Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the second season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
0
No votes
9.5 (One of the Best)
0
No votes
9.0 (Excellent)
11
10%
8.5 (Very Good)
13
12%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
32
30%
7.5 (Decent)
24
23%
7.0 (Average at Best)
14
13%
6.5 (Not So Good)
6
6%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
4
4%
5.0 (Just Awful)
1
1%
 
Total votes: 105

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SignGuyHPW
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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#41 Post by SignGuyHPW »

I didn't like this one very much at all. Billy Joe Bob was just TOO sterotypical for my tastes. Right off the bat, the guy starts punching random people for no good reason. Magnum taking him with him and having him disobey his wishes made me even less sympathetic towards him. The cops that were tailing Magnum were pretty random and since, usually, Magnum knew and worked with a lot of the cops it didn't seem to make a ton of sense to me that he'd not know them. Ito having no idea who Magnum was and his men not knowing also struck me as odd since he'd been in the newspapers and they should've been able to research his history as an ex NIA officer. I also couldn't explain why Billy Joe Bob just didn't shoot Ito instead of hanging him. It didn't make sense that he had that elaborate hanging in mind when he was carrying a gun.

It was cool to see the mom from Small Wonders in a different role. That and Zeus answering the phone to get Higgins' attention off of him was great.

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EZiller
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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#42 Post by EZiller »

Gave it a 7, very average. Seemed like a recycled Rockford script. The idea that he could hot wire and fly TC's chopper, not being an experienced chopper pilot, is absolutely preposterous. Somehow I though the whole thing may have been a test run for Whitmore's "Billy Joe Bob" being a spinoff-"bringing frontier justice to the 80's" or something.

I did like Whitmore as XO Gutterman in the first season of "Black Sheep Squadron" which of course included Manetti in the cast, as well as having quite a few of the others making guest appearances in MPI over the years. Black Sheep was a pretty good show the first season, then they completed ruined it by making it a T&A extravaganza with the addition of the hot looking nurses, "Pappy's Lambs." I have no problem with good looking babes in a tv show [like the background scenery in scenes at the KKC!] but Black Sheep was supposed to be a WW2 saga.

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Re:

#43 Post by Hawaii Winds »

N1095A wrote:This episode has one of my favorite Magnum monemts. When Magnum is trying to talk TC into flying Billy Joe to check out a lead, TC is working on the chopper by banging in the open engine bay with a hammer. As the conversation continues, TC casually walks over to his tool box and gets a bigger hammer, then returns to the engine bay. It's a very subtle scene that I find very amusing. It's the old "You need a bigger hammer" joke.

As he is stealing TC's chopper, Billy Joe looks to his left showing the right side of the pilot's headset. Written in in large letters is the name D. JONES on the right earmuff. Being that it is supposed to be TC's headset, are we to assume TC stole it from some guy named Jones? In reality it was likely a headset belonging to pilotand aerial coordinator David Jones.
Nice catching the flub!, I saw another in this episode, at the very beginning where Billy Joe is walking to the KKC, he looks inside TM Ferrari parked at the front entrance, after the punch in the jaw scene, TM Ferrari is now at the opposite end of the entrance...how did it move?

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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#44 Post by Dave Anderson »

Maybe I'm confused on which episode this is, I'll need to double check. Deleting my review for now.

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Re:

#45 Post by Milton Collins »

N1095A wrote:I really don't know which was more amusing, Billy Joe trying to talk without the accent or TM trying to talk with it. Either way, great scene in the bar.

I agree! This and the funny ending where Magnum left Higgins to fertilize the lawn were the best parts of this one. I can't say I really liked this episode at all. Not one of my top few worst but just not that good. I found Billy Jo to be pretty ridiculous as a whole, running around slugging people out? Stealing helicopters, I mean who does that. I just didn't find this to be very believable or entertaining. With that being said its still a Magnum and even ones that I wasn't crazy about are far better than other shows:)

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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#46 Post by marlboro »

If they had made "Billy Joe Bob" a realistic character instead of a collection of sterotypes it could have been a good episode. You could start by giving him a less silly name; even the guys from Dukes of Hazzard thought the name "Billy Joe Bob" was a little obvious.

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Milton Collins
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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#47 Post by Milton Collins »

marlboro wrote:If they had made "Billy Joe Bob" a realistic character instead of a collection of sterotypes it could have been a good episode. You could start by giving him a less silly name; even the guys from Dukes of Hazzard thought the name "Billy Joe Bob" was a little obvious.


Hah haha I love it, great comment! I have to see we seem to be watching the same episodes Marlboro, and the funny thing is they aernt sequential! Always enjoy your posts:) And I have to say I LOVED the Dukes of Hazzard, that was a Friday night ritual for my brother and I when were little kids, loved it!

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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#48 Post by Little Garwood »

I voted Billy Joe Bob a 7.0 (Average at Best).

Not much to add except that I associate this episode with that different (to me) King Kamehameha Club entrance which always throws me off. There's also the preponderance of cloudy, overcast weather in this one, too. It boggles the mind that Billy Joe Bob was chosen to open the second season instead of Memories are Forever. Maybe CBS wanted to save MaF for whatever NBC and ABC had going when it did air?

James Whitmore, Jr. has always been a reliable actor in everything I've seen him in and he does alright with what others have already seen as a thankless, stereotypical role. The scene where Magnum is trying to get Billy Joe to add on the letter G to his words where he would normally drop them reminds me of how I might speak to my sister-in-law's husband. :lol:

The three thugs of Ito's getting taken out by the helicopter skids is something I loved as a kid and accepted without batting an eye. Now I'm just agog that the thugs stayed unconscious(?) for so long that they were still sprawled motionless on the ground when Magnum arrived!
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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#49 Post by KingKC »

If there was ever a hokey, over the top presentation of a "cowboy" from Texas this was it. It was amusing at best but the best part of the show is when Billy Joe Bob has Ito strung up and scared! Oh, if only real life could do that to the bad guys!!

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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#50 Post by ENSHealy »

EZiller wrote:The idea that he could hot wire and fly TC's chopper, not being an experienced chopper pilot, is absolutely preposterous.
They work it in, about the same time as he steals the chopper, that he flew "just about anything" back in Texas. (Kind of like Luke Sywalker.) Carol Ann says it after she re-appears. So they at least tossed a throwaway line at it.
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#51 Post by karolis »

Magnum T. wrote: Funny thing: I read there is a cat in one scene at Ito's place (an "extra"?). I admit I didn't notice him. Next time maybe...
Here's the cat ;) at 30:14 ;)

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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#52 Post by MaximRecoil »

ENSHealy wrote:
EZiller wrote:The idea that he could hot wire and fly TC's chopper, not being an experienced chopper pilot, is absolutely preposterous.
They work it in, about the same time as he steals the chopper, that he flew "just about anything" back in Texas. (Kind of like Luke Sywalker.) Carol Ann says it after she re-appears. So they at least tossed a throwaway line at it.
Yes, but "Hollywood Hotwiring" is almost always a load of "recycled vegetation", and this is no exception. We are to believe that Billy Joe Bob just happened to have committed the Hughes 500D ignition wiring scheme to memory at some point before coming to Hawaii? And not only that, but the two wires he needed to connect in order to turn the ignition to "run" just happened to be dangling down, with pre-stripped ends no less? In reality, if the ignition switch's hot wire had been dangling down like that, it means it wasn't connected to the ignition switch, which means the helicopter couldn't be started in the normal way, i.e., it would have to be hotwired every time.

Hollywood presents "hotwiring" as something that a person learns to do once and then he can magically hotwire anything. It doesn't work that way. There is no standardized ignition wiring scheme that applies to all, nor even most, makes/models of vehicles (just as there's no standardized bomb wiring scheme so that it's always the same color wire that needs to be cut in order to disable it), and on top of that, the hot wire that you need to short to ground (to bypass the ignition switch) isn't just dangling down under the dash. The hot wire for the ignition's "run" state is connected to one of the terminals on the ignition switch, and it's very likely to be bundled with a bunch of other wires, and you normally can't see the ignition switch's terminals without taking things apart, so unless you memorized the schematics for the vehicle you're trying to hotwire, you have no way of knowing which wire you need to cut or otherwise remove from the ignition switch's terminal in order to short it to ground.

Most instances of Hollywood Hotwiring are with automobiles, which presents an additional problem. All American automobiles (and most foreign ones as well) have had a steering wheel lock since 1970. It is deactivated when you put the key into the ignition lock/switch and turn it. Hotwiring bypasses the ignition switch, so the steering wheel remains locked. It doesn't do you much good to get the engine started if you can't steer the car. Hollywood nearly always ignores this inconvenient fact.

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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#53 Post by Pahonu »

MaximRecoil wrote:
ENSHealy wrote:
EZiller wrote:The idea that he could hot wire and fly TC's chopper, not being an experienced chopper pilot, is absolutely preposterous.
They work it in, about the same time as he steals the chopper, that he flew "just about anything" back in Texas. (Kind of like Luke Sywalker.) Carol Ann says it after she re-appears. So they at least tossed a throwaway line at it.
Yes, but "Hollywood Hotwiring" is almost always a load of "recycled vegetation", and this is no exception. We are to believe that Billy Joe Bob just happened to have committed the Hughes 500D ignition wiring scheme to memory at some point before coming to Hawaii? And not only that, but the two wires he needed to connect in order to turn the ignition to "run" just happened to be dangling down, with pre-stripped ends no less? In reality, if the ignition switch's hot wire had been dangling down like that, it means it wasn't connected to the ignition switch, which means the helicopter couldn't be started in the normal way, i.e., it would have to be hotwired every time.

Hollywood presents "hotwiring" as something that a person learns to do once and then he can magically hotwire anything. It doesn't work that way. There is no standardized ignition wiring scheme that applies to all, nor even most, makes/models of vehicles (just as there's no standardized bomb wiring scheme so that it's always the same color wire that needs to be cut in order to disable it), and on top of that, the hot wire that you need to short to ground (to bypass the ignition switch) isn't just dangling down under the dash. The hot wire for the ignition's "run" state is connected to one of the terminals on the ignition switch, and it's very likely to be bundled with a bunch of other wires, and you normally can't see the ignition switch's terminals without taking things apart, so unless you memorized the schematics for the vehicle you're trying to hotwire, you have no way of knowing which wire you need to cut or otherwise remove from the ignition switch's terminal in order to short it to ground.

Most instances of Hollywood Hotwiring are with automobiles, which presents an additional problem. All American automobiles (and most foreign ones as well) have had a steering wheel lock since 1970. It is deactivated when you put the key into the ignition lock/switch and turn it. Hotwiring bypasses the ignition switch, so the steering wheel remains locked. It doesn't do you much good to get the engine started if you can't steer the car. Hollywood nearly always ignores this inconvenient fact.

I'm questioning whether a gas turbine helicopter even has an ignition key like a car. It doesn't start in the same way as piston engines. There are probably a series of steps that are needed to get it going and how many people understand this process and could then fly it away. I'm thinking the doors may have keyed locks like a car, but then the doors can be removed by taking out some hinge pins, and they're incredibly light and thin. That's not much security, but then how many people could steal a helicopter? One of the news stories I saw about the guy who stole the plane in Seattle and crashed it into the ground, stated that commercial planes don't have ignitions keys like cars. If you gain access to the plane and actually know what to do, it can be started. These type of incidence must be incredibly rare.

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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#54 Post by MaximRecoil »

Pahonu wrote: I'm questioning whether a gas turbine helicopter even has an ignition key like a car. It doesn't start in the same way as piston engines. There are probably a series of steps that are needed to get it going and how many people understand this process and could then fly it away. I'm thinking the doors may have keyed locks like a car, but then the doors can be removed by taking out some hinge pins, and they're incredibly light and thin. That's not much security, but then how many people could steal a helicopter? One of the news stories I saw about the guy who stole the plane in Seattle and crashed it into the ground, stated that commercial planes don't have ignitions keys like cars. If you gain access to the plane and actually know what to do, it can be started. These type of incidence must be incredibly rare.
In the case of a car, the ignition key switch does two things when you turn the key:

1. Closes a circuit that lets electricity flow to the ignition system (the "run" position).
2. Temporarily closes a circuit that lets electricity flow to the starter motor (via a couple of relays/solenoids); once the engine starts you let go of the key/switch/lock and it springs back to the run position.

This is why hotwiring a car, when done correctly, is a two-part operation. First you have to create the "run" position, which involves shorting the ignition's hot wire to ground and leaving it there. Then you have to create the "start" position, which involves shorting the starter relay's hot wire to ground temporarily, i.e., until the engine starts.

The ignition key switch for a helicopter like TC's is only an ignition switch (function #1), rather than a combined ignition/starter switch like in a typical car. It has a separate starter button. You can see the startup of a Hughes 500D in this video:

https://youtu.be/RDAXbLH4YYw

He turns the ignition key switch at the beginning of the video:

Image

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Re: Billy Joe Bob (2.1)

#55 Post by Pahonu »

MaximRecoil wrote:
Pahonu wrote: I'm questioning whether a gas turbine helicopter even has an ignition key like a car. It doesn't start in the same way as piston engines. There are probably a series of steps that are needed to get it going and how many people understand this process and could then fly it away. I'm thinking the doors may have keyed locks like a car, but then the doors can be removed by taking out some hinge pins, and they're incredibly light and thin. That's not much security, but then how many people could steal a helicopter? One of the news stories I saw about the guy who stole the plane in Seattle and crashed it into the ground, stated that commercial planes don't have ignitions keys like cars. If you gain access to the plane and actually know what to do, it can be started. These type of incidence must be incredibly rare.
In the case of a car, the ignition key switch does two things when you turn the key:

1. Closes a circuit that lets electricity flow to the ignition system (the "run" position).
2. Temporarily closes a circuit that lets electricity flow to the starter motor (via a couple of relays/solenoids); once the engine starts you let go of the key/switch/lock and it springs back to the run position.

This is why hotwiring a car, when done correctly, is a two-part operation. First you have to create the "run" position, which involves shorting the ignition's hot wire to ground and leaving it there. Then you have to create the "start" position, which involves shorting the starter relay's hot wire to ground temporarily, i.e., until the engine starts.

The ignition key switch for a helicopter like TC's is only an ignition switch (function #1), rather than a combined ignition/starter switch like in a typical car. It has a separate starter button. You can see the startup of a Hughes 500D in this video:

https://youtu.be/RDAXbLH4YYw

He turns the ignition key switch at the beginning of the video:

Image
Interesting video. Lots of switching going on! That would seem to make the process of starting it (without a key) one step easier than in a car. You would only have to bypass the keyed ignition switch. All the other steps in starting it didn't seem to have any security. It's not unlike my buddies old diesel boat. Just one key to turn on the electrical system, which he usually leaves in there. Then he opens the fuel valve near the companionway and finally presses the starter motor button. I think it has a manual choke also.

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