What? You can't wear that outfit and get away with it??? (Larry would because his couture skills are about as good as his golf drive -- and he's oblivious to his appearance. I think being able to wear something like this outfit is attributable to either a great deal of confidence or a great deal of unawareness [if that's a word . . . . ]!)
"It takes a REAL man to wear [baby] pink [and baby blue at the same time]."
golf
The colors are bad enough, but the shorts look like underpants. There are are a couple of season 8 episodes where he wears those shorts with a Hawaiian shirt . He also has a pair of light tan shorts that have the same white waistband. TM's wardrobe really changed in season 7 and 8. Not always for the better.
Last edited by N1095A on Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
(To Rita)"...and remember never lie. Unless you absolutely have to, never lie."
(next words out of TM's mouth to the bartender)"Hi, My cousin lives in the neighborhood. I hear he comes in here a lot. His name's Chester, or Chet. Ya' recognize him?"
Then later on...
(Rick) "I'm takin' off like a toupee in a hurricane."
The most disheartening things about season 8 were Magnum's increasing responsibility, and the terrible decline in his wardrobe. Like they wanted to make him a grandpa all of the sudden. Yeesh. TM deserves better!
As others have said, very predictable, but I like this episode!
[rating=9.5]
While Thomas is investigating a conman who is suing Robin Masters over a fake injury received on the Estate, a loudmouth businessman pays him to take his glamorous but downtrodden wife along. But the pair soon uncover a much bigger case. Silly, but fun...
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This review contains spoilers.
After the whole plot of Magnum seemingly dying at the end of season seven, and coming back to life at the start of this final season, ‘Innocence… A Broad’ sees things settling back down into a more familiar ‘Magnum, p.i.’ fare.
In fact, other than for the odd reference of Magnum’s (near) death, this episode could easily have come from any of the earlier seasons of the show’s run.
Janis Ward is good fun as the glamorous but downtrodden Rita, who joins Magnum on his investigation, and unlike some of the show’s other one-off female guest stars (Cassie Yates, anyone?) does not come across as too annoying.
The plot is silly, and – as some have said – predictable, but at the same time, it is great fun, and I really like this episode. Compared to some of MPI’s clever, sophisticated stories, it is pretty straightforward, but that doesn’t matter, as it is hard not to like this one, especially with it’s many good lines and humorous moments, such as Higgins teaching Zeus and Apollo hand commands, Magnum’s bug mask to scar Rick, and lots of great lines (Rita to Magnum: “Do you supply a gun, or should I bring my own?”).
Combined with that, there is a reasonably decent case to investigate – and even has a well-shot car chase, the sort of things that is often absent from these later examples of MPI.
At one point towards the end, the story does seem to make a coincidental connection, as Rita’s obnoxious husband Joe turns out to seemingly be in cohorts with the mob boss who is behind all the trouble that Magnum and Rita are investigating. However, in the last scene, Joe explains that as part of his business, he makes it a habit to pay the local mob to leave him alone, which is why he was meeting the mob boss, so maybe it wasn’t such a coincidental plot point after all. But at the time it seemed like a tenuous connection.
With that explained, the only real thing that doesn’t quite about this story is after the climax, like there was a section missing; after Joe comes good and drives up in the garbage truck for Magnum and Rita to escape the mobster thugs in, we suddenly cut to the final scene on the Estate, being told how the mob guys are now in jail. Personally, I would have liked to have seen an in-between scene of how Magnum captured the thugs; but I suppose you can only fit so much into a 48-minute episode!
On a sad note, this was the last episode to be scored by Pete Carpenter, who passed away a few days after it was originally aired. With partner Mike Post, they wrote many classic TV themes (‘The Rockford Files’, ‘The A-Team’, etc.); Post would continue to score the show alone for the rest of its run.
Anyway, all in all – I really like this one. As I said above, yes it’s silly and predictable, but at the same time it’s really good fun, and one that I can watch over and over again. I know some may argue that it doesn’t deserve such a high 9.5 rating, but personally I think it is one of the best of the final season.
Possible mistake on this episode's main page: It says that 'Innocence... A Broad' is the only episode of the season not to feature any recurring characters.
'A Girl Named Sue' also does not contain and recurring characters, assuming by 'recurring' you mean frequent guest stars. Carol Burnett appeared in season four's 'Rembrandt's Girl', but is not a regular guest.
[from Episode Note 11] Almost identical to the scene with Magnum and Carol in Season Four's "No More Mr. Nice Guy" (4.13), this episode features a two-story rooftop jump into a garbage truck to escape the bad guys. In both scenes, the garbage truck conveniently pulls away immediately after Magnum and his partner land in the truck!
I don't currently recall "Nice Guy" well enough to comment on that, but in this episode, the truck pulls away immediately after they jump because Joe's driving it in order to rescue them.
J.J. Walters wrote:One ... thing that strikes me about this episode is how they somehow manage to make Joe Hatten a somewhat likable misogynist bigot! If that's even possible.
rubber chicken wrote:True about Joe Hatten. The viewer isn't so sure about him at first, I was wondering if he was mafia himself. But in the end he's not so bad, definitely needs some work, but he seems to care enough to try.
Yeah, I agree. I got the feeling that he's not really mean, he's just been too busy driving his garbage truck to notice that other people have feelings.
Was down in the dumps yesterday but "Innocence...a Broad" cheered me right up! If not for TM's reference to coming close to death in the voiceover at the guesthouse, one might think that this was a season four episode, such was the lightheartedness of this story.
Rick's comic bit was great! I loved his reaction at Thomas wearing the bug mask.
Higgins wore the green khaki safari outfit. I should tally how many times he wears it in comparison to his standard light khaki attire.
rubber chicken wrote:Incidentally, Joe Hatten and his fiance are very, very similar to the couple in Born Yesterday. The movie stars Broderick Crawford as a self made garbage tycoon (with personality close to Hatten's), and Judy Holiday (very much like Rita Parker) as his mistress who starts off as not too bright, but with William Holden's help she learns all sorts of things, .... and comes to assert herself. .... I would very highly doubt that this show was written without Born Yesterday in mind, .... I think it would be right to consider it an homage ....
rubber chicken wrote:Edit: I remembered .... that the self made man was in scrap metal, instead of garbage. At least that's what I'm thinking now.
The fellow in Born Yesterday refers to himself as a "junk man," but from context, he means scrap metal, as you say. I hadn't seen the movie till last night, and it's been three years (!) since I saw this episode, but you're right, the similarities do seem intentional.
There's the callous self-made junk/garbage man who fails to appreciate his ditzy female companion, taking her for granted and generally pushing her around. Then the woman comes under the tutelage of an attractive, knowledgeable man, gains self-respect, and stands up to her husband/fiance.
The actual plots are different, but as for the characters and their relationships, the main differences are that Born Yesterday's junk man apparently has no redeeming social qualities whatsoever -- unlike Joe, he is a self-centered bastard right down to the core -- so logically enough, his woman -- unlike Rita -- ends up running off with her tutor.
Hilarity ensues in this one! Probably one of my favorites of the funny episodes. I agree that the powder blue shorts were certainly hideous. But speaking of hideous, did anyone else spot the bottles of new Coke on the shelves of the Safeway? Yuck!
I'm sure glad there was an eighth season of Magnum, p.i. There were some good episodes like this one, and the actress who portrayed Rita was quite good and had good chemistry with Tom Selleck.
Just a note of interest (for me at least): the restaurant where Joe, Rita and the mobster have dinner (One Horse Chez in the episode) today is called Murphy's Bar and Grill. I've eaten there several times over the years, and in fact had lunch there with some friends about a month ago. The street Magnum parks his Ferrari on while he listens to the bug Rita is wearing, is Merchant Street in downtown Honolulu. Behind him about a block you can see part of the Bank of Hawaii building, where I worked for about 17 years back in the 1990s and early 2000s. I used to walk down that street every day going to work and going home.
Also, on the DVD at 42:09, we clearly see the sign on the JH Schnack building, which was also shown in the 64th episode of Hawaii Five-O episode "Ten Thousand Diamonds and a Heart" http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/5-0log3.htm and if you want to see what it looks like today, you can go to Google Maps and type in the address 922 Maunakea Street, Honolulu, Hawaii. Once you are there on Google Maps, just drag the picture up and you can see the same JH Schnack sign on the building as well as the "1916" sign (presumably indicating the date the building was constructed). You can also click on the image to go down Maunakea street (towards the ocean...well, into Honolulu Harbor) and to the left you can see Pier 14 (which was shown on the DVD at 40:43).
One last bit of trivia: On the DVD at 40:09, we can see a poster advertising the group Olomana, which was a popular Hawaiian musical group in the islands especially in the 1970s and 1980s. They play easy-listening, contemporary Hawaiian-style music and they are still actively performing to this day: http://olomanamusic.com/
. He also has a pair of light tan shorts that have the same white waistband. TM's wardrobe really changed in season 7 and 8. Not always for the better.
