Almost Home

Episode Number: 51
Season Number: 3.11
Air Date: 12/9/1982
Writers: Alan Cassidy, Rob Gilmer
Story: Alan Cassidy
Director: Ivan Dixon
Producer: Chas. Floyd Johnson
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

Gillian Dobb (Agatha Chumley), Jean Bruce Scott (Lt. Maggie Poole)

Guest Stars

Kathleen Lloyd (Bridget Archer), Beulah Quo (Aiko Tamura), Stephen Elliott (Admiral Philip Wheeler), Gilbert Green (Vic Stout), Gabriel Aio (Kimo)

Episode Brief

When a feisty cocktail waitress is denied permission to scatter her late father's ashes at the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor due to a court martial ruling that he was AWOL, she turns to Magnum to prove her father was indeed present during the infamous Japanese raid.

Rating

8.0

(44 votes)

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Notes

¹ The USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor features prominently in this story. It is used as a filming location for the opening and closing scenes.

² The Attack on Pearl Harbor footage was taken from the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!. The same footage was previously used in the Season One episode "Lest We Forget" (1.10). (Noted by Jay-Firestorm)

³ Kathleen Lloyd (Bridget Archer) will go on to play the recurring character Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Carol Baldwin, starting with "Distant Relative" (4.4). The character of Carol Baldwin was first seen in "Foiled Again" (3.8), but was played by a different actress, Patty McCormack (for one episode only).

⁴ Beulah Quo (Aiko Tamura) had a recurring role on My Three Sons (Alice Wong) in the early 1960's and appeared in a 1973 episode of Hawaii Five-O ("The Diamond That Nobody Stole").

⁵ The GMC Jimmy (Robin 3) and Rick's Mercedes 380SL are used for a couple of driving scenes. The Ferrari is stolen and T.C.'s chopper is shot (again).

⁶ Bridget Archer's father's name was Miles Archer. Yet another reference to the The Maltese Falcon. (Noted by N1095A)

⁷ The warehouse that Magnum and T.C. visit was filmed at a maintenance building adjacent to the Kanoeohe Omega Transmitter in the Haiku Valley. The Omega Transmitter was used as the "Laseronics" building (where Higgins is held captive) in Season One's "J. "Digger" Doyle" (1.17). (Noted by rubber chicken)

⁸ Several Ferrari driving scenes were shot in the Kaimuki neighborhood of Honolulu. Aiko Tamura's house was also filmed there.

⁹ When Magnum gets a drink from the soda machine, the "Coke" logo has been covered up with a large white panel. (Noted by Jay-Firestorm)

¹⁰ Gabriel Aio (Kimo, the enforcer) is a career criminal and former security chief for the Matson container yard on Sand Island. He has served time for armed robbery (1965), felony burglary (1974), and conspiracy to commit money laundering (2002, in connection with a large-scale Chinatown gambling operation). Aio will appear as "Little Tony" in two Luther Gillis episodes ("File #521" and "The Return of Luther Gillis").

Quotes

¹
Rick: I think I'm in love!
T.C. (Checks watch): Ten minutes to ten. I wondered how long it'd take you to fall in love today.

²
(Magnum pulls up in the Ferrari)
Higgins: Magnum, there's nothing quite like the whine of a high performance engine to distrupt an absolutely delightful afternoon tea. How thoughtful of you.
Magnum: Gee, Higgins, I'm sorry. I just didn't realize.
Higgins: You didn't think, as usual. I suppose I should be grateful you didn't bring that... that... whatever she does back here.
Magnum: SHE is a cocktail waitress and she's at her motel freshening up.
Higgins: Of course.
Magnum: Oh, how IS the tea going? Are you dipping scones and baking hot cross buns? (laughs)
Higgins: The tea, save for your interruption, is smashing, absolutely smashing.

³
Agatha: Jonathan! Oh, Jonathan, come quickly! Your buns are smoking!

⁴
Magnum: Come on T.C., nothing can go wrong! Take it down.
T.C.: "Come on T.C., nothing can go wrong". I wish I had a dollar for every time you've said that. It would probably just cover your gas bill!

Flubs

¹ In the Pearl Harbor attack scene footage (taken directly from the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!), a forest of Waikiki high-rises can be seen in the background. Waikiki didn't have high-rise buildings in 1941! (Noted by John Hall)

² In the scene where Magnum and T.C. sneak into the warehouse (with the bad guys come chasing them in the red Jeep), and Magnum and T.C. are running for T.C.'s helicopter to escape, Magnum and T.C. jump in the chopper and immediately take off! It takes a heli anywhere from 3-7 minutes to warm up and get the rotors spinning enough to be able to lift off. There's no way they could have jumped in the chopper, started the engine and taken off, the way you can in a car! (Noted by golfmobile)

³ A U.S. Coast Guard boat is used in the closing memorial scene. Surely a U.S. Navy burial (at Pearl Harbor of all places) would use a U.S. Navy watercraft?

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