CBS Canceled the Reboot

[Lindsay Writer]

https://deadline.com/2022/05/magnum-pi- ... 235018361/

[Styles Bitchley]

Thanks for sharing. I know it wasn't loved by most of us vintage Magnum fans, but I liked the fact that it kept Magnum PI alive here in the 21st century. I even enjoyed watching a few episodes!

[Chris109]

Oh, no. Not canceled.

[JungleBird]

I'm actually surprised it even got to 4 seasons.
It was missing pretty much any of the Magnum "spirit" that made the original show so unique.
Sad to think it likely made the chance of a movie or good spin-off (Magnum's daughter...) happening much lower.

[308GUY]

Thanks for sharing. I know it wasn't loved by most of us vintage Magnum fans, but I liked the fact that it kept Magnum PI alive here in the 21st century. I even enjoyed watching a few episodes!

This is pretty much my stance as well.

Part of my pea brain is almost wondering if the "cancellation" is a publicity ploy to get the fans riled enough to start a petition to have the reboot...rebooted.....you know like the original when it was supposed to be over with Limbo......cause a stir....grab attention....get it on the tips of all the current fans tongues. Not even close to the same scenario...but knowing how PR works.....anything's possible.

I will miss seeing the Oahu backdrops and scenery.....maybe they'll do "Hawaiian Eye" next....and it'll actually be filmed on Oahu!

Can't say I'll miss JH masquerading as TM though...if you don't count shiggins (although I though P.W. did a good job and is a good actress) I really didn't mind the other "stars" portrayals of the characters they were representing....but no matter HOW many seasons it lasted....I could just never see JH as TM.....sorry guy.
Also thought they added Kumu AND Katsumoto to try to make up for the lack of JQH and the all that he brought to the play.

Maybe "Lost" is coming back? LOL!

[Capa150]

I watched two or three episodes of the new Magnum ... I blame the writers.

I don't think the writing was up-to-snuff compared to the original Magnum.

It all starts with the script. And they just didn't have it. The actors can only do so much.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

So much for the blossoming romance between Mini-Mag and Shiggins. I guess that's dead in the water now. We'll never find out... will they or won't they...

I just thought of something pretty interesting. Today for a show to last only 4 seasons seems like an indication that the show isn't good or didn't have enough of an audience. I mean what successful show today lasts only 4 seasons?? NCIS is like on season 20 now or something??? Sheesh! If a show today runs for only 4 seasons chances are it will quickly be forgotten.

But back in the day a 4-season run for a successful show was pretty normal. They're still showing reruns of KNIGHT RIDER which only ran 4 seasons. That's definitely a show that will never just fade away. THE A-TEAM only ran 5 seasons (not even full seasons 1 and 5) and will also never be forgotten. It was a ratings hit too! Even though the execs and critics hated it. AIRWOLF only ran 3 seasons, yet it's still a big part of 80s television!

In the 70s you had successful cop shows like STREETS OF SAN FRAN and KOJAK that ran 5 seasons each. You'd expect those shows today to run at least for 10 seasons. Look at all those CSI's.

In the 60s you had STAR TREK (3 seasons), I SPY (also 3), THE BIG VALLEY (4 seasons), WILD WILD WEST (also 4), and other hit shows that just never made it to 4 or 5 seasons. Yet they're still being watched today. I say it's a case of quality over quantity. Give me 4 seasons of a really great show over 20 seasons of garbage. Even though evidently there's an audience for that "garbage". I wonder why shows didn't last as long back in the day. There was certainly less content to choose from, having only 3 networks. Yet with the exception of GUNSMOKE, BONANZA, and FIVE-O shows just didn't have a very long run.

[albert_m]

I wanted to like it. I agree with the comment about lacking spirit... I just felt the charisma/charm wasn't there.

I understand that it needed to be its own thing and updated, but if you're going to use the brand, there must be brand intact.

[Mark de Croix]

Amazing it even lasted that long. 4 seasons, hell, that was really generous of the studios. It's just like cover songs. Few ever come close to the originals. Fine wine can't be duplicated. It's that simple. I flogged myself to watch it and was intrigued the very first scene of him blasted from outer space to Earth--fantastic--but it all petered out after that. I never went back. I'm just thankful that the original series is so available and a ton of them I've yet to see.

[charybdis1966]

Amazing it even lasted that long. 4 seasons, hell, hat was really generous of the studios. It's just like cover songs. Few ever come close to the originals. Fine wine can't be duplicated. It's that simple. I flogged myself to watch it ......

You're a better man than me Mark, I barely got past 15 minutes of watching it.

In the past I'd say the problem with reboots is that of the writers being unadventurous and lacking the imagination to come up with new material rather than just rebooting/rehashing existing franchises but I failed to realise that writers only come up with what TV Execs and producers ask for.

So instead of taking a risk with a new show the Execs will say "let's ty and tap into residual, legacy fan interest in MPI by rebooting and recasting some major characters in oh so "clever" new ways, Higgins no longer a middle aged man but a young lady and the eponymous character as a hispanic as opposed to an American of European (Irish?) descent.

Anyway, that's my tuppence ha'penny on the reboot.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Some people say a reboot can work if done right. But honestly I never understood how you can do it right. If you REALLY want to capture the feeling of the original then you basically have to remake it almost scene-for-scene, word-for-word (essentially remaking the episodes), you'd have to make it a period piece and set it in the 80s or whatever decade, and of course the new actors would have to resemble the originals as much as possible. But if you do all that then what's the point since you already have the originals that you can watch and enjoy? Plus it becomes terribly pastiche and still won't equal the original because the actors just aren't the same (even if you get a Selleck look-alike). On the other hand if you try something different and start tweaking things then you're already deviating from what made the original so special. So it's a lost cause either way. That's why I've always been against remakes/reboots, whatever.

Some people say but look at the THE FUGITIVE (with Harrison Ford) or the Tom Cruise MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies. They're successful and well-done. And of course based on TV shows. And I say... yes they are good and enjoyable on their own terms but in no way do they capture the feeling of the original. When I watch THE FUGITIVE (1993) I'm just watching a very good Harrison Ford movie. At no point am I thinking of the 60s TV show. Same thing with the Cruise M:I films... great spectacle for sure (with some real hair-raising stunts done by the guy himself - he's surely nuts to do those things!) but at no point am I reminded of the 60s TV series which I adore. That's why those films would be enjoyable under any other name. They're just well-made films on their own right. I don't even think of them as remakes or reboots of a TV series.

But the majority of the reboots or remakes that I've seen are just lazy and practically unwatchable. Trying too hard to remind you that they're based on some previous classic, without actually being that classic that they're emulating.

[Gorilla Mask]

It was my sister who insisted, three years ago, that I watch an episode of the reboot... Well, I lasted 20 minutes. I didn't find in JH the charisma and the spiritual humor of TS and then, Higgins as a young (of course attractive) woman ... hum... not convinced.

But it's mainly around the poverty of the dialogues (at least in French) and the relationships between the actors that these twenty minutes were enough for me.

I agree that a reboot, whatever it is, is, in fine, a lost cause.

[Reef monkey]

I don't think there is anything inherent to reboots that they cannot succeed, cannot be good, even better than the original. I think Hawaii 5-0 is an example of an excellent reboot I liked better than the original (though it ran its course and should have been wrapped up when Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park left). The Star Trek film reboot is great, and Star Trek Strange New Worlds could be considered a reboot and is excellent.

But not every property can be rebooted, some are part of the zeitgeist of their time, as well as their success being about the actors and their chemistry. I think the whole private investigator genre was very much a creature of the 70s and 80s, with Rockford Files, Magnum PI, Simon and Simon, Hart to Hart, Remington Steele, Moonlighting, etc., and it got played out. I also think the Vietnam vets in Hawaii connection worked in a way Afghanistan/Iraq vets in Hawaii doesn't. I wrote a whole essay about this here: http://magnum-mania.com/Forum/viewtopic ... 850#p57850, but my essential thesis was that Thomas, Rick, and TC were living in Honolulu because they still hadn't escaped their Vietnam experience, they were haunted by it and essentially stuck halfway between Vietnam and coming home. Honolulu was literally geographically about halfway between Vietnam and the United States. It was also where the majority of servicemen passed through on their way to or from Vietnam, and it was where many took longer R&R. It was lush and jungly like Vietnam. Chinese and Japanese immigration had given it an East Asian culture very reminiscent of Vietnam. So it made sense that would be the "limbo" for the guys. There is no such connection between Honolulu and Islamic desert lands like Afghanistan and Iraq.

And then there was issue of the characters. I think that's a big difference between the success of the Hawaii 5-0 reboot vs MiniMag. Honestly, Jack Lord and James MacArthur, Kam Fong and everyone else, they all played their characters as kind of boring, uptight boy scouts, people weren't really that emotionally attached to them. The interplay and bickering bromance between Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan MADE the reboot, and most of the supporting characters were fantastic too, especially quirky ones like Max and Jerry. But unlike the original 5-0's stiff suits, the original Magnum had characters so engagingly developed and portrayed by Tom Selleck, Roger Moseley, Larry Manetti, and Jonathan Hillerman did, people fell in love with those portrayals, and any attempt to play them by anyone else was probably doomed to failure in fans of the original series' eyes. And given what I said about the private detective genre being played out and the setting not being a great fit, the nostalgia of fans of the original series and its actors' portrayals was the only thing that was going to carry the show.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

I think Hawaii 5-0 is an example of an excellent reboot I liked better than the original

Better than the original?? Really now.

But it's actually pointless comparing the 2 because they have nothing in common except the name. The reboot shouldn't even be called a reboot because it's basically a crazy action show set in Hawaii. It's basically SWAT: HAWAII. Nothing to do with the original. Running around Honolulu streets with machine guns a blazing (yeah right...) and CGI explosions and dumb grade-school level "carguments" between the 2 leads.

[T.Q.]

I think Hawaii 5-0 is an example of an excellent reboot I liked better than the original

Better than the original?? Really now.

But it's actually pointless comparing the 2 because they have nothing in common except the name. The reboot shouldn't even be called a reboot because it's basically a crazy action show set in Hawaii. It's basically SWAT: HAWAII. Nothing to do with the original. Running around Honolulu streets with machine guns a blazing (yeah right...) and CGI explosions and dumb grade-school level "carguments" between the 2 leads.

Fight! Fight! Fight!