Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the first season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
0
No votes
9.5 (One of the Best)
3
2%
9.0 (Excellent)
17
13%
8.5 (Very Good)
14
11%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
27
21%
7.5 (Decent)
30
23%
7.0 (Average at Best)
14
11%
6.5 (Not So Good)
10
8%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
9
7%
5.0 (Just Awful)
5
4%
 
Total votes: 129

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EZiller
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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#71 Post by EZiller »

As big Higgins fan, I really don't care for this episode. Higgins comes off as as total jack-o.. in this episode and I'm glad Bellisario made the correct decision to realize that he had what could become a totally fascinating character, played by a superb actor, but if they just had him portrayed as a beast and a jerk he would soon become a superficial caricature.

Katherine Cannon is hot. Top Ten MPI babe!

Dave Anderson
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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#72 Post by Dave Anderson »

This episode was more on the cute side, but the plot was not very believable. I like Christmas shows in general, so it gets points for that, as well as showing the memorial swim stadium (love the architecture of the stadium). Also liked the sleezy Christmas vibe at the bar. The switching of the paintings was too over the top though. All in all, though, enjoyable and worth watching every December.

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Little Garwood
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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#73 Post by Little Garwood »

I voted "Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too" a 7.0 "Average at Best" episode.

Christmas episodes tend to be lightweight and/or sentimental and this is no exception. It's like the producers of MPI just wanted something to play benignly in the background while people cleaned up their holiday wreckage or packed up the unwanted gifts for returning the next morning. Even the scene where the girls are locked in the Civil Defense shelter seems like they're in no real danger. I did like the "spirit" of Christmas being bandied about via music and decorations; even the tough bar and boxing gym had stuff up!

Hawaii Five-0 used those Civil Defense shelters a few times over the years and the gaggle of cute girls in a "Save the Something" story was previously used in the S12 Five-0 episode For Old Times Sake earlier that same year (01/08/1980 airdate), though it is not a holiday-themed story.
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J.J. Walters
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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#74 Post by J.J. Walters »

Saw this on Cozi TV last night. What fun. My wife walks in and goes, "Hey, that's the girl from Who's the Boss." To which I said, "No, Gimme a Break." I scare myself by knowing these things sometimes. :) My wife went on to say she remembered watching this episode while babysitting when it originally aired. She said she would have been in trouble if her parents had found out. That brought a smile to my face. My how times have changed.
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#75 Post by Dave Anderson »

J.J. Walters wrote:Saw this on Cozi TV last night. What fun. My wife walks in and goes, "Hey, that's the girl from Who's the Boss." To which I said, "No, Gimme a Break." I scare myself by knowing these things sometimes. :) My wife went on to say she remembered watching this episode while babysitting when it originally aired. She said she would have been in trouble if her parents had found out. That brought a smile to my face. My how times have changed.
They have played it at least three times this month on Cozi. I am a fan of this episode (gave it an 8.0 and probably would give a 8.5 if I could change my vote). I don't understand why the votes skew so poorly for this episode. That said, PLEASE NO MORE of this episode this year, Cozi. I had already watched it Thanksgiving weekend on DVD to get in the holiday mood. I think will throw up if I see it once more this year, and I like the episode. Seriously, there can be too much of a good thing.

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Milton Collins
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Re:

#76 Post by Milton Collins »

J.J. Walters wrote:
On the one hand though, this early episode brought a sense of the "unexpected" to show. The series wasn't just a gritty, action-oriented show that was seen in the first two episodes. It could be goofy. It could be comedic (or at least attempt to be). It will have whole plots revolving around haughty rich kids! Be prepared for ANYTHING on this show. I love that.

The episode does have a couple of highlights, however. Katherine Cannon is always fun to watch (if you know what I mean). We get to see a very young Lauri Hendler, who will later have a successful Hollywood career. There are some cool shots of the estate's rarely seen wine cellar, and the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium. And who could forget that great line the one little girl says, "You shouldn't be punished for your passion".

Still, a pretty weak episode IMHO. But a weak MPI episode is better than 90% of the stuff out there, right! ;)
I agree with your comments completely! And I do "know what you mean" with Katherine Cannon lol wow! I just put together my list for the thread: Top ten babes of Magnum and she's high on it! It was nice to see her in a more likeable roll than her uptight and snotty appearance in season 3's "I Do". Anyway, this was a really average episode for me, I rated it a 7.5. I hadn't seen it in years but since it was a quiet Christmas Eve at home with other Magnum fans I threw it on. I also noticed some rarely seen footage of the wine cellar and Rick popping out of the water at the War Memorial Natatorium (which is also featured in the intro to every episode which was cool to see live!). Was the wine cellar configured differently in this early episode or was it just me?

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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#77 Post by SignGuyHPW »

This one was just kind of there for me. It wasn't a great episode, but didn't strike me as bad either. It seemed like they were still fleshing out the characters and some of that stuck starting with this one.

The premise of this one was pretty weak in terms of believability. Some of the girls were much too young to be the effective in being professional criminals. It was one of those episodes where it was hard to follow what was and wasn't legitamate since the stories were told and then it was like "that was a lie, but this time I mean it." I also didn't like Magnum going along with the girls instead of turning them over to the authorities. If a teacher had left a group of young girls alone (apparently with a good bit of cash) in a strange city so she could enjoy a very brief affair then I don't think she'd deserve to have her job protected. I just couldn't buy that from the start really.

Higgins being freaked out by the girls messing with everything in the den was classic. It really set his future behavior of not liking to be out of control of anyone at Robin's Nest. He seemed overwhelmed at having young children there that could damage priceless possessions. Having him hesitate at helping save the children later was also a classic Higgins move. It was kind of funny having young kids like that acting like career criminals with almost military like backgrounds. I also enjoyed the interactions between the girls when they were captive.

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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#78 Post by Primbud »

This one grows on you and you pay more attention to different things on repeated viewings. As such, it's a rarity that I alter my rating (especially as much as this) but I moved this from a 4 to a 7 as I feel it sets up a bunch of things for the series very early on.

Also, when the girls are stuck in the heat near the end, I could feel myself suffering with them. This is something that a bunch of movies cannot do - for instance, near the end of 'Star Wars episode 3 Revenge of the Sith' (2005), I could not feel the heat from the lava which I should have.

On a related note, the way Higgins talks about it being ~"130 in the shade", I could almost imagine it.

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Milton Collins
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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#79 Post by Milton Collins »

I have avoided this one since Christmas of 2014 where I only watched it because of the Holiday theme but I actually enjoyed it this time. A few highlights:

Katherine Cannon: Absolutely gorgeous in this episode!

Higgins (or Hugguns as the little girls called him) rage over the little girls and ANYTHING that they did completely cracked me up!

Always enjoy seeing the War Natatorium where my namesake got blasted by TM in season 7's Death and Taxes.

So fun to me how Magnum could vary from deadly serious in the first couple episodes to this. Any great show has a variety of themes and I love how Magnum PI could range from serious to silly and everything in between. By no means a great episode but decent for a change of pace:)

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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#80 Post by marlboro »

Milton Collins wrote:
So fun to me how Magnum could vary from deadly serious in the first couple episodes to this. Any great show has a variety of themes and I love how Magnum PI could range from serious to silly and everything in between. By no means a great episode but decent for a change of pace:)
Yeah, I agree with you. It was pretty gutsy to do a comedy episode so early in the shows run.

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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#81 Post by KingKC »

A lot of descriptive terms like goofy, lightweight, unbelievable, and too cutesy have been applied to the low image of this episode. I liked it simply because it did a complete turnaround from the super serious, dramatic and violent pilot movie and first episode. But my liking it doesn't mean it was a great show. Most "bad" MPI episodes were still pretty good overall. Remember now that back in the first season (1980-1981) we only got one episode a week and still only had three channels (CBS, NBC, ABC) of first run shows to choose from. We kind of took what we got and didn't complain.

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Re:

#82 Post by Little Garwood »

Image

Unless I've got her name wrong, the actress who played "Roxanne" is uncredited. The Magnum-Mania image gallery refers to her as "His [Mano's] Girlfriend." Does anyone know who she is? She managed some good comic timing in her brief role.
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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#83 Post by marlboro »

She looks a little bit like Janis Ward from "Innocence... A Broad."

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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#84 Post by magnumette »

hi guys. I am back on boards after a couple of years. Feels nice to reread some of these comments. Just rewatched thank heaven.

my goal - a goal I make every summer- is to rewatch the series I normally end up watching all season 1 and then other randoms but here I go again... has anyone here rewatched the entire series start to finish in order?

I rated thank heaven with a 7.5 2 years ago. maybe a little low, I probably would change it now. honestly every magnum is better than what is out there.

i do love the now retro vibe of this show - it was this show i first saw when first run. I was one of the girls ages and balked at being called a "little" girl but still liked it enough to start watching it

now 35 plus years later
what i liked- the character development and humor : T.C. do you have any more macho leis - it cracks me up . Here is a guy with muscles rippling any lei would be macho on him.......Saigon Suzie's I liked TC being the muscle in early shows, I like TC always having TM 's back what a friend

Higgins - Huggins and "outrageous"

Magnum - how he is seemingly unaware of the teacher's beauty , I just love his interaction with the little girl who thinks he is wonderful. He looks at the little girl with his tender smile dimples and all. I'm enchanted.

He is just perfect as an all around guy . a "friend/big brother/slight romance" to his buddies little sister in the pilot, a guy going a little crazy for the china doll and now a forgiving and helpful man to a flawed teacher. 2nd full episode in and he is shown to be a fluid and complex character

also the scene with the beach bum classic bs that worked! that cracked me up

ok so now im going to watch 1.4

aloha 8)

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Re: Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too (1.4)

#85 Post by magnumette »

oops i meant 1.5

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