"Hookman" features an assassin with hooks instead of hands. He’s out for revenge against four young cops who put him in jail for robbing banks by using a bomb once too often to threaten the tellers. One of the men he’s after was a young probationary policeman named Steve McGarrett. This episode also features the unique and famous mid-'60s Pontiac Catalina 2+2 ambulance, which is painted black and regretfully wrecked as a hearse without removing all of the emergency lights and cowling from the roof. My guess is that the production office could finally afford a Cadillac that year so it was disposable.
In "A Bullet For El Diablo" radicals kidnap a much-hated Latin president’s daughter to lure him to Honolulu and then substitute her for his look-alike illegitimate daughter in an assassination attempt. Note the police-escorted limo that the loathed president is using always has it windows down.
In "The Finishing Touch" Steve McGarrett brings in a good friend who is a well known and respected documents expert to help him detect counterfeit city and state bonds that threaten Hawaii’s economy. The viewer is let in from the beginning that the counterfeiter is the expert, but how long will it take Steve to catch on?
In "Nightmare In Blue" a cop uses his uniform to gain the trust of women in order to rape and then kill them. McGarrett must find him before the Honolulu Police Department’s reputation is completely ruined. The script is great, but the execution is terrible, which makes it noteworthy. The phony police car is a brand new and huge gold 1973 Buick Electra luxury car with wide whitewall tires and a flimsy little magnetic blue light on the roof. When an experienced veteran female undercover cop is assigned to the case as a decoy and almost kidnapped, she not only can’t remember later on whether the car was a Ford or a maybe a Buick, but never spots the completely unmarked car as an obvious fake!
In "Mother's Deadly Helper" a deranged vigilante begins killing criminals that are set free due to courtroom technicalities. McGarrett starts receiving bragging fan mail giving details that only the killer would know and the sharp shooter is increasingly convinced that Steve considers him a cherished member of his team. Frank Cady, who played Hooterville’s Sam Drucker on Green Acres, takes on a serious role as the judge, who later becomes the killer’s target in this episode.
"30,000 Rooms, And I Have The Key" is an unusually funny episode that should have been titled “Saving The Best For Last.” A charming and lovable multi-millionaire master thief, master of disguise, and master key maker arrives on the island to expand his fortune. McGarrett is taunted and vexed at every turn with clues such as ten dollar bills and roses as the Frenchman moves from hotel to hotel. The episode’s grand finale involves him sending Steve an engraved invitation to a burglary. This is undoubtedly my favorite of the whole 12-year TV series. You will find yourself actually rooting for the bad guy and hoping that McGarrett doesn’t catch him! What appears at first as canned music that’s been used before was actually reworked and re-recorded with great new arrangements just for this episode. As the tension and the music builds you will hold your breath as a target approaches a well laid trap set by McGarrett… and then you will cheer out loud in laughter at the line, “Why howdy friend; step right on in here!”
Article comments
1 - Jet Gardner
Here's some Hawaii 5-0 trivia that I decided to edit out because the article was too long...
Trivia:
In some stock footage you can spot McGarrett’s original two-door 1967 car instead of the four-door ’68 by its red interior. Until the end of the 1974 season, Steve drove a 1968 Mercury Park Lane Brougham 4-door Sedan, with power steering, power front disc brakes, power windows, power seat, A/C, AM/FM, and cruise control. For some unfathomable reason the actual “hero” car was blown up as part of the final episode of that season instead of a double. Even after it was destroyed, footage of the Park Lane flying down the street was used as stock footage in later seasons.
Jack Lord was offered the role of Captain Kirk on Star Trek and turned it down.
Sammy Davis Jr. did a vocal of the famous theme song that never aired.
2 - ok-auguste
Rah! Rah! for a new 5-0 series release!
Unhappily tantalising for us in Uk/Europe who are several months behind each release.
But...
the wadding's worth it.
3 - Jet Gardner
Thanks auguste, if you're a music lover, the "Bachish" electronic fugue used to accompany the 30,000 room episode is well worth the price and the wait.
Jet
4 - ok-auguste
"waiting's worth it" natch.
who knows though...with all the good reviews I'm reading about Hawaii 5-0 series 6, it is getting wadded up to mucho great expectations.
5 - ok-auguste
Thanks for the tip-off re "30,000" room" ep, a Bachish (the best) fugue sounds sublime.
6 - Jet Gardner
No problem, how long is the release delay in Europe?
7 - roger nowosielski
I always liked Jack Lord. Wasn't there some tragedy connected with his death?
8 - Jet Gardner
He died of what almost took me-Congestive heart failure, rumors flew that he had Alzheimer's but they were never confirmed.
At one time he ran for governor of Hawaii.
9 - Jet Gardner
Despite what you may have heard, his hair did move on occasion.
10 - ok-auguste
Aloha Jet ~ lol at the Lord's hair moving, on occasion.
Woeful blues: We seem to lag behind by about 4 or 5 months. (Could you have a word?)
11 - Jet Gardner
August; doesn't Europe have a different video format than the U.S.? That may be why there's a lag... but four or five MONTHS????
Wow!
12 - ok-auguste
Yes, Jet ~ it's a BIG lag. Especially when you look up Amazon and see a film/DVD set - then see it's in dollars. Hopping on to the UK site, no release yet. Europe vids are PAL 2 and DVD's are for zone 2; different formats to yours.
Could be something to do with demand? You have these vintage show's running all the time in some TV stations or other, so the shows have original fans as well as collecting new ones. Good side is that just as we're getting ready to pull out the boots and mufflers in the autumn, we'll be set for a trip to the islands via 5-0!
13 - Jet Gardner
On the other hand there are DVD titles of American TV shows in Europe that may never come to America because they're in the wrong format.
I have a whole shopping list of movies etc. that I used to look for that I can only get over there and they'd only play-over there.
It gets frustrating because 5 years later I can't afford them.
I wonder if it's possible to get a European formatted DVD player over here-Then again it probably wouldn't be compatible with our TVs
When I think of it, I'll have to see if someone on the internet sells format converters... then again the picture would probably be really shitty after all that processing.
alas
14 - ok-auguste
Ah ha Jet, please don't get me going on that one! Seriously, I'm gob-smacked that there are US films & TV prog s unreleased in DVD in the States? That's a shocker. You've a continent of a mass market which caters to so many tastes; demand must be far greater there. For US markets, I'd have thought Europe was even more a diminished market than Britain, where, small though we are, we share the same language. And the UK has a large appetite for American TV.
Last winter a review turned me on to the 5-0 releases. Since then have acquired a few vintage TV shows in boxed-sets. Several British shows, like The Avengers, Secret Agent, even a super Brit sit-com with fabulous Elaine Stritch (Two's Company), is only available in the US! As I'm getting into DVD sets, my lists too grows frustratingly longer. When - WILL they make compatible players for these things? After all, we're only separated by the Atlantic. Great idea about the converters, but think you're right about losing picture quality.
That said, we're fortunate so many of the quality show's are being harvested, and great that people like you write these public reviews so people like me buy them. Then the companies go on to release succeeding new seasons.
15 - Jet Gardner
No no, There apparently are companies that record things over there off the air that are formatted for the European TV broadcast system-either that or they don't think they'll sell here.
A good example is the EXCELLENT pilot movie by Abby Mann, "The Marcus-Nelson Murders" which became the "Kojak" series in the 70s. It was based on a real mystery that had a lot of plot twists and turns, but apparently it can only be found over there.
There's a Richard Burton movie called The Medusa Touch and The Robert Wagner series "It takes a thief".
By the way, if I forget to tell you, I'm going into the hospital again this thursday so I'll be gone for a while after that...
alas
16 - Jet Gardner
As for British TV series, I have the entire collection of the Emma Peel episodes of "The Avengers", all of "Are you being served?" "Space 1999" and of course "Blackadder" on DVD.
17 - ok-auguste
Was curious about "To Catch a Thief so on googling it, came across a tip where you might find it available? www.hulu.com/watch/12204/it-takes-a-thief-a-spot-of-trouble.
Nice one! I feel the Emma Peel series are the best, and most humorous. There's also something special about the sharp black & white shows. (Some episodes available in Uk, thought not all the collection).
Jet, sorry to hear that you have a hospital stay coming up. Always a challenge and a hill to climb. Wishing you all the very best, and leave you with an Irish blessing,
"May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back"
Keep on truckin'
(Patricia)
18 - Jet Gardner
Thanks Patricia, I've watched "It takes a thief" on Hulu, it's a great site, especially with the season 2+ episodes of Kojak.
If you get a chance checkout "I want to report a dream" on the Kojak series there. There's a piano piece used in the soundtrack that was the first think I learned how to play.
19 - Bliffle
5-0 is proof of my contention that TV is about VISUAL effects and has little to do with sound or (heaven forfend) plot.
Best to watch TV while listening to something else or reading a book.
An exception is listening to the audio during the opening credits of 5-0 when those Hawaiian guys are pouring it on and roaring through the surf in a dugout canoe. Best part of the whole show.
20 - Jet Gardner
As a matter of fact Blif, there are very few visual effects in 5-0 so the only thing it had going was its plots and story lines.
That's what made it so successful through 12 seasons, compare that to nearly any other TV show's longetivity and you'll see what I mean. It had appeal.