Novel Connection

Episode Number: 136
Season Number: 7.9
Air Date: 11/19/1986
Writer: Jay Huguely
Director: Harry Harris
Producer: Rick Weaver
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

Glenn Cannon (Doc Ibold - voice only), Frank Atienza (Sgt. Puna)

Guest Stars

Angela Lansbury (Jessica Fletcher), Dorothy Loudon (Pamela Bates), Jessica Walter (Joan Fulton), Stephanie Faracy (Amy Salyer), Jared Martin (Arthur Houston), John McMartin (Jason Bryan), Ramon Bieri (Capt. Frank Browning), Don Matheson (Paul Mayfield)

Episode Brief

Higgins is driving visiting Pamela Bates - an old editor friend of Robin Masters' - to the Estate when someone tries to run them off the road and over a cliff. But it seems that it's not a case for Magnum, when Pamela insists on waiting for her own mainland investigator friend to arrive and look into it. Pamela's investigator friend turns out to be famous crime mystery writer Jessica Fletcher, and so both Jessica and Magnum set about investigating just who wants one of the visiting guests dead, and why.

Rating

7.8

(32 votes)

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Notes

¹ This is the second and final crossover episode of the series. The first one was a Simon and Simon (1981-1988) crossover in Season Three. This story will continue in the Murder, She Wrote episode "Magnum on Ice", where Magnum is framed for murder. As with the Simon and Simon episode, a new ending was filmed for syndication to make it a single, stand alone, episode. The Magnum P.I. - Complete Seventh Season DVD includes only the original version (along with Murder, She Wrote "Magnum on Ice" crossover episode), not the syndicated version.

² The Complete Seventh Season DVD features a six-minute mini-documentary on the Magnum P.I. - Murder, She Wrote crossover story called "Inside the Ultimate Crime Crossover" (Disc 2). It features commentary from Angela Lansbury, Robert Swanson (Murder, She Wrote executive producer), Chas. Floyd Johnson (Magnum P.I. producer) and Jay Huguely (Magnum P.I. producer/writer).

³ Like the season opener "L.A." (7.1 & 7.2), the guest cast is billed in alphabetical order, with the exception of Angela Lansbury who is billed as a 'Special Guest Star'.

⁴ Angela Lansbury (Jessica Fletcher) doesn't make an appearance until the second half of the episode, some 25 minutes in.

⁵ Two more Robin Masters novels are named, Echoes of Ecstasy and Serpent's Whisper. Pamela Bates was an editor for Robin who worked on several of his early novels.

⁶ Jason Bryan's house (where the murder takes place) was filmed at a private residence in Kahala (on Kahala Avenue). The house is known as Sunhala. Sunhala was previously used in Season One's "The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii" (1.8), and has also appeared in episodes of Rockford Files ("The Hawaiian Headache"), Hawaii Five-0 (the "V For Vashon" trilogy), and Charlie's Angels (as the Angels' homebase in the five "Hawaiian" episodes of Season 5: "To See An Angel Die", "Angels of the Deep", "Island Angels", "Waikiki Angels", and "Hula Angels"). (Noted by rubber chicken & Sam)

⁷ The "PacIsle Industries" building scene was filmed at the Topa Financial Center, Fort Street building (aka West Tower), at 700 Bishop Street in Honolulu. (Noted by rubber chicken)

⁸ One episode after it was blown up by Magnum, Higgins' River Kwai Bridge model has apparently been rebuilt and is back in its normal spot on a shelf in the study.

⁹ Timecapsule moment: T.C. is seen using a first generation (1G) mobile phone. This is the first time the show has featured a mobile phone.

¹⁰ The Audi is muscled off the road by a pickup truck and is banged up pretty good.

¹¹ Magnum mentions his Aunt Mildred again. "She is a master of reverse psychology".

Quotes

¹
(T.C.'s chopper lands on the estate lawn)
Higgins: (sigh) T.C. is landing here AGAIN without my permission!

²
Magnum: Everybody, deep down inside, thinks he, or she, are a private investigator. Jessica Fletcher was no exception. Despite her denials, I was sure that she fancied herself as the consummate crime solver. I had to admit that she had good instincts, but "diamonds" and "tan lines", while interesting observations, were not germane to the case and it's ok for a novelist to use germane clues in the literary process, but the criminologist has to have clues with a relativity to the relative. Well, you know what I mean. (Narration)

³
Jessica: If you don't mind I making a suggestion, I have a hunch that it's Amy who might be in some kind of trouble, and not Joan.
Magnum: Uh, I don't play "hunches". I stick to logic and deductive reasoning.

Flubs

¹ In the chopper flight scene (mark 10:13), the backseats of T.C.'s chopper are unoccupied, then suddenly we see Rick sitting there (at 10:24). Additionally, the chopper has skids at the beginning of the flight (10:13), then floats (10:54) and then skids again (at 27:15). (Noted by Bernd-Christian Schulze)

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