A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the eighth season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
1
1%
9.5 (One of the Best)
3
4%
9.0 (Excellent)
2
3%
8.5 (Very Good)
10
14%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
18
25%
7.5 (Decent)
10
14%
7.0 (Average at Best)
14
20%
6.5 (Not So Good)
7
10%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
2
3%
5.0 (Just Awful)
4
6%
 
Total votes: 71

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Styles Bitchley
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#31 Post by Styles Bitchley »

Okay, so it was a goofy episode. I didn't cringe, but it certainly didn't have me riveted. You can tell that the two of them enjoy working with each other, and it's fun knowing that they're having fun. But the goofy comedy takes too much away from the mediocre script. This leaves us with a mediocre episode, with a few good scenes.

There are a few episodes like this where there is a clear decision to have fun and forget about the story - The Treasure of Kalaniopu'u comes to mind. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn't.
"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

- J.Q.H.

marlboro
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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#32 Post by marlboro »

I don't think the Magnum writers really tapped into Burnett's comedic potential. I think it would have been interesting if, instead of going to the Lucky Steele school, Carol Burnett had become a protege of Luther Gillis. I think she would have been hilarious doing a 60 minute impersonation of Gillis.

I would have also loved to have seen Tim Conway cameo as a Miss Jones type character.

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J.J. Walters
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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#33 Post by J.J. Walters »

...and Vicky Lawrence as Shelly Faraday, with a special guest appearance by Harvey Korman as Milton Collins! ;)
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

szilard
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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#34 Post by szilard »

I know what you're thinking, and you're right: Rosalee Mayeux is SO CUTE! :wink:

+ "I don't ordinarily let a man take a look at my trip sheets until the second date. But, um..."

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Stelth
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#35 Post by Stelth »

MaximRecoil wrote:
Thomas Magnum: I bent the firing pin hammering my way out of the storage room.
Selleck must have cringed when he had to say that line, considering he knows guns in real life, and that statement is utterly absurd to anyone who's familiar with a 1911. It is impossible to bend the firing pin in a 1911 no matter how much you hammer on something with it, because it is housed in a hole drilled from the back of the slide through to the breech face (back of the ejection port area). Additionally, it is a spring-loaded floating firing pin, so it has its own "suspension".

So, to bend the firing pin, you'd have to bend the rear portion of the slide, which is nearly an inch thick of 4140 ordnance-grade tool steel. Not only is that impossible by using a gun as a hammer, but a 1911 subjected to enough abuse to bend the rear section of the slide would be "totaled" by default.

Additionally, the firing pin is one of the easiest parts to replace on a 1911; it can be done in less than 30 seconds with no special tools (you just need something like a sharpened pencil, or a toothpick, paper clip, or countless other similar items that can be found around the house, to push the firing pin in while you slide the firing pin retaining plate down with your finger), so it wouldn't have required the services of a gunsmith.
MaximRecoil: I'm so glad you wrote this post because it saved me a lot of time and you said it better than I could have. The "bent firing pin" was such a stupid reason for his gun being out of commission. I was eagerly waiting for the episode to end so I could see if anyone else realized how dumb it was. I liked this episode better than "Rembrandt's Girl" but that's not saying a lot.

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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#36 Post by SignGuyHPW »

As a strictly comedy episode, I enjoyed it. If I were to look at it as a normal episode then I'd have hated it. They were strictly in it for comedy which was fine with me. Nothing it was really serious from Magnum sneaking around to avoid a subpoena to the brother and sister sharing the house to Susan becoming a private investigator by taking a course advertised in an infomercial.

I thought the actress playing Ms. Wainwright was really horrible. She just seemed to have no acting ability at all. It may have just been me, but the relationship with her brother at the end kind of seemed creepy. It took a while for me to digest the part with Higgins and the gun. It seemed really forced like they didn't have a long enough script so they put that in to take up time.

I think they played up Susan to be the female version of Luther Gillis. That made it work for me. It wasn't an episode to be taken seriously and if you view it with that in mind I think it is a fun episode. My favorite part of it had to be the look on Magnum's face when he asked if she wanted to hear his theory during the shootout and got an emphatic "no."

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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#37 Post by EZiller »

I gave it a 7.5. Liked Carol better in "Rembrandt's Girl" episode. Thought they were working a bit too hard to get the laughs in this one. I did like her line when they were hiding from each other in the warehouse and she referred to TM as "a tall, guy with a mustache, average looking"...Selleck gave it a proper dead-pan.

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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#38 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

Of course Magnum couldn't leave the valuable antique gun in the car. He had to leave it right in front of the ramp they put to unload heavy equipment. That was straight Wile E. Coyote stuff.

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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#39 Post by Neil Peel »

Is this the only episode (so far) where Thomas blatantly uses his appeal to the opposite sex to garner information? I am referring, of course, to the scene with Julie Marsh at the marina. It seems out of character but having watched 150 episodes now I can't recall if he has done it before.

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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#40 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

Neil Peel wrote:Is this the only episode (so far) where Thomas blatantly uses his appeal to the opposite sex to garner information? I am referring, of course, to the scene with Julie Marsh at the marina. It seems out of character but having watched 150 episodes now I can't recall if he has done it before.
Julie Marsh is one of the most underrated MPI babes.

Howland Owl
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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#41 Post by Howland Owl »

Anything with Carol Burnett is bad! I never understood what people saw in her. Always overacting.

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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#42 Post by thechickinthemiddle »

marlboro wrote:I don't think the Magnum writers really tapped into Burnett's comedic potential. I think it would have been interesting if, instead of going to the Lucky Steele school, Carol Burnett had become a protege of Luther Gillis. I think she would have been hilarious doing a 60 minute impersonation of Gillis.
LOL as amazing as that would have been, I don't think poor Magnum's head would be able to handle that! (Outside or inside :P )

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Tobi
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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#43 Post by Tobi »

I don't know Carol Burnett outside of Magnum but I must say I didn't enjoy her in this episode - just too over the top.

I did enjoy two 308s together though.

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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#44 Post by Stelth »

I agree. When I was 9, I thought Carol Burnett was funny...now I can't bear a minute of her. She's just not funny to me and I find her off putting.

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Re: A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#45 Post by #1 Buzzettes Fan »

Julie Marsh and the turf roller scene were the only enjoyable things in this episode.

I not only never cared for Carol Burnett, it is painful for me to watch her. I have a similar reaction to Jerry Lewis. It's like I see how hard they're trying and I don't buy it.

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