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Submitted by: John Chergi
From: Pittsburgh PA
From: Ben beat me to it as the great Jack Lord will be 97 December 30. Although deceased, McGarrett and Hawaii Five O still lives on 50 years later. I'm liking the Season 12 episodes with more viewings. My FAV episode of Classic HFO is Engaged To Be Buried. So many Classic scenes. One of My FAV McGarrett scenes is when he's on the back of the truck in The Singapore File with Nicole. Uncertain future and I love the photography of the scene. Wind-swept hair. Happy Birthday Jack!
Added: December 29 2017 08:00:58 PM
Submitted by: Ben Masters
From: Fountain Inn
From: Thought I'd bring it up here that tomorrow, Dec. 30, will mark what would have been Jack Lord's 97th birthday.
Added: December 29 2017 04:04:34 PM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: It's pretty dead over at my place, too.
Added: December 29 2017 01:35:57 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Everyone must be having a good holiday, the board has been pretty dead for the last few days. And after all the work I did on SOSF, even finishing it up before Christmas! :D
Added: December 28 2017 10:31:33 AM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Hang 'Em High has a Five-O connection, because James MacArthur played the role of The Preacher. There is a story behind this which I can't remember, that some other actor was playing this part and Leonard Freeman, who was the producer and writer for this show, didn't like him, and hired JM instead. Later when they had the same dilemma with Tim O'Kelly on Five-O, Freeman remembered JM playing this role in the western, and the rest is history...
Added: December 26 2017 11:47:38 AM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: Dominic Frontiere had 2 very good film scores - HANG ‘EM HIGH with Clint Eastwood and THE STUNT MAN with Peter O’Toole. The latter especially.
Added: December 25 2017 08:43:24 PM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: Do hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!
Added: December 25 2017 06:21:34 PM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: John Hunt was one of my favorite "beloved semi-regulars." There's a certain quirkiness about him that calls our attention to him -- but, no. He definitely is NOT Khigh Dhiegh.
Added: December 24 2017 09:50:42 AM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: John A. Hunt was in Descent of the Torches (as Geraldine Page's deceased brother I believe?) and a bunch of other episodes, all the way into season 12.
Of course everyone knows that Mr. Hunt and Mr. Dhiegh are one and the same! Right down to the hairs sticking out of their ears lol. By the way, I hate pointing out the obvious but Simon Oakland is clearly Andrew Duggan in disguise!! But you already knew that. I'm just so tickled with myself here :))))))
Merry Christmas, all!
Added: December 24 2017 09:01:47 AM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: I received the following e-mail the other day:
I'm a long time fan of the classic Hawaii 5-0 series and of your website! I'm watching through the entire series for a second time, and I'm fairly certain that an actor billed as "John Hunt" is actually Khigh Dheigh, the actor who portrays Wo Fat!
I only own seasons 1-5 right now, but "John Hunt" is billed in Season 3 Episode 11, "Over Fifty, Steal," as Wally Emerson and in Season 4 Episode 20, "Cloth of Gold," as Dr. Pell. In both episodes he's wearing a fake mustache, a wig, and glasses, but the resemblance to Khigh Dheigh is uncanny. But most of all, his voice, manner of speaking, and mannerisms give him away.
If you already knew this, I'm sorry for wasting your time. I'm quite tickled with myself for discovering this though, and felt I should share.
According to IMDb, this actor appeared in several more episodes of the original show as follows, as well as episodes of Lost in Space:
- The Golden Noose (1980) ... Dutchman (as John A. Hunt)
- The Sleeper (1978) ... Dr. Basil Kent (as John A. Hunt)
- The Descent of the Torches (1977) ... Charles Underwood
- Termination with Extreme Prejudice (1975) ... Ed Sloane
- The Listener (1973) ... Paul
- Cloth of Gold (1972) ... Dr. Pell
- Over Fifty? Steal (1970) ... Wally Emerson
My reaction to this claim is "I don't think so..."
Added: December 24 2017 08:26:28 AM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: So sad to read about Dominic Frontiere. His compositions were quite memorable.
Added: December 24 2017 08:20:04 AM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Dominic Frontiere, composer for many TV shows including The Outer Limits and The Invaders, has passed away:
http://variety.com/2017/music/news/dominic-frontiere-dead-dies-com poser-outer-limits-1202648539/
Added: December 24 2017 12:11:57 AM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Inasmuch as the grown-up Gracie didn't resemble the young actress (now 16 years old in real life) who plays her at all, and considering what Danno was telling his son was "all made up," they should have made Danno's daughter a black woman. This sounds like an Airplane-like spoof, but if you apply English 100 logic, this would sort of have made sense considering the dream-like aspect of Danno's little tale, because Danno's late partner back in New Jersey, after whom his daughter Gracie was named, actually >was< a black woman (played by Sidney Poitier's daughter, in fact). They could have got the original actress to play the daughter. Of course, Dannoying fans would be scratching their heads and the fandom would erupt in a huge tizzy, because this would demonstrate that the writers considered the fans to have something more than the intelligence of a gnat.
Added: December 23 2017 10:23:44 AM
Submitted by: Todd
From: Los Angeles
From: Took a look at that fan page you linked... it's mostly Five-Zero fandom from middle-aged women who watch the show mostly to drool at Alex O'Loughlin... very different crowd than we have over here.
I did like this line by one of the commenters:
"Called it – Rachel is nowhere to be found at either child’s big moment (yes, tell me again and again that it’s not fan pandering… I’m getting used to rolling my eyes). I’m disgusted – it’s ridiculous. Then again, maybe she took one look at the bride and realized that it wasn’t any resemblance to her actual daughter and left?"
Laughed at that one. I also thought it was lame how "20s Grace" looked absolutely nothing like teenage Grace. They could have done better than that with the casting.
I don't know why this woman was bothered that Rachel was absent in those hallucinations. Maybe because Danno's subconscious doesn't want to put his ex-wife in his happy little future scenes?
Added: December 23 2017 02:33:20 AM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Good idea, Todd, I have already posted your "guest review".
I am not the only person having "druthers" about reviewing the last two episodes.
The "boss" of another site wrote the following:
I won't do a review for either of the episodes. Not a lot of nice things to say about them ... In simple words, Dannoying takes ALL the fun out of watching my favorite show. I mostly can't stand it. And mostly regret that I paid a lot of money on iTunes to watch it.
Instead, there was a "guest reviewer" for S08E10 (E11 is not reviewed yet).
Some of the comments were pretty interesting, like one which began like this:
"What's Hawaiian for 'Major Fandom Wank Pandering even if it makes zero sense'"??? That should've been the title.
I am commenting too, check it out!
Added: December 22 2017 04:44:44 AM
Submitted by: Todd
From: Los Angeles
From: Oh, and add this to the review if you end up posting it...
I was SHOCKED to see pictures of Chin and Kono on the wall of the restaurant in Danno's hallucination.
Unless they got permission from Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim (unlikely), or unless their contracts allowed for re-use of still photos of them in future episodes, THIS IS A HUGE NO-NO in Hollywood.
Something very similar was done on "Grey's Anatomy" last decade, when Isiah Washington was fired for using anti-gay slurs. In order to explain Washington's disappearance, they showed another character holding a newspaper featuring an article about him, with his face pictured.
Washington sued them, arguing that they had rights to his character, but not his face.
Indeed, he was legally correct, and ABC ended up settling with him out of court.
Did Five-0 just make the same blunder?
Added: December 22 2017 02:33:32 AM
Submitted by: Todd
From: Los Angeles
From: Here's my review of Season 8, Episode 10 of Five-Zero. I see that Mike has not yet written his review, probably because he's dreading doing write-ups of Danno-heavy episodes!
Mike, you can feel free to use this if you don't feel like expending the effort this time. After more than 400 reviews of the two shows, you deserve a break.
____________________________
The show begins with what appears to be a successful opening night of Steve and Danno's restaurant, seemingly set in present-day. This bothered me because the whole restaurant idea has become a drag and time-waster on the show this season, despite the fact that it was only presented last year in order to give closure to Danno if Scott Caan had chosen to leave the show.
Since Danno stayed on, they should have shut down all restaurant talk until the series was really going to end (or he was really going to leave). Instead, the restaurant idea changed from a retirement plan to an active venture for Danno and Steve, which is already ridiculous because clearly neither have time for such a major undertaking.
So here I thought all that annoying restaurant talk had come to fruition and we would have to be dealing with Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams, Restaurateurs, from now on.
Then came the twist. Danno saw a report on TV about a veteran detective being shot at the hospital. He asked Steve about it. Steve acted confused before informing Danno that it's him. The entire sequence was a delusion of a gravely injured Danno.
Cut to opening.
As unnecessary as this opening was, I have to admit a feeling of relief coming over me, that the restaurant wasn't actually going to be part of the show just yet.
As we cut back in time a bit, the Five-Zero crew (minus Grover and Jerry) are still in the quarantine area, six hours away from release. A man in a hazmat suit comes in, fiddles with the wall, and doesn't answer anyone. They wrongly assume it's doctor they've been dealing with, but the viewer obviously knows that will be the shooter.
The man pulls a gun and orders all four (Steve, Danno, Tani, Junior) to tie themselves up with zip ties. Steve tries to convince him that he's infected himself and will need their help to escape alive, but the man removes his protective helmet and says he doesn't care about himself. He asks Danno if he remembers him, to which Danno says no. Then the man shoots Danno, and turns the gun on himself, committing suicide.
The rest of the episode is a fairly mundane exercise of getting Danno out of the quarantine area despite the fact that the gunman booby trapped the only door with a sophisticated bomb.
He destroyed all of their phones, as well as the in-room communication system, so they cannot call for help.
Tani gets the fire extinguisher to bash a pipe in the bathroom pretty hard until it bursts, saying she's looking to "cause a flood" through the ceiling below, to get people's attention. Why didn't she just clog the drain in the sink and leave the water running?
Attempts to break the glass in the room with a chair are unsuccessful, as it appears to be very strong, presumably to prevent accidental breakage.
Grover is a jerk to the bomb squad and other cops on the scene, questioning everything they're trying to do, and eventually dismissing their help and taking a hammer to the other wall. Why not do that in the first place?
Throughout the episode, we are treated to various hallucinations Danno has, where he believes he's living in various scenes in the future. The restaurant was the first one.
Next, we see him at Grace's wedding, talking her out of cold feet. We learn that her husband-to-be is none other than her real-life current boyfriend, Grover's son. The actress playing Grace is in her 20s, so presumably this is set about 10 years in the future.
The next hallucination involves Danno's son Charlie (presumably about 7 years old now, thanks to rapid TV aging of babies), who is in his early 20s and graduating the police academy. So presumably this one is set about 15 years in the future.
Next we get to see Danno and Steve as old men, in makeup which was fairly convincing. (Steve's looked better. Danno looked almost like a zombie.) They're sitting together on chairs in front of the water, presumably at Steve's place, and are discussing how Danno's granddaughter is about to graduate the police academy. So presumably this is about 30-40 years into the future.
The fact that it almost appears the two of them are living together at this point would give some ammo to the people in the "Danno and Steve are gay" camp.
These various hallucinations of the future are interspersed through the episode, with the last one oddly taking place while Danno is in cardiac arrest. It would be impossible to have such a hallucination while your heart isn't beating.
Of course, there's the obligatory "Steve does something heroic in an area where he's not trained", this time involving him taking orders from a doctor to get potential deadly air pressure out of Danno's chest, in a fairly graphic scene.
Of course, Danno pulls through.
For some reason, they have a very hard time identifying the shooter (even after the police get access to him), despite the fact that they have full access to his prints and face.
They do find that he was registered under a phony name at a local motel, and in that room they find a surveillance picture of Danno, taken by the killer, with the words, "HE DESERVED TO DIE" written on it.
Overall this episode was more of a poor man's version of the original series' "Yesterday Died and Tomorrow Won't Be Born", and it lacked much excitement or suspense.
Clearly Danno wasn't going to die.
Clearly the Five-O team wasn't going to get blown to bits by that bomb.
We learned nothing about the shooter (yet).
The future hallucinations were pointless. Why were those even included, and why did we have to suffer through four of them?
If they wanted to do a revenge episode involving someone trying to kill Danno, it could have been done much better than this.
Rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
Added: December 22 2017 02:29:41 AM
Submitted by: John Chergi
From: Pittsburgh PA
From: I don't blame Danno or HFO team at all. There was nothing to suggest Josephs would jump out the window. Can you think of many FiveO criminals that jumped out of a window and escaped? Ross did in A Sentence To Steal but he was surrounded. Seasons 12 in totality does make HFO epic and on a rare mountain. Kojak, Streets SF, Cannon etc. only 5 seasons. HFO 12 seasons and longest running crime drama until Law & Order, CSI, and NYPD Blue passed it in 2000's. NCIS too. Just watched Columbo Troubled Waters. What a brilliant episode! HFO, Unsolved Mysteries, Columbo Top 3.
Added: December 21 2017 12:07:36 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: Agreed. Eddie Josephs should have leaped out the window while handcuffed. In fact for the longest time I thought that’s how it happened, until my most recent rewatch. I just always had this mental image of a restrained Eddie breaking loose and jumping out the window. Turns out he wasn’t restrained at all.
Added: December 21 2017 10:39:21 AM
Submitted by: Todd
From: Los Angeles
From: Just watched "I'll Kill 'Em Again"... again.
What an excellent episode.
This and "Draw Me a Killer" are my two favorites, and they share plot similarities -- Five-O chasing down an angry, deranged, young white serial killer who chooses his victims at random according to how they match something in a publication.
Danny Goldman did an excellent job playing villain Eddie Josephs.
The relationship between Josephs and his kindly older boss Mr. Beecham was also very well drawn. When Beecham was murdered, I remember it being perhaps the saddest guest character murder I had witnessed on Five-O.
The episode strikes the perfect balance between time spent on the crimes committed and the ongoing investigation. The new Five-Zero show could learn a lot from watching this episode.
It's pretty much the perfect episode, except for two minor problems.
Lei Kayahara played Sheila Young, the girl who took over for Eddie after he was fired. Unfortunately, she wasn't a very good actress, nor was her character or dialogue written particularly well. When informed of Beecham's murder, it almost looked like she cracked a smile (which I'm sure wasn't written in the script).
The final scene where Eddie killed himself didn't make sense from the standpoint that Danno let him stand free without any sort of handcuffing. They had just caught him in the act of attempting yet another murder, and after Danno was finished struggling with him, he just let him stand. No handcuffs, no holding him down, nothing. This allowed Eddie to jump out the window to his death, because he didn't want McGarrett to "win" by arresting him. While this powerful scene was a memorable ending, it always bothered me how Eddie even had the opportunity to do that. It could have been done just as well with Eddie jumping out the window in cuffs, perhaps struggling away from Danno to do it.
Danny Goldman went on to do the voice of "Brainy Smurf" in that famed 1980s animated series, and also has run a successful television commercial casting agency for over 30 years.
I also remember seeing him in a mid-1980s episode of "Alice", playing essentially the same type of character, though not as crazy or evil.
Added: December 20 2017 11:36:34 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: What the heck do you mean "12 seasons allowed Classic HFO to reach all time Classic level"? This doesn't make any sense. While there were some episodes in the later seasons (from 9 on) which were of interest, many (most?) of them were crap.
I am even thinking that Nine Dragons (which is still my favorite show) is only worthy of 3½ stars because this show has several flaws in it. Ditto for Number One With A Bullet, which is a real study in the "generation gap." At the end, McGarrett is seen sort of tapping his toe to the music as if he really doesn't understand what he is listening to. I definitely would not give that one 4 stars these days either.
Added: December 20 2017 08:15:16 PM
Submitted by: John Chergi
From: Pittsburgh PA
From: Good Classic HFO discussion. I think had Classic HFO ended after 9 seasons I'd be Okay with it. Double Exposure was episode #200. When you reach 200+ episodes, that's a successful run. However, 12 seasons allowed Classic HFO to reach all time Classic level. I enjoyed Tsunami, Up The Rebels, and some later Season 10-12 episodes. JC
Added: December 20 2017 08:05:05 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: I was cleaning up stuff, and found a CD which contains several pieces by Morton Stevens. This is taken from a demo tape he made which has been discussed here and elsewhere before. The contents of the tape are below. I used to own this cassette tape, but it disappeared, so, for some reason, I only have side ONE of this tape now in various formats.
This CD I found has 19 tracks, but there are no titles for any of them.The only one I recognize is #16, which is taken from the Turkey Shoot at Makapuu episode of the original Five-O, but that is #13 in the list below!
I am sure that once I saw this CD (or part of it) on some WWW page where people could download it, but I cannot track this down.
Anyway, I have uploaded the files to this directory in both WAV and MP3 format:
http://www.fiveohomepage.com/stevens
Can anyone figure out which piece is which?
MORTON STEVENS DEMO TAPE 1983
Side I
WHEELS (Titles); TIME TRAVELERS (Love Theme) MASADA (Battle, Montage); WHEELS (Society Music); MASADA (Battle Preparations); THE FLAME IS LOVE (theme) HARDLY WORKING (Main Title,) (Pantomime); POOR DEVIL (Montage); BANJO HACKETT (Country Chase); APPLE'S WAY (Titles); BACKSTAIRS AT THE WHITE HOUSE (Main Title); SMORGASBORD (Pantomime) (Chase) (Main Title); TURKEYSHOOT (Hang-Glider) (Air Chase); GREAT WHITE (Concert Arrangement); OUTLAND (Finale Chase)
Side 2
HAWAII FIVE-0 (Title) (Chase), COFFEE TEA OR ME (Stewardess' $ong) lyric by Hermine Hilton; WOMEN IN WHITE (Main Theme); KISS OF GOLD (Cosmetics Montage) lyric by Carol Connors; WHEELS (Theme Treatment); SHE WAITS (Main Title); THE STOREFRONT LAWYERS (Main Title WILD & WONDERFUL (Party Music) HAWAII FIVE-0 (Hookman Suite) (How to Steal a Masterpiece Suite) CBS LATE NITE MOVIE (Theme), POLICEWOMAN (Titles); SPENCER'S PILOTS (theme); GREAT WHITE (2nd Concert Arrangement)
Added: December 20 2017 12:49:18 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: If season 9 was the last season here is what mine would look like:
1. A Capitol Crime
2. Target - A Cop
3. The Bells Toll at Noon
4. Man in a Steel Frame
5. Blood Money is Hard to Wash
6. Elegy in a Rain Forest
7. Tour De Force, Killer Aboard
8. The Last of the Great Paperhangers
9. To Die in Paradise
10. Nine Dragons
11. Assault on the Palace
12. Double Exposure
13. To Kill a Mind
14. Practical Jokes Can Kill You
15. Yes, My Deadly Daughter
16. Dealer's Choice... Blackmail
17. Heads, You're Dead
18. Tsunami
19. Deep Cover
20. A Death in the Family
21. Deadly Courier
22. A Distant Thunder
23. The Skyline Killer - this would serve as a great series finale because it has that awesome final shot of McGarrett standing on top of that crane as the camera pans around him with Diamond Head in the background and the Five-O music swells to a glorious finish. 
Added: December 19 2017 10:27:43 PM
Submitted by: Todd
From: Los Angeles
From: Just watched "Labyrinth", which is probably my favorite Season 12 episode (though that's not saying much).
Though some like "A Lion in the Streets" and "Who Says Cops Don't Cry", I found both of those episode to be flawed, while Labyrith was actually pretty good.
Lots of mystery and double-crossings in this one.
Like Mike, I noticed that the scene before the first commercial break was not at all dramatic, and it felt weird to hear the dramatic music and see the "going to commercial" wave.
Also like Mike, I was taken aback by how Kimo was bossing around Duke. How did Kimo become second-in-command so quickly? I'm not sure it was intentional, but Duke had a frustrated look on his face after being bossed by Kimo, as if he was thinking, "This guy has been here a few weeks and I'm already answering to him?!"
The Wilkins character was supposed to be British, but he spoke with a clear Australian accent, even saying "mate" at one point (as Mike also mentioned). Mike felt that he was speaking with a fake Cockney accent, but it sounded Australian to me the whole way.
The plastic surgery angle was an interesting twist, but unrealistic. There was no way to make an identical facial copy of someone in 1979, and in fact even today it would be quite difficult/impossible.
It was obvious when Dr. Ames "didn't care about the money" but his girlfriend Lisa seemed focused upon it, that he would be double-crossed by her.
I knew the "red door red" nail polish would be used to differentiate between Christine and Lisa. The writers thought they were sneaking in something clever, but it was obvious if you were paying attention.
If Lisa's goal was to escape alone with the money, why didn't she just disappear with it, after jumping of Ames' boat? There was clearly some time before she was supposed to be "found" on the beach. Couldn't she have just hopped a flight to another country under her own name, before anyone knew they were double-crossed? The entire ruse of pretending to be Christine and then killing Wilkins seemed unnecessary.
How did Lisa figure out who Nick Rossiter was (and that Christine hired him) in the time between the fake fainting and her "rescue" from the shack?
Anyway, despite these plot holes, this was a pretty good episode. I give it three stars -- and I enjoyed it the most of Season 12.
For whatever reason, we don't see McGarrett all too much in this episode. He's mainly there toward the beginning and end.
Added: December 19 2017 05:01:14 AM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: Purposely
Added: December 18 2017 07:32:28 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Huh, you left out Nine Dragons...
Added: December 18 2017 06:57:53 PM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: Here are my choices. They appear in no particular order.
Blood Money is Hard to Wash (S9)
A Capitol Crime (S9)
Elegy in a Rain Forest (S9)
Ready, Aim . . . (S9)
Man in a Steel Frame (S9)
Heads, You’re Dead (S9)
The Bells Toll at Noon (S9)
The Last of the Great Paper Hangers (S9)
Man On Fire (S9)
Up the Rebels (S10)
Invitation to Murder (S10)
The Descent of the Torches (S10)
You Don’t See Many Pirates These Days (S10)
Stringer (S11)
The Sleeper (S11)
The Skyline Killer (S11)
The Case Against Philip Christie (S11)
Number One With a Bullet, part 1 (S11)
Number One With a Bullet, part 2 (S11)
Clash of Shadows (S12)
School for Assassins (S12)
Voice of Terror (S12)
Good Help is Hard to Find (S12)
A Lion in the Streets (S12)
The Series Ends!
Added: December 18 2017 06:27:56 PM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: I'll have to work on that list, Mike, but this episode definitely will be the series ender: "Number One With a Bullet."
Added: December 18 2017 04:31:40 PM
Submitted by: Jeff
From: USA
From: There were several excellent episodes which were part of Season 9 in addition to Nine Dragons. I also really liked 3 other episodes from that season whenever watching them from my DVD collection. In order of their airing they were:
1). The Last of the Great Paperhangers
2). Yes, My Deadly Daughter
3). Man In A Steel Frame
Paperhangers was one of the few really exceptional episodes in the original show's 12-year run that had absolutely no violence. No one getting killed, maimed, or the victim of a violent act. In the beginning of the episode, the one guard was fooled into getting himself locked in the office at H50 headquarters in the Iolani Palace and he was not hurt. But, other than that, nothing. No one ended up in a hospital, nor on a slab, quite dead in the coroner's office. I found it to be instead a very humorous episode.
Early on, it was Elaine Giftos's character who inadvertently brought down the group when, after she paid a young 10-year old boy to walk up and get McGarrett's autograph (getting his signature to be used later for forgery purposes), she then innocently kissed that same little boy on the cheek as her way of thanks. The boy became completely infatuated with her and later identified Elaine strictly by how "pretty" (in the boy's words) she was when questioned by McGarrett. That was also the episode in which Chin Ho, (by then more often seen in comedic roles) and Duke tailing first Kevin McCarthy and later Elaine's characters that they did such a poor job of it that even a blind person would have spotted them. Why don't you just place the front bumper of your car right behind the person you're tailing there, Chin Ho?
In the Deadly Daughter episode, Remi Abellira who got himself beat up after early in the episode witnessing the first murder made an appearance, older than when he was a kid seen in earlier episodes notably Season 2's great Blind Tiger episode when a bomb went off in McGarrett's car after the staff had celebrated his birthday and which temporarily blinded him. It was young Remi's character (apparently not well off enough to own a pair of shoes as he was barefoot throughout the entire episode) who identified the angry, demented father (played by Robert Edwards) who had placed the bomb in McGarrett's car and later made one moer attempt to kill him in the hospital.
Remi had a part in the great episode from last year that flashbacked to what was occurring in Hawaii around the time that JFK was assassinated in late Nov. 1963. The first time I saw this, I would have never recognized that Remi, now in his late 50s, was the same actor from that one scene. Remi, in 1963, according to the episode's storyline, worked in that hotel when one of Kennedy's high ranking Cabinet members was there surreptitiously in Waikiki and staying at the famous Royal Hawaiian hotel (otherwise known as the "Pink Lady") at the time of the assassination. Unfortunately, if it were actually true, this would have made Remi about 6 years old. Don't know of many hotels that employ kids that young. I guess that for this episode, Remi played an older person.
Man In A Steel Frame was excellent as well, except for the flashback scene when they recreated what happened to McGarrett when he visited the site of where his girl friend had been murdered and how he was framed. Trying to not reveal the "killer's face" in the manner in which it was filmed, it did not exactly take a genius to figure out by looking at the person the identity of the murderer.
The gal being murdered was also made even more tragic, according to the storyline, because of what happened years before with her husband and, I want to say son, who died in a boating accident in which she was the only one to survive.
Regarding seasons 10 and 11, I was only impressed with the episode in which Kam Fong's Chin Ho Kelly was murdered. I remember that Chin Ho's eldest daughter went out of her way, possibly placing her own self in danger trying to pin the crime on certain people and playing Miss Detective. Seeing that episode and because I have the DVD sets only from Seasons 1-9, I thought that those in charge of hiring actors/actresses for character roles throughout the show's run did a bad job whenever episodes featured one or more of Chin Ho's kids.
Added: December 17 2017 07:58:39 PM
Submitted by: Mr. MIke
From: Vancouver
From: Don't hold your breath waiting for me to review the double-header on Friday. I may not review them at all, aside from the one-liner which I did for the second one. Forcing me to sit through two Danno-centric shows is like giving me two cases of syphilis! 
Added: December 17 2017 04:28:11 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: In my opinion aside front the excellent Pearl Harbor episode on the new show I’ll take a season 12 episode of the original show over any Five-Faux episode. I just had the misfortune of watching the 2 new back-to-back episodes this Friday (only because one of them was Christmas-themed) and it’s some of the worst crap I’ve seen so far. Unbearable! I can’t wait to read what Mike has to say about that trash. Danno tells a bedtime story about bad Santas robbing places. Basically the whole episode is a bedtime story told by Danno. None of it actually happened. And he can go back and change the story or add things to the story as he sees fit, you see, because it’s his story. Awww, how cute and funny. 
Added: December 17 2017 04:12:02 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Here is a project with some vague similarities to the "best of" season lists that have kept people preoccupied for the last while.
Assume that the 9th season of the original was the last. If so, what episodes would you keep from the 9th or any of the following seasons to end the series on a positive note?
You are limited to 24 shows in total!
Added: December 17 2017 03:40:43 PM
Submitted by: Jeff
From: USA
From: Recently the main topic in the forum has been Season 12 of the original 5-0 with a lot of threads posted. Sorry to disagree with those individuals who consider some of that Season 12's episodes to be good but to me they all STUNK!
When I went away to college in the fall of 1975, the original H50 was beginning its 8th season. Essentially with other things to do besides watching television each night, I stopped watching H50. Along the way during those seasons, and except for Herman Wedemeyer as "Duke Lukela" one-by-one the other long-time regulars -- Kam Fong (with the "honor" of having his character the original Chin Ho Kelly killed), James MacArthur, heck even Harry Endo as Che Fong, Al Eben as Doc Bergman, and Glen Cannon as D.A. John Manicote -- all left the series.
So, I graduate from college in the spring of 1979 and that fall Season 12 of H50 begins. I did not even recognize the show. Alongside Jack Lord who still remained as McGarrett the team consisted of Wiliam Smith as "Kimo" Carew and Sharon Farrell as "Lori Wilson". Really? I thought back then, who the hell were these characters? The plots in each episode that I ended up watching were all terrible. I gave up about midway through the season, only to come back for the series finale when it was announced that the show finally was being canceled.
Even the iconic music associated with the original 5-0 during its heyday was dramatically different when I briefly came back to watch it during Season 12. Now owning the original series through Season 9, in my opinion and right about then, the background music which earlier had made the show so great had started to change into something heard in other shows from that era at the time - Mannix, Barnaby Jones, Columbo, MacMillan and Wife, McCloud. All excellent shows, but with terrible background music which added nothing to each episode plot. The earlier H50 shows had music which not only added to the overall excellence of many episodes but in addition, they were tunes that I can still hear to this day in my head. One of the mistakes of the new H50 is that the background music heard in many episodes is just plain wretched. I've noticed in many of Mr. Mike's reviews of episodes he's made that same comment.
I hate to disagree with most of the forum members, but Season 8, if it would be considered to be the final season of the new version of 5-0, is still better than Season 12 of the original. Season 12 back then was just plain unwatchable. Personally, I have enjoyed a handful of Season 8 episodes that have aired so far this tv season.
It also would have been a more appropriate ending seen in the original series finale back in the spring of 1980 if McGarrett had ended up killing Wo Fat, or vice-versa. For the two to end their relationship in that final episode in the manner in which it ended ("we'll be buddies now") just was not a satisfactory conclusion!
Added: December 17 2017 03:26:34 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: Regarding "Good Help is Hard to Find” I’m the opposite in that I didn’t care for the whole plot of Alika making Five-O look like the Keystone Cops. There was just no suspense or interest there. I always found the episode rather dull on this front. But the part that did interest me was Guido Marioni, played by the always nasty John P. Ryan (check out his KOJAK episode as well as a bunch of Cannon/Golan-Globus 80s action films). Unfortunately as Todd mentioned this was sloppily handled. Kimo’s revenge against Marioni was tacked on at the end like an afterthought. This should have taken center stage and an entire episode should have been devoted to this. Instead we get this rather mediocre Alika episode, with Kimo’s revenge tacked on at the end.
But I’ll definitely be rewatching this episode soon. Let’s see if my opinion changes.
Added: December 17 2017 12:30:53 AM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: And y'all thought I was hard on "Though the Heavens Fall." I think you're being entirely too hard on "Good Help is Hard to Find." That is one of my favorite episodes.
-- Again, because I like Ross Martin's portrayal of Tony Alika. In the scene in Guido Marioni’s (John P. Ryan) hotel room, we see a tough side of Alika that didn’t come through very often. He truly is a mobster in how he threatens Marioni if he leaves the Islands. I love the lines he says to Guido:
Alika: We can take care of Carew.
Guido: Kill a cop? Now, you’re talking bananas.
Alika: Not kill, Guido. Frame!
Guido: Frame?
Alika: Frame. Frame a cop. Discredit, dishonor, disgrace a cop. There's more than one way to skin a cop, you know.
-- Just as Bill Cameron (Norm Alden) in "Rest in Peace, Somebody” (Season 4) used the governor in his efforts to take down McGarrett, Tony Alika in "Good Help is Hard to Find” uses Carew in his efforts to take down McGarrett.
-- The show lets down its hair and allows child ‘ukulele students to perform. They are delightful, but they would not have been included in a more intense episode. For example, they certainly wouldn’t have shown standing atop the Ko‘olau Mountains and playing their ‘ukulele with stark, raving mad Marcus Lucien (William Watson) trying to kill John Manicote (Glenn Cannon) and his daughter, Karen (Laurie Prange) in "Elegy in a Rain Forest” (Season 9).
-- The episode draws from the actors' real-life situations. William Smith is a very active person. He has been a body builder all his life (Watch him climb up the lava rock at the end). The criticisms about McGarrett being vainglorious stem from the gossip about Jack.
-- Then, there’s Truck's cousin, Joey (David Lancaster). He wants so badly to become a police officer that he studies at home at night and goes undercover of his own volition. He reports his findings to Truck. It gets him killed, but he truly did want to join the HPD badly enough to risk his life.
The only real problem I have with the episode comes at the very end, when McGarrett nearly ruins the whole episode by having that pathetic exchange with Alika as he makes the arrest. Come on, McGarrett! This isn’t the time for weak humor. It’s the time to throw the book at the scoundrel. "Book him, Kimo! Umpteen counts of murder, drug trafficking, etc., so forth, and so on.”
Added: December 16 2017 11:32:24 AM
Submitted by: Todd
From: Los Angeles
From: Since everyone is discussing Season 12 right now, I decided to watch "Good Help is Hard to Find" tonight.
This was the final episode featuring villain Tony Alika, who was arrested at the end of the episode.
Mike gave it one star. I think it deserves slightly better... perhaps 1.5 or 2, but it could have been a lot better if they had fixed a lot of the plot holes and the bad dialogue.
The episode did have a few interesting premises. Alika seeked to get Five-O off his back by bugging McGarrett's office and setting the team up for humiliation at every raid, clearing the places out of any real evidence and replacing them with signs mocking the Five-O team. He would then tip off a reporter who hated McGarrett to cover these failures.
Alika took advantage of the fact that most of the Five-O team was new (something rarely referenced during Season 12), in order to cast seeds of doubt about the effectiveness of the unit.
Kimo's past and newness in Five-O was also used by Alika in a fairly clever frame-up job.
This could have been really compelling, while at the same time actually giving a nod to the massive cast changes, but it wasn't executed very well.
They inserted the man who killed Kimo's wife and child into the episode, who coincidentally is working with Alika. I felt that this was extraneous, and there wasn't ample time to deal with this. There was too much going on in this episode, between the humiliation of Five-O, the internal affairs investigation of the leak (and then Kimo), a murder of one of Truck's informant relatives, and then this thing about Kimo's wife's killer.
The cleaning lady setting up the bug (and then removing it right before the place was swept for bugs the first time) was a clever plot point in a way, but was unrealistic. It is unlikely she wouldn't be investigated when looking for a leak, but they pretty much treat her like she's part of the furniture, despite the fact that she perpetually seems to be right by the door of McGarrett's office!
Somehow Alika still hasn't fired his super-inept bodyguard Billy Swan, who failed him miserably in "A Lion in the Streets".
It is unclear why Truck keeps believing these tips from his informant cousin, when those raids keep ending up as a setup. He accepted the third tip seriously, as if the first two disasterous raids hadn't occurred. While it's true that the tips were good at the time they were given (and Alika changed things after hearing the raids discussed via the office bug), I would think Truck would stop accepting tips from that guy, as two out of two led to Five-O's humiliation!
The Five-O team was very careless to say where Truck's cousin was hiding out when they weren't certain how information kept getting leaked -- a mistake which resulted in him being murdered!
The end chase featuring Kimo going after his wife's killer was poorly staged. It was supposed to be dramatic, with Kimo chasing him up a cliff, but neither man was running very fast, and at some points, it almost seems as if Kimo is walking. It also appears far steeper than others at times, and if you look closely, he's not actually hanging off the edge when he slips -- there's plenty of fairly easy footing right below him!
I don't buy that Kimo would help the guy out of his predicament when he was about to fall. Keep in mind that Kimo traveled to Hawaii in the first place to track down and kill the guy who killed his wife and child! Kimo letting him fall (without helping or causing it) would have been the perfect ending, as it would have given Kimo the justice he wanted without having to commit a vigilante murder. Instead, they went for the cliche "good guy always acts by the book and resists temptation to do otherwise" trope which was unfortunately a staple of pre-1990s cop shows.
The old man who was listening in to Five-O's office (and relaying what he heard to Alika) appears to have gotten away with his crime, and was the only bad guy not dead or arrested by the end.
I thought the kids playing in the ukulele band were cute, but then I had the weird realization that some of these "cute kids" are older than me! I was 7 years old when this episode was taped.
It would have been nice if Tony Alika got a better sendoff than an arrest for a murder with flimsy evidence at best, and it would have been nice if they stretched out Kimo's pursuit of his wife and child's killer over multiple episodes, with him getting closer each time.
I found it interesting that the reporter mocked Five-O for having "recent mass resignations" and "hiring incompetent sycophants in their place". This was likely a reference to Danno, so I assume we were supposed to understand that he resigned for some unknown reason. I believe this was Season 12's only reference to him, even though indirect.
Added: December 16 2017 04:33:09 AM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: Good points, Mike, but honestly they just don’t bother me all that much. We know Chinaman’s Hat is not on the north shore. But we also know that you don’t pass the Dillingham fountain when traveling from the Iolani Palace to somewhere else downtown, yet McGarrett used to do that all the time. Some lousy dialogue between Kimo and Lori also doesn’t bother me. I never cared for the new characters in season 12 so I’m not expecting much from them. Reed luring some guilty punks to attack him at the start doesn’t seem much of a stretch to me.
Added: December 15 2017 09:41:04 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: This episode, Though the Heavens Fall, is VERY BAD; I gave it 1/2 star.
- Kimo and Lori are assigned to give protective custody to Meredith Howell (Michael Strong), a potential victim of the vigilante group, who escaped punishment after beating his wife to death because the arresting officers didn't read him his rights. In one of Five-O's stupidest sequences, Kimo and Lori sit outside his house in their car eating sandwiches while Howell is reminiscing over his dead wife's possessions inside. The conversation between the two of them in the car is unbelievably dull. Finally, Kimo feels the urge to talk to McGarrett, and goes into Howell's house to use the phone -- isn't there a radio in his car? Finding Howell gone, and a couple of empty liquor bottles on the floor, the two of them don't even consider the fact that the despondent Howell might have jumped off the balcony at the rear of his house, which is above a sheer cliff.
- At the beginning Slade (Robert Reed) deals with someone who beat the rap, therefore he should receive "justice," i.e., punishment, from the group ... but how does Slade know where this guy is in the seedy part of town, and how does he know that the crook will follow him into a parking garage with one of his friends where "justice" can be dished out?
- Kimo goes undercover, impressing Diana (the episode's default babe) as an archery expert and she gets him a job at the Sportsmen's Club where the bad guys hang out right away. Quite possibly, Kimo >did< have this skill prior to appearing on the show, but I am skeptical.
- Diana tells McGarrett that the vigilantes' hideout is near "Chinaman's Hat on the North Shore." But it is actually on the east side near Waikane.
- Some of the dialog in this show is very stupid, not to mention sexist and racist (though that's the way people used to be "back then," I guess); see my review: http://fiveohomepage.com/5-0log12.htm#262
Added: December 15 2017 03:44:59 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: H50 1.0 FOREVER, Bob Reed is an actor so he can play various roles. It’s up to us to accept it. By the way Reed is actually a serious dramatic actor by trade so his BRADY BUNCH performance is definitely an outlier. He never liked that show and felt it was beneath him. Reed definitely fit the bill as a snooty member of some elite gentlemen’s club so it worked for me.
I’m sure the cliff scaling was done by a stunt double. No way Reed was doing that. Even today that would be dangerous. But especially back in the day actors simply didn’t do their own stunts the way Tom Cruise does them today.
Added: December 15 2017 07:17:36 AM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: Well, guys, it's just difficult for me to accept Mike Brady ("The Brady Bunch"
and Kenneth Preston ("The Defenders" as a self-righteous vigilante. That's like being asked to accept that Santa Claus obtains the toys he gives away by robbing toy companies. No way!
A question: Did Robert Reed actually scale that cliff, or was that a stunt double? Hard to tell, except that he did have Reed's litheness.
Added: December 14 2017 07:40:55 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: H50 1.0 FOREVER, I’m not sure I follow. I don’t like upstanding citizens taking the law into their own hands either but that doesn’t make it a bad episode. It’s not like they get away with it either. Bad guys always get caught at the end. Some of our favorite episodes have some really despicable criminals. We don’t like what they do or condone their actions but we still love the episodes right? These vigilantes are pretty tame compared to some real creeps of past episodes or the likes of Hookman or the Vashons.
Added: December 14 2017 10:07:16 AM
Submitted by: John Chergi
From: Pittsburgh PA
From: Good Though The Heavens Fall discussion. It's pretty well done for a Season 12 episode. Wealthy vigilantes from the Sportsman's club exact vengeance on those who escape justice. Love seeing Mr. Reed again as he was in The Meighan Conspiracy Season 11. Meredith was not a sympathetic character. I'll give the Sportsmen credit. Crawling and scaling up a sheer cliff. Taking Meredith was determination and showed resourcefulness. The episode falls apart some later. Kimo and Truck's cover is blown. It appears those who work at the Club also have a place there. Kimo and Truck marked for death as Meredith. A Most Dangerous Game type ending as the Sportsmen hunt the condemned like game. Not bad for Season 12. JC
Added: December 14 2017 05:54:14 AM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: Ringfire, re: "Though the Heavens Fall," I just don't like to see people take the law in their own hands. Here, especially, we see pillars of the community (they imply) serving as judge, jury, and executioner.
To H50's credit, they did show up the vigilantes as being way off base re: the guilt of Meredith Howell (Michael Strong). He was a pathetic character, but he was not guilty of his wife's murder. It was also good that McGarrett & Co made the necessary arrests without regard for the vigilantes' social standing. Would that have happened in real life? Probably not, but it was refreshing to see it here.
So, yes, the show had its strong points. I just don't like seeing people who should be honorable behaving in this manner.
Added: December 13 2017 08:34:45 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Mark and Julie's site has some more Season 13 episodes, see the link at the bottom of my page -- http://www.fiveohomepage.com/5-0log13.htm
I think TV By the Numbers was "punked" by me, LOL. 
Added: December 13 2017 01:34:25 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: Mike, someone seems to take your site as Five-O Gospel. I’m sure yours is the only one that mentions 13 seasons.
Added: December 13 2017 01:01:14 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: H50 1.0 FOREVER, it’s nice to see that I’m not alone in remembering "Voice of Terror” as a highlight of the season. I was starting to think that my memory was playing tricks on me, what with all the negative comments. But then I also seem to be alone on "Deadly Persuasion” being a highlight of season 8. What in particular bothered you about "Though the Heavens Fall”? I like the vigilante storyline, I like Robert Reed, I like the "jungle hunt”, Elyssa Davalos was a hottie, good score by Broughton. Was it the cliff side kidnapping of Howell? It’s a bit out-there but these guys are sportsmen and athletic types who love a good challenge. It doesn’t kill the episode for me.
Added: December 13 2017 12:57:57 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: LOL, what a blunder: "original 'Hawaii Five-0' ran for 13 seasons"? Sure, check out the "13th season." And while you're at it, check out the "Next season" of the reboot as well.
Added: December 13 2017 04:58:09 AM
Submitted by: Todd
From: Los Angeles
From: Just watched Season 8, Episode 9 (the latest one) of Five-Zero.
Unlike the previous episode, which I liked better than Mike did, this one I liked less.
This episode had various problems:
1) You knew the whole time that the Five-Zero team wasn't going to die from the plague. You had McGarrett, Danno, and the two brand new team members on the boat, along with a bunch of dead people. Was there any chance any of them would be killed off? Zero. I was never in suspense. These scenes work much better when at least one possible expendable character is involved.
2) It was too obvious that Monique was guilty in some way. I knew it as soon as she was found at the beginning of the episode.
3) They never clarified exactly what the plot was regarding the plague. Who was buying it onshore? Was it planned to be used in some sort of terrorist attack? Who was the Phone Call Guy, and why was he so cooperative with Five-Zero to set up Monique?
4) In typical Five-Zero fashion, the attempted trapping of a major criminal is executed horribly, they get away on foot, and a very preventable chase ensues. Zero chance any competent law enforcement organization would let this happen.
5) Too much of the episode focused upon getting the antidote (which we knew would be successful, given that the show's stars were the only ones infected). Not enough time was dedicated to the crime itself.
6) As Mike noted, there was too much time wasted with "We're all going to die" speeches, including the nonsense about Danno and his restaurant waiting room.
7) Only Danno seemeed to exhibit real symptoms of the disease, even when they neared an hour from expected death time after exposure. McGarrett was able to jump in after the antidote case into the violently choppy sea, Tani was able to pull both of them in AND hook the difficult cable to the boat, and Junior was able to jump into the water to save McGarrett after he was overcome by the waves.
I'd give this one 2.5 stars overall. I actually liked the previous episode better.
Added: December 12 2017 11:57:37 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Trevor, I was not the one who made the character in the show have a connection to South Africa. In doing so, considering this character was a bad person, the writers implied that South Africa was not a "good" place to be from, just like other default "bad" places which villainous characters on the show are connected to like North Korea, Russian republics, nations in the former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe, etc.
Added: December 12 2017 03:05:00 PM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: 1. Voice of Terror (excellently done all around. Cal Bellini carried the lead well.)
2. A Lion in the Streets (very accurate portrayal of the islanders vs. mainlanders issues)
3. Clash of Shadows (well done all around. Albert Paulsen always plays well.)
4. Good Help is Hard to Find (anything with Tony Alika. Ross Martin seems to have loved the role.)
5. Who Says Cops Don’t Cry? (good storyline; just difficult to accept that the Fab Four weren’t on the case)
6. Woe to Wo Fat (a good Wo vs. McGarrett story, especially since they were 59 and 70 years old when they duked it out in the rain forest)
7. A Bird in Hand (good story, love the poetry)
8. The Flight of the Jewels (like the characters, even though the storyline is implausible)
9. The Sign of the Ram (Joe Moore’s presence, if not the strength of his character. Who wrote this episode, anyway???)
10. A Shallow Grave (John David Carson gave an excellent performance.)
11. School for Assassins (well done, except that the Jennie character was too weak)
12. Use a Gun, Go to Hell (a story that needs to be told; just painful to watch)
13. Labyrinth (good premise; terribly weak writing)
14. The Kahuna (very accurate portrayal of the cultural distance between Niihau and the other Hawaiian islands. Might have rated higher with a stronger storyline.)
15. For Old Times Sake (I like the characters, but the story line was weak.)
16. The Golden Noose (implausible)
17. Image of Fear (too frightening to watch)
18. Though the Heavens Fall (just plain stupid)
19. The Moroville Covenant (David Lawrence might as well have been named Lyon Burke, Paul Burke’s character name in Valley of the Dolls. What an ego!)
Added: December 12 2017 03:02:58 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: Trevor, Mike was obviously being sarcastic with that comment. Like if you’re from Africa you’re probably a machete-wielding warlord. Obviously these are just stereotypes that are often used in TV and film. Mike is just having fun with that stereotype. I wouldn’t take things too seriously when reading his reviews.
Added: December 12 2017 01:26:15 PM
Submitted by: Trevor
From: Pretoria, South Africa
From: Hi guys, first post.
I've been reading and enjoying Mr Mikes' reviews of the new H50 until I got to the review of the third season episode OHUNA and read this:
[Winston, who has a connection to South Africa, and thus is very, very bad]
That is a nasty, unnecessary comment: most South Africans - like myself - are nice people and not deserving of such comments. I even liked the episode.
Apologies for the rant but that comment was a low blow.
Added: December 12 2017 12:10:28 AM
Submitted by: Todd
From: Los Angeles
From: Just watched Season 8, episode 8 of Five-Zero.
I thought it deserved three stars, rather than the two Mike gave it.
Indeed, it had its share of plot holes and missing explanations, but I found the story compelling, and every segment of the investigation revealed a new and useful twist. There were no red herrings in this one -- something Five-Zero often uses to waste valuable time.
McGarrett flying the plane was unnecessary. That, along with the "beers on the beach" segment, could have been cut in favor of some expository scenes regarding a few of the show's peculiar plot points.
As Mike pointed out, we never were told how and why Luke stole the Jason Sachs identity, and how the two of them looked nearly identical. Mike assumed plastic surgery. I assumed that Luke knew of his death, saw his picture, noticed the resemblance, and took on Sachs' identity in order to steal his assets to start his life over.
But we're not given any clarity here. A short explanation would have been helpful.
Again, as Mike pointed out, we don't learn how Tani's brother Koa was able to steal that part from the NTSB's evidence warehouse. That would have made a nice segment in the middle of the show (the actual theft), rather than simply watching Koa discuss it near the end.
We never find out of McGarrett has Callahan (NTSB agent) prosecuted for his evidence tampering and bribe-taking.
Had they cut out some of the time-wasting BS and replaced it with scenes as described above, this might be a 3.5 or 4 star episode.
But I'll still give it 3. I enjoyed it.
Added: December 11 2017 12:20:32 AM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: Ok, season 12, here goes...
1. Though the Heavens Fall (a sort of low-rent Mother’s Deadly Helper)
2. Voice of Terror
3. Image of Fear
4. The Flight of the Jewels
5. Use a Gun, Go to Hell
6. School for Assassins
7. Who Says Cops Don’t Cry?
8. The Golden Noose
9. Labyrinth
10. A Shallow Grave
11. Woe to Wo Fat
12. Clash of Shadows
13. A Bird in Hand...
14. Good Help is Hard to Find
15. A Lion in the Streets
16. For Old Times Sake
17. Sign of the Ram
18. The Kahuna
19. The Moroville Covenant
The last 2 just suck! The Kahuna is crappy (but it does have Don Knight) while Moroville is a true cure for insomnia so that’s why I’m putting it last. Like I said, once I rewatch the entire season I’ll probably have a clearer picture of this ranking but this is how it stands for now. Good night!
Added: December 10 2017 08:43:52 PM
Submitted by: H50 1.0 FOREVER
From: Under the Live Oak Trees
From: I, too, watched "Ho'onani Makuakane" (Season 4) in remembrance of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The writers did their research and created a truly first class episode. That filming of the opening scenes actually was done during a part of the 75th Anniversary Commemoration and included actual survivors of the sinking of the USS Arizona added a touch that nothing else could have.
Added: December 08 2017 07:20:59 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: Today is Pearl Harbor Day, a day of remembrance. I remembered by watching the excellent season 4 episode of Five-Faux "Honor Thy Father”. Great performance by guest James Saito as well as AOL himself. I welled up a bit by the tribute to the "greatest generation” at the end. A touching tribute.
Fred, I’m still whittling down the season 12 episodes in my mind as time permits. I really should rewatch that whole season (I got the DVD a year or two ago) to properly appraise it but that would take too long so I’ll just go by my recollection from a long time back. At some point after I rewatch the season I might do a revaluation. For instance I recall "Voice of Terror” being a highlight but everyone seems to think it’s terrible.
Added: December 07 2017 09:13:32 PM
Submitted by: Fred
From: Chatsworth
From: Woe to Season 12. Not only was it fairly bad, but I have only 19 episodes to choose from to make up my top 10.
1 - A Lion in the Streets
2 - The Flight of the Jewels
3 - For Old Time Sakes
4 - Who Says Cops Don't Cry
5 - The Moroville Covenant
6 - Labyrinth
7 - Use a Gun, Go to Hell
8 - The Golden Noose
9 - The Kahuna
10 - A Shallow Grave
Added: December 05 2017 12:22:07 PM
Submitted by: Big Chicken
From: Big Island
From: Hey Ringfire, yeah Chicken done fohgot Matsukino’s gift to Murph The Boxman! Who Harry C dug cause The Murph was a real medium type a guy. Like you sez "so much giftin, bay-bee!!” An a real gas of a swingin’ Christmas.
John – thanks for the shout out man. Chicken not as well versed in the later seasons as 1 thru 9. That bein said, what struck me bout Lion was the way our man McGarrett really finessed the situation of the kapu and employin Kimo. Quite a contrast to steamrollin’ high-intensity Steve-O from season 1 and a credit to our man Jack that his portrayal of the character evolved over time. Thought the original Will Smith gave his best Five-O turn in this ep as well. Chicken really dug Will Smith from his work in the iconic biker war flick The Losers.
Mr. Mike – thanks for the resurrectin the ole Lion discussion. Will check out and try an rewatch that ep.
Lastly, a top 7 a fave eps from the inaugural 1st season:
Painted Daisies
DeathWatch
Pray Love Remember
Tiger by the Tail
The Box
Cocoon
Samurai
Added: December 03 2017 11:02:23 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Friday's episode reviewed:
http://fiveohomepage.com/2010-log8.htm#8
Added: December 03 2017 06:05:50 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Todd, I have added the old discussion about Lion in the Streets to this page, so check this out and then continue the discussion back here:
http://fiveohomepage.com/phpBB-archived/Classic50/
I haven't done anything with this page since last July, so I had to find my instruction sheet on how to do this (which I had written out and actually found quickly, though it was buried in thousands of files) and, surprisingly, everything that I had documented worked the way it should!
I notice that in the discussion I was threatening to watch Lion in the Streets again, which I still have not done. I have been kind of preoccupied with Streets of San Francisco and other things. Maybe soon...
If anyone remembers any other discussions from the old forum that they want to see again, then post about it here ... I need practice so it won't take me so long to reconstruct them.
By the way, the emoji characters in the original postings do NOT show up. There is nothing that I can do about this...
Added: December 03 2017 11:06:53 AM
Submitted by: Todd
From: Los Angeles
From: Mike, I would love to see you bring back archives of the phpBB discussions. I want to see what I wrote about "Lion in the Streets" right after I re-watched it!
Anyway, regarding Five-Zero, the new season at least features some fresh material with the two new characters, but it just kinda has the feel of Season 12 of Five-O. It especially feels that way when Danno is absent, where it's just McGarrett and a bunch of characters introduced later.
I have a feeling this will be the last season.
I really wish they would get away from the lame "computer hacking" plots. Not only are these scenes laughably unrealistic, but they've done so many of them, it's gotten really stale.
Have they run out of ideas?
I enjoy seeing Kamekona episodes where he does something besides sell shrimp. Wish they'd do more of that. They pretty much neutered an interesting character when they gave him that shrimp truck, but they can make up for it by featuring him more often.
I wonder how Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim are feeling about their decision to leave.
Added: December 03 2017 01:37:40 AM
Submitted by: Todd
From: Los Angeles
From: "A Lion in the Streets" was overrated, in my opinion. Too many holes in the plot, and the second half of it pretty much blew off the whole election idea. We never got to see the results of the election when the episode was over, which was also disappointing.
Paul L. Smith played a descendant of Kamehameha, but Smith was white and looked it. His character was also kind of a jerk, and spent most of the time yelling.
Tony Alika's henchmen were so incompetent that it was comical and distracting.
Not a bad episode, but I didn't think it was one of the better ones, either. I'll concede that it was great by Season 12 standards, though.
Added: December 03 2017 01:32:38 AM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
From: Many DVD sets of TV shows have a "PLAY ALL" button in the menus. Does anyone actually use this?
Added: December 02 2017 11:42:35 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
From: You’re right, Chick! "Deathwatch” sure was one swingin’ Christmas episode. What a gas that was, baby! Outta sight!! You flip me man, I forgot about all that gift giving in that episode, baby! Not to mention the December 25 air date. Don’t forget about the "boxman”, he gave lots of gifts. But he also needed a gift himself real bad, baby! He was really hurtin’ for that gift. But don’t you worry - Joe Matsukino didn’t forget the boxman. He got him a gift. A different gift than he was expecting but it was still a gift. So much gifting there, bay-bee!!! No way, bay-bee, but NOOO WAAAAY!!
Added: December 02 2017 03:56:06 PM
Submitted by: John Chergi
From: Pittsburgh PA
From: Great to hear from you again Big Chicken. Say hello to Toomey & Walsh. Curious BC what are your FAV McG episodes Season 1??? There's been good discussion over Classic HFO fans FAV episodes the last few months S-1-12. We are at the end Season 12 now. Lion In The Streets is my FAV from that season. Could you give a Big Chicken analysis/summary of A Lion In The Streets? Thanks bruddah! JC
Added: December 02 2017 02:44:56 AM
Submitted by: Big Chicken
From: Little Jungle
From: Hey, Chicken again. Just wanted to report that I took in another viewin a "Painted Daises.” And struck by what a grim police procedural that ep is. McGarrett examining dead Thad’s body on scene and interrogatin withdrawin Annie in a hospital bed is pretty bleak stuff, back in the day and Today. And what a showin for our man Zulu! His scenes canvassin for witnesses and bringin levity and lomein to dire straits Danno display such a naturalness & easygoing – he really workin it in this ep. And how bout when he tell McGarrett they found Chick’s prints in the pad, he gots better lines and more mojo in that scene than Lord Jack! Musta burned Jack up, brudda. No wonder he done ran Kono off the Five-O!
Added: December 01 2017 11:30:38 PM
Submitted by: Jeff
From: Denver
From: Classic H5O DID have a quasi-Christmas episode: S2’s "To Hell With Babe Ruth”, in which we see a sidewalk Santa ringing a bell early on, right after McGarrett says "Peace on Earth...good will towards men” sarcastically at the first crime scene. Makes sense given the episode is set on Dec.7.
Added: December 01 2017 10:28:52 PM
Submitted by: Big Chicken
From: Just back from Maui
From: The original show never gave us no Christmas ep? RingFire, brudda, c’mon! Whadda bout DeathWatch aka "Joe & Harry’s Swingin Christmas” which aired on Christmas Day in 1968?
Joe Matsukino, King a Da Rackets, gift wraps a car bomb n some toxic allergy poisonin for his pal Cardonas. While Harry in turn gives the gift of incriminatin testimony against ole Joe. But our man Steve-O outdoes em all, deliverin a healthy Harry to court and a surprise long prison term for Matsukino. "I promised you – Oahu State Prison for Life. Let’s Go.”
Yeah Steve! Sure us Five-O heads would agree: it was the best Christmas evah!
Added: December 01 2017 09:57:39 PM
Submitted by: Lise Graham
From: California
From: Haven't watched five zero in a while. Apparently, I haven't missed a thing. Ten minutes into tonight's show. Can't understand what would make grown men and women deliver such dreadful drivel. ($?- the only reason I can think of) This show doesn't make me want to visit Hawaii, it makes me want to avoid it.
Added: December 01 2017 08:25:14 PM
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