Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There? - Page 9

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

One tiny bit of hope for all seasons to be released is that it isn't FOX that's releasing it.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

As good a job as CBS-Paramount has been doing with their TV DVD's lately, keep in mind this is the same studio that abandoned CHEERS just a few seasons before the series would have been complete.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

They did put one extra on there: A special produced and hosted in Honolulu by a woman named Emme in 1996. Her co-host for that edition (a salute to Hawaii Five-O) was a gray-haired James MacArthur. Several cast members were still alive that year, and got together in Honolulu for a Five-O reunion.

The cons: 1. Jack Lord refusing to appear or come to the reunion.
2. The retrospective only has primarily first season clips, and barely touches on most of the other 11 years (except for frequent Hawaiian guest stars such as the late Josie Over).

The pro: It was great seeing Danno reunited with people he hadn't seen in 17 years, including a wheelchair-bound Richard Denning (who played the fictional Governor Philip Gray). Unfortunately, several of their fellow actors died just a few years later including Kam Fong (Chin Ho Kelly), Herman Wedemeyer (Duke Lukela), Zulu (Kono), and Moe Keale -- all of whom are seen in their old age in this locally-produced special, which never played on a network that I'm aware of. Guest stars turned regulars who are still alive included Al Harrington (best known as Ben Kokua) and Doug Mossman (Frank Kemana) were also interviewed.

By the way....has anyone ever seen this TV movie sequel produced by Stephen Cannell?
I wasn't even aware it existed. http://imdb.com/title/tt0948096

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

Why not? FOX did an excellent job on entire series such as The X-Files (twice including the more affordable re-releases) and multiple releases of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (including a full series Chosen One Collection) and also Angel.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

it was less of a case of Jack Lord refusing so much as he was in pretty bad health (the special was made in 1996. he died in 1998). Jack's wife did talk to them so he did want to take part in the special.

for a future bonus feature, they should dig up the footage of the Hawaiian Thanksgiving parade that Jack would introduce on CBS back in the 70s.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

1. Hill Street Blues - apparently abandoned
2. St. Elsewhere - only the 1st Season , with Season 2 NOWHERE IN SIGHT as of yet!!!!!

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

Lord was suffering from Alzheimers at this time and was in no shape to appear. It was nice seeing his wife, Marie, though. She passed away last year at age 100. Either Lord (reportedly born in 1920) married a much older woman or he was older than what he admitted to.


I've never seen it nor am I sure this ever aired. It does have a major continuity problem in including Kam Fong! Didn't the special included on the DVD make a fleeting reference to a Hawaii 5-0 movie? This must have been it and is perhaps why all the principals got back together.

Steve

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

I know what you mean, since Chin Ho was killed off in the last episode of the 10th season "A Death in the Family". Maybe this TV movie was never made. A lot of info on the Internet Movie Database is unreliable, as it's contributed by the public. Steven J. Cannell would probably deny the existance of such a film. If it ever aired on a major broadcast or cable network, I would have caught it in 1997.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

That article isn't clear on whether that TV film was actually shot or not. Even if it was and with a very old Chin Ho Kelly (again played by Kam Fong) somehow "resurrected from the dead", the fans are entitled to see it.....if it exists. I can imagine the plot "Detective Kelly faked his death in 1978. He and Elvis are still alive!"

Somehow in comparison it seems almost plausible that former actor Peter Breck (who co-starred in the TV western series Black Saddle and The Big Valley) would come out of retirement to play the head of the Secret Service. Breck has acted a few times in more recent years.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

I am familiar with the aborted Hawaii Five-0 TV pilot Cannell did in 1997, and in fact was able to purchase a copy of the script several years ago at a Sci-Fi/Fantasy/TV collectible convention.

As I understand it, Cannell actually shot the pilot that CBS had commissioned, with the major star being Gary Busey (seriously!). CBS execs saw it and passed on picking it up as a series, presumably because it was horrible. To the best of my knowledge, this pilot has never turned up on the internet or for sale as a bootleg at any conventions.

While it's been a few years since I read the script, I recall that the new characters they created were pretty two-dimensional in their development and backstory, and the focus of the show was more on Miami Vice-style action. Yes, the old characters (Chin and Kono) were present, but had little to do other than to simply create a connection to the old show. (One thing I recall was that Chin spoke the worst pidgin-English in the script, worse than anything he ever said in the old show, in a way that was completely offensive). I think they originally had Danno as the Governor in the script, and he gets shot near the beginning if I recall correctly, which then sets the plot into motion. (Originally they wanted Jack Lord to appear as the Governor, but he was obviously unavailable). According to IMDB, James MacArthur did indeed reprise his role as Governor Dan Williams (I would love to email his fansite sometime and ask him why he chose to participate in this thing). Here's a link to the IMDB pilot info:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0948096/


I will have to dig the script up again and take another look at it if anyone has further questions about it. It was pretty unmemorable, and was a complete departure from the quality of the old show. I think Cannell saw an opportunity for a fast buck and tried to cash in, but he wasn't able to fool CBS in the end.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

Cannell had been involved with so many wonderful TV series, such as The Rockford Files, Black Sheep Squadron, The Greatest American Hero, The A-Team, and Wiseguy. I'm sure his going against the grain by reviving and ruining Hawaii Five-O with a pilot (that the public has never seen) is something the man would rather forget.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

I'm a HUGE Wiseguy, Rockford and A-team fan, shows that are clear proof of Cannell's creativity. Had Cannell done a Hawaii Five-0 revival that was more adherent to a Wiseguy-type of storytelling rather than a mindless action show, it might have worked better. Based on the 1997 pilot script, he didn't appear terribly familiar with Hawaii Five-0 with respect to what made it great (the casting, the storytelling, dialogue, character development, etc.) and instead tried to cobble something together that he figured the suits at CBS and modern TV audiences wanted to see. He chose poorly and should have done his homework properly.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

I found the script for the 1997 pilot; the draft I have is from Feb. 6, 1997, and was written by Cannell and Kim LeMasters. In addition to Danny, Kono and Chin, the draft also features Truck, and voiceovers from Ben Kokua and Che Fong (they don't actually appear). In this draft, McGarrett is the Governor who is shot in the teaser, and Busey plays Jimmy Xavier Berk, described as the second-in-command of Five-0. Berk and another Five-0 character, Nick Irons, try to solve the shooting with the help of the old characters in a plot that involves a Russian mobster who is framed by a renegade Russian colonel who wants control of Hawaii's drug trade.

Here's a couple samples of Chin's awful pidgin-English:

"I heard the Lt. Governor's gonna assign a new head of Five-0 now that Danny go join his kumulipo on d' big reef".

"You tink dey gonna have ta write d' song for Steve?"

BTW, the Governor does survive the shooting, presumably to make future sweeps-month guest appearances had this thing become a series.

If CBS-Paramount's Five-0 DVD releases make it to the horrible 12th season, they should include this God-forsaken pilot as an extra on that final set, the cherry on one hell of a disgusting cake.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

Google is not supposed to be displaying ads that have to do with bootleg DVDs, according to the bosses here. They are dealing with this...

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

Lord was allegedly suffering from Alzheimer's or a similar disease and was hardly up to making public appearances at the time.

As far as the first season clips are concerned, this was done on purpose by Paramount, according to Emme (the show's host) when she was appearing on an Internet radio show in Texas (where I also put in a guest appearance). The original broadcast of this retrospective had clips from later episodes.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

I have a VHS copy of this pilot (very, very bad video quality) which was filmed, but never shown. It is UNSPEAKABLY BAD!!! You can hear the revamped title theme via my Five-O home page (search Hawaii Five-O at Google, I can't post the URL here for "technical reasons"!!).

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

On the first season set, what was up with the video quality of the episode "Six Kilos"? It's the only negative in an otherwise great box. It looks like a transfer from 16mm, with colors faded and a limited tonal scale. Any ideas as to what happened?

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

I guess the source copy of Six Kilos was the only one available at the time these discs were produced.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

"Six Kilos" appeared to be the only episode that was not digitally remastered in HD like the others were (a quick check of the paramounttv.com site shows season 1 was digitally remastered in HD recently). This appeared to come from the prints that usually appeared on TV pre-1997 (the year Paramount and Family Channel paid to digitally remaster most of the episodes in SD). This episode had been withheld from most, but not all, syndication packages for many years and subsequently was seen very rarely. I am not sure why Paramount didn't pay to remaster that one unless the original negative was damaged in some way making it unavailable to remaster. This may have forced Paramount to use a pre-1997 uncut syndicated print, while their only other option would be to use a chopped-up digitally remastered syndicated print (those usually clock in around 45 minutes or less). Perhaps they realized that while it might look nice, fans would throw a fit over the inclusion of a cut-up show.

Just a guess, really; maybe someone else can shed some light.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

Marj Dusay certainly had great legs back then as did a lot of beautiful women at a time when miniskirts were first fashionable, but the censor wouldn't object to brief shots of her panties. After all....even in 1960s TV there were occasional scenes in sitcoms of men in their boxers (such as Gomer Pyle USMC) that were blantantly obvious, so there is no double-standard here.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

I'm loving rewatching this show again. One of my all time favorites.
It originally aired here in Canada (pre cable days) on Sunday nights at 11:30pm. It was actually the first show my parents would let me stay up late to watch.
TVLand Canada ran one of the syndication packages for a year or so back around 2005-06. That was the first time I had seen the show since it went of the air in the eighties.
The second season can't come out soon enough for me.

Every true Five-0 fan has to check out Mike Quigleys Five-0 site.
A fantastic recap of all twelve seasons plus other tidbits-well done Mike.
The detailed episode guides are particularly impressive, especially with the box sets out now.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

Artwork for Season 2 has been posted...

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=7263

The character shots all appear to be from around the Season 2 timeframe, and I like the iconic Hawaiian imagery they have added along with the blue background. Another nice piece of work from CBS-Paramount.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

I must say, it seemed odd that the iconic red shading around the "Hawaii Five-0" name was changed to, well, pineapple yellow, and on first glance it looked odd, but perhaps precisely because it's pineapple yellow, for some strange reason it works.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

I'm convinced that thigh-flash was deliberate. Although Five-0 was a manly-man's show, it contained plenty of implicit sex. Even McGarrett got a little now and then -- it was the '60s, after all.

Anyway, whether the shot was intentional or not, "24 Karat Kill" gave me a new appreciation for Ms. Dusay. (Not enough, however, to re-watch "Spock's Brain.")

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

"Bored, She Hung Herself" is not on the season 2 boxset.

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

Hi Joe, not that I don't believe you, but what is your source for this info?

Gord's site indicated that S2 would have all 25 episodes, including this one. I'm sure he was provided that information from CBS/Paramount.

If this is true, what a major disappointment.

Steve

Re: Hawaii Five-O - Any Interest Out There?

I received a review copy of this DVD last week and have personally reviewed the entire set, and I can officially confirm that "Bored, She Hung Herself" is not included in the Season 2 set.

Andy Dursin over at The Aisle Seat also made the same error as Gord, and I notified him of the error, which he plans to correct ASAP.