I remember watching this show too.. I just seem to remember a scene where a stink bomb is set off in the police locker room to divert everyone. every other cop has run outside and is responding badly to their exposure. after he & haven surmise that the bomb was a diversion to distract from something going on inside.. haven offers to go inside and retrieve the device... haven's partner, who has shown no reaction to the fumes looks after him and then takes a bite of the sandwich he was about to eat.. takes a bite and then doubles over retching! don't know what it means.. i just remember that scene among the many others i watched on TV all those years ago. ah.. nonstop TV in prime time in the 1970s.. before i had a color TV.. before we had stereo and then VCRS.. then hi fi.. and then at long last hi-def.. and now my generation of kids is getting' gray!
Reviews
4 Reviews
Misfire Casting With Montalban; Danno and McGarrett
30 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I'm watching a marathon of episodes on SPIKE TV. Hawaii- 50 is not a show I religiously watched and only caught a few episodes of it during the latter part of it's initial run as a kid. I saw a little more in rerun form and thought that the show was typical of the sort of detective show I grew up on.. Mannix, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Rockford Files and on and on up through Magnum P.I. etc. It was an iconic show by the time I was aware of it. Seeing these first few episodes I too was shocked by the lapse of quality in this one. Of ALL actors to play a Japanese character.... though then again... perhaps Montalban violates the stereotype of the reserved Asian character and that is to the good.. but then a Japanese actor, free to play a Japanese-American a la "Harold" Sakata in his appearances in MASH or the Odd Couple, would have done this much better.
Curious to me is that Montalban's makeup here makes him strongly resemble Joseph Wiseman who played Dr. No... the James Bond film in which Jack Lord plays Felix Leiter so it must have been familiar territory for him!!! Also.. Montalban's character refers to escaping from or avoiding being rounded up by the authorities to be sent to an internment camp. Was it not the case that there was no mass roundup of Japanese in Hawaii. They made up 1/3 of the island population... their labor was considered too crucial to the island to have disrupted their lives thusly... and a large portion of young Japanese men on Hawaii enlisted in the military and fought heroically, some, like Senator Dan Inouye, becoming the most decorated American troops during the Italian campaign. Oh well.. can't win them all fact check wise.
I like the interplay between Danno and McGarrett early on too... McGarrett really jumps down Danno's throat in a way that is REALLY tough and probably a lot sharper than you'd see in a show today between characters who are supposed to like each other. Something I'd never noticed, but I think is one of the things we'll find different between the old show and the new one. More hierarchy back then and less of the all encompassing team we see today.
Curious to me is that Montalban's makeup here makes him strongly resemble Joseph Wiseman who played Dr. No... the James Bond film in which Jack Lord plays Felix Leiter so it must have been familiar territory for him!!! Also.. Montalban's character refers to escaping from or avoiding being rounded up by the authorities to be sent to an internment camp. Was it not the case that there was no mass roundup of Japanese in Hawaii. They made up 1/3 of the island population... their labor was considered too crucial to the island to have disrupted their lives thusly... and a large portion of young Japanese men on Hawaii enlisted in the military and fought heroically, some, like Senator Dan Inouye, becoming the most decorated American troops during the Italian campaign. Oh well.. can't win them all fact check wise.
I like the interplay between Danno and McGarrett early on too... McGarrett really jumps down Danno's throat in a way that is REALLY tough and probably a lot sharper than you'd see in a show today between characters who are supposed to like each other. Something I'd never noticed, but I think is one of the things we'll find different between the old show and the new one. More hierarchy back then and less of the all encompassing team we see today.
The Eddie Capra Mysteries
(1978–1979)
Well Worth Watching If You Can Find It
5 January 2009
I enjoyed this show too. I was a little kid who watched a lot of TV but this show really stood out. It was funny and well written with quality work from Swofford et al. Baggetta was a real find too playing a real street smart, smart aleck type... an urban Poirot! Seven Ann was the cute kid... Phillips was, if memory serves, delectable as the female lead. Really too bad this one didn't go the distance... ahead of its time perhaps .. years before Goodfellas or the Sopranos would lead to actors like Joe Pesci or movies like Analyze This would allow actors with a distinctly urban Italian attitude and speech to find their services in high demand. Too bad a good guy of this type didn't fly... though if you're a fan of Hill Street Blues.. Baggetta's role as a corrupt cop is one of the most chilling portrayals this side of Ray Sharkey or Dennis Franz!
Hey Vinny
(2000)
Miami! Sun! Palm Trees! GIRLS!
3 August 2007
I miss those metro channels.. there were 3 of these which were carried by Cablevision in New York near the city. One devoted to live events around the city.. one to traffic and weather... and I think another was Sports or a C-Span like coverage of book signings or fashion events. During fashion weeks in New York they reassemble the team for coverage which is carried on a local new york college TV station, but it's too bad that these 3 went away as they were wonderful. I watched CAR 54 and a show called NYPD which was a shot on 16 mm cop show from the late 60s starring Jack Warden and Frank Converse. Today I was just looking up Vinny Vella so I could see about this documentary they used to show sometimes once or twice a day during their weekly schedule. I must admit I watched at least a bit of it every time. It's a moving film .. especially in terms of Vinnie's relationship with his parents.. his father being gentle and indulging and his mother being angry and almost ambivalent towards him in response to his inveterate trouble making.. meanwhile Vinnie describes feeling totally abandoned and misunderstood when he is sent to a Catholic Boys Home. The segment is introduced by Vinnie's friend..a police officer of all things who is one of the most interesting and authentic of the films many interesting characters. This is a wonderful film... perhaps something that every TO BE parent of a boy needs to see. It's been about six years since the metro channels went away and I STILL smile and my brother and I still chuckle just when we try to describe the prank that Vinnie pulls as a kid in Catholic School on Yearbook photo day. I'll never look at a sweater the same way again.
I second the above writer in saying that this is a film you should track down... now that they have NETFLIX I guess that won't be so hard nowadays. I may just order a rental of it myself before summer is over.
I second the above writer in saying that this is a film you should track down... now that they have NETFLIX I guess that won't be so hard nowadays. I may just order a rental of it myself before summer is over.
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