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Hawaii Five-O... Now Even Whiter

G

Gregg

In a recent post, I complained about CBS's casting of the new version of Hawaii Five-O. The old Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980) was a police drama set in the only state where Pacific Islanders and Asians make up the majority. It was mostly about a couple of white cops, Jack Lord and James MacArthur, with a few supporting Asian cops. At that time we may not have thought that any more unusual than the Andy Griffith Show being set in a small town in North Carolina with virtually no black people.

But this is 2010 and CBS is doing it again. The latest CBS promos for Hawaii Five-O now have Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan talking. In the 30 second spot, we see them bickering over who's going to be the back up. Later Caan says O'Loughlin is seriously crazy. (Great. Standard cop-buddy material for the last 50 years. Maybe that's why it's called Hawaii Five-O.)

Third lead Danial Dae Kim is only seen for a split second, and has no dialogue in the promo. By the way, O'Loughlin is coming off a failed CBS series, "Three Rivers." Caan has done some movies but has no TV series experience that I know of. Meanwhile Kim is coming off the very successful "Lost" and was also in "Crash" which won a Best Picture Oscar. You'd think with Kim's resume and the show being about police in Hawaii, he'd be the lead.

But even in 2010, I guess we're not ready for a prime time TV show with an Asian lead, even one set in Honolulu.


Gregg
[email protected]
 
sdwulfdawg said:
Honestly, there are bigger problems in the world than for you to apparently go practically sleepless over this.

You beat me to it. There's alot of fools like him walking around the streets with nothing but that crap on their minds. After they do their quotas for the day...then they bring it to the boards. With Toyota's set backs these days, I'm still not seeing enough Chevy's on the road. I'll just use a skateboard to work until I see a difference. I'll show you's all.
Click to expand...
 
Wow... Somebody is making a judgement about a show that hasn't even aired yet.

That sounds like a textbook example of prejudice to me.
 
Hawaii Five-O... Now Even Whiter

Maybe they are going to be sponsored by Oxydol? ;D
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Hawaii Five-O... Now Even Whiter

Maybe they are going to be sponsored by Oxydol? ;D
Click to expand...

Based on the original poster's take, I guess it won't be "We need more Calgon!" ;D

(You younger posters may have to do some research to get the reference. ;))
 
oldiesfan6479 said:
FreddyE1977 said:
Hawaii Five-O... Now Even Whiter

Maybe they are going to be sponsored by Oxydol? ;D
Click to expand...

Based on the original poster's take, I guess it won't be "We need more Calgon!" ;D

(You younger posters may have to do some research to get the reference. ;))
Click to expand...

Ancient Chinese secret, huh? :D
 
Please keep in mind that they're only promos. Daniel Kim is considered a hunk by many, and he's got considerable name and face recognition from Lost. I'd be surprised if he doesn't get a lot of face time in the actual show.
 
I think Gregg is just stating his opinion. If you take the clips he referenced, then something does look off. I've never been to Hawaii, but my first thoughts are of beautiful natives doing hula dancing.

Lastly, about focusing on the 2 primary stars who happen not to be Hawaiian, if I lived there I probably would have a diverse group of friends. A lot of the time I might hang around with people I'm more familiar with, which could be members of my own ethnic group.
 
Well, since I now live here, I can tell you that most of the people I work with are mostly Filippino (a growing population sector in Hawaii) or Micronesean and the neighbors at the apartment complex are either military or Hawaiian (one of them has the Hawaii State Flag hanging outside the window). BTW I like the diversity and they're friendly once you get to know them.
 
Lkeller said:
Please keep in mind that they're only promos. Daniel Kim is considered a hunk by many... I'd be surprised if he doesn't get a lot of face time in the actual show.
Click to expand...

This is the exact opposite of those Betty White-laden promos for "Hot In Cleveland" (at least for the first episode, anyway, where she only appeared for five minutes in the entire show)...
 
The original Five-O did seem to accurately reflect the state's racial diversity (although I get the point that
Steve and Danno, two white guys, seemed to run the show). I don't know why they would venture from that
formula in the revival. As long as it's Kam Fong as Chin Ho and Zulu as Kono they'll be allright. (if it turns
out to be Chad Musczikowski as Kono I guess we'll have a problem)
 
TV is oddly becoming less and less diverse and thus not reflective of reality. The old guard can't stand they're becoming a face in the crowd.
 
Gregg said:
But even in 2010, I guess we're not ready for a prime time TV show with an Asian lead, even one set in Honolulu.
Click to expand...

It's worked before. Remember Martial Law, with Sammo Hung, which aired on Saturday nights on CBS after Early Edition? That lasted a couple of seasons.
 
Of course, these days, William Hung is more popular than Sammo...
 
dustintv said:
TV is oddly becoming less and less diverse and thus not reflective of reality. The old guard can't stand they're becoming a face in the crowd.
Click to expand...
Well let's not forget that an entire generation has passed since the original Hawaii Five-O left CBS. As such, the population of Hawaii is slowly becoming less & less Asian (The A&E Reality series Dog The Bounty Hunter brings this out in episodes done in Hawaii).

So it's not surprising to see that this version of Hawaii Five-O isn't focused on the Asians in the state. In fact, I'd be surprised if there were that many Asian bad guys on the show aside from street gangs.

Will the show be a success? Only time will tell. But if Jerry Bruckheimer has anything to do with it as has been speculated elsewhere on here earlier, it will be (Jerry demands high quality in ANYTHING he has a hand in).

Cheers :D
 
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