Flashback

Episode Number: 47
Season Number: 3.7
Air Date: 11/4/1982
Writer: Robert Hamilton
Director: Ivan Dixon
Producer: Douglas Green
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Guest Stars

Anne Lockhart (Brenda McCutchen), Irene Yah-Ling Sun (Marissa), Rosemary Murphy (Marion Danforth), Lee Patterson (Drew Danforth), Robin Strand (Young Drew Danforth), Michael Hasegawa (Ito), Earll Kingston (Maitre'd)

Episode Brief

Magnum dreams he's in 1936 - populated with versions of his friends - where he's working for a young woman whose father, a union leader, has been accused of the murder of a construction magnate.

Rating

8.8

(60 votes)

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Notes

¹ This is the first episode in the series to feature lengthy "fantasy" or "dream" sequences set in the past. Season Seven's "A.A.P.I." (7.5) and "Murder by Night" (7.14) are also of the same mold.

² Episode screenwriter Robert Hamilton is credited as "Lance Madrid III", a pseudonym.

³ This is the first episode to be directed by Ivan Dixon (Kinchloe on Hogan's Heroes). He will go on to direct 12 more Magnum episodes.

⁴ The opening scene with Magnum waking up and finding that everything appears to be from the 1930s (and his ensuing confrontation with Higgins) is one of the most memorable (and hilarious) scenes of the entire series!

⁵ Anne Lockhart (Brenda McCutchen) had a guest starring role in Season One's "Lest We Forget" (1.10).

⁶ The classic car that Magnum drives in the flashback sequences (the car that "replaces" the Ferrari at the estate) is a modern replica of a late 1920's Bugatti Type 37 Grand Prix Racer.

⁷ The scene with Magnum and T.C. at the airfield ("...one wretchedly impoverished outfit") was filmed at Dillingham Airfield on the North Shore. (ID'd by rubber chicken)

⁸ The song that Marissa (Irene Yah-Ling Sun) sings in the lounge bar is "Am I Blue?" by Ethel Waters, which was first recorded in 1929.

⁹ Magnum reads the fictional works of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

¹⁰ During the scene towards the end, when Drew Danforth (Lee Patterson) chases Magnum out of the cabin, Drew almost steps on a cat! As the cat scurries out of the way, a loud "mrrrawr" sound can be heard. This was apparently a feral cat that just happened to wander into the scene! Oahu has a lot of feral cats.

¹¹ The movie that Magnum watches in the theater during the flashback sequence is The Bad Sister (1931), Bette Davis' first movie.

¹² The climactic ending was shot at Makapuu Lookout.

Quotes

¹
(Magnum has just woken up and finds that everything appears to be from the 1930s, including his furniture and clothes)
Magnum: Higgins! Higgins! What the hell did you do to my house?
Higgins: Magnum, old stick, isn't your attire a trifle bizarre, even for you? Even for breakfast?
Magnum (looks at what he is wearing): My underwear!? What happened to my underwear?!
Higgins: Probably another lost and sordid night with a chorus girl from the Kit Kat Club. Please stand down wind, I'm sure you simply reek of cheap rye whiskey!
Magnum: What is this? What kind of crazy practical joke are you trying to pull?
Higgins: I? I crazed? My dear fellow, it is not I ranting about the lawn in my BVDs! Now, I suggest a shower and a pot of black coffee.
Magnum: Ok, ok. Enough's enough. Oh, I can take a joke. See...I'm smiling, like a good sport.
Higgins: Magnum, in less than 25 minutes the other members of my croquet club will arrive for practice and brunch. This is our last opportunity for strategy and tactics...
Magnum: Croquet! You short sheet my whole house and you wanna talk about croquet!!
Higgins: Well, what with the frightful unemployment with the Depression, despite the commendable efforts of your President Roosevelt...
Magnum: Oh sure Higgins! Good 'ol FDR! I'm right with ya!
Higgins: The chaps decided that Polo was a bit ostentatious, so we've returned to more Proletariat pursuits. Everybody is going to shoulder more...
Magnum: Enough...Enough!...Enough!! This is not funny. Ok, ok, you croquet your hearts out, but hear this ultimatum - Immediately! Immediately!! I want my furniture, my phone, and my shorts!! Back!!!
(Magnum walks away)
Higgins: A lesson lads, cheap whiskey in this heat can rot the brain.

²
Magnum: I could understand Higgins switching the furniture and the phone, even the clothes, almost. But the whole island was different. It was though I'd made a left turn back into my dream. Where were the highways? The high-rises? The people? Even Higgins couldn't change all of that. I figure there could be two possible explanations: Either I was crazy, in which case I could start screaming, or I was still dreaming, in which case I could lie back and enjoy this fantasy. You're right, it wasn't much of choice. It was all kinda fun, actually. I had an appointment at the old King Kamehameha Club, 50 years ago, with a dame who'd just gotten off the clipper. Well, the Club turned out to be some kind of place, with a manager that looked vaguely familar. (Narration)

³
Higgins: And now, if this interrogation is over, I have an appointment with a captivating mare.

⁴
Magnum: My name is Thomas Magnum. I'm a private investigator. And I just dropped by to search your garden... for the missing gun. You havn't seen it by any chance, have you?

Flubs

¹ As the 1936 Magnum drives into the airfield area to meet the 1936 T.C., when he passes by the first small building, you can see a window unit air conditioner in one of the windowsills. This would have been impossible as window unit air conditioners were not introduced until 1938, and were not widely used until much later! (Noted by Wally)

² While flying the Island Hoppers chopper, T.C. is seen wearing a red shirt (mark 41:40), but when they land (only seconds later) he is wearing a yellow shirt (mark 41:55). (Noted by Bernd-Christian Schulze)

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