If Magnum P.I. was a current show...

[Stelth]

I was wondering what Magnum P.I. would have been like if it was made today. To me, a big part of the appeal of the show is the sensibilities and attitudes of the 1980s. I'm not a big fan of current trends and I shudder to think what MPI would be like if it was trying to be "politically correct" and aimed at appealing to millennials and Generation Z. In my opinion, it would not be a good show if that was the case. It also gave me an idea for a game: What would the episodes of this "alternate Magnum" be called and how would they differ from the original? Here's my example:


Episode Number: 114 Pani-YOLO:
A supposed wealthy bi-racial teenage ranch owner hires Magnum to reason with a group of trespassing extreme-sport enthusiasts on Hawaii's Big Island. But, Magnum finds that his employer isn't quite all he seems and that the neighboring hegemon ranch owner is implicated of being behind the extreme-sport enthusiasts incursion on sacred native lands while being a business partner of Robin Masters'.

Anyone care to try one?

[The Birdman]

Everything about MPI is "timeless classic", the ferrari, the GMC Jimmy, his 1911 colt pistol. I want it exactly as it was.
So in modern times equivelent we would have him driving a Denali and I don't even know what car(?) and carrying what, a Glock?
I'm a car buff, a 4X4 buff and a gun buff, everything from the original show is STILL considered the best.
It'd be like how they remade "the "A" team". It did not hold a candle to the original.

[Stelth]

I agree. That is why I wouldn't go see a Magnum movie starring anyone but Tom Selleck.

[terryfromkerry]

I agree. That is why I wouldn't go see a Magnum movie starring anyone but Tom Selleck.

To quote Smokey Robinson " I second that emotion".

[J.J. Walters]

I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it would be like. No 80's? No Selleck? No Hillerman? With a reboot Hawaii Five-O look-n-feel? 21st century clothes/hair? No Cold War? Set in post-recession/Obama America?? It would be unrecognizable. Might as well give it a different name.

[Pahonu]

I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it would be like. No 80's? No Selleck? No Hillerman? With a reboot Hawaii Five-O look-n-feel? 21st century clothes/hair? No Cold War? Set in post-recession/Obama America?? It would be unrecognizable. Might as well give it a different name.

I agree JJ, but I might point out that MPI actually started filming its pilot around the time of the recession in the first half of 1980 during the Carter administration. There was also a much longer 5 quarter recession in the second half of 1981 and most of 1982 during the Reagan administration. I know of at least one episode that referenced the bad economy. In The Taking of Dick McWilliams, McWilliams' partner's girlfriend complains about the inflation and the price of gas. We mostly remember the 80's for the economic boom of the latter half and forget it started off very differently.

As to no Cold War, the most pressing foreign policy concern in recent history is obviously internantional terrorism, but Putin might throw a wrench into the works.

[J.J. Walters]

I know, that's why Magnum was living in the guest house. He couldn't stomach the 12% interest rate on a mortgage.

I wasn't trying to make a comparison between the economic landscapes of then vs. now. I was just trying to highlight how different things are today. I should have thrown in "post-9/11" as well.

This comic book proposal I think best sums up what it would like in today's world. Very different, but somewhat intriguing as well.

[BWheelz54]

I am going to chime in a bit on the other side of the coin here. I think that MPI could very well fly today. I think there are a lot of themes at the heart of MPI that would do very well in a transplant from the 80's to the 2010's.

First, I think you have the theme of healing following the trauma of war, of what war does to those who sacrificed and gave everything they had to honor and defend our country. I never thought MPI was a "mouthpiece" for one political side of the debate or the other on the issue of Vietnam. Sure, maybe it leaned one way or the next from one episode to another, but I don't think MPI was ever heavy-handed either way. (There were times when Thomas and the crew rightfully held liberals accountable for some real bullshit during the era, but if you recall, Thomas and the gang also held the military to the fire for bullshit in the era - especially in the first season). Instead, I love MPI for showing how these characters - with hurts and scars - help one another, how they are loyal to one another. I think we owe a lot to MPI for making sure we do not forget those who serve after they return home, or after the parades are over. Now, I think a show like that is really needed following the second war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan and the ongoing war on terrorism and extremism. My goodness, especially after some of the heartbreaking news I've been reading about the VA care system. The theme of healing from both the physical and emotional hurts, I think, is really needed on television in a mature, emphatic way, a way that MPI gave us in the 80s.

Hey, at the risk of maybe frustrating some folks, let me say that, politically, I'm a real middle-of-the-road kinda voter. I feel so frustrated by how extreme everything is. Now, and maybe I was too young to really know, but I seem to remember that the 80's was kinda a time when the country kinda came together again. Maybe it was Reagan. Or whatever reason. I think MPI does try to show a country where characters do strive to be empathetic - maybe, like the real world, it doesn't always work out, but there was an effort in the show. Oh, how I wish some of the "noise" from the far side of both political dials would quiet so folks could gather back a bit together in the middle once more. I thought the original MPI did just that, and I think a new MPI could do so again.

I also think that, with Higgins especially, there is also a strand of a theme of trying to reconcile the past with the present. MPI so deftly paid respect to the generation before it. Now, an MPI on tv during the 2010's could repeat that trick again. Instead of paying a sly homage to Higgins' era (that era of the greatest generation), you have the new MPI honoring Magnum's era (that baby-boomer generation). Now, some are sure going to grumble, and people since the start of time have always yearned for "the good old days," but I think the first Magnum was so great by reminding folks how good does continue from one generation to the next. Again, not always easy to see at first, but illuminated during the course of an episode. Again, I think all of us could use to be reminded that the present isn't always as bad as some folks think. I do think the original MPI made that kind of comment in a way that always respected the previous generation. Man, I again so think we need just that.

SO, I think MPI could indeed work. But I'm not going to argue against anyone who would say a revamped MPI would be impossible to successfully pitch to a studio. The television and movie studios, the publishing world, and any creative business at all it seems anymore, is so mired in formula. Take no chance. Ever. On anything new. Movies, shows and books are just so pigeon-holed. They are put in such a "shoebox." Honestly, I doubt any executive would have any interest taking a risk on a show based on CHARACTER. I notice a lot of people on the forum kinda dislike the new Hawaii Five-O. I admit, the several episodes I have seen haven't hooked me in. But to me, if you want to look at a show that is just straight formula, look at NCIS. I just can't enjoy that one at all. NCIS this city. NCIS that city. How about solving a crime without a computer? How about solving a crime based on how people are examined, rather than just forensics, again and again, and again. NCIS to me is so opposite in what MPI was all about. I don't know how MPI could get pitched again without an executive going - "hey, let's make Thomas Magnum a forensic scientist instead of a SEAL, and Rick is good at computers.

Rambled again. But I think we so need MPI today, and given a chance beyond a pilot and three episodes, I think it could catch on.