Credits
The Hawaii Five-O pilot, known as "Cocoon," premiered on September 20, 1968, 6 days before the series itself began. Most fans regard the pilot as "Episode Zero." Following a creepy sequence with Wo Fat engaging in behavior modification on the American intelligence officer Hennessy, the show starts with McGarrett running to his car in front of the Iolani Palace as tourists climb the steps, a sequence which will become a stock shot, as will some of the following scenes where he drives through Honolulu, including one going past the Dillingham Fountain. McGarrett's first words on the radio in his car are "Five-O ... go ahead..." Some interesting photographic techniques are in evidence (the director of photography is Richard Rawlings) ... as Hennessy's room (Apartment 204 -- 26 Kilea Road) is being cased by one of Wo Fat's minions, the camera turns upside down. McGarrett talks to himself, saying "cocoon" as he finds scraps of paper in the room. Andrew Duggan is U.S. intelligence bigshot Miller and his boss, Brent, is Leslie Nielsen. Both smoke pipes, and there is some interesting overlapping dialogue between them. Miller says, "Everybody knows that Steve McGarrett only takes orders from the governor and God, and occasionally even they have trouble." McGarrett says "lots of chicks" visited Hennessy. Another interesting camera shot in Hennessy's grave at his funeral. Zulu as Kono Kalakaua seems rather subservient to McGarrett. When McGarrett tells him to "find the Quong girl" who knew Hennessy, Kono says, "Yes, sir." Later on when Kono arrives at the Five-O office, he has to be "buzzed" into the office by the receptionist and McGarrett says "Send him in." Kono is later seen stuffing his face. Danno is played by the forgettable Tim O'Kelly (he smokes, a habit which is followed up by James MacArthur in the first season), and Mitzi Hoag is McGarrett's secretary May. As McGarrett rushes out of the office eating, May says, "That man's eating habits will kill a billy goat!" Kam Fong arrives in the office, exclaiming, "Chin Ho Kelly strikes again!" McGarrett takes some tourists' picture as he goes to meet Miller after Hennessy's funeral. This meeting takes place on some viewpoint overlooking downtown Honolulu, which is odd, because after the funeral, McGarrett is seen climbing the steps in front of the female statue on the far wall at the National Cemetery of the Pacific seen in the main title. The viewpoint at the cemetery is actually near the other end of the cemetery, quite a long ways away from the statue. Later one of the feds tails McGarrett, which pisses him off to the extent of laying a trap, and giving him the first opportunity to utter the immortal phrase, "Book him!" (McGarrett also says the stock phrase "Whaddya got?" to the coroner earlier on.) McGarrett finally meets Rosemary Quong, who is played by the babely Nancy Kwan, supposedly a university student who seems about half McGarrett's age. He calls her "a pain in the ... neck," and she calls him "Mr. Fuzz." After McGarrett gets her to reveal that among Hennessey's last words to her was "the pier," he calls the Five-O crew into the office and plays back a tape of her saying this ... why doesn't he just get her to repeat the phrase since she is sitting right there? As McGarrett and Rosemary sip champagne on the beach (a rarity for the teetotaler McGarrett), she says, "I wish I could psych you out." She goes on, "Why did you become a cop?" and he asks, "Why did you become a hippie?" He gives her a deep kiss. McGarrett goes undercover to check out the ship where Wo Fat's deprivation chamber is located. A foreman trying to fix the ship with McGarrett says "We'll bust this bugger loose after lunch." McGarrett goes off on his own, snooping around, and is extremely noisy when doing so! He later reports to the Governor, played by Lew Ayres, and James Gregory as Jonathan Kaye, who is "Chief of Pacific Operations, Counterintelligence." During their discussion, Kaye says that McGarrett has two presidential citations. Later McGarrett and Rosemary go to a restaurant featuring the hula girl of the show's main title (Helen Kuoha-Torco, who was later a professor of business technology at Windward Community College). The Outrigger Canoe Club is dressed to resemble the notorious Barefoot Bar, which was too small to accommodate both patrons and a camera crew. Sterling Mossman's Barefoot Bar Gang performs the Tahitian number behind Kuoha-Torco as well as "Ain't no big thing," to be heard a few more times during the series. McGarrett gives Rosemary his key as he departs after more kissing. Alas, McGarrett falls into the clutches of Wo Fat and his assistant, played by Soon-Teck Oh. The camera angles during a fight with Miller are unusual, and McGarrett denounces him as a "dirty double-dealing fink." Wo Fat is oily: "As we clever Chinese say, 'the plot thickens'." Wo promises not to engage in any "medieval Chinese torture." As McGarrett begins to unwind during Wo Fat's deprogramming, he calls Wo Fat "Fatso." Fortunately, McGarrett has been "pre-programmed" by Jonathan Kaye's ace hypnotist and is able to save the day in the best James Bond fashion. The shot with Kono running on to the ship Arcturus with a rifle is featured in the main titles. Wo Fat departs on Pan American (not United, the series' airline of choice). The final altercation between McGarrett and Miller seems sped up at times. Wright Esser, who plays the evil Captain Schroeder (neatly blasted by Kono), will later appear as Interpol boss Karl Albrecht.