When did Hawaii Five-O jump the shark?

(Forwarded to me by a fan, once posted on the now defunct "Jump the Shark" page. "Jumping the shark" is a widely used idiom – first employed to describe a moment in the evolution of a television show when the show abandons its core premises and begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery.

 

First Show

1968

Last Show

1980

Genre

Drama

Network

CBS

Slot Day

Tuesday

Slot Time

8:30 pm

JUMPED THE SHARK WHEN...

VOTES

Never Jumped

21

Death (Chin Ho)

9

Hair Care (Jack Lord)

6

1980

6

Exit..Stage Left (James MacArthur)

5

The opening theme ended

3

Kono leaves the show

3

Truck joins the cast

1

The cold war

1

Special Guest Star (The Big Chicken)

1

They toned down the violence

1

Special Guest Star (Peter Lawford)

1

The suits

1

Van Gordon Sauter

1

Book 'em, Kimo

1

McGarrett trades up the Marquis

1

Other Thoughts:

·        The greatest theme song ever

·        Classic

·        WHEN DANO GOT TOO CLOSE TO A CASE AND LOST HIS HEAD.

·        Zulu as Kono.

·        I enjoyed this episode when I first saw it, but it was way too impossible to believe. It's laughable. Really goes off the deep end IMHO. From this point on in the series, it's all downhill. In this episode, a psychotic serial killer is in love with a fictitious character in a newspaper comic strip. Five-O solicits the help of the comic's illustrator to slip drawings of Dano into the strip, using Dano as bait to lure the serial killer into a trap. Incredibly pretentious episode. This show never lived up to the incredibly powerful theme song. It simply never was as exciting as its own opening credits.

·        I can deal with cheesy melodrama, I can deal with the loud polyester of the day, but I can't deal with Jack Lord's hair. It never moved. It could deflect bullets and survive the rainy season. Was that a rug?--or a miracle of modern science? Will we ever know the truth? Book 'Im Dan-O for violating the laws of nature. I always felt bad for the long-suffering Dan-o and Chin-Ho characters. 12+ years of having one's nose plastered in McGarrett's ass is inhumane. Also, why was the omnipotent McGarrett unable to keep Wo-Fat behind bars? (i suffered through this program when i tended bar years ago--it ran on cable. The patrons-in various stage of inebriation, loved this show. I being sober, cringed at the opening theme.)

·        I think Hawaii-Five-O jumped when it was 1980 and it was still on! This was a classic 60's and 70's type show and it had no business in the 80's even if it was just one year. Still a great show, and one of the greatest opening theme songs of all-time. Great show for late night re-runs as well. Basically, a great show, just on a year or two too long.

·        The fact that McGarret's hair looked the same for over ten seasons is a little hard to believe. Sometimes he wore a PINK suit and turned into Faggarret. The Ricky Riccardo cabana hat was it for me. Not to mention he could investigate his own murder case. I thought Collin Furgeson (Long Island Railroad killer) being his own lawyer was ridiculous. I still can't figure out why Dano and Chin didn't kick him in the nads for having to do all the work.

·        Kam Fong as Chin Ho? Why bother?

·        AS A LONG-TIME FAN OF THE PROGRAM, MAINLY BECAUSE OF ITS SEAMLESS LINK OF DRUGS AND ALCOHOL ITS VIEWING, YOU HAVE TO GIVE IT CREDIT FOR THE AMAZING CAST OF SPECIAL GUEST STARS. LORETTA SWITT GETS KILLED IN THE FIRST 30 SECONDS OF AN EPISODE AND TV'S MASTER THESPIAN GAVIN MCCLOUD (SP?) RETURNS SEVERAL TIMES TO STAR AS MCGARRETT NEMESIS, "BIG CHICKEN." ALSO, YOU CANT BUST BALLS ON A SHOW SHOT ENTIRELY ON LOCATION ( INCLUDING ON A CRUISE SHIP WITH JOHN BINER)...LATER DUPLICATED BY THE SIMPY MAGNUM P.I. HOWEVER, THE DEFINITIVE SHARK JUMP FOR 5-0 WAS THE ADDITION OF "TRUCK" TO THE CAST.

·        "Five-O" jumped??? It never did, although some of the plots were, to quote another cop show, "dumb da dumb dumb." I have learned a lesson, though, from watching it: excessive "Five-O" viewing, large doses of caffeine, and NASCAR racing does not mix. Why? Well, one day, I did such a thing and the results were horrid: for some reason, every time that Jeff Gordon guy was on, I was yelling, say "Book 'em, Danno, you stupid bastard!"

·        Five-o went pear shaped when Hawaii became the epicenter of the cold war. McGarrett getting shanghaied in Hong Kong; Wo Fat trapping McGarrett in a sensory deprivation tank, Russian spies, evil twins. The show used to be about strung out beach bums and 2 bit hoods, showing the seedy side of paradise. Then it became about mobsters trying to get one over on McGarrett, then the Cold War.

·        Kam Fong, who played detective Chin Ho Kelly, wanted to have his character retired so that he could return from time to time to solve challenging cases. The producers of the show instead decided to have Chin Ho killed off when he wouldn't renew his contract for another season. To me, the death of Chin Ho was the death of the Hawaii Five-0.

·        On the topic that "Five-O" took on a more Cold Warrish theme, this person obviously doesn't realize that some of those episodes were the best. The episodes involving drugged-out hippies were pretty wild too, considering they often ripped off "Dragnet" to do it. One of my most memorable scenes was where Steve was trying to find a junkie and he goes to this hippie commune shack. The female hippie quips, "well, just let yourself come in like a pig: shove me aside and barge right in." Of course, there's a menacing hippie wielding a chain blocking Steve from access. To which Steve, after a brief staredown, comments, "Unless you want to swallow that chain, you'd better let me through....dig?" I could not imagine Joe Friday saying that:)

·        Hawaii Five-O jumped the shark (how appropriate for a tropical locale) when Zulu as Kono left the show in '72. Of all the McGarrett toadies, the native Hawaiian was my favorite. I always got a kick out of his pidgin dialect, when he pronounced McGarrett's first name "Stebe." I also loved Kono's Norm Crosby vocabulary, such as claiming his memory was "photogenic." The show lost it's charm when it lost that lovable lummox. As a footnote, my favorite episode is "No Bottles, No Cans, No People," when the mob were having their victims cremated in a trash incinerator. The special effects were cheesy--the cremated remains looked like coffee grounds. Needless to say, it aired in September of '71 when Kono was still there.

·        When that guy from the Mary Tyler Moore show was on there as the pimp----twice! The sight of him made me puke, but yet I continued to watch. I need f**king counseling if I see "Big Chicken" again!

·        They really should've called it a rap after James MacAurthur left. That left McGarret without his catch phrase "Book'im, Danno!" I think the reruns of the final season without Danno was repackaged and syndicated as "McGarret" after the show was cancelled for a brief while.

·        This show never jumped. However, they should have put their headquarters next to the docks. That way, chin-ho and zulu would have saved a lot on gas money and time when Steve sent them there every week to find out what was really going on.

·        Quite simply, the best police show ever on TV and the longest running at 12 years. The show had great location work, great scripts and the full cooperation of the government of Hawaii. But the thing that really carried the show was the dynamic performance of Jack Lord as McGarrett. I don't think I have ever seen an actor get more into a role. I used to wonder how he could ever go back to being just a civilian when the show was cancelled, that's how real McGarrett was to me. This man has never been given the credit he deserves. I remember reading many negative statements about Jack Lord and the McGarrett character. The more prevalent was that he showed no emotion. Yet in at least one episode McGarrett cries and can anyone remember the well-deserved rage that he showed at the end of one of the Wo Fat episodes where he smashes an ashtray in utter disgust when he finds out that the State Dept. is releasing Wo Fat. Hawaii 5-O is another show that I hope they never make a movie out of since no one can replace Jack Lord.

·        They used to really be unsparing about violence--in your face and scary. In the beginning they had this episode with Monte Markum where a psycho was killing girls and putting blonde wigs on them. They showed the whole process and it was really creepy. Then after the cave-in, we get one of two cliches: 1) we show the shadow moving over the person/girl followed by a shot of a screaming face, or 2) the shot of the knife followed by a shot of the victim with their face either down or turned away from the camera. Wimps! Then they got into this right-wing anti-teenager bias. All young opinions were wrong and were fodder for Steverino to yell at and de-base (no one could sneer "groovy" or "Hip" like McGarrett, not even Spiro Agnew or Adolph Nixon). Classic chiches emerge quickly: the astray rich/nice girl who caves in at the last minute when she's being grilled in 'the chair', the evil teen boy who sells-gasp-DRUGS like reefer or 'pills' then goes wild and kills half the Big Island. And don't forget the Manson-esque groups that preyed on all adults fears. Jesus! Did anyone other than my crazy father really believe this garbage? Still, it had its moments. Great last show. V for Vashon 3-part show, and the ones where Andy Griffith and Slim Pickens got to play villains against type. In that last one, Bo Hopkins played a great psycho like his Wild Bunch role.

·        It jumped when the producers, desperate for guest stars other than don Stroud, hired aging, ex-Rat packer Peter Lawford to play a demented doctor. This was in the last couple of seasons, I think.

·        First ... the best open in TV history ... MTV way before anyone put those three letters together ... swish pans, jump cuts, fish-eye lenses, and the reveal of McGarrett on top of the building is as studly as they come. McGarrett ... balls of titanium ... anything he wanted, he got: "Get the president on the phone, Dano ... he might have something for us." Dano: "right, steve." No questioning from his subordinates ... just immediate obedience. "Check all the drug stores on the mainland (loved that name for the 48 states!) and see who has purchased gum in the last 3 days ... on my desk, 8 O'clock sharp." "Right, Steve." And the bad guys were SO bad ... you just wanted to beat the snot out of them with a tire iron. The best cop show ever ... and where is that 67' Black Mercury Monterey Coupe he drove around? Ever notice that McG. never failed to light up the tires when he was going places?

·        "...tonight on a special episode of Hawaii Five-O, Wo Fat puts an oil embargo on Steve McGarrett's hair."

·        Never jumped, best show ever. The thing about Five-O is that doing stuff that normally would be the death-knell was actually the highlight, especially the guest appearances. I don't mean like when Ricardo Montalban was a Mediterranean type race-car driver. It's like, ok, I can see that. But only Five-O had the balls to bring Montalban back as a Japanese guy on the run from ninjas. Only Five-O could make something so wrong feel so right, which is why it never jumped the shark.

·        Hawaii Five-0 never jumped the shark! Hawaii Five-0 had a lot of adventure, action, suspense, cool scenery, humor, and romance too. What's not to like about this? Jack Lord and James McArthur did superb jobs playing McGarrett and Danno. Both actors were charismatic and photogenic. The show just got better and better with each episode! But I did hear the last season didn't go so well for fans. I also enjoyed the Wo Fat episodes, too. Hawaii Five-0 is my all time favorite TV show. I became a fan when it was being shown on The Family Channel. I wish WGN would show it at an earlier time, or at least have TV Land pick it up! I have too many favorite episodes to name. Hawaii Five-0 is great quality television that is well worth watching! It's hell of a whole lot better than all that crap that's on TV nowadays.

·        COME ON McGARRETT USE TO WEAR THOSE DARK SUITS IN THAT CLIMATE AND THE MAN NEVER SWEATED THEN HE GOT SHOT 5 TIMES AND LIVED JESSS AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE HAIR

·        This is the single best show to find on your TV at 2 in the morning. Consistently great episodes, and buhzillions of guest stars at the before they were stars...

·        The 1980 season was a disaster. With the exception of Jack Lord, the whole damn cast was gone, replaced by a bunch of organ banks. Hard to imagine, but theses losers were even cheesier than the actors they replaced. And there was a woman? Hey - no offense, but a woman joining Five-O was about as natural as Mr. T. joining The Golden Girls. But before the 1980 season - Five-O was the best cop show ever!

·        This show jumped the shark pretty much every episode. The story would develop fine until the end when it is revealed that the psycho behind this week's mayhem really didn't have a motive for the crime except that he's ...uh... A PSYCHO!

·        Everybody mentions Jack's hair, but it was that way from the start. But when Danno got the perm, it got worse. Then again, as the show moved into the 70s, everything looked ugly. The problem is it just went on TOO LONG. I mean, I suppose there's something to be said about a show that lasts from the tail end of LBJ's term to Regan's, but you're gonna run out of stories at some point. I say, reruns are watchable to about '73. When the Chick shows up in the last season, consider watching a nice "Magnum, PI" on A&E

·        yeah it got a little crappy at the end. the first few seasons were magic and are really fun to watch 30+ years later....a window into a lost (if hyper-realistic) world. as someone said above- what's more fun than 5-0 when you are in bed watching tv at 3am? I hope they play it forever. My cell phone even says "Book 'em Dano" when I turn it on

·        Van Gordon Sauter took over as chief censor for CBS in 1977. Up to that point, you could watch Five-O and, even if the plots were lame, there was a good shootout at the end. Sauter, AKA The Velvet Shiv, cut down the action quotient to next to nothing -- there was one episode where McGarrett had to trace a DOG brought in in violation of quarantine regulations! Then when Sauter mercifully gave up his campaign in 1979, the show went completely overboard with too much violence -- guess all the good writers had left and the ones who left were trying to mask their crappy dialogue and worse plotting with shootouts. I do agree with people saying it went on a season too long (maybe two). The theme song is still one of the greatest, though.

·        The show definitely took a turn in quality when creator-producer Leonard Freeman died after finishing the sixth season. But it still had many good episodes left, so I'd say it didn't Jump the Shark until Hollywood producer James Heinz and Hawaii producer Douglas Green, who had worked with the show since the beginning, hung it up in 1977 (Heinz quit after the ninth season; Green was forced out in the middle of the tenth). Nobody who was any good could be enticed into supervising the show ... Fred Baum? B.W. Sandefur? William F. Phillips? Gene Levitt? Worst of all ... stuntman Beau Van Den Ecker? They couldn't get hired as custodians at most studios, and they couldn't anybody who would have been more than a custodian, either.

·        I will still watch the reruns, but it was never the same after Chin Ho's murder & especially season 12 when the new Five 0 added Kimo, Truck & Laurie. Book 'em, Dano.

·        This show jumped when James MacArthur left and then Steve got a whole new team. Book em Dano was right up there with "Beam me up Scotty" and "Goodnight John-Boy". But then they unjumped by having the perfect final episode. Steve finally caught Wo Fat (what a name) after 12 years. Was Five-O supposed to be a federal agency? That may be why Jack Lord always wore a suit.

·        Waded in when Kono left, although I continued to enjoy the show until ALL the flunkies left. I never understood how Steve McGarrett could run around outdoors in the middle of those muggy Hawaii days in his beautifully tailored suits and never break a sweat. Not that I minded...I thought many of the shows were well directed and well written. And let's not overlook the often outstanding incidental musical ... a rarity on TV.

·        The last season. The show actually syndicated that season seperately under the name McGarrett

·        When ever the plot REVLOVES around Psych intrigue..LEAVE THE ROOM!!! The show actually was not too bad when they were about busting crooks, but when they started absolutely WORSHIPING at the 70's T.V. alter of Psychobabble....The show hit the skids. From Vietnam flash backs to Look a like cartoon characters it really bottomed out. Dragnet was stiff but the plots were better because truth is always stranger than fiction. I liked the way Gavin Mcleod was able to reform himself after the prison riot and become a writer at a WJM !!!

·        When Dan-O left the show. Dan-O, Chin-Ho, and Kono were the best line up, although Duke wasn't bad. But Dan-O was THE MAN!!!

·        Hawaii Five-O may have gotten a little corny at times, but overall was consistant throughout its run. Plus, it had possibly one of the greatest opening sequences in television history.

·        When Det. Chin Ho Kelly (Kam Fong) is killed. He was there from the first episode and was on the show for most of its 11 year run. After he left some of the other characters left leaving Mcgarret with a new squad of people and the show was a shell of its former glory.

·        William Smith as James Carew (supposedly McGarrett bestowed the nickname "Kimo" on him because it was Hawaiian for "Jim") joined the show in the first episode of the twelfth season. Smith could have done a terrific job but after that episode there was nothing else to do with him! The last good writer, Robert Janes, did that episode and one more (the one introducing Lori), and then took a hike. The result was zero character development for both of them after their initial bios. Jeez, I never took screenwriting but I know enough to know you shoudl ALWAYS develop characters! We never learned anything more about either of them! So Sharon Farrell (Lori) lasted six episodes, I think, and William Smith (Kimo) after that great start just basically mouthed the words because he was being embarrassed each week on national television. They should have brought in Kimo years earlier if they were going to do it. Let's face it, James MacArthur (Danno) was extremely limited as an actor and they could have used a decent one as McGarrett's sidekick (providing Jack Lord could stand it, which seems unlikely). This is my third posting on the show, so you can tell I really loved it and really missed it when it went into the tank. BTW, I think Don Stroud only did a couple of episodes, but the show certainly did JTS with Peter Lawford guest-starring (and drinking $1800 worth of liquor in nine days, according to a tell-all book) -- that was just a couple of episodes before Chin Ho got killed. I don't know if the death of Chin Ho was a JTS moment or not -- the actor Kam Fong (Chin Ho) was always really wooden and the idea of killing off a prominent cast member was daring for the time and resulted in a really good ending for the season. I disagree with another poster in saying the final episode was "the best ever" -- even when I saw it the first time, the ending was the biggest cop-out in TV history until Bobby Ewing stepped out of the shower. The music was great, though. It nearly always was. Probably no show until Miami Vice made such effective use of mixing music with locales.

·        At the beginning of Season 12. One new character is difficult enough to accept, but in Season 12 there were three new people. I didn't mind so much that Danny left after Season 11, because Steve is by far my favorite character. I only wish they had brought in a better man to replace Danny. I didn't like the new second-in-command, James Carew ("Kimo"). I understand that Danny had to be replaced, but why did Steve bring in Carew to replace him? Why didn't Steve pick Duke Lukela as his new second-in-command? Duke was much more qualified for the position than Carew was. I didn't like Lori and Truck, either. All Lori did was whine and giggle, and Truck didn't do much of anything.

·        I wonder if the near-complete overhaul in the 1979-80 season was a concession that the sun had finally set on a masterpiece? Whatever the reasons, a 12-season run with pleasant living conditions (I am not making this part up, folks) was nothing to sneeze at.

·        Loss of Chin Ho and Dan O. Dat's a lotta fish and poi, bruddah!

·        To the people going "Huh?", I must explain this is not a specific JTS moment, rather a warning sign of danger to come. Have any of you watched the early episodes on WGN Superstation in the last month or so (August-September 2002)? If you'll notice, the closing-title sequence is very different; it's an extended tracking shot of the flashing blue light on a police cruiser as it speeds through miles of Honolulu streets (a piece of this is seen in the opening credits with the "Created by Leonard Freeman" logo throughout the run). But look at the title cards themselves. The actors' names are in good, large print. When the second season began and a new closing title was commissioned (the guys in the outrigger canoe paddling like mad through the ocean), suddenly the actors' names are in MUCH smaller type, smaller than the names of the series regulars or the creative personnel featured at the start of the show. At the start of the sixth season ("Hookman"), insult is added to injury with "Hawaii Five-O, Starring Jack Lord" leading off the end credits in MUCH bigger type than the guest stars which follow. By and large, we are agreed that none of the regulars (except Lord) were very good actors; it was the guest performers who contributed what skill there was in the acting field. But actors' egos being what they are, the would-be guest actors were insulted by the small print given to them, and I think it got progressively harder to get good people to go out to Hawaii to work with Mr. King Stud himself (Lord), especially since he was in more and more scenes per episode as the show progressed (only during the last season did he cut back, planning to call it quits anyway). Look at the later episodes and you find steadily fewer "name" guest stars appearing as the show goes on (indeed, the number of people getting guest-star billing went down steadily as the show went on), while the few good local actors were relegated to the smallest print of all despite having ever-larger roles (Kwan Hi Lim, Seth Sakai, Bob Basso, etc.). It's very rare that a show, especially a one-hour drama, can work without a lot of strong actors passing through to interact with the regulars. I think a lot of good Hollywood actors, when their agents told them about possibilities of working with Five-O, simply said "Tell them to shove it, I'm not working with that jerk (Lord) no matter how nice it is in Hawaii." Thus we got more has-beens like Peter Lawford and Robert Reed and even Ross Martin (although Martin's Tony Alika character was a good one), or never-weres like Cal Bellini, John Dehner, Nehemiah Persoff, Simon Oakland, yada, yada, yada.

·        McGarrett had something like a Ford Ltd and he squealed the tires like the Oahu sand was asphalt. Come on people, I can only suspend my disbelief for so long. Does Mac ever sweat?

·        "Kam Fong as Chin Ho - why bother?" Oh my God, that almost made me wet my pants laughing!!!!!!

·        Book'em Danno! Murder one! Be there - Aloha! This classic 1970s show - actually beginning in the late 1960s and just making it across into the next-to-last-decade of the 20th century is memorable for many reasons: the locale - beautiful Hawaii; the fictional police organization "Five Oh"; the musical score, including the sensational theme song; and, last but not least - Jack Lord as the no-nonsense Steve McGarrett. McGarrett was James Bond, James West, James Kirk (say, how come he wasn't named James McGarrett?), etc. rolled into one - and then again, he wasn't any of them, as he was quite unique. But I digress - did this beloved show jump the shark? Well, there must be lots of sharks around the Hawaiian Islands, and it appears that this classic series was not immune to them. In my humble opinion, Hawaii Five-O went downhill when they did away with Chin Ho, one of McGarrett's sidekicks who was there from the start. It wasn't long after that, in the final season that stretched into 1980, that the show brought in an entirely new cast alongside Jack Lord. This was the show's death knell, which began when it jumped the shark that killed Chin Ho.

·        When Mr. McGarrett traded his 1968 Mercury Marquis, after 7 or 8 seasons, for a 1974 (correct me if the year is wrong) Mercury Marquis. The show seemed to go down hill after that, at least to me. McGarrett had lost one of his trademarks. The 1968 Marquis four door hardtop that Jack Lord used in the show is now private1y owned, and was featured a few years ago in "Collectible Automobile" magazine. But I doubt anyone knows what happened to its replacement, the '74.

·        I had to get out my "Standard Catalog Of American Cars, 1946--1975" when I got home and look up McGarrett's mainstay, his Mercury, used in so many seasons of "Hawaii Five-0". I'm afraid it proved me wrong--the 1968 Mercury four door hardtop was called a Park Lane, not a Marquis. Sorry about that.

·        There were many shark jumps for H 5-0 but they didn't keep me from continuing to watch. I do not include the episode with comic strip character Judy Moon as one of them however. Definitely Chin's death was one. For dramatic effect, they even had him capped in front of his wife unless I'm mistaken. Then there were several episodes in which M wasn't able to participate. In a few, some hood tried to knock off McGarrett but never succeeded. Once he was sent some kind of plaque which of course had a bomb in it. M is saved because it goes off while his HPD lackey of the week (the equivalent of the unnamed Star Trek security officer who gets to beam down only to die) is setting it in on the credenza behind M's desk and takes the full brunt of the blast. M is hospitalized for several weeks just as he is when someone plants a bomb in his car. It's rigged to go off after Steve opens then closes the door (unlike the start your engine bit we are used to). Unfortunately for the killer, he opens the door then realized he has dropped something and as he goes back to get it he closes the door. KaBoom! He goes to the hospital. Another episode he has to be quarantined when he ends up on a sailboat (murder scene) that is infested with plague carrying rats. The thing is that in all three of these episodes, Dano takes over and stumbles and bumbles his way so much he has to keep going back to the hospital or the quarantine center to get advice. Here's McGarret in the hospital bed, cast on his arm, oversized band aid on his head, tubes going into both arms and even soot still on his face for added effect and Dano is there asking him questions on how to solve the case.Steve is so groggy from the morphine he can barely open his eyes. At least when he was in quarantine, he was of sound mind. But without M the whole crack squad was useless. BTW I somehow missed the last season without Dano. That certainly would have been Shark Bait.

·        When Kono left the series. He wore that enduring 60s -tight grey suit throughout his four-season stay - looked more like a nightclub bouncer - considering that Zulu was a nightclub entertainer in real life!

·        This is how I tell if a episode of 5-0 is watchable. The 1st set of opening credits has Dan-0 running down a corridor; the second set has him looking thru a hole in a busted windshield. If a show starts with either of these it's good.... after that it was DOWNHILL. Especially later episodes where Jack Lord goes undercover. We were so influenced by this show that our gang of friends formed a 5-0 club in 3rd grade (1970) and we each assumed character identities... weird, nerdy, but hey were were 9 yrs old!!!!

·        NO JUMP! The bad guys were, well, bad, and never got caught (except Wo Fat,, the best villian on TV ever) (You could almost root for him!) From a northern climate, it was neat to see he "tropics" as a kid; it's still fun when the temp is below freezing. I was bugged that Steve would get little info and know right where to go ("We think he served in the military Steve" - "Go to Pearl Harbor - the culprit is probably in 1222 Nimitz Drive!) (Not a quote, but many episodes have this big jump of logic), yet the show will endure for decades.

·        Somewhere around 73 there was an episode where an embittered Vietnam vet was stalking McG with a sniper rifle hidden in a guitar case. Problem was, he'd lost both his hands in the war and had metal pincer prosthetics. "Hmm, what looks wrong here, Dano? Why doesn't a guy walking around with no hands and a guitar case NOT set off every signal in my cop brain?"

·        Everyone knows that the last season of Five-O was a disaster . . .it just wasn't Five-O without Danno. However, there were some hilariously awful moments earlier in the series, but only in retrospect. You know, seeing stuff today we see things with different eyes. I was watching an episode last night in which Steve had to bring down a Japanese crimelord, played by (wait for it), RICARDO MONTALBAN! Yeah, that's right, Khan, or Mr. Roarke, himself, was playing an evil Japanese, with the help of some truly awful makeup. But his accent was still the same! Hilarious. But still a great show. As McGarret said to Ricardo at the end, "Aloha, baby!"

·        Hawaii Five-O had several shark jumps. (1) Ricardo Montalban as an oriental bad guy with really fake slanted eyes is the worst of the series -- worse than Charlie Chan. That would never happen in these PC times!! (Thank God!--What were they thinking?). (2) Murray, er, Gavin McCleod as "Big Chicken" was almost as bad. (3) Departures of Chin Ho, Kono, and Dan-O, in order of damage to the show. (4) The last season, with the possible exception of the final episode, was pathetic. They should have hung it up after about 1977.

·        Having been stationed in Hawaii for four years, I cannot believe that McGarrett always wore Dark suits on an Island where dressing up means you wear socks. He would have sweated his ass off in every episode. Also, McGarrett seemed to know every two bit criminal on the Island personally (" No, Dano, Lefty Chao couldn't have committed this one, it's not his MO...") How could there have been any crime in Hawaii at all? Also, Is it me or was this a really violent show, even for the 60s and 70s?

·        Although Hawaii Five-O is the longest running police show in the history of television, I really must disagree with those who proclaimed it to be the best. Sure it was popular, but every actor on the show, including Jack Lord, was wooden. The writing and the plots were generally very good, especially any episode that involved McGarrett's nemesis Wo Fat. Another noteworthy episode of Five-O is the three part "V for Vashon" series in which three generations of an island crime family tried to take on McGarrett. I believe this show finally jumped the shark with the exit of James "Danno" MacArthur. Despite the fact that Danno was for all practical purposes a one-dimensional character and little more than a flunkie, I often find myself wondering whether Matt Groening modeled the Waylon Smithers character in The Simpsons after Danno. I lived in Hawaii for a few years and as you may have guessed, Five-O was a very popular program there, with frequent reruns being shown on the local CBS affiliate. Joe Moore, an anchorman for the local NBC affiliate, frequently appeared on Five-O in various bit parts over the years. I did get to meet Lord once during my stay in Hawaii and while he was very cordial, you could definitely tell he had a big ego and was something of a control freak. Many of the guest stars who worked with him in Five-O over the years noted that he tended to be demanding, rude and aloof, in addition to being a perfectionist who was obsessed with filming scenes in only one take. Lord's widow, on the other hand, was a very sweet and gentle soul, kind and pleasant to everyone and tolerant of her husband's ego. I guess opposites do attract.

·        This show introduced me to Hume Cronyn. He had a recurring role as "Mr. Monopoly" An expert thief who left Chance and Community Chest cards at the scenes of his rather complex and outrageous crimes. (Guess which card McGarret showed him when he busted him?) He had his own theme music and even had an episode where he took on Wo Fat. (Dat boy should be running the State Dept. There would be no international terrorism) "Hookman" was a cool episode, especially the scene where he shoots a police escort for a funeral procession, and the hearse dumps the coffin and its contents on the road for people to scream at. "V-For Vashion" was T.V.'s answer to "The Godfather" and was very good television for 1972Unfortunatly, the last three years of the show or so, Lord made McGarret's character so self-righteous and insufferable that if Kono were still around, he would say:"I'm gonna put a boot in your ass, brudda!" I saw the episode where Chin Ho Kellie was killed, but missed the final episode where McGarret gets, finally, Wo Fat. I have yet to see it in reruns. Afterwards they took the episodes with William Smith and Susan Farrel and put them on late night under the title "McGarret" But it's time had passed and "Magnum P.I" had taken the reigns. Don't forget that jack Lord was one of the original "Feliz Lightner's" in the James Bond films. They are still fun to watch on reruns. Be there, aloha!

·        HAWAII Five-0 Hawaii Five-0 was great! I remember people would joke at the time, that, apparently Steve McGarrett and Richard Nixon wore the same type of dark blue woolen suit every single day of their time/tenure as Hawaii's top cop and POTUS, respectively. There was one episode where a crazed gunman with a high-powered rifle was holding the Honolulu district attorney's (the d.a., a semi-regular on the show along with Richard Denning as "The Governor") daughter hostage on top of this steep hill. Like Teddy Roosevelt on San Juan Hill, McGarrett fearlessly charges up the hill to singlehandedly confront the nut with the scoped rifle. Now, the late Jack Lord was a very tall guy, maybe 6'3'' or even taller. And, to "top" it off, McGarrett is wearing this large, native Hawaiian hat with a very wide brim (sort of like an Hawaiian sombrero) on top of his thick head of hair. Well, even with a target roughly the height of Arizona pitcher Randy Johnson, the lone gunman can't even come close to grazing McGarrett with a single shot. Oh, it was just too funny to see this gawky, middle-aged white guy "charging" up the hill with that silly hat on. (Sort of like seeing the corpulent Bill Shatner chasing, or perhaps I should say, waddling after, and actually tackling some lean, 160lb street kid/speedster in an episode of TJ Hooker!) As to McGarrett's "improbable" head of hair (a la Captain Kirk), actor Jeff Daniels once spoke of his first professional acting job on an episode of Hawaii Five-0. Mr. Daniels said that the actors and crew were assembled on this steep cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean to film a scene. Everyone's hair was blowing all over the place as the strong ocean air currents literally shook even the camera and sound equipment. Yet, even in the middle of this mighty wind storm, not even one strand of Jack Lord's magnificent head of hair moved even a fraction of an inch! Jeff Daniels said that the guy must have plastered his Charles Bronson-like head of hair with three cans of industrial-strength Consort Hair Spray For Men before filming the scene!

·        McGarrett jumped to the bloated '74 Marquis Brougham and to leisure suits with straw plantation hats. The coooool extreme suits and the cooool '68 Merc were gone!

·        Creative plots and beautiful scenery made this show a pleasure to watch. It jumped in the last year; the plots were thin and illogical. All of McGarrett's sidekicks were gone and the replacements were a sorry lot.

·        There are no specific shark-jumping moments that I can remember, it was just a case of the show staying on the air too long and the stories becoming uninteresting. This is especially the kiss of death for a show such as Five-O because the clever plots are what made it so watchable to begin with (there was one episode, maybe my favorite, where a guy actually used a rare species of shellfish as a murder weapon. How cool is that?) One other thing the show had going for it: style! The music, the pacing, the scenery, the villains, the sleaze, the McGarrett factor. Hawaii Five-O was a classic and innovative cop show. The show started losing its singular style around the same time the stories started going downhill (seasons nine or ten maybe?), but it had a great run for several years and will always be one of my favorite shows.

·        This is actually a separate posting from an actual JTS posting -- it's informational. The episode called "Hookman" (referred to in one posting; the guy with hooks for hands carries sniper rifles around in a guitar case) was the 1973-74 season premiere; "Draw Me a Killer" (a deranged stalker thinks his comic-strip heroine is a real person and tries to kill every person who's menacing "her" or a lookalike he's following around) aired the next week, and "One Big Happy Family" (based on a real-life case of a family of totally amoral serial killers) aired two weeks after that. IMHO, all of these are great episodes. Hookman (played by a real-life private eye with, yes, hooks for hands; the part was written specifically for him and had him speak only three sentences!) obviously tried to keep out of sight of EVERYBODY because of those hooks (although the real-life private eye uses prosthetic "hands" when he goes undercover, so as not to scare people; in fact, there is a photograph of him with hands on the wall of his apartment). Draw Me a Killer was very creepy at the time and much more so now because of real-life star-stalkings by deranged fans, but it's still very well done. (The guest star on that episode, Elliott Street, recently posted to Mark 'n Julie's Hawaii Five-O Page, which unfortunately is down for the moment while Mark 'n Julie construct a new Ministry of Peace Website, expressing surprise and gratitude that people still remembered him. So did Robyn Millan, an actress who played the only "normal" character in One Big Happy Family.) These episodes were scary and very sleazy for the time, in the era of white-collar crime dramas, but they always seemed to fit. BTW, many posters have wondered about Jack Lord's suits and hair care. During the entire run of the show, the ENTIRE Five-O team (except for the replacements brought in for the final season) dressed to the nines in every episode, unless they had to go track somebody in the jungle or go undercover for some reason. My take on that is that they wanted to convey the impression that they were consummate professionals, always perfectly dressed and groomed, so witnesses wouldn't be afraid of them. As for Jack Lord's hair, I don't know about it either, but it couldn't have been a rug because it NEVER would have stayed on in the heat, wind and humidity. I strongly suspect he dyed it, though.

·        Hawaii Five-O was one of my favorite cop shows for more than a decade but the final season was a disaster. All the supporting characters left and there was only McGarrett and a bunch of second rate new flunkies. Jack Lord was WAY COOL. He wore a black suit in the tropics, his hair never got mussed up no matter what he did, he never, ever sweat and he drove a Mercury the size of an aircraft carrier. Book 'em Dano!

·        Possibly on a year or two too long, I kind of agree with the poster who said it didn't belong in the '80's. Still it was good throughout. It was a little too much like Dragnet. I would like to see reruns of Dragnet and 5-0 back to back. Whatta theme song! Book 'em Dan-o!

·        There have been two definite JTS episodes I have seen. Both involved the bad guys using silencers on revolvers. One was about a disgruntled vet in a wheelchair who would call the cops back to a previous incident and shoot them. The second involved a mobster who snuck into a hospital to finish a hit on McGarrett after his underling screwed it up. In the latter episode you actually saw and heard the revolver go off--quiet as any movie silencer and no flash out the side of the cylinder. Hmmmm...

·        This show had so much to offer a viewer! It was like some kind of cool police comic book in a way, and always seemed to keep me intrigued as to what type of crime would be attempted. Examples that immediately spring to mind are an episode where some guys in a van were transporting money, or some kind of contraband, hidden within 8-track tape cartridges. I recall Kam Fong or Kono examining the car...then the tapes! What drama, as the guy in the car sweated hidden bullets as Chin/Kono, eyeing a tape closely, remarks, "Good group!". Whew! Only on Hawaii Five O! The frequently reminisced 'Judy Moon' episode had an interesting level to it. If I remember correctly, there was no introduction to the 'villain' "feigning" normalcy at work or anything, prior to us learning of his "life" and true ambitions: just...BANG! This guy is nuts! That's kind of how a comic character would've been written as a villain, and there he was...a psycho-killer as two-dimensional as the comic characters that so absorbed his focus. This was definitely a case where a character actually benefits from what might otherwise be plain old lack of character development. Didn't he also wear big, round coke-bottle-lensed glasses? I can't remember seeing his eyes...weird! What a great show. Actually, there's even more: watch, as the Judy Moon cartoonist is seen working on the cartoon strip. Notice that he was left-handed. He was lettering the word balloons with a magic marker of some kind, which he'd need to do. If he used india ink on the lettering, the heel of his left hand would've smeared his work as he went along. It made the cartoon seem 'realer' somehow, even more so the killer by contrast. After Hawaii Five-0 was over, there was always good laughs to be had on Barnaby Jones! Thursday nights just aren't what they used to be..!

·        Although I was never a huge cop-show fan, something about "Hawaii Five-O" drew me in once in a while. That something was- no contest, no question- The Greatest TV Theme Song Ever. Credit Morty Stevens, long-time conductor for Sammy Davis (who my dad once knew and whom I actually met as a kid) for the most exciting, pulsating, inviting theme music anyone ever wrote. To this very day, I see the word "Hawaii" or "Honolulu" and this song comes racing into my mental soundtrack. Most of the early shows, what little I saw of them, fulfilled the theme's promise with lots of car chases, lots of Island color, and lots of stone-faced Jack Lord mumbling "Book 'em Danno". In 1974, when this show was still a Top 10 hit, my family actually made the long, long trip out to Honolulu (12 hours from Boston). We stayed at what I was told was the hotel where "McGarrett" had his TV office (the Ilikai, for any Islanders reading this). I was 17 then but "Five-O" was such a fixture that the song never left my brain during our week on Oahu. I also read once that Red Auerbach, that legendary cigar-chomping basketball god of New England, always stopped what he was doing to watch "Five-O" reruns during his later years as Celtic figurehead. That, and the theme song, give "Hawaii Five-O" never-jumped status at this address. Plus, UHawaii football uses it as one of their fight songs!

·        Death of Chin Ho! I always thought the death of Henry Blake in MASH was stolen from this episode....

·        Hawaii Five-O jumped the shark in 1979 (?) when Chin Ho's body was dumped on McGarrett's doorstep. The show was never the same afterwards... progressively weaker storylines, the replacement of Dan-O Williams with that lame from Beantown, James "Kimo" Carew

·        It jumped when James MacArthur left. I'm sorry but without Dan-o McGarrett couldn't utter the phrase "Book 'em Dan-o" and the show died.That was a TV quote that everyone knows and loves. You can't blame James MacArthur for leaving though.The material was getting old and so was Jack Lord (literally).I mean, did anyone besides me notice his sideburns getting all grey?

·        Never jumped but only because of the opening theme music. Otherwise Wo Fat would have sent it over the edge

·        First of all, this show kind of GENERALLY jumped the shark in the late 70s. It is my absolute favorite show, but we can all agree the end was pitiful. Cheers to the person above who wrote - Kam Fong as Chin Ho - why bother? In college, when all the girls wanted to watch General Hospital at 3PM, I wanted to watch reruns of Hawaii 5-0, and I was viewed as hopelessly out of it. Favorite episodes - yes, the Vachon ones - Harold Gould looks like he could kill his own son. The Judy Moon one was VERY creepy - especially for the time. It is hard to remember how utterly hip and groundbreaking the plots were. The villains were extremely clever and creative, but it was nice to know McGarrett would always win. Like watching the Atlanta Braves. He DEFINITELY cries in the two part episode (NUMBER 1, WITH A BULLET) with Yvonne Elliman and James Darren - he cries when describing his fathers' death when he was 13, and his mother's 20 agonizing years of work to bring him up. I was watching a video of my daughter from 12 years ago - and you can hear the Hawaii 5-0 theme song in the background - and I say "Oh good. Mommy's show is on." Last story - we were in Hawaii many years ago - and when I saw the Ilikai, I just died. And I started saying Mahalo to people, and my husband was quite surprised - but when I called him a Howli (sp?) I realized I still remembered all those Hawaiian words. Brudda!

·        "Hawaii Five-0" remains the longest-running crime drama in the history of the medium for good reason. Great writing, a perfect mix of up-and-comers and established stars as guests, and steel-nerved Jack Lord holding it all together. Those elements remained intact until the late seventies. By the time Chin was murdered and Danny left, ABC's powerful sitcoms had chased "Five-0" throughout the week. CBS knew the time had come for McGarrett to finally lock up Wo Fat and throw away the key. "Five-0" ended its glorious run having spanned three decades, logging well over 200 episodes, and maintaining its excellence in all aspects of its production. The title of "longest-running crime drama" is something that "Hawaii Five-0" isn't likely to surrender... ever!

·        This was a formulaic show that never changed its focus.Storylines may have repeated as the 11 seasons came and went,but it was the same show at the end as it had been in the beginning.But for the life of me I cannot believe anyone who views James MacArthur's departure from the series as the deathblow.He was a very modestly talented actor at best.Anyone fresh out of their first year acting classes could have done the role as well.I suspect that the late Jack Lord would not have allowed anyone in a supporting role that possessed tremendous ability or charisma.He did not want to share the screen with anyone who could take a scene away from him.Maybe MacArthur was so bland is that he knew he had to do it for job security.

·        When he replaced that classic '68 Mercury Park Lane for the bloated '74 Mercury Grand Marquis. I LOVED that car!

·        Hawaii Five-O never jumped! From it's Cold War beginnings--that's right beginnings! Five-O's pilot episode, "Cocoon" featured arch-villain Wo Fat (the best TV villain ever, btw) masterminding a brainwashing scheme. So for those who say Five-O JTS when it "strayed" from being a tough crime drama, you need to revise your opinion because Five-O BEGAN as a Cold War show! During the show's long and storied run, I'd have to say I prefer the first four seasons when the Five-O crew consisted of McGarrett, Dan-o, Chin and the wonderfully amusing Kono whose intro in the credits is second only to Jack Lord's in sublime coolness. I was sad to see Zulu as Kono leave, but as long as McGarrett was the head of the team, the show remained great. Hawaii Five-O really was a comfort show for the "Establishment" generation and the program reflected that generation's misconceptions and fears concerning the so-called Counterculture. No show did those great trippy drug montages better than Five-O except maybe Dragnet. They dealt with college radicals, international spy and terrorist groups, con artists, social issues and most every subject under that beautiful Hawaiian sun. By the seventh or eighth season, Five-O had become a television institution and it was fun to see the team evolve through the 1970s with the clothing styles and how the writing tackled the "relevant" issues of the day, not to mention whenever Wo Fat would pop up every so often (only 11 times in a twelve year run, but he was always memorable). Let's also not forget the greatest tv theme song, opening credits, great catch phrase and as mentioned many times already, Hawaii Five-O is a wonderful comforting presence on late night tv, when the viewer gets lost in the 1960s-1970s time warp that is Hawaii Five-O. Viva Jack Lord!!!

·        HAWAII FIVE-O!!! Oh brother, what a cheesy show!!! Jack Lord was the king of the overactors. James MacArthur was so bad an actor he made Richard Thomas look good by comparison.The show had its good points-it had a GREAT theme song and opening. It was a better show than Magnum P.I., a show that I never liked at all. Five-O was on much too long, like Happy Days or E.R.