Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the second season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
7
6%
9.5 (One of the Best)
14
12%
9.0 (Excellent)
17
14%
8.5 (Very Good)
35
29%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
22
18%
7.5 (Decent)
8
7%
7.0 (Average at Best)
5
4%
6.5 (Not So Good)
6
5%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
1
1%
5.0 (Just Awful)
4
3%
 
Total votes: 119

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SignGuyHPW
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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#81 Post by SignGuyHPW »

Little Garwood wrote:Watched this again last night and only now just noticed that Higgins and Buck Gibson don't share a scene together! Yes, Higgins gets that hilarious monologue about Buck's previous visit to the estate, but McGavin and Hillerman don't interact at all.
Actually, they had the scene on the beach. Mad Buck crashed into Higgins to cause all of Higgins' injuries.

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Little Garwood
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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#82 Post by Little Garwood »

SignGuyHPW wrote:
Little Garwood wrote:Watched this again last night and only now just noticed that Higgins and Buck Gibson don't share a scene together! Yes, Higgins gets that hilarious monologue about Buck's previous visit to the estate, but McGavin and Hillerman don't interact at all.
Actually, they had the scene on the beach. Mad Buck crashed into Higgins to cause all of Higgins' injuries.
Weren't those just stuntmen? I'll give the episode another look.
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

~Tom Selleck

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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#83 Post by SignGuyHPW »

Little Garwood wrote:
SignGuyHPW wrote:
Little Garwood wrote:Watched this again last night and only now just noticed that Higgins and Buck Gibson don't share a scene together! Yes, Higgins gets that hilarious monologue about Buck's previous visit to the estate, but McGavin and Hillerman don't interact at all.
Actually, they had the scene on the beach. Mad Buck crashed into Higgins to cause all of Higgins' injuries.
Weren't those just stuntmen? I'll give the episode another look.
You're probably right. I was thinking the characters more of the actors. I'm guessing that it just didn't fit into the story they were doing.

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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#84 Post by tiger73 »

Darren McGavin was the 1st Mike Hammer of Mickey Spillane in the 50s years; not a great episode. As I said "Murder by night" Magnukm episode season 7 was tribute to Mike Hammer. Here Darren McGavin look almost unrecognizable. Notice even the lovely Vera Miles :P

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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#85 Post by Little Garwood »

I don't know what I voted Mad Buck Gibson when I chose a rating years before, but it's a definite 9.0 (Excellent).

As I've mentioned previously in this thread, I am a long-time Hemingway fan, so Mad Buck appeals to me. Yes, he's infuriating, outrageous, impulsive, cantankerous, and absolutely maddening. It's amusing that so many here find him to be those things as well and they don't like him very much at all. In the episode Higgins, Joan, and most of the patrons at the Aloha (maker of the renowned "Bazooka") can't stand him to a large degree, either. However, I get the impression that Mad Buck, like Hemingway, was a whirlwind in people's lives. Uprooting them from their stable routines but nevertheless having a profound and lasting effect on them, which is the kind of effect Hemingway had on those who knew him.

Mad Buck's dialogue as he's about to take off in the hang glider is some truly marvelous writing and it's beautifully delivered by the great Darren McGavin:
Magnum: "They respect the way you live."

Mad Buck: "Well, then, for God's sake, let them respect the way I'm gonna die. Well, then I won't do it to you. I'll tell it to that little kid who had a curve ball that would break your heart. And who ached for Sandy Koufax's uniform. You see, because I had a fantasy, too, once. Never, never, ever was I gonna be afraid of death. Oh, yeah, always. Always hated myself for it. Yeah, I always i always ran just a little too far out in front of the bulls when we ran with them in Spain. I always pulled the ripcord just one instant too soon. I was always afraid of dying. But now Death has screwed up. He's overplayed his hand. You see, it's the only thing that we're really afraid of in death. We know it's inevitable, we just don't know when. But now, don't you see, now I know that Death can't cheat me of life, can't cheat me of--of really, truly living a full life. Because now, I don't have to hold back something to save for tomorrow, for next year, next summer. Now I know that there will never will be...another summer. I know there will never be another morning quite as glorious as this. You see, I won because I've nothing to lose."
I think Tom Selleck's acting in this episode was superb and severely underrated. His reactions to Buck make Buck's dialogue all the more poignant and Selleck does the thankless job of setting those brilliant lines of dialogue up but he does it wonderfully, especially in light of Magnum's own knowing--if subsequently canonically incorrect--monologue about baseball and how long that "summer" will last.
Last edited by Little Garwood on Wed Feb 11, 2015 11:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#86 Post by Little Garwood »

A couple of random thoughts regarding this episode:

In the scene where Thomas and Joan are strolling along the Estate grounds, they go and sit in a secluded area with lots of foliage around them and sit on, I don't know, some concrete benches, and the main house can be seen through the bushes. I liked that there was what appeared to be an area of the Estate where one could relax. I suppose that's another way the Estate could be made to appear larger than it is. I don't think that sitting area is ever used again, is it?

Also today, by sheer coincidence of both my Magnum, P.I. and Rockford Files viewing order, was that today was an outstanding episode of The Rockford Files, also with an author character as its focus, season four's The Gang at Don's Drive-In, with guest star Anthony Zerbe as down-and-out writer Jack Skowron, an old friend of Rockford's whom he hasn't seen in 20 years. Skowron wrote a 1950s bestseller--on the charts for one-and-a-half weeks--"on the Kerouac/Burroughs wave", the wonderfully-pretentiously titled Freefall to Ecstasy. Skowron is still trying to recapture his muse amid his raging alcoholism and stalled writing career. Depressed, alcoholic writers are mentioned and Ernest Hemingway was mentioned as something like "the greatest of them all" in terms of the way he drank, lived, and died. Like Mad Buck Gibson, the episode takes its time setting up the story but focuses more on Zerbe's character, to this viewer's delight. Zerbe steals every scene he's in, just as Darren McGavin does in "Mad Buck" (though it's Noah Beery, Jr.'s lovable comedic brilliance that gets the biggest laugh, which i won't spoil here).
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

~Tom Selleck

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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#87 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

Little Garwood wrote:A couple of random thoughts regarding this episode:
In the scene where Thomas and Joan are strolling along the Estate grounds, they go and sit in a secluded area with lots of foliage around them and sit on, I don't know, some concrete benches, and the main house can be seen through the bushes. I liked that there was what appeared to be an area of the Estate where one could relax. I suppose that's another way the Estate could be made to appear larger than it is. I don't think that sitting area is ever used again, is it?
Also today, by sheer coincidence of both my Magnum, P.I. and Rockford Files viewing order, was that today was an outstanding episode of The Rockford Files, also with an author character as its focus, season four's The Gang at Don's Drive-In, with guest star Anthony Zerbe as down-and-out writer Jack Skowron, an old friend of Rockford's whom he hasn't seen in 20 years. Skowron wrote a 1950s bestseller--on the charts for one-and-a-half weeks--"on the Kerouac/Burroughs wave", the wonderfully-pretentiously titled Freefall to Ecstasy. Skowron is still trying to recapture his muse amid his raging alcoholism and stalled writing career. Depressed, alcoholic writers are mentioned and Ernest Hemingway was mentioned as something like "the greatest of them all" in terms of the way he drank, lived, and died. Like Mad Buck Gibson, the episode takes its time setting up the story but focuses more on Zerbe's character, to this viewer's delight. Zerbe steals every scene he's in, just as Darren McGavin does in "Mad Buck" (though it's Noah Beery, Jr.'s lovable comedic brilliance that gets the biggest laugh, which i won't spoil here).
Hi Garwood,
Terrific post about one outstanding episode. I think the producers went the extra mile on this one - figuring it as Emmy worthy - and cast outstanding character actors such as Mills Watson for even the smallest part.
There is so much going on, in my humble opinion one has to watch this episode twice in a row to savor everything.
I would like to take a moment to comment on how series such as Magnum suffer because of lousy editing by tv stations. The worst job I have ever seen in mine or anyone's lifetime, to the point of butchering the show and ruining almost every single dramatic moment, is COZI TV's rerunning of Adam-12.
The obvious places where the show's creators intended commercials to be put are ignored and the next scene started, but within 2 minutes they suddenly tear away to an ad in the most jarring way possible, ruining the pacing and tone and dramatic impact.
Most all of the humorous byplay and observations between the two officers is lopped off too, removing one of the most important aspects of the series, one that highlights over the years how the bonds between these two grow as the rookie Reed grows in the job.
It's unwatchable, a train wreck, but I find myself tuning in on occasion just to see how they will ruin the show that day.
The Lads could do a better editing job.
Last edited by Luther's nephew Dobie on Wed Mar 09, 2016 11:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#88 Post by Little Garwood »

Luther's nephew Dobie, check your PMs regarding The Gang at Don's Drive-In. :)

Yet another thought on Mad Buck Gibson: Though I "only" rated it a 9.0, in my book it rates a perfect 10 as an episode of Magnum, P.I. that features a guest star as its main focus.
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

~Tom Selleck

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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#89 Post by Pahonu »

Little Garwood wrote:A couple of random thoughts regarding this episode:

In the scene where Thomas and Joan are strolling along the Estate grounds, they go and sit in a secluded area with lots of foliage around them and sit on, I don't know, some concrete benches, and the main house can be seen through the bushes. I liked that there was what appeared to be an area of the Estate where one could relax. I suppose that's another way the Estate could be made to appear larger than it is. I don't think that sitting area is ever used again, is it?

Also today, by sheer coincidence of both my Magnum, P.I. and Rockford Files viewing order, was that today was an outstanding episode of The Rockford Files, also with an author character as its focus, season four's The Gang at Don's Drive-In, with guest star Anthony Zerbe as down-and-out writer Jack Skowron, an old friend of Rockford's whom he hasn't seen in 20 years. Skowron wrote a 1950s bestseller--on the charts for one-and-a-half weeks--"on the Kerouac/Burroughs wave", the wonderfully-pretentiously titled Freefall to Ecstasy. Skowron is still trying to recapture his muse amid his raging alcoholism and stalled writing career. Depressed, alcoholic writers are mentioned and Ernest Hemingway was mentioned as something like "the greatest of them all" in terms of the way he drank, lived, and died. Like Mad Buck Gibson, the episode takes its time setting up the story but focuses more on Zerbe's character, to this viewer's delight. Zerbe steals every scene he's in, just as Darren McGavin does in "Mad Buck" (though it's Noah Beery, Jr.'s lovable comedic brilliance that gets the biggest laugh, which i won't spoil here).
One of my favorite Rockford episodes. Anthony Zerbe was great. Loved him in Harry O with David Janssen.

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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#90 Post by KingKC »

Darren McGavin was perfect for this role and I would help Vera Miles any way I could. I think the reason this episode sticks with me for so many years is the envy I have for the Buck Gibson character. I wish I could be an adventurous, thrill seeking, carefree person but I never have been and sure won't be starting at the age of 64. After living such a life, though, I would not like to "go out" in a hospital bed suffering from whatever either.

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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#91 Post by thechickinthemiddle »

Vera Miles sure is lovely. :) It's a shame she wasn't a redhead here like she was on Columbo (70s 'do aside), because she made for an amazing one.

Image

Anyone else just retroactively consider Gillian Dobb's character here to be just Agatha hanging out with Higgins as usual? Back when she tried to stay as far away from Magnum and his friends as possible? :lol:

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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#92 Post by Fr. Paddy McGuinness »

She was gorgeous, but more importantly commanded the screen in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. My cougar before there was such a term.
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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#93 Post by marlboro »

Vera Miles was in the (awesome) first episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Revenge."

There is an amusing scene at the beginning where it appears that Aunt Bea from The Andy Griffith Show is checking her out while Vera is sunbathing.


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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#94 Post by f14peter »

Running through the series again after a several year hiatus. This is one of those episodes I'm liking more the second go 'round. First was kinda meh, nothing special but for whatever reason I enjoyed it a lot more this time.

Two flubs, maybe:
1 - Since the show sometimes plays fast and loose with geography and time of day, maybe this isn't a flub. The final scene at the hang glider launch area, Buck comments more than once about it being a glorious morning. However, the actual location is on the east side of Oahu which would be facing sunrise. Yet the shadows, while appropriately long for "morning", are being cast to the east, the sun low in the west behind Buck and Magnum as they look east facing the ocean. Even the clouds in the distance are lit up on their western sides.

Image

Only one of two possibilities ... they shot the scene late in the afternoon, or they used that bizarre coastline used in John Wayne's The Green Berets where the sun sets in the east.

2 - As Magnum in the Audi pursues Buck in the Ferrari, there are several shots from inside the Audi through the windshield where you can see that the rearview mirror has been removed. Several times you can see the "button" glued to the windshield that the mirror normally clips onto. After the crash, when magnum pulls up, you can see the mirror correctly in place.

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Re: Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

#95 Post by J.J. Walters »

marlboro wrote:Vera Miles was in the (awesome) first episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Revenge."

There is an amusing scene at the beginning where it appears that Aunt Bea from The Andy Griffith Show is checking her out while Vera is sunbathing.


Image
OMG! LMAO!! :D As a HUGE Andy Griffith Show fan, THANK YOU!!
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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