Innocence... A Broad (8.3)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the eighth season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
0
No votes
9.5 (One of the Best)
11
14%
9.0 (Excellent)
12
16%
8.5 (Very Good)
16
21%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
23
30%
7.5 (Decent)
7
9%
7.0 (Average at Best)
5
7%
6.5 (Not So Good)
0
No votes
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
0
No votes
5.0 (Just Awful)
2
3%
 
Total votes: 76

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Carol the Dabbler
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Re: Innocence... A Broad (8.3)

#31 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

[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.
Carol

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Little Garwood
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#32 Post by Little Garwood »

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.
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

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Carol the Dabbler
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#33 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

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.
Carol

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#34 Post by MagnumsLeftShoulder »

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!

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#35 Post by Tuan Vu »

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/

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Carol the Dabbler
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Re: Innocence... A Broad (8.3)

#36 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

Thanks for all the local info, Tuan Vu!

Maybe no one has mentioned this so far simply because it's too obvious, but the episode title is clearly a take-off on Mark Twain's book title Innocents Abroad (about his travels in Europe and the Mediterranean).
Carol

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Re: Innocence... A Broad (8.3)

#37 Post by J.J. Walters »

Carol the Dabbler wrote:Maybe no one has mentioned this so far simply because it's too obvious, but the episode title is clearly a take-off on Mark Twain's book title Innocents Abroad (about his travels in Europe and the Mediterranean).
Ah! It pains me that I didn't catch that! I'm a big Mark Twain fan, although I've never read The Innocents Abroad. Still, I should have made the connection!
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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Carol the Dabbler
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#38 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

That's OK. I was probably 40 before it occurred to me that roughly half of all lady bugs are actually gentleman bugs. There are some things that we just never happen to think about.

Thanks for the Episode Guide credit!
Carol

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#39 Post by AmandaByNight »

I agree, this is definitely an homage to Born Yesterday and I quite the episode. I haven't seen it in forever, but I remember liking the actress, and I always enjoy Kenneth McMillian. He's kind of creepy, but also fun.

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#40 Post by Little Garwood »

I want to make mention of Kenneth McMillan's excellent performance as Joe. He died just over a year after making this episode, but he was a truly great actor. He has a scene in Salem's Lot opposite the legendary James Mason. The two actors do a tremendous job, as McMillan, playing the town constable, warily stalks Mason's vampire caretaker in a scene with delicious question-and-answer banter that has an underlying tension to it...it's the best (non-horror) bit in the entire movie.
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#41 Post by mandolabar »

Little Garwood wrote:I want to make mention of Kenneth McMillan's excellent performance as Joe. He died just over a year after making this episode, but he was a truly great actor. He has a scene in Salem's Lot opposite the legendary James Mason. The two actors do a tremendous job, as McMillan, playing the town constable, warily stalks Mason's vampire caretaker in a scene with delicious question-and-answer banter that has an underlying tension to it...it's the best (non-horror) bit in the entire movie.
That reminds me. Was anyone besides me struck by how much John Hillerman-with-five-o'clock-shadow looks like James Mason? We don't see him looking scruffy very often, but it was very noticeable in Season 4's Holmes is Where the Heart Is. I watched it a couple of times (it's a family favorite), and it hits me every time.
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#42 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

Another flub (or cynical omision, depending on how you want to look at it):

At the parking garage, when Magnum and the girl are hiding from the mobsters behind a car and they start running towards the exit, conveniently her high heels make no sound at all, so they cannot be heard by the mobster who is standing just a few yards away from him. :roll:

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#43 Post by TIGERS FAN »

Flub: at 08:19 on the dvd, while T.M. is talking to T.C. the fuzzy boom mic is visible in the bottom left corner.
Also the location of the bar T.M. & Rita go to is The Captain's Lounge. It's now called Tiki's. You can see the name quickly as T.M. leaves the main barroom on a little sign.

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Re: Innocence... A Broad (8.3)

#44 Post by Doc Fred »

This was a really fun episode! Despite some weaknesses, such as the abruptness of the ending, there were so many laughs, maybe more than in any other show I can remember; I gave it a 9.0

Ricks case of entomophobia really tickled me. Watching Rick's reaction to the hint of bugs at the club was great, but nothing compared to his reaction when Thomas jumped into the pool wearing the bug mask! One of my favorite scenes in the entire series...

Maybe not as pretty as other gals in the series, but Rita was H...O... double T !!

I didn't react well to Joe's bullying of Rita and not showing any interest in things that seemed important to her.

This series, and all others, continually flub with the lighting when they switch camera positions... sometimes front lighting, sometimes back, sometimes shadows, sometimes no shadows. Obviously, it's because the shooting from different angles is done at different times, but it's a major thing to me, and I'm surprised the directors don't pay attention.
Woof, woof... thirty years uglier!... woof, woof...

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Re: Innocence... A Broad (8.3)

#45 Post by Doc Fred »

"Innocence .... A Broad"... love the title!
Woof, woof... thirty years uglier!... woof, woof...

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