Magnum Mania!

Transitions

Episode ID: 160
Episode Number: 8.11
Air Date: 2/17/1988
Writer: Chris Abbott
Director: Harry Harris
Producer: Rick Weaver
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

Eugene Roche (Luther H. Gillis), Shavar Ross (Bryant Calvin), Phyllis Davis (Cleo Mitchell)

Guest Stars

Ray Buktenica (Bruce Kunkle), Randi Brooks (Suzi Merrill)

Plot Outline

Magnum helps Higgins try to locate Robin Masters' stolen manuscript and receives some unwanted assistance from St. Louis-based private eye Luther Gillis.

Rating

8.0 (7 votes) MM Episode Forum Thread & Poll

Notes

1 Eugene Roche returns as St. Louie gumshoe Luther H. Gillis for the fifth and final time.

2 The opening scene features Magnum going through most of his "stuff" that we've come to know over the years - the rubber chicken, the gorilla mask, the bug mask, handheld computer games, his Navy football helmet, his A.A.P.I. award, his "Cat Lover of the Year Award", even the Raiders hat and whip from "Legend of the Lost Art" (8.10).

3 The thirteenth and final Robin Masters novel is identified - Transitions. The other (known) Robin Masters novels are:

• Babes in Babylon - "Squeeze Play" (4.7) & "The Case of the Red Faced Thespian" (4.12)
• Fruit of Passion - "Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too" (1.4)
• The Golden Spike - "J. "Digger" Doyle" (1.17)
• Tahiti Kill (also made into a film) - "Double Jeopardy" (2.19)
• The Seamy Side of Dawn - "Birdman of Budapest" (3.16)
• Golden Tradewinds - "Two Birds of a Feather" (3.20)
• Blood of the August Kitten - "The Big Blow" (3.22)
• Tales of the Voyeur - "Little Games" (5.12)
• Die, and Die Again - "The Man From Marseilles" (5.20)
• The Treasure of Kalaniopu'u - "The Treasure of Kalaniopu'u" (6.9)
• Serpent's Whisper - "Novel Connection" (7.9)
• Echoes of Ecstasy - "Novel Connection" (7.9)

We also learn that Robin feels that having more than one copy of a working manuscript is "bad luck", and he destroys his dictation audio tapes after the written manuscript is received. His publisher is a Ms. Donaldson.

4 Bruce Kunkle has been Robin Master's accountant for ten years.

5 Higgins flips the Audi (sabotaged brakes) and suffers a broken leg and a banged up head.

6 Zeus and Apollo are shot with a tranquilizer gun (again).

7 Suzi Merrill's hotel, the "Paoakalani Hotel", is fictional. There is, however, a Paoakalani Avenue in Waikiki.

Quotes

1
Magnum: I guess the earliest memory I have of my grandfather Sullivan is the kind of heart-to-heart talk we had while walking by the Rappahannock River when I was six years old. We used to hunt for wild asparagus down by the river to take home to my mom to cook for dinner. Anyway, on this particular walk my grandfather confided in me that probably the only thing you can count on in life is change .... that no matter how much you wanted things to stay the same they never did, and that change itself wasn't bad. It's just that, the transitions were sometimes tricky. Well, I'm not sure what he was talking about at the time. I was more interested in the asparagus than transition, but I never forgot it. And I guess if there is one thing that I could in some way pass on, it would be my grandfathers advice - don't be afraid of "transitions", they make you strong.
(short while later)
... Another thing my grandfather told me about change is that it doesn't always come along at a convenient time. In fact, it usually happens when you are right in the middle of doing something else, and that it's important to finish up whatever it is you are doing, even if it begins to feel like "dull routine". Because it's HOW you make the transitions that's as important as making them. At least, that's what I think he said. (Narration)

2
Luther Gillis: This is great. An honest to god case, not 24 hours after I drop anchor on this rock. An attempted murder at that! Who said the old lucky streak is running out? Any suspects?

Flubs

1 At about the 25:47 mark, a boom mic can be seen as Luther Gillis is walking and talking to Cleo and Suzi at the estate. (Noted by Dr. Russell K. Elleven)

Wish to add something? Got a correction? Shoot me an email.

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