The Chinese Typewriter

[80s Big Hair]

This is a pilot for a TV show from 1979 starring Tom Selleck playing a private investigator in Oahu. Watching it I was mildly unsettled as it seemed so familiar, yet everything was off. I guess it seemed surreal to me like I was dreaming or had a fever. Some of the locations (including Robin's Nest) are also the same.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319180/ IMDb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKvJK_Z2BTw YouTube full video

[NotthatRick]

Thanks for posting this. And welcome to the forum!

[Styles Bitchley]

Thanks man. I’ve been meaning to watch this for some time. It’s on the watch list.

[Pahonu]

This is a pilot for a TV show from 1979 starring Tom Selleck playing a private investigator in Oahu. Watching it I was mildly unsettled as it seemed so familiar, yet everything was off. I guess it seemed surreal to me like I was dreaming or had a fever. Some of the locations (including Robin's Nest) are also the same.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319180/ IMDb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKvJK_Z2BTw YouTube full video

They’re actually in the LA area. The elevator they use to go to their place is the Hollywood High Tower Elevator. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hig ... -hollywood

The scenes in the motorhome were in the Hollywood Hills. The Spanish home that was the embassy is also there in the hills.

Are there even scenes showing them at actual Hawaii locations? I own the DVD and remember thinking that they used Robin’s Nest only as establishing shots. The interiors were not there. The same for the embassy scenes. The establishing shot was The Enchanted Hill, now gone like Pahonu. https://www.google.com/amp/s/paradisele ... arion/amp/

[80s Big Hair]

They’re actually in the LA area. The elevator they use to go to their place is the Hollywood High Tower Elevator. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hig ... -hollywood

The scenes in the motorhome were in the Hollywood Hills. The Spanish home that was the embassy is also there in the hills.

Are there even scenes showing them at actual Hawaii locations? I own the DVD and remember thinking that they used Robin’s Nest only as establishing shots. The interiors were not there. The same for the embassy scenes. The establishing shot was The Enchanted Hill, now gone like Pahonu. https://www.google.com/amp/s/paradisele ... arion/amp/

Thanks for the information. I posted this after seeing only a few minutes of the show so you might see why I would think that it took place in Oahu. Now that I have "sort of" watched the whole thing (I found it not all that good and was not paying attention) you are clearly correct. Without ever being in Los Angeles I did recognize some things-- the things that are in every TV show that takes place there.

The thing that freaked me out the most was the Al's Automotive cap that was worn in both shows.

Thanks again-- I knew the experts here would clarify things.

[Steve-O]

Thanks man. I’ve been meaning to watch this for some time. It’s on the watch list.

In 2018 I posted some quick-and-dirty commentary of this in the TS Movies topic.
Check here: http://magnum-mania.com/Forum/viewtopic ... ese#p57158
Minimal spoilers (if that might worry anyone!).

[K Hale]

I seem to recall there’s a beach scene in an early season one episode that they say was actually cribbed from “The Chinese Typewriter.” So there must be at least one Hawaii scene in the movie. As I recall, it’s a girl in a bikini using a beach shower, and it’s either in “China Doll” or the one about the clairvoyant lady and the missing boyfriend.

This quarantine might drive me to watch this movie!

[Styles Bitchley]

I seem to recall there’s a beach scene in an early season one episode that they say was actually cribbed from “The Chinese Typewriter.” So there must be at least one Hawaii scene in the movie. As I recall, it’s a girl in a bikini using a beach shower, and it’s either in “China Doll” or the one about the clairvoyant lady and the missing boyfriend.

This quarantine might drive me to watch this movie!

I seem to remember a bikini shower girl in Missing in Action...

[K Hale]

I seem to recall there’s a beach scene in an early season one episode that they say was actually cribbed from “The Chinese Typewriter.” So there must be at least one Hawaii scene in the movie. As I recall, it’s a girl in a bikini using a beach shower, and it’s either in “China Doll” or the one about the clairvoyant lady and the missing boyfriend.

This quarantine might drive me to watch this movie!

I seem to remember a bikini shower girl in Missing in Action...

That’s the one, the one about the clairvoyant girl and missing boyfriend. Where we get to meet Buck Greene for the first time except he’s not Buck Greene yet.

[TBOU]

Great find! Never heard of it, but I’ll have to watch it. I guess it took a few iterations of the Selleck and Magnum idea to get it right. The red VE bug convertible in the opening is a good looking alternative to a Ferrari... well at least it is a red European convertible too...

[Gorilla Mask]

I seem to recall there’s a beach scene in an early season one episode that they say was actually cribbed from “The Chinese Typewriter.” So there must be at least one Hawaii scene in the movie. As I recall, it’s a girl in a bikini using a beach shower, and it’s either in “China Doll” or the one about the clairvoyant lady and the missing boyfriend.

This quarantine might drive me to watch this movie!

I seem to remember a bikini shower girl in Missing in Action...

Hi Styles, you're right. This orange bikini girl was also already "recycled" for "China Doll".

I downloaded "The Chinese Typewriter" too. I will try to watch it during a break... However, it does not seems to "bust the walls"...