The Hawaii Five-O Blog
I have decided to start a Five-O blog for breaking news, updates, and other nonsense.
If you want to comment on anything here, please post in the Guestbook.
Just about anything Five-O related goes in the Guestbook, with the exception of fan fiction.
Sunday August 10, 2008.
I rewatched the sixth season show Tricks Are Not Treats and found that I liked it a lot more than when I originally saw it. In fact, I raised its rating from one and a half stars to three! Check out my latest thoughts by clicking on this link.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008.
There is a comment yesterday in the Guestbook as follows:
I remember reading an article on Mike Quigley's site about an incident during the filming of season 4's "The Burning Ice" at Sea Life Park. The reporter covering the event was dumbstruck when he saw Jack actually gather everyone to pray over the episode because CBS moved Mannix into Five-0's usual timeslot and so now they had to REALLY WORK HARD on season 4!
If you use the Search facility on the main page, you will find this article located at http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/tvgsep71.htm.
The section of the article referred to is as follows:
The talk of the set is the impassioned opening-day speech Jack had made to the troops early that morning. It was strictly King Henry V before Agincourt, Churchill before the Battle of Britain, Rockne before the army game. He called for "blood, sweat and tears" to overcome the disadvantages of the new time slot (the show, which has been a highly rated Wednesday night fixture, is being shifted to Tuesday this fall). He ended with a silent prayer.This does not specifically say that Lord prayed for the episode in relation to Mannix.
Saturday, August 2, 2008.
From time to time, I get what are ... um ... "interesting" questions and comments about Five-O. You can read some of these on this page: http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/questions.htm.
Friday, August 1, 2008.
I was going through a bunch of old video tapes and finally found this interview with Marie Lord conducted at the 1999 Hawaii Five-O convention in Honolulu which was aired on Inside Edition.
You can see it here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeUodp8tQ7s.
Thursday, July 31, 2008.
With regard to the incredible chase over what look like lava beds above the sea in episode #21, Not That Much Different, I'm sure a show near the end of the current season of Lost (I can't remember specifically which one) was also filmed in this location.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008.
You really have to wonder about the "reviews" on amazon.com when they are posted weeks and months before the DVDs they are referring to are actually released.
With Season 4 of Five-O, which came out on June 10th, there were reviews posted on February 27 and 28 and March 10.
Season 3 was released on January 22 of this year, yet there are four reviews from November, 2007, one from October 2007, and another one from January 2 (a totally stupid review which gives the DVDs 3 stars and says only "I've got a Blu Ray player so I'm not buying anything on DVD. DVD will go the way of VHS. Can we get this on Blu Ray?").
What is the point of these early reviews? No doubt the people writing them get to feel good because they got their name "in print" before anyone else.
In my opinion, people should not be allowed to post reviews until the date the DVDs are released, and this should be restricted to people who have actually purchased the DVDs on amazon.com (you can't post ANY reviews if you have never bought anything through amazon.com, for example).
What do you think?
Monday, July 28, 2008.
There is a comment that the broadcast dates on my "log" pages do not match what is on the DVD covers in some cases. The broadcast dates were taken from Karen Rhodes' Booking Five-O, which, as far as I recall, were further taken from lists circulated by the Iolani Palace Irregulars, which date back many years. FOLLOWUP: Karen Rhodes replied to my query about this issue: "I checked dates -- as I state in the preface of my book -- in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and my local paper, the Florida Times-Union. They all coincided except for a time or two when the show was pre-empted in Jacksonville (where I was living, and where the Times-Union is published). ... It is possible that newspaper airing schedules were already printed (newspapers get these things canned from whatever source) and then the program was pre-empted, so it is entirely possible that the dates I got out of the newspaper were not the ACTUAL date that an episode aired. Well, that's life, and I cannot do anything about other people's local variations."
Wednesday, July 16, 2008.
I have added a big chunk to my review of #217, The Cop on the Cover. What do you think -- was Joe Moala (the Moe Keale character) really involved or was he framed?
Sunday, July 13, 2008.
I need some help with a project I'm working on. I have obtained several stock music queues but I don't know specifically which episode(s) some of them are from. All of them are composed by Don Ray.
You can find the queues here:
http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/stock
Check out the "read me first" file before listening.
Friday, July 11, 2008.
I've been watching Savage Sunday (#28) over the last few days. The music in this show is very annoying. You would expect at the beginning when the guerrillas are breaking into the armory that the music would be tense, even militaristic. At the beginning, it starts out like it's going in that direction, but then becomes very cheerful ... in fact, this same perky music is used at the end of #39, Bored She Hung Herself, as the lead character frolics in the surf! These "perky" themes are heard several times throughout Savage Sunday. I like the way the guerrilla leader and his wife at the end are convinced they are going to have a boy ... I doubt if they had an ultrasound treatment to determine this, even though ultrasound was in use in the mid-60's.
In this episode there is a little goof. Chin Ho radios a license plate number from one of Wo Fat's henchmen which McGarrett and the team use to track the car through Honolulu. But the number which Chin reported is not the same as the one on the car, seen reflected in Kono's rear-view mirror!
Speaking of license plates, any idea why the plates on Five-O cars in this episode have white lettering on a greenish background, whereas the license plates on cars on the street have black type on an orange background? The white/green combination makes me think of military license plates for some reason -- or maybe all cop cars/emergency vehicles in Hawaii were distinguished this way. Does anyone know?
Wednesday, July 9, 2008.
I recently re-viewed To Hell with Babe Ruth, episode #25. It was even worse than when I originally watched it many years ago. Can you think of a single Five-O episode where some Caucasian actor is playing an Asian character and does so successfully? If Five-O had featured a white actor playing someone in blackface (like Al Jolson), people would have been appalled -- and I'm talking about in the late 60's or 70's, unlike now with all this political correctness B.S. (I doubt if anyone could make a case, as some have with Jolson vis-à-vis black people, that these Caucasians portraying Asians were doing so to help break down racial attitudes.) Not only is the performance by the two lead actors in this episode awkward because we know they are really white, but their acting is just plain bad. Check out my rant at the above link.
Sunday, July 6, 2008.
I scanned all the photos I have from the 1996 convention in Burbank, CA and uploaded them to http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/96conv. There are 4 directories of photos. Some of these pictures duplicate what is in the report on the convention accessible from the main page. Enjoy!
Saturday, July 5, 2008.
Some people are asking when Season 5 of the show will be officially released on DVD. I don't know, though I read a rumour that it might come out in December. On the other hand, I wonder if the recent flap over The Fugitive where almost all the music was rescored, prompting a huge outcry from fans, will have some influence on Paramount's scheduling of future TV show reissues?
Another person wonders what is the quality of the "unofficial" DVDs you can get at various sites? Following is a selection from my e-mail over the last couple of years from people who have purchased these sets. The ranges from "crap" to "excellent":
I have tried to order from DVD Avenue.tv. This company is in my opinion running a scam, they go under a number of different names; DVD Hits, TVAddicts.tv, DVDCraze.tv and have a telephone number 1-877-7-TV SHOW. Once my order was made they debited my credit card the same day and have not made a refund as I have requested almost one month ago. My credit card company has taken up the fight. I have tracked them down to an address in the Philippines.
I have contacted customerservice@dvdavenue.com who say that they are aware that the company is using their name, but they are not connected with them in any way.
Nothing was sent to me. I became suspicious when they didn't send a shipping tracking number and debited my credit card the same day as I made the order. Every time they reply to me by email it comes from a different email address. Through Google I discovered a note from someone who wrote that the company was a scam and to be avoided at all costs. I asked for a refund immediately and am still waiting. My credit card will make a chargeback.
After your mail I had cancelled the order, which they confirmed, but then I got an order confirmation from another company that was credited an authorized agent of the DVD craze -- so they pretend the cancellation of the order and want to get the money of the client at any rate. So I notified my credit card company to refuse the payment and sent them the e-mail correspondence. It's a shame that these ruthless guys can place an ad first row on google when you search for hawaii 5-0.
I had already rec'd the DVD's and of course, you were right. The quality was indeed from the TV broadcast and from the VHS version. My home collection of VHS tapes are far better than these DVD's. The company goes by 2 names DVD Avenue for rentals and DVD Craze for the purchases. Rip off city but on the other hand they are excellent when it comes to capturing. Cystral Clear and Vivid Color. So I'm debating if I should return and wait til the Paramont's versions come out. I'm sending you a few captures. Anyway, I wanted to give feedback about the quality of the DVD's.
I purchased a set of all 284 hours from a seller on ioffer.com for $89. I am ver pleased with the quality. They come on 29 DVDs. There are now enough complete sets in circulation that fans can get them at reasonable prices.
People need to understand that if they buy these, or copies of dvd's, the studios will not release the shows. Why would they? You'll also notice a LOT of pirate copies on www.ioffer.com. Notice how everyone has the same 29 dvd - 284 show sets. But wait! Hawaii Five-0 had 285 shows. Guess which one they're missing & won't respond to questions about? Why it's episode #41 (2-16)7 Jan 1970 "Bored, She Hung Herself". I also agree with you that DVDavenue should be avoided at all costs! They are VERY expensive & the quality is sub-VHS.
I'd just like to add the experiences of what I've bought. There are some 6 episode "Best of H50" DVD's on eBay. I bought one and it's pure crap. It has some commercials and also cuts back into the show late at times. Worse yet, they seem to be from the hacked up Family Channel versions. They even put part 2 of the 90 Second War on it with out part 1.Then I got a $70 bootleg copy on eBay of the complete 12 seasons on 29 DVD's. Someone just copied the discs of the set found [at some WWW site] for $199. It came with no labels or DVD cases so I had to pop each one in then label the episode numbers. The on screen menus are great and show the titles of each episode.
The quality varies from fair to very good, tending to improve on the later seasons. Still, it's quite random as you can find some pretty good quality 1st season episodes and not so good 11th season shows. The dark episodes are greatly improved by turning the color and brightness all the way up on my TV.
I've watched about 50 episodes so far and none appear to be the hacked up WGN type. Some of the episodes like the V is for Vashion trilogy were taken from the Columbia House tapes as the color is more vivid than on the TV dubs. Other shows that appeared on CH tapes like The Jinn Who Clears the Way were taken from TV versions not the tape, so again, it's a random crapshoot.
One big flaw I've noticed is many episodes on seasons 5 to 8 do not have the period correct intro/theme song. Those intos shows Kono not Ben and/or Duke and thus have an older version of the theme song that changed every year or so. But for $70, not bad at all. No commercials and pretty clean editing. The audio is surprisingly good, actually better than some of the CH tapes while the video is most often not as good. I'll still buy the official DVD releases when/if they are finally released.
Thursday, July 3, 2008.
I recently watched the second Lewis Avery Filer episode, Odd Man In, again and liked it even less than when I first saw it -- see my revised review at http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/5-0log4.htm#86. There is a peculiar scene in this show where a couple of characters seem to disappear. Can someone else look at this and maybe comment in the Guestbook?
Tuesday, July 1, 2008.
Here are a few shots of James MacArthur at the 1996 convention in Honolulu. This was at the Ilikai Hotel before the tour of several Five-O locations. Kam Fong is in a couple of the photos behind JM. http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/images/jm-ilikai/
. Only problem is ... what happens if McGarrett doesn't use this expression exactly? There are times when he just says "Book 'em" to Danno ... or to someone else. For those cases, I have another icon: 
Monday, June 30, 2008.
To start things off, I found some brief clip of Jack Lord accepting an Oscar at the 1964 Academy Awards ceremony for Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects. I don't know what connection Lord had with this film, or why he was appearing at the Oscars at all. (Stoney Burke had finished the year before, maybe JL was considered a "hot new star"?) You can see this clip by clicking here: http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/misc/jl-oscars.MP4. Jack Lemmon was the host at the Oscars, and Shirley MacLaine was the presenter. This requires QuickTime which you can get from apple.com. The reason I convert the file to QuickTime is so it ends up about 10 megs in size as an MP4 file (still kind of large) instead of over 70 megs as a regular MPEG. MP4 files are iPod, iTouch and iPhone compatible, by the way.
WARNING: FIVE-O (AND OTHER) DVDS SOLD THROUGH SITES LIKE THOSE ADVERTISED BELOW MAY BE BOOTLEGS.
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