Hawaii Five-O

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Hawaii Five-O

The opening title sequence
Format Crime drama
Created by Leonard Freeman
Starring Jack Lord
James MacArthur
Zulu
Kam Fong
Al Harrington
Herman Wedemeyer
Richard Denning
William Smith
Opening theme Morton Stevens
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
No. of episodes 278 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Leonard Freeman
Philip Leacock
Leonard Katzman
Running time approx. 0:60 (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run September 26, 1968 – April 26, 1980
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Hawaii Five-O is an American television series that starred Jack Lord and James MacArthur as detectives for a fictional Hawaii state police department.

Contents

The CBS television network produced the program from September 20, 1968 to April 5, 1980. Currently, the program is aired in syndication throughout the world. Created by Leonard Freeman, Hawaii Five-O was shot on location in Honolulu, Hawaii, and throughout the island of Oahu — with occasional filming in other locales like Los Angeles, Singapore and Hong Kong as well as other Hawaiian islands.

Hawaii Five-O centers on a fictional state police force of the same name — in honor of Hawaii's status as the 50th State — led by former Navy officer Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord), who was appointed by the Governor Paul Jameson (Richard Denning). (At the time Hawaii was the only state without an actual statewide police agency. The Hawaii State Sheriff's Department now serves as the de facto state police.) McGarrett was assisted regularly by State Police officers — a young officer, Danny Williams (played with intensity by Tim O'Kelley in the show's pilot, but replaced in the regular series by James MacArthur), Chin Ho Kelly (Kam Fong) and Kono Kalakaua (Zulu). Later, Honolulu Police Department Officer Duke Lukela (Herman Wedemeyer) joined the team as a regular, as did Ben Kokua (Al Harrington) who replaced Kono. Occasionally, they were assisted by other officers on an "as-needed" basis. During the course of the show, the team was also assisted regularly by: the medical examiner Doc Bergman (Al Eben), the forensic specialist Che Fong (Harry Endo) and a secretary. The first secretary was May (Maggi Parker), then Jenny (Peggy Ryan) and later Luana (Laura Sode-Matteson).

For twelve seasons McGarrett and his team hounded international secret agents, criminals, and Mafia syndicates plaguing the Hawaiian Islands. With the aide of District Attorney and later Hawaii's Attorney General John Manicote (Glenn Cannon), McGarrett was successful in sending most of his enemies to prison. One such Mafia syndicate was led by crime family patriarch Honore Vashon (Harold Gould), a character introduced in the fifth season. Blaming McGarrett for the death of his son, Vashon swore vengeance using all of the resources available to him. Most episodes of Hawaii Five-O ended with the arrest of criminals with McGarrett's catch phrase to Williams, "Book 'em, Danno!" with the offense occasionally added after this phrase, such as "-Murder one!". Other criminals and organized crime bosses on the islands were played by actors such as Ricardo Montalban, Gavin MacLeod, and Ross Martin as Tony Alika. For the 12th and final season, series regular James MacArthur had left the show, as did Kam Fong after season 10. New characters Jim 'Kimo' Carew (William Smith), Lori Wilson (Sharon Farrell), and Truck (Moe Keale) were introduced in season 12 alongside returning regular Duke Lukela.

The approximately four-to-five-strong Five-O team, unfeasibly small for a real state police unit, was portrayed as occupying a suite of offices in the Iolani Palace. Curiously it lacked its own radio network, necessitating frequent requests by McGarrett to the Honolulu Police Department dispatchers to "Patch me through to Danno". McGarrett's immovable hairstyle and proclivity for wearing a dark suit and tie on all possible occasions created a motif that rapidly passed into popular culture.

In many episodes (including the pilot) McGarrett was drawn into the world of international espionage and national intelligence. McGarrett's archnemesis on Hawaii Five-O was an intelligence officer of the People's Republic of China, Wo Fat. The Communist rogue agent was played by veteran actor Khigh Dheigh.

The show's action and straight-forward story-telling left little time for personal stories such as wives and girlfriends, though a two-part story in the first season dealt with the loss of McGarrett's sister's baby. Occasionally a show would flash back to McGarrett's younger years or to a romantic figure. The viewer is left with the impression that McGarrett, like Dragnet's Joe Friday, is wedded to the police force and to crime-fighting at this point in his life.

Hawaii Five-O survived long enough to see reruns of early episodes enter syndication while new episodes were still being produced. The 12th season was repackaged into syndication under the title McGarrett.

The show became the longest running crime show until the police drama Law & Order surpassed it in 2003 exactly 23 years after Hawaii Five-O ceased production in 1980.The popularity of the Hawaii Five-O format spawned various police dramas on all the major television networks since its debut. Another legacy is the popularity of the arranged Hawaii Five-O theme song composed by Morton Stevens and later covered by surf music band The Ventures and by Radio Birdman, a punk-era band from Sydney. The song that is particularly popular for college and high school marching bands to play, especially at the University of Hawai'i, in which it has become the University's unofficial fight song. It also made a brief appearance in the animated film Shrek 2, when a trumpeter enthusiastically follows a fanfare with the first few bars of the theme song.

The term "Five-O" was adopted by American youth culture as a street slang term for the police.

The television show Magnum P.I. was created after Hawaii Five-O ended its run in order to make further use of the production equipment left there. The first few episodes made direct references to Five-O, suggesting that it takes place in the same "universe" as the earlier show.

Criticism of the show pointed out that the vast majority of characters were Caucasian, while only 40% of the population of the state identify themselves as non-Hispanic Caucasian.

The opening credits were no small part of the show's popularity. The show would begin with a "teaser" or prelude suggesting the sinister plot for the night's program. Cut to the big ocean wave ("Hawaii Five-O") and the start of the show's dynamic theme song. Fast-zoom-in to the top balcony of the Ilikai Hotel, where McGarrett would turn to face the camera ("Starring Jack Lord") followed by many quick-cuts and freeze-frames of Hawaiian scenery (including, memorably, model Elizabeth Logue turning to face the camera, and a grass-skirted hula dancer from the pilot "Cocoon") and of the supporting players, thus setting the mood for the show, and then ending with a flashing blue light on a police motorcycle racing through a Honolulu street. Logue, a model and a former actress, died in 1988 at the age of 57.

At the conclusion of the action-packed, suspense-filled episode, after the obligatory "Book 'em Danno!", Jack Lord would narrate a teaser for the next week's episode, often emphasizing the "guest villain", especially if it was a perennial such as Khigh Dheigh, Hume Cronyn, etc, then closing the preview by saying "be here...aloha!" Unfortunately, these next episode teasers would be removed from the syndicated episodes, since most stations do not show the episodes in order of original network broadcast.

There are two versions of the closing credits portion. During the first season, the theme music was played, along with a short film of a flashing blue light attached to the rear of a police motorcycle racing through Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki heading west (this scene can no longer be replicated, as Kalakaua Ave. is now a one-way street, with traffic moving east towards Diamond Head.) This image was eventually satirized in Leslie Nielsen's TV series and movies centering on a law enforcement team called Police Squad!. In later seasons, the same music played over a short film of some outrigger canoeists battling the surf.

The second season episode "Bored She Hung Herself" has not been seen since its original broadcast in 1970 and is not included in the second season DVD box set, released on July 31, 2007. According to Mrs. Leonard Freeman (wife of the late creator of the show), speaking to some fans at the 1996 Five-O convention, someone tried the hanging technique depicted in the show (supposedly yoga-related, but more like autoerotic asphyxiation) and killed themselves. As a result, the show was not rebroadcast and never included in any syndication packages.

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • The original title of the series was to be "The Man". Other actors offered the part of Steve McGarrett included Richard Boone, Gregory Peck, and Robert Brown. Jack Lord accepted the role less than one week before filming began on the pilot movie, "Cocoon".
  • It has been rumored for many years that Jack Lord was a silent partner in all aspects of the production of Hawaii Five-O, even more so as the series grew in popularity during the 1970s. To critics and viewers, there was no question that Jack Lord was the center of the show, and that the other actors frequently served as little more than props, standing and watching while McGarrett emoted and paced around his office, analyzing the crime. But occasionally episodes would focus on the other players, and let them showcase their own talents.
  • Very few episodes were shot outside of Hawaii. At least two episodes were shot in Los Angeles, one in Hong Kong and one in Singapore. Episodes shot on location were the only ones not to bear the "Filmed in Hawaii" legend.
  • Jack Lord was the only actor to appear in all episodes of Five-O and was the only original cast member remaining when its last episode aired in May 1980. He and Herman Wedemeyer were the only actors to appear in the first episode (excluding the pilot) and the last episode of the series.
  • Today, James MacArthur is the only surviving first-season member of Five-O, as Lord, Zulu, and Fong have since died. MacArthur was actually the second Danny Williams -- in the pilot, the role was filled by another actor, Tim O'Kelley.
  • Similarly, the pilot did not feature Richard Denning as the governor, but Lew Ayres. Denning appeared very early in the run, in Twenty-Four Karat Kill, as a Treasury agent named Philip Grey, which led many to attribute that name to the governor, but a newscast in the 1977 episode, A Capitol Crime identified that character as Paul Jamison.
  • MacArthur has said on talk show appearances that he calculates that the Five-O team would have accounted for all major crime and criminals on the islands several times over.
  • Silent film actress Dorothy Mackaill was occasionally coaxed out of retirement to make appearances on the series.
  • The show continues to be seen in Hawaii since it left the air, thus making it the longest-running show to continue airing in the state after it ceased production. It is currently seen on Honolulu independent outlet KWHE.
  • The external shots of the building which housed the Five-O squad were of the ʻIolani Palace, which was the original home of the Hawaiian monarchy. The office interiors were a soundstage set.
  • At least 3 episodes were centered around Danno. One episode took us to his apartment, and a second one probed into his love life a bit. He was engaged to a woman whose death was the plot line of the episode. A third episode in 1976 has Danny dating an actress, Anne Waring (Meg Foster), who becomes a target of criminals.
  • In a 1st season episode, a two-parter "Once Upon A Time", we learn that McGarrett has a sister and a brother-in-law. The story line has McGarrett going to California to visit his sister and brother-in-law after learning that their infant son has cancer. A doctor is treating the baby with unethical methods to cure him, but the baby dies anyway. McGarrett seeks out the truth about the doctor and her unethical methods on patients.
  • Chin Ho Kelly had 8 kids, as we learned in a second season Five-O episode, Cry Lie. This seems to have been a family trait, as his many relatives were apparently involved in all facets of life in Hawaii, from laborers in the sugar cane fields to Honolulu policemen, bartenders, tour bus drivers, etc. -- and Kelly knew them all by name. This is actually authentic, as descendants of the early Chinese cane field laborers diversified throughout Hawaiian society, while maintaining family ties.
  • Kam Fong (Chin Ho Kelly) was the only cast member who really was once a Police Officer for the City of Honolulu.
  • McGarrett's trademark vehicle, often seen squealing tires throughout Honolulu, was a triple-black 1968 Mercury Park Lane Brougham 4-door hardtop. Around the 1973/74 season, his Park Lane was replaced by a 1973 Mercury Marquis Brougham, used until the end of the series.
  • Six years before creating and producing Hawaii Five-O, Leonard Freeman spent one season producing a show about another "elite, special investigative squad"", The Untouchables.
  • The phone numbers that were dialed from various Honolulu-area phone booths throughout the run of the series were actual household numbers, which caused some "invasion of privacy" concerns for residents, even after the series ended; hence in the middle of the series run, the Honolulu phone prefix "(808) 555-xxxx" was to be used on every episode from then on. The "555-xxxx" phone prefix is still used on various TV crime dramas, like on "CSI:Crime Scene Investigation", where occasionally, a "(702) 555-xxxx" number is used.
  • CBS' Honolulu TV-station, KGMB-TV(Channel 9) had a close association w/ Leonard Freeman Productions and the CBS network during the series run, since many episodes almost always featured a mobile TV broadcast van from that station, usually in the background; a similar idea is currently used on "CSI:Miami", where there would be a TV reporter from the Miami CBS station (WFOR-TV Channel 4) usually trying to interview Miami-Dade Police Lt. Horatio Caine (played by David Caruso). Surprisingly, the CBS network uses fictional stations for the other two "CSI:" shows (Las Vegas uses a "W-series" callsign instead of KLAS-TV Channel 8, and New York has NO mention of WCBS-TV Channel 2 at all).
  • United Airlines was believed to be the "official" airline for the series, since (in almost every episode) with the exception of the episodes that showed Pan American World Airways being used, many scenes at Honolulu International Airport always showed some of United's or Pan Am's Boeing 747s either taking off or landing; the closing credits always acknowledged this in many episodes. Also, in a few episodes that take place overseas regarding McGarrett's relentless pursuit of Wo Fat, Singapore Airlines 747s are seen leaving Honolulu's airport; the airline is also acknowledged at the end of these episodes.
  • Detroit Lions head coach Rod Marinelli calls defensive end Ikaika Alama-Francis "Five-O" in reference to this show and Alama-Francis's alma mater.
  • James MacArthur was the son of stage and film legend Helen Hayes; Hayes guest starred on a 1975 episode of Hawaii Five-0, "Retire to Sunny Hawaii", playing Danny Williams' Aunt.

  • References to the show throughout Thomas Pynchon's novel "Vineland" (1990), especially ch. 5, set in Hawaii.
  • Surf/rock band The Ventures recorded a version of the Five-O theme in 1969. It was released as a single and went to #4 on the Billboard pop chart.
  • Steve McGarrett is prominently mentioned in the Human League song "Circus of Death".
  • Another measure of the show's continued high popularity is that it was lampooned in Mad Magazine, in a typical not-very-subtle satire called "How-Are-Ya Five-O", which appeared in 1971. The characters were renamed Steve "McGarrish" and "Dummy" Williams.
  • The legacy of Five-O continued on into the series that replaced it, Magnum P.I., with many of the characters often referring to both Five-O and McGarrett. (Also, the show was filmed in Hawaiʻi and many of the sets were re-used in Magnum)
  • In a three-part episode of the situation comedy Sanford and Son set in Hawaiʻi, the fictional Five-O bureau is referenced several times. Although no Five-O cast members appear, the bureau members that are portrayed mention McGarrett and a running joke about his hair while the show's famous theme song plays in the background.
  • In the British police drama The Sweeney, the programme Hawaii Five-O is mentioned in the series one episode Stoppo Driver, which was originally broadcast in 1975. The reference to the programme is made in reference to a police officer suspected of working for a robbery gang only occurring "in Hawaii Five-O". The comment is made by George Carter (played by Dennis Waterman), who moments later in the programme says McGarrett's trademark line "Book 'em Danno".
  • Australian sub-pop band Radio Birdman wrote a song inspired by Hawaii Five-O entitled "Aloha Steve & Danno". It is the first song on their 1977 debut album Radios Appear and contains the chorus "Steve, I want to say thank you for all you've done for me. My night is dark and empty when you're not on TV". The bridge of the song also features a guitar solo rendition of the Five-O theme.
  • For many years after the show finished its run, GTE Hawaiian Tel included a warning to tourists in its phone books that in an emergency, they should dial 911 and not Hawaii Five-O. The AAA auto club provided a similar warning in its Hawaii Tourbook.
  • Australian band Horse MacGuyver referenced the show with their Hawaiian themed song of the same name.
  • World-famous DJ LTJ Bukem (real name Danny Williamson) created his stage name out of the "Hawaii Five-O" catch phrase "Book 'em, Danno".
  • The theme song was played in Leroy & Stitch (2006) in the scene where Leroy captures all the experiments.
  • In the Australian movie, The Dish (2000), set in 1969, a band of high-school age boys are told to perform the American national anthem for visiting American politicians, but as they do not know it, they play the Five-O theme instead.
  • The theme song played in Madagascar (2005) when Marty was surfing on two dolphins.
  • In the animated sitcom The Simpsons, Chief Wiggum is often heard saying to his deputies upon arrest of a suspect, "Book 'em, Lou", a reference to Steve's "Book 'em, Danno". Also, in the episode entitled "The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star", in which Homer and Bart become Roman Catholic, the Five-O theme is heard as Marge's mobile phone ringtone.
  • In The A-Team episode "A Small and Deadly War" Murdock tells the police officer "Book 'em Danno murder one".
  • Steve McGarrett was the role model for Mr. Hand in Fast Times At Ridgemont High.
  • Steve McGarrett is one of the iconic 'Steves' in the film "The Tao of Steve".
  • In the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode Dominace an uncooprative witness says "You can't just barge in here like Hawaii 5-0"
  • The theme music of the show and the phrase "Book'em Danno, murder one!" are quoted by Frank Zappa in the song The Untouchables on Broadway The Hard Way. The phrase also appears as "Book'em Danno, mammy one!" in You Are What You Is on Thing-Fish, and Frank's son Dweezil also did a version of the theme on guitar on his "Automatic" album. Frank Zappa made another reference to the famous line in the song "No Not Now" (from the album Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch) when he sings "Boog, boog 'em Dano...Murder One!"
  • The theme tune was used as soundtrack in "Mr. Bean's Holiday" when the main character is traveling over the Millau Viaduct. Later on he plays it as mobile ring tone.

CBS Home Entertainment has released the first season of Hawaii Five-O on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time on March 6, 2007. The 7-disc set includes the original pilot movie, also known as "The Cocoon", as well as a 1996 retrospective program produced by local Hawaiian television that included MacArthur as a guest host. Season Two was released on July 31, 2007. [1]. It has just been announced that Season 3 will tentatively be released on January 22, 2008. [2]

DVD Name Ep # Release Date Additional Information
The Complete First Season 24 March 6, 2007
  • Original pilot
  • Retrospective
The Second Season 24 July 31, 2007
The Complete Third Season 24 January 22, 2008

Although originally announced as being complete (25 episodes), it was revealed about two weeks before the release of the second season DVD box set that the episode "Bored She Hung Herself" would not be included

A soundtrack album featuring Morton Stevens' theme and incidental music was issued by Capitol Records in 1970. One of the instrumental pieces on the album, "Call to Danger", was excerpted as background music accompanying a "Special Presentation" logo that CBS used to introduce its prime time television specials throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Hawaii Five-O was the subject of six novelizations. Each one had a plot line written for the book and was not based on a television episode. The first two books were published by Signet Paperbacks in 1968 and 1969. After that were two juvenile hard covers published by Whitman publishing in 1969 and 1971 and finally two more books were published in England.

An Oldsmobile commercial starring Gregory Hines and Patrick Warburton referenced Hawaii Five-O in a police pullover. Hines - "Who are you, Jack Lord?" Warburton - "No, but the man's like a father to me."

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Five-O"
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