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Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too

Episode Screen Caps Episode Number: 4
Season Number: 1.4
Air Date: 12/25/1980
Writer: Babs Greyhosky
Director: Bruce Seth Green
Producer: J. Rickley Dumm
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Guest Stars
Katherine Cannon (Linda Booton), Lauri Hendler (Nancy), Shannon Brady (Carolyn), George Fisher (The Boxer), Al Harrington (Mano), Jim Demarest (The Kidnapper), Elizabeth Hoy (Lesli)
Episode Brief
It's the Christmas season, and against his better judgment, Magnum agrees to being hired by five young schoolgirls to find their teacher, who has seemingly gone missing after falling in love. While he's working on the case, Magnum manages to convince Higgins to let the young girls stay on the Masters estate, but he's unaware that he's being deceived in a scam over a valuable painting recently purchased by Robin Masters.
Rating
7.7(66 votes)Rate Episode
Notes
1 This is the first of two "christmastime" episodes in the series, the other being Season Four's "Operation: Silent Night" (4.10).

2 The episode title is a reference to "Thank Heaven for Little Girls", the famous song that opened and closed the 1958 musical film Gigi, performed by Maurice Chevalier ("Thank heaven for little girls for little girls get bigger every day!").

3 Instead of the usual theme song, the closing credits are accompanied by an orchestral version of "The Twelve Days Of Christmas".

4 This episode is similar to the story line in the 1974 Hawaii Five-O episode "How to Steal a Masterpiece", which also features a Gauguin that is stolen from a private collector despite good security. (Noted by Tim)

5 The Gauguin painting that is featured in this episode is Three Tahitians (1899). The large "Gauguin" painting in the guesthouse (seen throughout the show's run) is actually a combination of two different Gauguin paintings - Vairumati (1896) and When Will You Marry (1892) - that have been merged together. This "combo" painting was created specifically for the show by the Magnum P.I. prop department.

6 The music in the opening scene is Act 2 Part 1 from the famous ballet Swan Lake by Peter Tschaikowsky. (Noted by Bernd Christian Schulze)

7 Rick's red Nissan 280ZX and Robin's Audi 5000 (Robin 2) are seen for the first time.

8 Al Harrington (Mano) is a well-known local Hawaiian actor/singer/dancer (by way of Samoa) who is known as "The South Pacific Man". A former Hawaii Five-O cast member (Det. Ben Kokua) in the 1970s, he had a popular fire knife dancing show called The Al Harrington Show at the Hawaiian Village Tapa Room, and later performed at the Hilton in Waikiki. He was also the first high school football All-American to come out of Hawaii (Punahou School)! This is his only appearance on Magnum P.I..

9 Jim Demarest (The Kidnapper) is famous in Hawaii for his role as "Mr. Checkers" (#3) in the long-running KGMB children's show The Checkers & Pogo Show (1967-1979). Jim will later appear in Season Five's "Let Me Hear the Music" (5.18) and Season Six's "The Treasure of Kalaniopu'u" (6.9).

10 The estate's wine cellar is seen for the first time! It will only be seen in a half-dozen or so episodes.

11 List of notable filming locations: 12 Despite having several lines of dialogue, the actor playing the bartender in the Hotel Street "beer joint" scene is uncredited (and unknown).

13 A nice little Ian Freebairn-Smith score is used in the scene at the Natatorium. The scores uses a funky bass line and drum tempo along with his trademark horns. An audio clip can be found here.

14 At about the 46:40 mark, while Rick is trying to slow the kidnapper down by pretending to be confused by the camera, he makes reference to James Garner of Rockford Files fame (who used to be the spokesman for Polaroid cameras) and how he "would have been happy with one of those simple cameras". (Noted by Tim)

15 As evidenced in this episode, Rick takes most of Magnum's calls for cases at the King Kamehameha Club. This will also be seen in a number of other Season One episodes. Magnum will get his own answering machine later in the show's run.

16 A hotel desk clerk is seen reading a Robin Masters paperback, Fruit of Passion.

17 The end credits briefly show part of the scene with Magnum and T.C. running to the Ferrari at night. In the episode both of their shirts are noticably torn. In the end credits clip, T.C.'s shirt is NOT torn.
Quotes
1
Magnum: So far this case had cost me my right to the wine cellar, the last cash in my pocket, and nearly my life. If that clerk was lying to me, I was gonna come back down here and shove that Robin Masters paperback in his ear! (Narration)

2
Little Girl: She shouldn't be punished for her passion.

3
(To Magnum, with both arms straight down, after being locked out on a hotel balcony)
Higgins: This is outrageous! OUT-RAGEOUS!!

4
(Regarding Magnum)
Higgins: If you'd given him a decent lead, he'd have blown it higher than a Chinese firecracker!

5
Higgins: You starch your undershorts?
Magnum: Doesn't everybody?
Flubs
1 Toward the end of the episode, when Magnum has dropped off the tube with the painting, we see that Rick is in the pool. When Rick gets out to follow the kidnapper, the deck of the pool already has wet footprints (probably from the previous take).

2 After picking up the painting, when the kidnapper pulls away in his car, you can clearly see a crew member reflected in the side back window and the paint of the car. He doesn't appear to be the cameraman as only the crewman can be seen, with no equipment.

3 As the villian is in line with Rick waiting to go through the metal detector, you can see him sweating "like a fiend". However, after he goes through the detector, and picks-up the fake tube/container and walks away, his shirt is no longer sweaty. (Noted by IslandHopper)

4 At the end of the show there is another mistake. When Rick holds up the kidnapper at the metal detectors, Rick puts his camera on the x-ray conveyer. After the switch of the tubes on the conveyer by Magnum, we would expect the camera to come out of the machine next. Rick passes the metal detector to meet Magnum and has the camera with him without claiming it from the conveyor.


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