Magnum Mania!

Professor Jonathan Higgins

Episode ID: 97
Episode Number: 5.13
Air Date: 1/10/1985
Writer: Jay Huguely
Story: Mary Lee Gaylor
Director: Peter Medak
Producer: Reuben Leder
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

Gillian Dobb (Agatha Chumley)

Guest Stars

Jillie Mack (Sally Ponting), Ronald Knight (Frank Ohmar), Lynn Wood (Mrs. Finch), David Traylor (Timothy Finch), Allan Graf (Henchman)

Plot Outline

It's marriage and other forms of mayhem when Magnum investigates a shady investment scheme and Higgins must make a Cinderella out of his punk-rock cousin before she marries the heir of an old Hawaiian family.

Rating

7.5 (11 votes) MM Episode Forum Thread & Poll

Notes

1 This is the eighth "Higgins-centric" episode of the series.

2 The title and storyline of this episode was inspired by George Bernard Shaw's classic play Pygmalion. The protagonist of that play is Professor Henry Higgins.

3 Agatha Chumley is featured heavily in this episode, much more so than usual. We get to see her driving a car for the first time. We don't get a great look at the car, but it appears to be a '63 Rambler American [pic]!

4 American Jillie Mack (Tom Selleck's wife of 20+ years) plays the British punk rocker Sally Ponting. Sally is Higgins' cousin, five times removed. Jillie had a minor role in "Rembrandt's Girl" (4.14) as a British New Wave'r [pic]!

5 The second time Magnum picks the lock on the building which houses Frank Ohmar's office, he appears to do it correctly! He uses two hands, with what appears to be a pick and a tension wrench. Usually when he picks locks, he works the cylinder with one hand and just a pick, which in reality is impossible! (Noted by N1095A)

6 The wedding scene was filmed at St. Andrew's Cathedral in Honolulu. This same church was used for the wedding scene in Season Three's "I Do?" (3.17).

7 At the very end of the episode, John Hillerman (as Higgins), for a brief sentence, speaks with his normal Texan accent.

8 Kengi the gardener is seen briefly at the estate. He's also seen in "No Need to Know" (1.5), "Computer Date" (2.14) & "Echoes of the Mind (1)" (5.1 & 5.2). Kengi never has any speaking lines in the show.

Quotes

1
Magnum: It's you. That is not Sally talking, it's Jonathan Higgins, or Henry Higgins.
Higgins: I beg your pardon.
Magnum: You're doing to Sally exactly what Rex Harrison did to Audrey Hepburn - My Fair Lady. You're using her as a guinea pig for your own self-indulgant experiment.
Higgins: If there were a comparison to be made it would be what Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree did to Mrs. Patrick Campbell in the G.B. Shaw classic Pygmalion, but there isn't. I'm simply trying to help Sally have what she desires, Mr. Timothy Finch.

Flubs

1 After Sally arrives she, Higgins and Agatha go into the Study. Sally is wearing very heavy make-up and fairly dark lipstick. As Higgins is explaining to Sally that Timothy's family will never accept her as she is, she is wearing the dark lipstick. Magnum comes barging into the Study and when Sally gets out of her chair to talk to Magnum she does not appear to be wearing the dark lipstick anymore. (Noted by IslandHopper)

2 When Magum is searching through Frank Ohmar's files and papers on his desk, the guy in the light blue sports coat catches Magnum and wrestles with him and they make their way out of the office and into the parking lot where the guy in the sports coat fires at Magnum several times and the gun sounds as if there is a silencer attached to it. However, the gun does not actually have a silencer. Later, when the same guy fires at T.C. as he is posing as an IRS agent, the gun, which appears to be the same gun as before, sounds like a typical loud, unsilenced gun firing. (Noted by IslandHopper)

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