Who was the original stunt pilot?
Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:52 pm
First of all, I can't believe there is a whole forum devoted to Magnum PI - how fun is that? I haven been watching a lot of old episodes (thanks to Netflix!) with my son and it has brought back a lot of great memories.
Here is the story about why I am asking about the pilot. When I was in high school (I can't remember exactly when, but it was probably the fall of 1980), I went to HI with my family and on the flight back to the main land, I was seated next to a guy who was telling me about a new show for TV that he was a part of and he thought it was going to be a big hit. This was before Magnum PI had aired and he showed me a bunch of snapshots of Tom Selleck and asked if I had ever seen him on TV. Naturally, I did not recognize Selleck because this was right before he got famous.
I do recall the guy had some pictures of a scene with an Asian character - I think it was the episode where Magnum knows that if the guy blinks or shuts his eyes, he is about to strike with a martial arts blow. In the episode, I think Magnum shoots him when he blinks.
Anyway, the guy on the plane also told me that he had been a pilot in Vietnam and was selected because he looked a bit like TC (this guy was black and had a similar build). So, this guy was kind of like a real life TC. When I looked on the Magunum Mania site, the information about the stunt pilots only showed a white guy, so I was wondering if anyone knew of another pilot who would have resembled TC.
Sorry for the long post, but I thought some other Magnum fans might enjoy the story.
Here is the story about why I am asking about the pilot. When I was in high school (I can't remember exactly when, but it was probably the fall of 1980), I went to HI with my family and on the flight back to the main land, I was seated next to a guy who was telling me about a new show for TV that he was a part of and he thought it was going to be a big hit. This was before Magnum PI had aired and he showed me a bunch of snapshots of Tom Selleck and asked if I had ever seen him on TV. Naturally, I did not recognize Selleck because this was right before he got famous.
I do recall the guy had some pictures of a scene with an Asian character - I think it was the episode where Magnum knows that if the guy blinks or shuts his eyes, he is about to strike with a martial arts blow. In the episode, I think Magnum shoots him when he blinks.
Anyway, the guy on the plane also told me that he had been a pilot in Vietnam and was selected because he looked a bit like TC (this guy was black and had a similar build). So, this guy was kind of like a real life TC. When I looked on the Magunum Mania site, the information about the stunt pilots only showed a white guy, so I was wondering if anyone knew of another pilot who would have resembled TC.
Sorry for the long post, but I thought some other Magnum fans might enjoy the story.