brenda Scott), one of Stone's followers. As she comes out of her parents' swimming pool, her bathing suit top almost slips off. She refers to McGarrett as "fuzz" and makes references to police brutality and harassment. As he leaves, McGarrett says "That's pretty cool, baby, pretty cool." Later when McGarrett confronts Stone at the latter's country retreat, McGarrett uses the expression "turning on and tuning out." Danny becomes an unconvincing surfer/hippie type, using phrases like "Sure, baby, let's let it happen!" The music by Stevens covers a wide range of moods, including a drug-crazed ride on a motorbike by Donna. Some of the hallucinations in this show seem very similar to those suffered by Yaphet Kotto in the previous episode. Donna ends up in a hospital ward for "acid heads and speed trippers." There is a continuity goof -- after Danno meets Donna on the beach, they return to her parents' house where she meets a character called Zero (Gray Gleason) who tells her about an upcoming party. But later, Stone later confronts Donna about her friendship with Danno whom he recognizes as a cop, saying that "the day after Eadie killed herself" one of the Five-O "stalwarts" (i.e., Danno) paid a visit to Zero. If this is the case, why didn't Zero warn Donna during the previous scene?

15. Face of the Dragon

Original air date: 1/22/69 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

In this generally serious episode McGarrett has to track down the source of an outbreak of bubonic plague. Some humour is provided in the scene where Kono, Danny and Chin Ho all get inoculations. Kono needles Chin (no pun intended): "He worries a lot when he breaks open a fortune cookie." McGarrett leers at the cool blond doctor Alexandra played by Nancy Kovak. When she aks him, "Have you looked in the mirror lately?" he replies "Only when I shave, and I do that running." Chin Ho and Danno are seen checking out plague-infested sites wearing silver uniforms like firemen. David Opatoshu does an Alec Guinness playing the Asian patriarch Shen Yu-Lan (badly -- but not as bad as in #83, A Matter of Mutual Concern). The score by Richard Shores is weird at times, featuring what sounds like a theremin. Soon Taik Oh appears as a Red Chinese defector, Yankee Chang plays a tour bus commentator in the opening sequence at Hanauma Bay.

16. The Box

Original air date: 1/29/69 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

McGarrett offers himself as a hostage in this tense prison drama featuring Gavin MacLeod in a return appearance as "Big Chicken" (see episode #5). The song Chicken sings in the shower at the beginning is "Ain't no big thing," heard performed by Sal Mineo in #3, Tiger by the Tail and Tommy Sands in #8, No Blue Skies. The touristy shots of Hawaii at the very beginning are presumably just to set the scene, since virtually everything else in this episode could have taken place on the mainland. (The shot with a catamaran and a rainbow looks suspiciously like one from the film Blue Hawaii.) MacLeod's scenery-chewing performance is particularly oily, with sexual overtones. Of McGarrett, he says "I hate his livin' insides." McGarrett calls him a "slimy dope pusher," an "animal," and "a vulture." Al ("Ben") Harrington is Toshi, one of the convicts, and R.G. Armstrong is the stern warden, Captain Wade. Ted Nobriga appears unbilled as one of the guards. There are appearances by real life journalists: Dave Donnelly as Dave, who harangues Danno about freedom of the press; Eddie Sherman, who wrote a three-dot column for the Honolulu Advertiser, as Sherm; Wes Young who, according to Dave Donnelly, was the police reporter for the Star-Bulletin at the time that show was filmed and who went on to become the longtime spokesman for HPD after leaving the paper; and Bert Darr who Dave reports "was the guy who singlehandedly put out the TV Week section of the Sunday paper. He's retired now and lives in Las Vegas, and now and then drops me a line about Hawaii ties there." When hostage taker Carl "Charlie" Swanson (Gerald S. O'Loughlin) lists his demands for prison reform for McGarrett, he refers to "the homosexuals, these old smart ones, they don't do anything to keep them away from these young kids that just have come in for their first stretch." (Pretty rank stuff for 1969!) I like the way the demands are printed in the newspaper in the space of about an hour. Swanson is one of the major characters of Six Kilos (episode #22), which was actually filmed first. In that episode, he is seriously wounded at the end!

17. One for the Money

Original air date: 2/5/69 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

This is the show of "changing suits". In the opening scenes, McGarrett is wearing a dark blue suit, but when he comes out of the building with Danno, the color has changed to light blue. At the beginning of act one, the color is back to dark blue. Near the end, before McGarrett and Danno head to the killer's apartment to discuss the blood stains, McGarrett is wearing a light blue suit. When they arrive at the apartment, the suit is grey! That aside, this is an interesting episode where Five-O must track down a psycho killer (McGarrett: "All killers are psychotic."), revealed to be one of two cousins who stand to receive a large inheritance in the form of a Hawaiian corporation. The bad cousin knocks off various company employees to distract attention from his real purpose, murdering his aunt (owner of the company) and the "good" cousin, played by Farley Granger. Prior to killing to Auntie, he studies an anatomy book to determine how to stab himself seriously but not fatally, making a mark on his stomach with a felt pen. Why this pen mark isn't discovered at the hospital when they are sewing him up is a good question. The score at the beginning (Stevens is credited with "Music Supervision") is weird, sounding like a theremin or some other electronic instrument associated with "scary movies." Later it uses a harpsichord. Danno says "nice looking gal" when McGarrett shows him the picture of the first murder victim. The aunt's "living will" is preserved on a cassette tape recorder -- of course the "bad" cousin doesn't get what he wants, which motivates his further revenge, chloroforming Granger and planting his body in a car in the garage to make it look like Granger committed the murders and then took his own life. When McGarrett and Danno arrive at the house, they hear the car still running in the garage, and McGarrett orders Central Dispatch to generate a high-frequency sound via the two-way radio in his car to "unlock" the door -- this is pretty far-fetched. The ambulance shot is taken from King of the Hill. Why is McGarrett's car hood full of crap after he parks in front of the garage door after rescuing Granger from the carbon monoxide-filled garage? It wasn't when he drove up! A very long "final act" in this show -- over 19 and a half minutes.

18. Along Came Joey

Original air date: 2/12/69 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

A very good show, with McGarrett trying to find who killed the boxer son of Phil Kalama (Frank de Kova), a cop from Maui. As McGarrett arrives near the beginning of the show after Joey is brutally beaten to death by some thugs, you can see the windshield wipers on McGarrett's car are on, even though it is not obviously raining. Later, when Danno comes up with some ideas on the case, McGarrett says: "You'll make a good cop one of these days, Danno." Interesting camera angles in this show, many looking up at the characters. Kalama refers to his son's girl friend Lois Walker (Jean Hale) as a "cheap little tramp" when she can't provide info about the killing, which she witnessed. Hale wears a visually stunning pink outfit at one point. McGarrett later tells her, "Nothing rocks me any more, honey." Kono's car really smokes when he blasts off in pursuit of a false alarm that Kalama calls in -- but this radio call is not logical. Why would Kalama's car have a radio in it? He is a visiting cop from Maui and it is not suggested that he is taking care of any police business while in Oahu which would require him to borrow a car from HPD. In this show, McGarrett at the end says, "Book 'em, Chin."

19 & 20. Once Upon a Time, Parts I and II

Original air date: 2/19/69 & 2/26/69

The best "human side of McGarrett" show and one of the best "contemporary issues" episodes. (This does not mean that it's my personal favorite, though -- see #192 and #121.) Ironically, not that much of it takes place in Hawaii! McGarrett journeys to Los Angeles where he takes on Dr. C.L. Fremont (Joanne Linville), a "blood-sucking" quack "naturologist" ("one who heals by helping nature") who is treating his cancer-stricken nephew. McGarrett comes under attack from his sister, Mary Ann Whalen (Nancy Malone) who thinks that Fremont is beyond criticism. McGarrett tells his sister that Fremont "couldn't cure a ham." The scene where Fremont tries to seduce McGarrett, who has come to serve her with a summons, is creepy -- Fremont takes off her lab coat, trying to make herself more sexy. When she calls McGarrett "attractive", and tells him "I need a man in my life again," he says "I'd rather take up housekeeping with a cobra." Fremont gives McGarrett a big sob story about her past, and McGarrett says he finds this fascinating, "like watching an auto wreck." After McGarrett's nephew dies, he cries copious amounts of tears in his Five-O office, saying to Danno, "Who the hell made me Big Daddy to the world?" Back in L.A., McGarrett does research in the hall of records, flirting with one of the employees, who he calls "chickie baby." (The December, 1968 date is visible on some of the death certificates he is checking.) The final courtroom sequence, with William Schallert as Fremont's oily attorney, has a conclusion worthy of Perry Mason. (Fremont's taking over the courtroom to demonstrate her computer is unconventional.) The music by Harry Geller is first class. Not much humour in this show, though the opening scene where McGarrett tells Chin Ho to sub for him making a speech is good. McGarrett tells Chin the speech will be on "law and order" and Chin replies, "For or against?" We also learn McGarrett's badge serial number -- 22082 -- and his address which is 404 Piikoi Street.

21. Not That Much Different

Original air date: 3/5/69

After student peace protestor Julian Scott is shot and killed during an anti-war demonstration while a foreign general plants a wreath in a park opposite the War Memorial Natatorium, McGarrett meets with Julian's college friends in his office. Jackie Ito (Linda Ansai) says coming there makes them "sick." McGarrett lays on a heavy speech in reply, bringing up the names of JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King and Gandhi. He later tells Carole Matthews (Jadeen Vaughn), who apologizes for the way the others have treated him, "I abhor violence in any form.... I'm a peace officer. Euphemism? Maybe. But I maybe want peace more than anything else in the world." These students, who publish a magazine called "Peace," are more palatable than most Five-O radicals, though some of them are kind of preppy. One of them, Manning West (Dennis Cooney) owns a snazzy red sports car. Most of the actors playing the peaceniks were around 30 years old when the episode was filmed, and it shows.
Lannie May Devereaux (Anne Prentiss), Julian's old girl friend, is a suspect in the shooting because she once legally owned a .38 revolver, same calibre as the gun responsible for Julian's death. When McGarrett later asks West about Lannie at the magazine's print shop, he says she was a "cheap little thing, certainly not one of us." (This kind of very sexist remark would not go unnoticed in a typical underground publication office of the period like this, trust me.) West asks McGarrett if he has a "built-in immunity to rejection." Ned Horvath (Stewart Moss), another one of the "workers" on the magazine, tells McGarrett: "We've got nothing against you personally, it's just what you represent that bugs us."
The Five-O team busts into Lannie's place where she has hooked up with a wanted felon from the mainland named Victor Collins, who is shot dead during the confrontation. Lannie tells McGarrett she "knew [Julian] loved someone else." McGarrett later says to Danno his "cop instinct" tells him that Lannie didn't kill Julian. Some of the editing after the shootout is bizarre. Danno and Kono are crouching down, then are suddenly standing up, and Chin Ho later appears out of nowhere with Lannie.
There are hints of homosexuality between West and Julian when Ned confronts West with a letter the latter wrote to Julian. West responds, saying that "this isn't evidence of much except my affection for him," adding later, "You hated Julian, I loved him." He holds Julian's letter up to his face as if he is kissing or smelling it.
West is caught snooping in Julian's desk (actually a small filing cabinet) by Horvath. West later gets the muscular Paul Brechtman (Lee Paul) to break into Horvath's locker with a crowbar where they find a .38 caliber revolver, presumably the same gun used to kill Julian. The gun is in the pocket of Ned's jacket. Manning's explanation for why he thought the gun was there doesn't make any sense, that he previously "caught a glimpse of metal when the locker was open." How could he get a glimpse of metal if the gun was in the jacket?
West convinces the others to put Horvath on trial for being Julian's killer, but the other members of the co-operative balk at West's heavy-handed accusations, suggesting that it would be better if they took what they know to McGarrett. West is not finished with Ned, however. At gunpoint, he later forces Horvath to drive him out to the middle of nowhere near the ocean and tries to force Horvath to commit suicide, so it will look like he was responsible for Julian's death after confessing that he -- Manning -- killed Julian.
McGarrett and Danno show up just as West knocks out the uncooperative Horvath, and there is an exciting -- and very dangerous-looking as far as the stunt men are concerned -- chase across some lava beds. West shoots 8 times at McGarrett who is pursuing him, despite the fact that his gun only holds 6 bullets. After he is taken down by McGarrett, West tries to justify what he has done, saying words to the effect that he wanted to knock off Julian because he was jealous of his power in the group, that Julian had "used all of us," and that by shooting Julian, Manning would become greater than Julian.
Manning is one confused guy, not helped by the script which gets more confusing as it goes on. West throws out the obscure term "magnicide" (spelled "magnacide" in the subtitles) to try and justify what he has done. According to a WWW definition, magnicide is "when a government or a government entity has someone they believe to be a threat assassinated in order to eliminate the perceived threat." McGarrett definies it as "the killing of a great person." Manning was also likely jealous of the fact that Julian was hanging out with the attractive Carole -- so maybe he felt betrayed sexually as well (perhaps Julian was bisexual, but this is really anal-yzing (no pun intended) to an extreme extent). There is also the suggestion that Manning tried to kill Julian three years before -- when Julian was involved with Lannie Devereaux.
West tells McGarrett that he "found Lannie's gun where Julian had hidden it," but doesn't offer any explanation as to how it ended up in Horvath's locker. Presumably he planted it there as part of his scheme to make it look like Ned was Julian's killer.
There are some banal comments by McGarrett at the end.
I suspect that the sexual relationship angle in this show was originally played up more, and the bigwigs at CBS told the production team to "dial it back." In "The Box" earlier this season, there is a reference to "homosexuals" in prison which was probably pretty rank enough for the era when Five-O was broadcast. As it is, the story is a mess, especially with the constant references to who had the murder weapon at various times.
MORE TRIVIA:
McGarrett is seen playing guitar in his office.
The security for the general at the beginning of the show leaves a lot to be desired. There are several cops present at the demonstration, along with some suit who looks like he works for the State Department, but they don't seem to be taking their jobs particularly seriously. After Julian is shot, the only one who is really freaking out is McGarrett.
According to Carl Walter, the "snazzy red sports car" seen in this episode is a Toyota 2000GT. "Less than 60 ever made it to the USA, and it cost big bucks when new. Today they sell in the $150,000-$300,000 range and are highly collectible. By far the rarest and most valuable car that ever appeared in the series." The car's license plate number is D8-5382.
Lee Paul, who plays Paul Brechtman, is "Skinhead" in episode #90. Brechtman wants to tell McGarrett that "things are not what they seem" in connection with Julian's shooting, but can't do this in front of his friends. When he calls McGarrett anonymously, it's pretty obvious from the closeup of the actor's lips speaking into the phone that it is Brechtman.
IMDB has mixed up two Five-O character actors, Walter Yong and Walter P. Young. The first actor was named Walter Yong. He appeared in The Child Stealers (Boat Owner), McGarrett is Missing (Storekeeper) and Anatomy of a Bribe (Joe Kimura). The second actor was named Walter P. Young, Senior. He appeared in this episode (General) and The Late John Louisiana (the title character). You can see pictures of both these actors here in the order mentioned in the previous two sentences. IMDB has combined these two actors into one listing: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2045865/.
Two of the close shots of Manning shooting at McGarrett on the lava beds are exactly the same.
At the end of the show, West, who thinks he is dying, tells McGarrett, "Better to command in Hell than to serve in Heaven," a variant on a line from John Milton's Paradise Lost: "Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven."
During his pursuit of Horvath and West near the end of the show, McGarrett grabs for his car door to close it and misses.
Daniel Kamekona is listed in the end credits as Che Fong, but does not appear in the show.
If you look quickly on the back cover of Peace magazine, you will see what looks like a typical Coca-Cola Christmas ad featuring Santa Claus.
A great McGarrett quote: "Nobody is loved by everybody."

22. Six Kilos

Original air date: 3/12/69 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

For some inexplicable reason, this show was like a "lost episode" when Five-O was shown on TV in the 1990s. The direction by Seymour Robbie is kind of different compared to other episodes, almost like a "foreign film." The show begins when safecracking expert John Warnash (a.k.a. Harry K. Brown -- played by Edward L. Dew) disembarks from a plane at Honolulu Airport. As he walks to the terminal, he is hustling some woman. After being paged, he receives an envelope which contains the key to an airport locker. Danno and Chin Ho are standing around looking very stunned. Brown opens the locker which contains a roll of bills and a reservation for a Hilo hotel. Chin approaches and pulls out his badge. Chin is punched to the floor by Brown, who whips out a gun. Danno pulls out his gun and shoots Brown dead. At the Five-O offices, after a brief discussion, McGarrett takes over Brown's persona -- why he does this is never specified. McGarrett says he "cracked a few safes for naval intelligence" which presumably qualifies him to be an expert. McGarrett flies to Hilo. He speaks to some babe, saying "How's the action around this place?" Entering the hotel room he finds a bug in the lamp -- he has also duplicated Warnash's identifying tattoo on his arm. Carl Swanson enters the room with a gun. Played by Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Swanson is one of the major characters of the tense hostage drama, The Box (episode #16) -- Six Kilos was actually filmed first. Swanson queries McGarrett; McGarrett wants to know about "The Man" who is behind the operation. Swanson takes McGarrett to an expensive oceanfront house where he meets his safecracking cronies, André (Than Wyenn) and Margi Carstairs (Antoinette Bower). "The Man" issues instructions on a reel-to-reel tape (the tape is in the middle, not the beginning). Danno snoops on McGarrett and his pals from a boat offshore with a high-powered lens. When he takes pictures, the angle is totally wrong -- how can he photograph their faces when they are facing away from the water!! Margi tells the safecracking crew that she works for Quon Ling, who has diplomatic immunity. Their take will be a million bucks, split four ways. We cut back to a scene in The Governor's office. The Governor has an interest in this case (though again, we are not told why) as does some mysterious government official with him. Five-O checks on the house, which is rented by a guy named Hiro Tagati. Back at the house, McGarrett spies an envelope on a table and picks it up, which causes Swanson to freak out and punch him. The envelope contains a tape and blueprints for Quon Ling's ship, where the safe to be cracked lies. The foursome go to the dock to check out the boat where there is a lei seller (rather odd -- is this a busy public dock?) as well as Kono in a taxi. Kono takes McGarrett to a tennis game where he talks briefly with Danno. At the Mauna Loa Hotel, McGarrett meets this beardo who has a bracelet containing the nitro that McGarrett is to use for blowing the safe. Just as Beardo turns this over to McGarrett, some guy who knows McGarrett arrives on the scene and blows his cover!! Fortunately McGarrett threatens to blow them up with the nitro and Beardo is nabbed by Kono. Back at the house, McGarrett shares a drink with Margi, who asks whether she can trust him. She gets philosophical, talking about how ordinary people can become monsters. McGarrett says, "Come on, baby, we were talking moonlight and orchids, remember?" After receiving more taped instructions, McGarrett figures out that the prize in the safe is six kilos of uncut heroin, worth $40 million bucks. (Gold is worth a piddling $35 an ounce.) Margi attends a party on Quon Ling's boat, and Swanson arrives as a refrigerator repairman working for the "Muana Loa Refrigeration Service." The others swim onto the boat and punch out the guards, who don't seem very attentive! Margi knocks out Quon Ling with a Mickey Finn, and André locates the safe with a strange detector and cuts a panel out of the wall. (How did Quon Ling get access to the safe then?) When everyone synchronizes their watches, the minute hands are all the same! Some punk attacks Swanson, and his watch is busted. This interferes with his plans to throw the main power switch on the boat, killing the lights. Swanson throws the switch and everything is in chaos. Fortunately the foursome all escape, diving into the drink with the bags of heroin. At the finale, a tape from "The Man" says the payoff money is in a stone lantern, but when André checks it out, it's empty. Margi unexpectedly shoots both Swanson and André, but she hesitates to blast McGarrett. Fortunately for McGarrett, Danno and Kono appear with guns drawn. The tape recorder is now running at fast forward. When McGarrett puts it on "play", he adjusts it to play back at the correct speed (is this some kind of a variable-pitch recorder?) and "The Man" is revealed to be Margi (the slowed-down voice did sound effeminate). Overall, McGarrett talks far too much in this episode in his "Harry Brown" characterization, more so than he did in a similar undercover role in #7, The Ways of Love. The music by Stevens is mostly recycled from other shows. At the end, McGarrett tells Chin to "book her."

23. The Big Kahuna

Original air date: 3/19/69 -- Opening Credits -- End Credits

When watching this show in 2013, I disliked it less than the last time I reviewed it, which was about 15 years before. But there are still some serious logic issues. Sam Kalakua (John Marley) is a descendant of Hawaiian royalty, so high up in the hierarchy of things that he is known as "the anointed one." He is also a close personal friend of the Governor and a distant uncle of Kono. (Danno remarks that Kono is "nine-tenths Hawaiian, one-tenth cop.") Sam's nephew George (Robert Colbert) and George's very white wife Eleanor (Sally Kellerman) are trying to make it look like Sam is losing his mind so they can have him committed and sell his highly-valued 10-acre property to a sleazy real estate mogul named Glazer (Peter Leeds). They enlist the help of doped-up movie auteur Alistair Kemp (Jerry Cox) to create images of Pele, goddess of fire which are projected on a screen in Sam's front yard to freak the old man out. This is totally unrealistic. For example, how do they project the image on this screen and how do they power the projector that shows the movie, considering that Sam's property is a "haunted house in the middle of a jungle" where Sam is seen wandering around at night with a kerosene lantern -- in other words, he doesn't even have electricity. Sam fires at the screen with a rifle and also throws a lamp at it. The lamp has been filled with explosives by the conspirators and blows up. George and Eleanor also slip some hallucinogenic drugs into Sam's food to further confuse him. As a result of his crazy behavior, Sam is said to be a threat to his neighbors -- but they don't live anywhere close to him. The filmmaker Kemp, whose production company is called "Theater of Madness," is stereotypically nutty, as are the merry band of hippies helping him make some artsy-fartsy movie. When Danno grills Kemp, he asks him: "What are you on, Kemp? Pills? Acid?" and talks about "psychedelic effects." Kemp just laughs at him. When Kemp is about to crack, Danno says there "might be some sweat forming inside that acid head." Later, in his production office, Kemp finds Danno snooping in some of his film cans and says "What are you, some kind of klepto?" (At least Danno has a warrant.) McGarrett examines the film using a freeze-frame technique which would probably cause the film to melt in the projector similar to that in episodes #2 and #136, Banzai Pipeline. Pele in Kemp's film is played by Eleanor. I don't know how McGarrett can recognize her, considering she is heavily disguised and made up -- I sure couldn't! At the end, Sam, who has become suicidal, heads to the Pali. Of course, McGarrett and Danno know exactly where the high cliffs Sam is going to jump off there are located, and so does Eleanor who appears in her Pele getup. (On his way there, McGarrett is driving on the wrong side of the road.) The ending is stupid -- Eleanor steps a few feet behind Sam, who is about to walk face-forward off the cliff edge. But when McGarrett and Danno appear, she is seemingly between Sam and the edge, and suddenly falls over in a spectacular fashion. The music in this episode by Stevens uses synthesizer noises to suggest the supernatural, as well as gamelan-like sounds and the familiar bonging bell.
MORE TRIVIA:
I don't know what the title of this episode is referring to. When McGarrett and Kono first visit Sam, a kahuna (Hawaiian priest) is seen leaving the place. Or does it somehow refer to Sam himself?
The doctor who examines Sam is Robert Costa.
The shot of Danno and McGarrett coming out of their office is the same as the one in episode #17.
When he is attending the psychiatric hearing for Sam and helps to get Sam off, McGarrett uses the expression "no big thing." McGarrett is seen wearing his mysterious shoulder holster which has no visible means of support in this episode.
The lamp that Sam throws that explodes was loaded with "Chinese New Year's stuff" (explosives), according to Chin. But how did George and Eleanor know that Sam would throw exactly that lamp?

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