Going Home

Episode Number: 113
Season Number: 6.7
Air Date: 10/31/1985
Writer: Chris Abbott
Story: Gene Donalds
Director: Harry Harris
Producer: Chris Abbott
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

Gwen Verdon (Katherine Peterson), Joe Regalbuto (Don Eddie Rice), Julie Cobb (Karen), Brandon Call (Billy)

Guest Stars

David Huddleston (Frank Peterson), Irene Tedrow (Mrs. Wilson), James Staley (Steve), Vera Hussey-Forbes (Miss Winobe), David Traylor (Policeman)

Episode Brief

After thirteen years away, Thomas returns to Tidewater, Virginia to attend the funeral of his grandfather Everett, and reopens a long-running family feud when he suspects his stepfather of stealing and selling a missing family heirloom; a letter from Abraham Lincoln.

Rating

8.3

(36 votes)

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Notes

¹ Unusual for the show, there is no opening preview for this episode. Also, the episode title appears center-screen, not the usual bottom-left.

² Higgins, Rick and T.C. do not appear in this episode. This is the only episode where Higgins and Rick do not make an appearance. T.C. misses three episodes total, including "Dead Man's Channel" (2.2) and "Who is Don Luis Higgins?" (6.19).

³ This is only the second episode to feature no scenes in Hawaii, following "Deja Vu" (6.1). Except for the final scene in Washington, D.C., all of the scenes in this episode take place in Magnum's hometown of Tidewater, Virginia.

⁴ Magnum had a half brother named "Joey" who was killed in the Vietnam War! Based on the home movies shown, Thomas appeared to be about eight or nine years older than Joey. Joey was the son of his mother Katherine and his stepfather Frank Peterson. Magnum never mentioned Joey before and he won't be mentioned again.

⁵ During his trip to the mainland, Magnum visits the following places: Hampton Roads ("Tidewater"), Virginia (his hometown, and his first visit in 15 years), the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the Washington Monument.

⁶ Broadway legend Gwen Verdon begins her role as Katherine Peterson, Magnum's mother. She returns in "Forty" (7.17), "Infinity and Jelly Doughnuts" (8.1), "Resolutions" (8.12 & 8.13). Susan Blanchard originally played this role in the 1950s flashback sequences in "Home From the Sea" (4.1). Joe Regalbuto (Don Eddie Rice), Julie Cobb (Karen) and Brandon Call (Billy) will return for the show's finale "Resolutions" (8.12 & 8.13).

⁷ The high school reunion sequence features the real high school photos of Tom Selleck and Joe Regalbuto. At Tidewater High School, Thomas was voted "Homecoming King" and "Class Clown", and future taxi driver Don Eddie Rice was voted "Most Likely to Succeed".

⁸ Tom Selleck's father, Bob Selleck, plays Magnum's grandfather (Grandpa Everett) in the home movies shown at the start of this episode.

⁹ All of the scenes set at Thomas Magnum's boyhood home were filmed on location at a private residence in the Manoa Valley, in the neighborhood of College Hills (Terrace Drive). (ID'd by rubber chicken)

¹⁰ Several classic original "oldies" can be heard in this episode: "Come Go With Me" by the Del-Vikings, "When I Fall in Love" by Nat King Cole, "Duke of Earl" by Gene Chandler, and Joe Cocker's version of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released". The Cocker song is memorably highlighted at the end of the episode when Magnum visits the Vietnam Memorial.

¹¹ Irene Tedrow (Mrs. Wilson, the antique dealer) is a recognizable actress who had a long, six-decade career in stage, film, television and radio (1940-1990). This was one of her last roles before retiring in 1990.

Quotes

¹
Magnum's eulogy for his grandfather
Magnum - Everett Wendell Currier wasn't like other people. Now I know every kid on earth thinks their grandfather is special, different than everyone else, but my grandfather, he had a gift. I mean, he was great at the usual stuff - pitching baseball's to you, showing you how to build things, running behind you on your two-wheeler till you got your balance just right, showing you how to memorize your graduation speech, and then sticking around after the graduation ceremonies to tell you it was ok that you forgot most of it. In fact, whenever you needed him he had knack of being real close by, but his real gift... his real gift was knowing how to not take life too seriously. I mean, he had a way of sitting back and looking at the silly way things happen to turn out sometimes and knowing that that's exactly the way they are supposed to be, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if that's pretty much what he is doing right now. I know he'd be proud of me for remembering this whole speech without him helping me learn it, but the thing he would be most proud of, and that would be most important to him, would be knowing that we all got together here to remember the good times that we had with him, and to not feel sorry for ourselves because we have to go on now without him. I'll miss him, but I really can't ever believe he'll be very far away.

²
Billy: I'm gonna wait here for great-grandpaw. He's coming back.
Frank Peterson: You're gonna apply the seat of your pants to the seat of that car before I put your butt in a slang! You got that plebe!
Billy: No!!

³
Magnum: You know, a long time ago, before you were born, somebody I love very much went away... like grandpaw. And I didn't want him to go... so you know what I did?... I pretended he really wasn't gone. I just figured he had to come back someday if I really believed hard enough. And as time went on, and he didn't come back, I started getting real mad. I got mad at everybody who knew him, because I figured it was their fault he went away.
Billy: Was it?
Magnum: No, it wasn't anybody's fault.
Billy: He didn't come back?
Magnum: No... And the sad part is... I was so busy being mad that I never had a chance to tell him goodbye.
Billy: I don't know how to say goodbye.
Magnum: I don't either... Maybe we could figure out a way together.
(Magnum & Billy climb down from the treehouse)
Billy: Goodbye, grandpaw! Goodbye!... Goodbye.
(Billy cries and hugs Magnum)

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