On the Fly

Episode Number: 142
Season Number: 7.15
Air Date: 1/21/1987
Writer: Jay Huguely
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
Producer: Rick Weaver
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

Jeff MacKay (Jim "Mac" Bonnick)

Guest Stars

Annette Charles (Maria Torres), Byrne Piven (Pasqual Valez), Mike Moroff (Emilio), David Cadiente (Juan), Jimmy Ortega (Suertudo), David Traylor (Art), Bob Jones (Newscaster)

Episode Brief

T.C. is giving Thomas helicopter flying lessons when he is shot. With T.C. hospitalized, Mac appears on the scene, "volunteering" his services in running Island Hoppers. But it seems that the assailants were actually gunning for Magnum, after a week previously, somebody impersonated him when trying to blackmail a Mexican Mafia King. With Magnum marked as a dead man as a result of the mistaken identity, confusion and chaos reigns, and as per usual, Mac just happens to be in the middle of it all.

Rating

8.0

(30 votes)

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Notes

¹ Jeff MacKay returns as Jim "Mac" Bonnick for the first time in almost two years. He was last seen in "The Love-For-Sale Boat" (5.17).

² Lots of damage all around in this episode; T.C. and "Mac" are shot and hospitalized, Magnum gets whiplash, the Island Hoppers Vanagon is shot-up with automatic weapons fire, and there is an "Alamo-style" shootout in the main house at Robin's Nest with several fatalities (complete with rare slow motion kills, and a destroyed 1st edition O. Henry book)!

³ Annette Charles (Maria Torres) is credited as "Annette Cardona". Annette played Cha Cha DiGregorio in the 1978 musical film smash Grease. This episode of Magnum P.I. was her last credited television or film role.

⁴ Byrne Piven (Pasqual Valez) co-founded of the Playwrights Theatre Club, a forerunner of The Second City, and, along with his wife Joyce, founded the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, Illinois. He is the father of actor Jeremy Piven.

⁵ Magnum compares his stint as an aviator to women in movies. He talks about Doris Day in Julie (1956), Karen Black in Airport (1970) and Julie Hagerty in Airplane (1980).

⁶ Higgins is fluent in Spanish and is a member of the "Goldfish Club", "a group who's restricted to those select few who've jumped over 5,000 feet into ocean water". Also, his Webley Mk VI .455 service revolver is seen again.

⁷ The newscaster broadcasting the shooting of T.C. was real-life and long-time Hawaii newscaster Bob Jones. Today Bob writes a weekly column concerned with mostly political current events in Hawaii in a weekly publication called "Mid-Week". (Noted by Tuan Vu)

⁸ "Mac" has several old and valuable comic books that are discussed in this episode - Marvel Comics "Vol. 1", the first "Tales from the Crypt" (1950) and Huey, Dewey, and Louie "On Vacation" (1963). Higgins sells them at the end to pay for the destroyed 1st Edition O. Henry book.

⁹ Higgins quotes Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington; "Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won".

¹⁰ Magnum says he's a "cheese freak".

¹¹ The beat-up old car that Magnum and Rick use to fool the bad guys is a Checker Taxi with no taxi markings. (Noted by Sam & SelleckLover)

Quotes

¹
Magnum: Any luck on Mac yet?
Rick: Landlady says she hasn't seen him since early this morning, but I got the place staked out. He's probably in some chopper chop shop somewhere.
Magnum: Rick, we don't know for sure if Mac took the chopper.
Rick: Hey, will you quit defending him!
Magnum: I'm not defending him, exactly.
Rick: Yes you are! This bum has conned us all at least once. You better start realizing this isn't your good old honest friend "Mac". Thomas, the real "Mac" is dead. And this Jim...
Magnum: Jim Bonnick...
Rick: The point is that you gotta quit letting him off so easy because he looks like the old "Mac", Thomas.
Magnum: I am not letting him off, but I still don't think he can be connected to an attempt on T.C.

²
Higgins: The sixth century Vishnu from the Temple of Angkor and the Gauguin deserve to survive.

³
(During a shootout at the estate)
Magnum: Higgins, where are the dogs?
Higgins: At the kennel, for a grooming.
Magnum: Great, you picked today to give them a haircut?!
Higgins: I had no way of knowing you and me would be fighting the Alamo this afternoon. Really Magnum, you had no right to involve Robin Masters estate in your clandestine affairs.
(short time later, several books are "shot up")
Higgins: O. Henry 1st edition destroyed! Balzac barely spared!

Flubs

¹ When T.C.'s Island Hoppers Vanagon is shot-up with automatic weapons fire, the windows are thoroughly damaged. However, immediately afterwards (at the 16:42 mark), in an interior shot of the van, the windows are seen to be completely intact! (Noted by Bernd-Christian Schulze)

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