No More Mr. Nice Guy

Episode Number: 76
Season Number: 4.13
Air Date: 1/26/1984
Writer: Nick Thiel
Story: Rob Gilmer
Director: Mike Vejar
Producer: Reuben Leder
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

Kathleen Lloyd (Carol Baldwin)

Guest Stars

James Emery (John Fenady), Norm Compton (Officer Kawana), Sal Viscuso (Herbie Franklin), Jerry Harpin (Clinton), Peter Kalua (Kono)

Episode Brief

Magnum is forced to forgo his much-anticipated trip to the Army-Navy football game and a reunion with his 1967 championship teammates when Rick, T.C. and Higgins guilt him into remaining in Hawaii and helping Carol save her career by nabbing one of the largest drug distributors in the islands.

Rating

8.3

(32 votes)

Rate Episode

Notes

¹ The original script for this episode was titled "What Are Friends For?".

² This is the first "Carol-centric" episode of the series.

³ Magnum hasn't been to an Army-Navy Game since 1967, the last year he played quarterback for Navy. His stats for that game: 21-30, 3 TD (2 Pass, 1 Run), 1 INT. He was awarded the game ball by the Secretary of the Navy. He says a few months after the game he graduated (1968), and a short time after that he went to 'Nam. We also learn that his backup quarterback (for all four years) was a guy named Kenneth Reese. Dorsey Bramlett (from Season Two's "One More Summer") was also a backup quarterback during Magnum's senior year. The Army-Navy game that Magnum starts to watch at the very end of the episode includes real audio from the actual game (including the announcers calling out the correct final score, Navy 42-13). The 1983 game took place only a couple of weeks before this episode aired (on November 25th) and was played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California (the only time its ever been played there). The game is usually played in Philadelphia.

⁴ When Magnum and T.C. are driving to the drug sting, the first fleeting external shot of the Ferrari is taken from the first season episode "All Roads Lead to Floyd" (1.13). T.C. is wearing a sweatband on his head and the car they overtake is Floyd's beat-up Honda N600.

⁵ The U.S. Navy SEALs are mentioned for the first time in network TV history, but Magnum's involvement in the Seals is not mentioned. Verbal verification of Magnum's involvement with the Seals will not be made until the Season Six episode "Rapture" (6.11).

⁶ Look closely when Magnum and Carol jump off the office building roof into the garbage truck. Kathleen Lloyd's stunt double jumps a little too far out from the edge of the roof. Her left heal hits the back edge of the garbage truck bed and her shoe is launched, like a rocket, up and out of the shot!

⁷ The fictional beer "Old Dusseldorf" is seen for the first time. This is Magnum's favorite beer and will be seen or mentioned only a handful of times. Magnum describes it as "...an old German beer brewed in Maryland". It is hard to find on the islands.

⁸ Sal Viscuso (Herbie Franklin, the security guard) was the uncredited, unseen P.A. system announcer in the classic television series M*A*S*H. He also made several other brief appearances as other characters throughout the series, usually as a patient at the 4077th. Sal is also best remembered for playing the controversial character Father Timothy Flotsky (a Roman Catholic priest struggling with his vow of celibacy) on the 1970's television series Soap.

⁹ Carol's oceanfront house is seen for the first time. Her full name is mentioned by Magnum as "Carol Douglas". Her last name will change to "Baldwin" for all future episodes. We also learn that Carol took a year off between college and law school to attend a culinary school in Paris.

¹⁰ A small snippet from this episode can be seen in The Sopranos episode "For All Debts Public and Private", the first episode of Season Four. Christopher Moltisanti is watching it.

¹¹ The rarely-seen side patio (just off of Higgins' study) set is used for a dinner scene involving Magnum, Higgins and Carol. This set is only used a handful of times in the series.

¹² The climactic car chase was filmed in Kahala. The car chase ends at Waialae Beach Park (the same location used for the King Kamehameha Club "beach bar" setting!) and the Magnum-Fenady foot chase begins... and quickly ends.

¹³ Higgins was once trampled by a herd of wild South American capybaras (date unknown). It was in Peru, perhaps Bolivia.

Quotes

¹
(after plowing into Higgins while trying to catch a football)
T.C.: Higgy-Baby, are you alright?!

²
(Carol's drunk at the King Kamehameha Club beach bar)
Magnum: How many has she had?
Rick: Count the umbrellas, we're talking doubles.
Magnum: Why'd you keep serving her?
Rick: Hey, Thomas, I tried to stop her, but she stood up and started yelling a bunch of legal stuff at me. Look, ya gotta get her out of the Club. It doesn't look good. It doesn't look good for the Deputy D.A. either.
Carol: Waiter, I'd like another Mai Tai, por favor.

³
Higgins: Magnum, stop living in the past.
Magnum: Me? Me?! Higgins, you've enshrined yours. You quote every boring war story like it was carved in stone.
Higgins: Boring?
Rick: Don't worry Higgins, I like your stories.
T.C.: Yeah, me too.
Higgins: I do think I tell them with a certain panache.

⁴
(explaining why he had to use chicken in his recipe)
Higgins: When you have to explain to the butcher what a partridge is, there's little chance of obtaining one.

⁵
Magnum: In that Army-Navy game, where I went 21-30, one of the passes I missed was intercepted. The fastest man on the Army team caught it and he got past everybody, until I was the only guy left who had a chance to catch him. The guy was faster than me and I knew it, but I wasn't going to get beat by my own mistake. (Narration)
(Magnum dives and tackles Fenady)

Flubs

¹ In the opening scene, T.C. runs to catch a pass from Magnum from the road side of the property, toward the main entrance door of the estate house (where the cars are parked). After they celebrate the catch, T.C. and Magnum line up to run another pattern facing the gate on the road side of the property. Magnum heaves the ball with T.C. in pursuit, and the pass play culminates with T.C. steamrolling Higgins back in the same place where it began. They way the whole thing is setup, T.C. should have been running away from Higgins instead of towards him. (Noted by lutherhgillis)

² Also in the opening scene with T.C. and Magnum playing football on the Estate's lawn, when T.C. and Magnum celebrate the catch, the football is seen rolling several feet away from them and then, suddenly, it instantaneously appears at T.C.'s feet. (Noted by Bernd-Christian Schulz)

³ When Magnum and Carol are being chased by the two bad guys in the office building, they enter a stairwell and descend one flight of stairs. They then exit the stairwell and find themselves on the roof of the building! Is there an invisible floor above the roof?

⁴ Near the end of the episode, when Fenady and Carol are in the car and T.C. and Magnum are chasing them in T.C.'s minivan, there is a "street shot" with one car parked along the curb. The scene changes to a close-up of Fenady and Carol then quickly goes back to the street. You now see two cars parked along side the curb. (Noted by Wally)

Shoot me an email if you'd like to have something added or corrected

---

---