Wave Goodbye

Episode Number: 26
Season Number: 2.8
Air Date: 11/19/1981
Writer: Reuben Leder
Director: Sidney Hayers
Producers: Rick Weaver, Andrew Schneider
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

Patrick Bishop (Keoki)

Guest Stars

Vic Morrow (Sgt. Jordan), W.K. Stratton (Off. Kelly), Wings Hauser (Nick Frangakis), John Calvin (Gary), James Grant Benton (Ralph), Diane Crowley (Kacy)

Episode Brief

An ex-surfing champion and friend of Magnum's turns up dead on the beach and Magnum investigates. The prime suspects are a local drug pusher and a Vietnam vet, but Magnum believes someone else may be involved.

Rating

7.9

(52 votes)

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Notes

¹ This was one of the last acting roles for Vic Morrow (Sgt. Jordan) before his tragic accidental death while filming Twilight Zone: The Movie in July of 1982.

² Surprisingly, this is one of only two episodes to feature surfing scenes. Season Four's "Dream A Little Dream" (4.20) features several surfing scenes.

³ Higgins only appears in one scene of this episode.

⁴ Rick is seen driving the Ferrari for the first time.

⁵ A lovely original Smooth Jazz piece ("Kacy's Song") composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter is featured at the beginning of this episode when Kacy and Gary meet at the "Surfrider Club".

⁶ Local comedian James Grant Benton makes his first appearance on the show as Ralph the bartender. James was one of the founding members of the famous Hawaiian comedy troupe Booga Booga with Rap Reiplinger and Edward Kaahea that popularized ethnic Hawaiian humor and Pidgin. In 1974, he wrote, starred in and co-directed Twelf Nite O Wateva, a Pidgin version of Shakespeare's play. For this work, he made it into the Library of Congress as being the first person to translate Shakespeare into a creole language. James will later play the minor recurring character Kika, as well as several other minor characters.

⁷ The scene where Rick and T.C. meet up with Gary at an old theater was filmed at the historic Haleiwa Theatre (built in 1931) on the North Shore. The beautiful art deco style building was demolished in 1983 to make way for a McDonald's (the first fast food joint on the North Shore). (ID'd by rubber chicken)

⁸ W.K. Stratton (Off. Kelley), who also appeared in the "Pilot Movie", was a Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976-1978) cast member with Larry Manetti and Jeff MacKay ("Mac").

⁹ During one of his conversations with Nick Frangakis, the struggling Vietnam Vet, we find out that Magnum once spent time at a VA Hospital for mental health treatment.

¹⁰ Rick mentions the "Snow Palace", the glitzy discotheque club he owned in the Pilot Movie (Rick's Cafe Americain).

¹¹ The final two shots on the closing credits are not featured in the actual episode. One is stock footage of Magnum in the Ferrari from Season One; and the second features Magnum in the shirt that he wears in the final scene, but it is from a sequence that does not appear in the actual story. (Noted by Jay-Firestorm)

Quotes

¹
Higgins: Oh, Magnum.
Magnum: Hi, Higgins. You alright?
Higgins: I have a proposition for you. I'm sure that...
Magnum: Now wait a minute. Just wait a second Higgins. I mean this really is getting depressing, this constant deal making - I'll give you this, if you give me that. It's so unecessary. I mean, here we are living in paradise. I'm talkin' paradise, Higgins. We have everything we could ever possibly want out of life, right here. So, why? Why can't we just do things for one another, simply because we want to? Simply because we are friends. Simply because we feel like helping one another.
Higgins: Magnum...I want you to know I'm quite touched. I never thought you were capable of those admirable sentiments. I really mean that.
Magnum: Thank you.
Higgins: I...came down here this morning to...just as you so aptly describe it - 'Make a deal'. You see, the Audi's been under the weather and I need to pick up some paperwork at the club. I was going to ask you to fetch it for me. In return, I was going to give you use of the tennis courts for one week, but now I'm just asking you, as a friend.
Magnum: Two weeks.

²
Magnum: Hawaii is one of those places that keeps topping itself. Just when you think you'll never see another sunset as beautiful, there comes a sunrise that only Gauguin could imagine. It kind of makes unemployment easier to take. (Narration)

³
Magnum: One of the cliches of my profession is that to get information from a bartender you have to slip him some bills of various denominations; Bills that you can't afford, with pictures of unfamiliar presidents. And usually for information that isn't worth it. However, this was a special case and I wasn't in the mood for games. (Narration)

⁴
Magnum: Another cliche about getting information from bartenders, is that no matter how sincere they sound, you know as soon as you're out the door, they're on the phone warning they guy you want to see. And this guy didn't strike me as being particularly different. (Narration)

Flubs

¹ In the opening scene, Kacy is shown surfing at a distance. The surfboard color pattern appears to be a yellow and black circle pattern on the bottom, and a double red "XX" or double red "ZZ" pattern with another, smaller yellow and black circle pattern on top. However, when Kacy walks up the beach to the boy with her surfboard, it has a totally different red lightning bolt pattern. Her "new surfboard" also appears to be missing the ankle cord that we just saw attached to her leg! (Noted by Jim Gossweiler)

² When Magnum enters Gary's beachhouse, there is no one there. Or is there? If you slowly watch the reflection in the beachhouse glass door as Magnum opens it, someone's clear silouette is visible as the door reaches a 90-degree angle to the jamb. You can see it again as he closes the door. (Noted by Jim Gossweiler)

³ Just after Sgt. Jordan says to Magnum, "Didn't anybody ever tell you the big money is in the divorce cases", the officers get into their police car and leave. When Magnum is seen getting into the Ferrari, a crew member is visible in the side-view mirror as he opens the door. (Noted by Mark Seaman)

⁴ When Magnum is talking to Nick at his campsite, and ask's him "did you see anything the other night?", Nick responds by saying "Maybe, maybe I seen her, maybe, I just...". When he turns to say "I just", his lips are not moving.

⁵ At the end of the show after Sgt. Jordan had told Off. Kelly to drop his gun, he started reading Off. Kelly his rights as they were walking down the beach (presumably going to the patrol car) and just left the gun in the sand, next to Magnum.

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