The Return of Luther Gillis

Episode Number: 79
Season Number: 4.16
Air Date: 2/16/1984
Writer: Reuben Leder
Director: John Llewellyn Moxey
Producer: Reuben Leder
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

Eugene Roche (Luther H. Gillis), Wally Landford (Artie Keanu)

Guest Stars

Geoffrey Lewis (Lloyd DeWitt), Sheree North (Blanche Rafferty), Jeff Harlan (Jack Gillis), Kanani Choy (Big Sally), Jim Bertino (Scrungo), Jana Linden (Jo), Jake Hoopai (Guard), Gabriel Aio (Little Tony)

Episode Brief

St. Louis gumshoe Luther H. Gillis returns to Hawaii, accompanied by his secretary Blanche, to attend the annual Private Investigators convention, where Luther has been informed he will receive an award. But while Luther and Magnum attend the convention, Higgins and Blanche are kidnapped from the Estate, and the two P.I.'s find themselves having to join forces once again.

Rating

8.2

(42 votes)

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Notes

¹ This is the second "Luther-centric" episode of the series. It is best viewed after the first Luther Gillis episode, "Luther Gillis: File #521" (4.2), as events, characters and "inside jokes" are referenced from that episode. We learn that Luther's daughter Nancy is now at a boarding school in Chicago.

² Guest star Sheree North (Blanche Rafferty) is a notable actress, singer, and dancer who was once promoted as "the next Marilyn Monroe". Her 40-year career began as a USO dancer in WWII (as a ten-year-old). She later went on to appear in many memorable roles on stage, screen, and television. In 1976, she appeared with Tom Selleck in the TV movie Most Wanted.

³ The opening trailer features an exchange between Luther and Magnum that does not appear in the actual episode - Magnum: "No!", Luther: "Are you telling me, we're not staying here?", Magnum: "Yes!". (Noted by Jay-Firestorm)

⁴ A stock footage aerial shot of the St. Louis Gateway Arch is used for the opening scene.

⁵ N. Hotel Street in Chinatown is used briefly as a filming location for a night scene shot. The Swing Club strip club can be seen in the background. This exact location will be famously used for the "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" sequence with Frank Sinatra in Season Seven's "Laura" (7.18).

⁶ Geoffrey Lewis (Lloyd DeWitt) co-starred with Tom Selleck in the 1982 television film western The Shadow Riders. Geoffrey will guest star again on Magnum P.I. in Season Six's "I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway" (6.12).

⁷ Higgins says, "While the Higgins lineage is decidedly distinguished, it is not of the realm", implying that he is not in the English Peerage. This will later be contradicted in Season Five's "Echoes of the Mind" (5.1 & 5.2) where we learn that he is actually a Baron.

⁸ Luther carries a Smith & Wesson Model 36 (.38 Special) in this episode. In "Luther Gillis: File #521" he carried a Smith & Wesson Model 19 (.357 Magnum).

⁹ Lloyd Dewitt wears a "hot dog shirt". Rick wore a different "hot dog shirt" in Season One's "China Doll" (1.3). That's right, the show features two different "hot dog shirts" that will be worn by different characters some four years apart!

¹⁰ The Sony Walkman that Magnum uses while lounging in the hammock on the estate lawn appears to be the WM-10 model, the smallest cassettee-playing Walkman model. (Noted by Cameron B. Prince)

¹¹ After getting hit over the head with a frying pan, Luther sings several lines from the classic pop standard "You Always Hurt the One You Love".

¹² Blanche tells Higgins that she met Luther Gillis on July 12th, 1953, "a big full moon was shining and the Browns beat the Tigers." The St. Louis Browns really did beat the Detroit Tigers on July 12th, 1953. They played a double-header that day and lost the first game. (Noted by Jeff Christian)

¹³ At the P.I. convention, the following amusing pages can be heard over the PA system - "Mr. Leibowitz. Mr. 'Lead Pipe' Leibowitz, you are wanted in the barbershop" and "Phone call for Harry 'The Shadow' Martini. Phone call Harry Martini".

¹⁴ Magnum tries to read Tolstoy's War and Peace. To make War and Peace more authentic, Magnum listens to a recording of Tschaikovsky's famous Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23. You can hear a few significant bars of it when he takes off the headphones. (Noted by Bernd-Christian Schulze)

¹⁵ "Scrungo", Magnum and Luther's cell mate from "Luther Gillis: File #521" (4.2), makes a brief, humorous appearance.

¹⁶ Gabriel Aio (Little Tony) is a career criminal. 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).

¹⁷ The wedding music at the end is "Clair de lune" by Claude Debussy. (Noted by massimo piai)

¹⁸ Higgins was in Albania (date unknown) where he was imprisoned in a zipper factory with Bertie Farnbush and his maiden sister, and used her hairpin to escape.

Quotes

¹
Luther Gillis: Welcome to St. Louie. Maybe it ain't the best of towns, but it ain't the worst either. So what if the football team and the baseball team got to share the same nickname. Who cares, I call it home.

²
Magnum: Higgins, I can explain.
Higgins: I knew I could count on hearing that pathetic little phrase once again. It is as regular as the rising and setting of the...

³
Luther Gillis: Computers are for sissies!
Lloyd DeWitt: Oh, really. Well, let me tell you that computers and electronics are the wave of the future in this industry. Foot tails and stakeouts will become as obsolete as Panama hats and the ubiquitous informants out on the street. Be ready for the future, or you'll wind up in the past.
Luther: Who said that?
Lloyd DeWitt: I did. It's in my book, 'Private Investigative Techniques in the Computer Age: Software and You'. You can pick one up in the lobby for $7.95.

⁴
(to Magnum)
Luther Gillis: Sorry! I forgot my loin cloth and spear!

⁵
Higgins: Please, Ms. Rafferty, I fail to see how some sordid detail from the past can have any relevance to our current plight.

⁶
Blanche Rafferty: Hey, are you some kind of Duke or something, maybe a Count?
Higgins: Ms. Rafferty, although the Higgins lineage is decidedly distinguished, it is not of the realm.

⁷
Luther Gillis: I was beginning to get the feeling that I was stuck with the big guy for the duration. The only thing more depressing than that was this case, because we'd run out of leads. You try being a detective with no leads. It's like a tailor without a needle, or Godzilla without Tokyo, or... (Narration)
Magnum: A bad guy without a motive. (Narration)
Luther Gillis: Did you say something?
Magnum: What?...Nope.

⁸
Magnum: This was done by dot matrix.
Luther Gillis: Who's dot matrix, and what's she got to do with this?
Magnum: She's a computer, Luther!

Flubs

¹ Blanche says she met Luther on July 12, 1953, but in "Luther Gillis: File #521" (4.2), Luther says she's been with him since '51. (Noted by Mike Barnes)

² When Magnum is driving at night on his way to the brothel, the shot of him driving the Ferrari (possibly stock footage) shows him to be wearing a white shirt. When he enters the brothel, he is wearing a blue floral shirt. (Noted by Jay-Firestorm)

³ During the fight at the brothel, at around the 27 minute mark, you can clearly see the stunt double's face for Tom Selleck. Also during the fight, after the assailant smashes an end table, Selleck goes to throw a right hook but the other actor is not where he should be, so Selleck "pulls the punch". (Noted by Jeff Christian)

⁴ In the scene where Magnum and Luther are driving in the Ferrari, they pass a lighthouse (at 35.22). A little more than 30 seconds later they pass the same lighthouse again, going in the same direction! (Noted by Bernd-Christian Schulze)

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