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Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980) — 5 Comments

  1. Aah, the ghosts of TV past. That was fun. I didn’t know that “Danno” gets two ns. Nor did I know that the show ran until 1980. That tells me how far removed I was from TV as college turned into grad school.

    Do you think there’s something Shatner/Kirk-like about Jack Lord/McGarrett? A similar insufferability?

    • Yes, Lord/McGarrett and Shatner/Kirk are definitely “Herberts” in a changing world, authoritarian leaders who sound awkward when they try to say “bag,” “dig,” “baby” (Lord). No “Conference!” calls from Kirk, unlike Picard, when a sticky situation arises. I did see an episode recently where a peace protestor is killed, the kids predictably tell McGarrett he’s bad because he carries a gun, and he actually has a good speech about it. I don’t find him as insufferable as Shatner/Kirk.

      Funny you should mention Shatner/Kirk—right after you posted, McGarrett has a (slight) love interest in Sabrina Scharf, who played “Miramanee” to Kirk’s “Kirok.” In another episode, McGarrett’s (faked because undercover) love interest is Antoinette Bower, who played Sylvia in Catspaw. Another Trek (and Bonanza) alum is Joanne Linville, who is a sleazy “doctor” who promises a mother she can cure her six-month-old of cancer. Her mistake: The mother is McGarrett’s sister. Linville played the unnamed Romulan commander who finds Spock fascinating.

      Other notable appearances: Andy Griffith as a husband/father/small-time conman whose daughter manages to make off with a gangster’s $100,000 haul. Then there’s Harry Guardino, who plays a shady/psycho Army sarge who hates prostitutes. At the end, he’s cornered by Five-O and HPD. Blinded by lights, he fires once or twice, then the combined police force must fire at him 50 times. No “viral videos” in those days.

      This week I saw James MacArthur on Bonanza as a young man being threatened by his uncle. He didn’t sound much like Danno.

      I know it’s Danno with two ns because one of the things I learned when tutoring adults on reading was that short vowels are followed by two consonants. If it were Dano, it’d be pronounced “Dayno.” The useless flotsam that’s floating around . . .

      In addition to the “strong brother” line, I liked this from a hardware salesman (John Randolph), nervously talking to the prostitute he’s picked up (a young Elaine Joyce; I didn’t recognize her): “I was just admiring your ice cubes.”

  2. Thanks for these details of TV intertextuality. I wonder why I thought “Dano.” Maybe from the prefix nano-? I hope McGarrett doesn’t go after faulty spellers.

    • Ooooh, some local flavor in “A Bullet for McGarrett.”

      McGarrett (to a policewoman on her undercover story): Why did you leave the University of Chicago?
      Joyce: Hawaii sounded like fun.

      And the University of Chicago isn’t fun?

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