TV Cream

TV: M is for...

Magnum PI

“THE SHIRTS to watch,” boasted the endless ITV trailers. Larcernous Larsonery with sleazy wretch Thomas Sullivan Magnum (TOM SELLECK) mooching around hundreds of Hawaii islands which all looked the same in order to protect the estate of writer Robin Masters, aka The Voice Of ORSON WELLES. Hi-hi-hilarity ensues when Masters employes a stuck-up English manservant, Higgins (JOHN HILLERMAN), with whom Magnum ha-ha-has nothing in common. Numerous nubile assistants showed up along the way, and the whole thing ended with Selleck being killed and sent to heaven. But then it got recommissioned and Tom’s death became “a dream”, before second finale found Tom back in the navy and Higgins apparently the real Robin Masters. Utter preposterousness.

10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. Cindylover1969

    May 31, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    Actually, Glen A. Larson had nowt to do with it after the pilot – the real main man was the wonderfully-named Donald P. Bellisario (“Tales of the Gold Monkey,” “Quantum Leap,” “JAG,” “NCIS”).

  2. Glenn A

    May 31, 2010 at 2:16 pm

    This topped the ratings in the summer of 1981. Higgins made it watchable for me as the Yanks made him exaggerate his Englishness to the hilt. Do remember one OTT episode, well they all were, where Magnum is attacked by a killer parrot.

  3. Cindylover1969

    June 1, 2010 at 10:53 am

    “Higgins made it watchable for me as the Yanks made him exaggerate his Englishness to the hilt.”

    Ironically, he was actually played by an American.

  4. paulus - bangkok

    June 3, 2010 at 5:35 am

    What rich guy would give the use of a sports car and a free place to stay to a single bloke?
    What were his motives, I wonder?
    What was their relationship?

  5. Glenn A

    June 3, 2010 at 9:15 pm

    Hey, Cindylover, bet it’s the same scenario as some Americans and I daresay a few English people who’d never heard of Jane Seymour thought she was a real American in Dr Quinn.

  6. Cindylover1969

    June 11, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    “What rich guy would give the use of a sports car and a free place to stay to a single bloke?”

    The way it was set up, Magnum was in charge of security at Robin Masters’ estate. (Apparently Glen A. Larson originally had Magnum owning the place, but Donald P. Bellisario scaled it down somewhat.)

  7. televisualcabbage

    June 11, 2010 at 4:55 pm

    Maybe more then we ever knew about Higgins and Magnum…

    Otherwise a good lawyer and a case of mistaken identity…

  8. johnnyboy

    February 10, 2011 at 1:07 am

    I only caught a few episodes, but one I did see was pure A1 intertainment where an oriental assassin/killer was loose on the island and would shoot to kill after a deliberate ‘blink’ of his eyes. They very last scene has Magnum trapped under the said fella, a gun pointed at each other’s head and the camera looking into the killers face…..blink.

    Bang.

  9. Ol

    October 23, 2014 at 6:12 am

    “What was their relationship?”

    masters was bumming magnum, obviously.

  10. Richardpd

    December 15, 2020 at 11:32 am

    Higgins had to go undercover in one episode, seemingly as an excuse for John Hillerman to use his real Texan accent.

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

To Top