Hawaii Five-O... Now Even Whiter

[landtuna]

Those actors were excellent in those parts. Jack Lord as McGarrett? Come on, that's a legendary character. What's your idea of a legendary character? Chachi?

The five main actors were all one-dimensional. Lord's big scene, repeated many times, was to bark an order then give that in-the-camera's-face close-up. Compared to good cop shows old and new Hawaii added nothing but scenery and a great lead-in.

Were you aware Richard Boone ("Paladin" in Have Gun Will Travel among others) was the first choice to play McGarrett but turned it down? One of the reasons suggested was the "lack of acting skill required".

The show was popular for so many years with so many excellent episodes (even if there was the occasional clunker thrown in) that - yes - Five-0 is a classic. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this because, to me, the original Hawaii-Five-0 is a better show than most of the dreck that's offered up now.

A true classic would stand the test of time. I really doubt today's audience would be as enthralled with Hawaii and/or McGarrett as the 60's audience was. In any event it comes up very weak against newer shows of the genre such as "Law and Order" (which was filmed in gritty NYC, had a plethora of cast changes over the years and still managed to stay on-air 20 seasons).

On a different note, did you see what the top shows were during the past week? All reality garbage. And it was the lowest week of network viewership in decades. Fox and Univision walloped ABC, CBS, and NBC in 18-49s. The CW had something like 10 viewers per market. So whatever so-called "bright" ideas are coming out of network boardrooms, they aren't sticking to the wall for as long the excrement that they're based on.

I think I detect a trend in your subliminal TV evaluation technique. Not sure what that has to do with Hawaii-5-0.