Rest in Peace Roger E. Mosley

[Magnum4eva]

I was very sad to receive this news today, and even sadder once I saw that he died of injuries sustained in a traffic accident. It wasn't age or illness that got him. Sad. RIP TC.

Anybody going to be viewing any specific episodes as a tribute? Any suggestions on which ones to watch? I know there are eps that focus on TC, but I don't know which ones they are.

Oh I'm the expert on the TC centric episodes. So many great ones like Paradise Blues, Sense of Debt, The Great Hawaiian Adventure Company and my favorite of them all Round and Around as well as quite a few others and I would even say the iconic two parter Did you see he sunrise? was pretty TC heavy and was a great performance from Mosley. TC was such a dyanmic character and Moseley such a dynamic actor that the character could more than hold his own with his own episodes that peeled more and more of his layers.

[Magnum4eva]

Wow! Haven't even heard anything about this. Very heartbreaking as a big time Magnum fan and a TC|Moseley fan in general. Great actor and great character. But at least TC and Higgy Baby are reunited up there waiting on Thomas and Rick to join them someday. (Hopefully far off from now, of course). R.I.P. Roger E. Mosley aka Theodore Calvin

[eagle]

I was very sad to receive this news today, and even sadder once I saw that he died of injuries sustained in a traffic accident. It wasn't age or illness that got him. Sad. RIP TC.

Anybody going to be viewing any specific episodes as a tribute? Any suggestions on which ones to watch? I know there are eps that focus on TC, but I don't know which ones they are.

Thicker Than Blood
A Sense Of Debt
Paradise Blues
Under World
Round And Around
Missing Melody

Thanks again for this list. I started "Missing Melody" last night and watched more at lunch -- great choice.

[308GUY]

More than welcome eagle....that's the "short list"....there are actually so many scenes where TC is so instrumental to the episode, the series and especially TM, that it'd just be easier to say start with DETSIH and watch em' all, save a couple here and there.

For instance, in Black On White...the "sub story" of TC and Bebe Kiamoni is so entertaining in itself, that it is the more pertinent take away for me, than the main plot! But that's just me.

Then in All For One...the scenes where TC is working on the "chopper" and with "Joe" who wants to be like TC...."free".....those scenes are also very memorable for me.

Also in Operation Silent Night....again, TC working this time on HIS chopper to get them off the island....and the interaction between himself and the other three....classic FOR ME. Your results may vary.

Point is, all of these instances just serve to point out how critical the bond between all 4 (for different reasons) main characters is to the overall feelings generated by the entire 8 season run of this iconic show.

But the episodes I listed are sort of more TC "centric" than some of the others.

Can't get enough of ORIGINAL Magnum P.I.

Originally posted by eagle: "I'd love to get an Island Hoppers shirt, or a few of them."

The screen printer I use has my screens stored at his shop. Anytime I want more shirts, I just call him, or stop in and let him know what sizes, what colors etc.. I'd be happy to add to the order next time I have some printed up. They generally run between $8-$10 each. They are generally Gilden T's and seem to hold up fairly well, as does the print. But like most commercial screen prints, it will fade and or crack after a couple years, of constant wearing and washing. As I said, I have some that are 10 years old, but I think the last run I had done was about 3 years ago, and most of them look really good. Just putting it out there in case you might be interested in the future.

[T.Q.]

Been thinking a lot about Roger's passing.

Still very sad.

Was thinking of an appropriate title for my favourite gif I made of T.C.

Super cheesy but here it goes:

T.C. meeting Higgins in heaven.



RIP (again) Roger.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Roger was awesome in the "Dead Heat" episode of The Rookies in 1975. It was redone on T.J. Hooker in 1984, but both swiped the great, tension packed elevator scene from the film
"Report to the Commissioner". However Roger's and George Sanford Brown's elevator scene blows away the other two, they put on a acting clinic, with certain cultural "signifyin"
words/moments giving deeper meaning to the moment.
Great writing too, with two unexpected twists, the kind of which Hollywood would never have normally chosen the way the plot unfolded,with the character Mosley was portraying.
I seldom ever get to be surprised by plot twists anymore, I almost always can see where the writers are going, so "Dead Heat", like the best Hawaii 5-0 episodes, is a welcome change.
In my opinion Roger's role as Rawlins has to be in the top 5 of his career.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"One day we shall be strangers in our own land"....Hawaii 5-0

Hey Dobie, by the way, did you ever get to see that T.J. Hooker episode? "Deadlock". Dennis Lipscomb played Rawlins in that one. He sure hated cops and really wanted to blow Hooker away.
Until the tables were turned and Hooker got the last laugh. That was some sweet comeuppance!

Yes Ivan, it was a good one and I love Shatner, though I once accidentally blinded him in the Hotel Pennsylvania. Thank you for previously citing that episode "Deadlock" to me, somewhere on these
boards. MeTV Plus reran it not long ago but my DVR misfired, too bad because I wanted to soak in the details on a second viewing. I had seen it before via a very poor quality You Tube edition, on
a channel that seemed to be up for two days and then was shut down.

Anybody here see Roger in McQ(1974), a John Wayne film that also had the late Clu Gulager in it. Did Roger ever talk about his part in the film?

Hey Dobie, I got a chance to catch that episode of THE ROOKIES - "Dead Heat" (it's on YouTube). Man, you weren't kidding! Roger E. Mosley as Rawlins was on fire in that one -- especially during his standoff with Georg Stanford Brown in the elevator! Man, that was tense!! To be honest, for the first half of the episode (which followed the T.J. HOOKER episode "Deadlock" scene for scene and even word for word) Mosley was mostly subdued. I started thinking that I preferred Dennis Lipscomb's version of Rawlins better. His version (which I still love) seemed a bit more psycho -- he's got those thin lips and that cruel mouth, also those cruel eyes. But once the action moves into the elevator Mosley changed completely! He really let it all out in there (which I guess was bottled up inside during the first half) and his back and forth with G.S. Brown was some classic stuff! All that "brutha" stuff and how they should be on the same side because they're both "bruthas". Also how he admits at the end that Brown is a REAL brutha because only a brutha could have ran a con like that on him. What I also liked is that the elevator standoff was longer here than in the HOOKER episode. It also felt more cramped and claustrophobic than in the HOOKER episode. Here they practically had their guns in each other's faces! In HOOKER there was more space and they were further away from each other.

[Chris109]

I remember seeing him in an episode of Kung Fu and Grizzly Adams. He got around.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Roger was awesome in the "Dead Heat" episode of The Rookies in 1975. It was redone on T.J. Hooker in 1984, but both swiped the great, tension packed elevator scene from the film
"Report to the Commissioner". However Roger's and George Sanford Brown's elevator scene blows away the other two, they put on a acting clinic, with certain cultural "signifyin"
words/moments giving deeper meaning to the moment.
Great writing too, with two unexpected twists, the kind of which Hollywood would never have normally chosen the way the plot unfolded,with the character Mosley was portraying.
I seldom ever get to be surprised by plot twists anymore, I almost always can see where the writers are going, so "Dead Heat", like the best Hawaii 5-0 episodes, is a welcome change.
In my opinion Roger's role as Rawlins has to be in the top 5 of his career.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"One day we shall be strangers in our own land"....Hawaii 5-0

Hey Dobie, by the way, did you ever get to see that T.J. Hooker episode? "Deadlock". Dennis Lipscomb played Rawlins in that one. He sure hated cops and really wanted to blow Hooker away.
Until the tables were turned and Hooker got the last laugh. That was some sweet comeuppance!

Yes Ivan, it was a good one and I love Shatner, though I once accidentally blinded him in the Hotel Pennsylvania. Thank you for previously citing that episode "Deadlock" to me, somewhere on these
boards. MeTV Plus reran it not long ago but my DVR misfired, too bad because I wanted to soak in the details on a second viewing. I had seen it before via a very poor quality You Tube edition, on
a channel that seemed to be up for two days and then was shut down.

Anybody here see Roger in McQ(1974), a John Wayne film that also had the late Clu Gulager in it. Did Roger ever talk about his part in the film?

Hey Dobie, I got a chance to catch that episode of THE ROOKIES - "Dead Heat" (it's on YouTube). Man, you weren't kidding! Roger E. Mosley as Rawlins was on fire in that one -- especially during his standoff with Georg Stanford Brown in the elevator! Man, that was tense!! To be honest, for the first half of the episode (which followed the T.J. HOOKER episode "Deadlock" scene for scene and even word for word) Mosley was mostly subdued. I started thinking that I preferred Dennis Lipscomb's version of Rawlins better. His version (which I still love) seemed a bit more psycho -- he's got those thin lips and that cruel mouth, also those cruel eyes. But once the action moves into the elevator Mosley changed completely! He really let it all out in there (which I guess was bottled up inside during the first half) and his back and forth with G.S. Brown was some classic stuff! All that "brutha" stuff and how they should be on the same side because they're both "bruthas". Also how he admits at the end that Brown is a REAL brutha because only a brutha could have ran a con like that on him. What I also liked is that the elevator standoff was longer here than in the HOOKER episode. It also felt more cramped and claustrophobic than in the HOOKER episode. Here they practically had their guns in each other's faces! In HOOKER there was more space and they were further away from each other.

Ivan,
Dennis Lipscomb was indeed excellent, and as you say there was some obvious copying between the episodes, but T.J.Hooker was filmed after The Rookies so they were the ones "following".
There could be some shenanigans at work here, maybe the same writer under a different name recycling an old "Rookies" script which he no longer had the rights to?

I am glad to see THE ROOKIES - "Dead Heat" is back on You Tube, I urge anyone reading this to watch it, you will concur with Ivan and me that Roger shines and is definitely raising his
acting game when given the wonderful extended elevator scene. It looks like to me he enjoyed himself immensely when going at it with Brown, the noted actor/director.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Roger was awesome in the "Dead Heat" episode of The Rookies in 1975. It was redone on T.J. Hooker in 1984, but both swiped the great, tension packed elevator scene from the film
"Report to the Commissioner". However Roger's and George Sanford Brown's elevator scene blows away the other two, they put on a acting clinic, with certain cultural "signifyin"
words/moments giving deeper meaning to the moment.
Great writing too, with two unexpected twists, the kind of which Hollywood would never have normally chosen the way the plot unfolded,with the character Mosley was portraying.
I seldom ever get to be surprised by plot twists anymore, I almost always can see where the writers are going, so "Dead Heat", like the best Hawaii 5-0 episodes, is a welcome change.
In my opinion Roger's role as Rawlins has to be in the top 5 of his career.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"One day we shall be strangers in our own land"....Hawaii 5-0

Hey Dobie, by the way, did you ever get to see that T.J. Hooker episode? "Deadlock". Dennis Lipscomb played Rawlins in that one. He sure hated cops and really wanted to blow Hooker away.
Until the tables were turned and Hooker got the last laugh. That was some sweet comeuppance!

Yes Ivan, it was a good one and I love Shatner, though I once accidentally blinded him in the Hotel Pennsylvania. Thank you for previously citing that episode "Deadlock" to me, somewhere on these
boards. MeTV Plus reran it not long ago but my DVR misfired, too bad because I wanted to soak in the details on a second viewing. I had seen it before via a very poor quality You Tube edition, on
a channel that seemed to be up for two days and then was shut down.

Anybody here see Roger in McQ(1974), a John Wayne film that also had the late Clu Gulager in it. Did Roger ever talk about his part in the film?

Hey Dobie, I got a chance to catch that episode of THE ROOKIES - "Dead Heat" (it's on YouTube). Man, you weren't kidding! Roger E. Mosley as Rawlins was on fire in that one -- especially during his standoff with Georg Stanford Brown in the elevator! Man, that was tense!! To be honest, for the first half of the episode (which followed the T.J. HOOKER episode "Deadlock" scene for scene and even word for word) Mosley was mostly subdued. I started thinking that I preferred Dennis Lipscomb's version of Rawlins better. His version (which I still love) seemed a bit more psycho -- he's got those thin lips and that cruel mouth, also those cruel eyes. But once the action moves into the elevator Mosley changed completely! He really let it all out in there (which I guess was bottled up inside during the first half) and his back and forth with G.S. Brown was some classic stuff! All that "brutha" stuff and how they should be on the same side because they're both "bruthas". Also how he admits at the end that Brown is a REAL brutha because only a brutha could have ran a con like that on him. What I also liked is that the elevator standoff was longer here than in the HOOKER episode. It also felt more cramped and claustrophobic than in the HOOKER episode. Here they practically had their guns in each other's faces! In HOOKER there was more space and they were further away from each other.

Ivan,
Dennis Lipscomb was indeed excellent, and as you say there was some obvious copying between the episodes, but T.J.Hooker was filmed after The Rookies so they were the ones "following".
There could be some shenanigans at work here, maybe the same writer under a different name recycling an old "Rookies" script which he no longer had the rights to?

I am glad to see THE ROOKIES - "Dead Heat" is back on You Tube, I urge anyone reading this to watch it, you will concur with Ivan and me that Roger shines and is definitely raising his
acting game when given the wonderful extended elevator scene. It looks like to me he enjoyed himself immensely when going at it with Brown, the noted actor/director.

[Capa150]

Why not post this as a news item on the front home page of magnum mania?

[Tobi]

Sad news. What a character. Rest in peace.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Roger was awesome in the "Dead Heat" episode of The Rookies in 1975. It was redone on T.J. Hooker in 1984, but both swiped the great, tension packed elevator scene from the film
"Report to the Commissioner". However Roger's and George Sanford Brown's elevator scene blows away the other two, they put on a acting clinic, with certain cultural "signifyin"
words/moments giving deeper meaning to the moment.
Great writing too, with two unexpected twists, the kind of which Hollywood would never have normally chosen the way the plot unfolded,with the character Mosley was portraying.
I seldom ever get to be surprised by plot twists anymore, I almost always can see where the writers are going, so "Dead Heat", like the best Hawaii 5-0 episodes, is a welcome change.
In my opinion Roger's role as Rawlins has to be in the top 5 of his career.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"One day we shall be strangers in our own land"....Hawaii 5-0

Hey Dobie, by the way, did you ever get to see that T.J. Hooker episode? "Deadlock". Dennis Lipscomb played Rawlins in that one. He sure hated cops and really wanted to blow Hooker away.
Until the tables were turned and Hooker got the last laugh. That was some sweet comeuppance!

Yes Ivan, it was a good one and I love Shatner, though I once accidentally blinded him in the Hotel Pennsylvania. Thank you for previously citing that episode "Deadlock" to me, somewhere on these
boards. MeTV Plus reran it not long ago but my DVR misfired, too bad because I wanted to soak in the details on a second viewing. I had seen it before via a very poor quality You Tube edition, on
a channel that seemed to be up for two days and then was shut down.

Anybody here see Roger in McQ(1974), a John Wayne film that also had the late Clu Gulager in it. Did Roger ever talk about his part in the film?

Hey Dobie, I got a chance to catch that episode of THE ROOKIES - "Dead Heat" (it's on YouTube). Man, you weren't kidding! Roger E. Mosley as Rawlins was on fire in that one -- especially during his standoff with Georg Stanford Brown in the elevator! Man, that was tense!! To be honest, for the first half of the episode (which followed the T.J. HOOKER episode "Deadlock" scene for scene and even word for word) Mosley was mostly subdued. I started thinking that I preferred Dennis Lipscomb's version of Rawlins better. His version (which I still love) seemed a bit more psycho -- he's got those thin lips and that cruel mouth, also those cruel eyes. But once the action moves into the elevator Mosley changed completely! He really let it all out in there (which I guess was bottled up inside during the first half) and his back and forth with G.S. Brown was some classic stuff! All that "brutha" stuff and how they should be on the same side because they're both "bruthas". Also how he admits at the end that Brown is a REAL brutha because only a brutha could have ran a con like that on him. What I also liked is that the elevator standoff was longer here than in the HOOKER episode. It also felt more cramped and claustrophobic than in the HOOKER episode. Here they practically had their guns in each other's faces! In HOOKER there was more space and they were further away from each other.

Ivan,
Dennis Lipscomb was indeed excellent, and as you say there was some obvious copying between the episodes, but T.J.Hooker was filmed after The Rookies so they were the ones "following".
There could be some shenanigans at work here, maybe the same writer under a different name recycling an old "Rookies" script which he no longer had the rights to?

I am glad to see THE ROOKIES - "Dead Heat" is back on You Tube, I urge anyone reading this to watch it, you will concur with Ivan and me that Roger shines and is definitely raising his
acting game when given the wonderful extended elevator scene. It looks like to me he enjoyed himself immensely when going at it with Brown, the noted actor/director.

Yeah, I know that it was the T.J. HOOKER episode that was copying THE ROOKIES. Just that I was more familiar with the former so when I was watching "Dead Heat" for the first time I was comparing it to that one and it seemed to be copying it beat for beat (at least for the first half). Anyway both episodes give credit to the same writers (David Ketchum and Bruce Shelly) so there's definitely no plagiarism involved or anything like that. Plus both shows were Spelling-Goldberg productions and both aired on ABC.

EDIT: Actually T.J. HOOKER was kinda notorious for copying earlier shows (almost beat for beat). In the show's final season there are 2 episodes that are lifted straight from THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO (which was also an ABC show but it was Quinn Martin, not Spelling-Goldberg). "The Assassin" is basically a remake of SOSF's "Target: Red" and "Murder by Law" is a remake of "Judgement Day".

[Magnum4eva]

More than welcome eagle....that's the "short list"....there are actually so many scenes where TC is so instrumental to the episode, the series and especially TM, that it'd just be easier to say start with DETSIH and watch em' all, save a couple here and there.

For instance, in Black On White...the "sub story" of TC and Bebe Kiamoni is so entertaining in itself, that it is the more pertinent take away for me, than the main plot! But that's just me.

Then in All For One...the scenes where TC is working on the "chopper" and with "Joe" who wants to be like TC...."free".....those scenes are also very memorable for me.

Also in Operation Silent Night....again, TC working this time on HIS chopper to get them off the island....and the interaction between himself and the other three....classic FOR ME. Your results may vary.

Point is, all of these instances just serve to point out how critical the bond between all 4 (for different reasons) main characters is to the overall feelings generated by the entire 8 season run of this iconic show.

But the episodes I listed are sort of more TC "centric" than some of the others.

Can't get enough of ORIGINAL Magnum P.I.

Originally posted by eagle: "I'd love to get an Island Hoppers shirt, or a few of them."

The screen printer I use has my screens stored at his shop. Anytime I want more shirts, I just call him, or stop in and let him know what sizes, what colors etc.. I'd be happy to add to the order next time I have some printed up. They generally run between $8-$10 each. They are generally Gilden T's and seem to hold up fairly well, as does the print. But like most commercial screen prints, it will fade and or crack after a couple years, of constant wearing and washing. As I said, I have some that are 10 years old, but I think the last run I had done was about 3 years ago, and most of them look really good. Just putting it out there in case you might be interested in the future.

Love your post! Especially what you said about the strength of the chemistry of the core four. THAT dynamic is what made Magnum the icon it is. What those guys had together was something the reboot couldn't replicate or most other tv shows past or present. The only other shows I can think of that is comparable are The Golden Girls, Martin and The Rockford Files with Jim Rockford and all his family and friends.

[Magnum4eva]

I also want to highlight the great episode where TC and Higgins are held captive by a group of escaped convicts seeking revenge on Magnum. The bond between Higgins and TC was nicely developed over the series. Who doesn't remember that classic moment TC called Higgins Jonathan in Operation Silent Night? So well played by Roger and John.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Love your post! Especially what you said about the strength of the chemistry of the core four. THAT dynamic is what made Magnum the icon it is. What those guys had together was something the reboot couldn't replicate or most other tv shows past or present. The only other shows I can think of that is comparable are The Golden Girls, Martin and The Rockford Files with Jim Rockford and all his family and friends.

MARTIN??? Sorry, that kind of caught me off guard. I've never actually seen the show and almost forgot it existed until you mentioned it. I guess I don't think of it as classic television and actually found it funny when you mentioned it alongside a classic like ROCKFORD. Just gave me a chuckle, that's all.

I guess I found THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR more appealing than MARTIN.