Magnum Mania!

Dead Man's Channel

Episode Number: 20
Season Number: 2.2
Air Date: 10/15/1981
Writer: Diane Frolov
Director: Ray Austin
Producers: Rick Weaver, Andrew Schneider
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

Jeff MacKay (Lt. "Mac" MacReynolds)

Guest Stars

Ina Balin (Prof. Martinez), Wendy Girard (Marion Hammond), Mamaluna (Tehani), Curtis Malia (Keone)

Episode Brief

Magnum is hired by a young woman to locate her archaeologist father, whose boat was found deserted in the Nihoa Channel. Although locals claim the channel is cursed, Magnum takes on the assignment to find the missing scientist.

Rating

8.0

(31 votes)

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Notes

¹ The original script for this episode was entitled "Nihoa Curse".

² This is the first episode to feature elements of traditional Hawaiian culture and people. Season One's "The Curse of the King Kamehameha Club" (1.11) dabbled in it briefly with the Kahuna subplot.

³ Roger E. Mosley does not appear in this episode. This is the first episode of the series where one of the show's four stars is absent for the entire story. During the series' eight-year run, Mosley will only miss three episodes, Manetti and Hillerman one. Tom Selleck will appear in all 162 syndicated episodes.

⁴ The set for Prof. Martinez' office features several items that were used in Steve McGarrett's office on Hawaii Five-0, including his chairs and globe.

⁵ Episode screenwriter Diane Frolov will go on to produce and write for Northern Exposure and The Sopranos, among others. She was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for best dramatic series for her work on the sixth season of The Sopranos. This is her very first television screenplay. She will also pen the Season Two episode "The Taking of Dick McWilliams" (2.10).

⁶ The King Kamehameha I sportfishing boat is seen for the first time. It's a 50' Bertram cockpit motor yacht.

⁷ Rick drives the red Nissan 280ZX for the second time. We first saw him driving it in "Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too" (1.4).

⁸ Higgins talks about the "Kudu Buck". Based on sounds only, he thought one was loose on the estate grounds, but it turned out to be a common goat. The Greater Kudu is a woodland antelope found throughout eastern and southern Africa. It is large in size and has "great twisted antlers". Higgins studied it carefully at close range when he was at the Zambezi river, somewhere in the African plain (date unknown).

⁹ Ina Balin (Prof. Martinez) will later guest star in Season Seven's "L.A." (7.1 & 7.2).

Quotes

¹
Magnum: This was one of those days I wish I'd listened to my mother and studied to be an orthodontist. Looking into someone's mouth has gotta be better than staring death in the face. (Narration)

²
Tehani: You wanna know what happened to Mr. Hammond?
Magnum: That's right.
Tehani: It's Kapu for my people to talk of the channel. The Neho waters are sacred. They belong to Kanaloa.
Magnum: Kanaloa?
Tehani: The God of the Sea. No Hualalai may enter the channel! All who do, die!
Magnum: Well, you know, the Navy's been going out on the channel for quite a few years now and nothing seems to have happened to them.
Tehani: Everything is done in Kanaloa's time. You have been warned!

Flubs

¹ When Magnum dives in the channel for the first time searching for treasure, he's wearing his team ring on his left ring finger. However, when he reaches the surface after finding the artifact, the team ring is now on his right ring finger. (Noted by Operation Chessboard)

² When Higgins goes to look up about Antelopes in the study, watch the books carefully - as he takes one out, three others fall over; but in the close-ups of Higgins, only one has fallen. (Noted by Jay-Firestorm)

³ Toward the end of the episode, when Thomas, Rick, and Marion are in the King Kam I searching for the treasure, they are supposed to be in the "Nihoa Channel" (which, based on the opening scene, is supposed to be a good ways off the coast line); however, they are right off the coast of Manana Island, a stones throw away from Robin's Nest! (Noted by Pete Walkup)

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