Don't Say Goodbye (1.15)

[K Hale]

Question: Higgins mentions early in the episode, regarding Thomas' phone, that he "checked with the phone company. It's been disconnected." Later, during the "health food" lunch, he doubles down, saying "At 1:30 the phone company called to verify the fact that your phone has been disconnected." How is it that the phone company tells Higgins not once, but twice, that the phone has been disconnected, when it is later stated that the dogs chewed through the line? I think this is a flub. At the very least, it's a real weak spot in the story continuity?

I think I can explain this. It has more to do with Higgins' attitude towards becoming "Magnum's answering service" than story continuity.

From the Crucial Conversation above, we see that Magnum has known for some time that his phone isn't working, and has given out not only the estate number but also the Red Phone number to who-knows-all. Higgins says he's taken dozens of calls (although Agatha's call is the first one he has passed on to Magnum!) and he says the phone company told him the phone is disconnected. Now, if Magnum is receiving and paying the phone bills, then the phone line is under his name, and apparently Higgins is able to call the phone company and get information about the line, no doubt because it's on the property for which he is responsible, but they would not give him billing information. Thus he does not know the reason why the phone isn't working, he just assumes it's because the bill is unpaid.

Later at lunch, he says the phone company called him to verify the phone is disconnected. From the phone company's point of view, the line is literally disconnected, meaning... not connected to the system... and they don't know why, so they called Higgins as the property manager, to see if he knew why. And as I said, they still won't tell him anything about the billing because that's not under his name.

We're only getting Higgins' version of what's been said between him and Ma Bell because he's going into it assuming Magnum is somehow in the wrong. All the information he has is being filtered through that mindset, so what comes out is "your phone is disconnected" and not something like "the phone company doesn't know why you can't make or receive calls."

In the end, we find out that the dogs have disconnected the line from the system. Higgins was technically right all along, the line was indeed disconnected as the phone company no doubt told him. But he took that slim fact and ran with it!

[Aloha Friday]

I think the secondary storyline about the phone is very comical...it turns out they were all technically correct. In Higgins' mind, the phone company confirmed the phone was disconnected...his assumption was that Thomas did not pay his bill and the phone company's action was to disconnect service. In TM's mind, he knew he paid the bill and the phone being disconnected was something mechanically wrong with the line. Both had confirmation the phone was disconnected from the phone company. In the end, it was the lads who chewed through the line disconnecting service. Regarding the question on the pay phone and charging to Robin's account. That was a thing you could do, either charging to an account, or calling collect. The pay phone was usually connected to a live operator who would tell you how much your call was going to cost...typically for the first minute. They would interrupt if the call was going longer to request additional money. You could request a collect call which would have the operator make the call and ask the receiving party if they would accept the call...while the caller was still on the line.

I like most of the first 3-4 season's episodes the best overall...always fun to see repeat cast members in different roles. You figure to acting pool in Honolulu was pretty limited. And for a fledgling show, the expense of flying talent in from Hollywood was not cost effective/efficient for episodic TV.

[Philip Jennings]

You could request a collect call which would have the operator make the call and ask the receiving party if they would accept the call...while the caller was still on the line.

I'll never forget the TV commercial several years back, a guy in a hospital doing a collect call to someone (I'm guessing his parents) and telling the operator his name was "Bob Wehadababyitsaboy"

[Aloha Friday]

I remember that...very funny.