Magnum Mania!

Birdman of Budapest

Episode ID: 56
Episode Number: 3.16
Air Date: 2/10/1983
Writer: Louis F. Vipperman
Director: Mike Vejar
Producer: Chas. Floyd Johnson
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Guest Stars

Sylvia Sidney (Elizabeth Barrett), Joseph Wiseman (Dr. Albert Tessa), Jacqueline Ray (Ms. Roebuck), Fritz Feld (Lars), David Kraul (Vladimir)

Plot Outline

Robin Masters believes that his mentor is in town to interview a reclusive bird expert, but Magnum learns that she really has murder on her mind.

Rating

7.5 (17 votes) MM Episode Forum Thread & Poll

Notes

1 Jacqueline Ray (Ms. Roebuck) was married to Tom Selleck from 1970 to 1982 and is the mother of his son Kevin (from a previous marriage).

2 Higgins states that he spent 11 years tending to the bush that Elizabeth Barrett had cut down. This would mean that he has been at Robin's Nest since at least 1972, a fact which is later verified in "The Case of the Red Faced Thespian" (4.12) where we learn that 1972 was the year that Higgins replaced the original majordomo (Lowell Xavier Jameson) of Robin's Nest.

3 The Kualoa Ranch, Honolulu International Airport and the Honolulu Zoo are all used as filming locations.

4 The handheld TomyTronic Pac-Man game returns. It was first seen in "Black on White" (3.6).

5 The Dragon Bar will be seen again in five years in Season Eight's "Pleasure Principle" (8.2).

6 Elizabeth makes mention of a previous case Magnum was involved in (never seen in the show), one that involved Hungarian acrobats. The Hungarian acrobats, presumably the same ones, were previously mentioned in "Of Sound Mind" (3.13) and will be mentioned again in "The Big Blow" (3.22).

7 This episode features a hilarious, surreal ending - At Elizabeth's command, Magnum is attacked by her KGB-trained Macaw [pic]! Magnum, who already had his gun drawn, fires at the bird, but misses. Magnum is viciously clawed and bitten by "Merlin" and is in trouble! Higgins comes to the rescue by using his awful-sounding Peregrine Falcon birdcall [something which came up earlier in the episode], which scares the parrot away. While fleeing the horrific screeches coming from Higgins mouth, the Macaw flies straight into T.C.'s hovering chopper blades, and is reduced to minced feathers! Only on Magnum P.I. can you see something like this folks. [video]

8 Higgins was in Berlin, just after WWII. He was in "deep cover with MI6".

Quotes

1
Higgins: Magnum, I implore you. I beset you. Take that woman to Tessa at once before I go irrevocably, irretrievably mad!!

2
Elizabeth Barrett Merlin, attack!

Flubs

1 In the climatic ending, a KGB-trained "Attack Macaw" is scared away by Higgins' Peregrine Falcon calls (no doubt because Higgins' complete mastery of Peregrine Falcon calls). The Macaw then, for reasons unknown, commits suicide by flying straight into the rotor blades of T.C.'s hovering chopper! For several reasons, this could never happen. Macaws, no matter how flustered or stressed they are by a human's Peregrine Falcons calls, would never attempt to fly straight into a hovering helicopter. Secondly, even if they wanted to, a bird could never fight through the strong downdraft of a helicopter's rotor blades!

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