The Elmo Ziller Story (2.21)

[Jay-Firestorm]

Friday’s first review; an enjoyable comedy this one. (Also, I accidentally got the wrong thread and just rated ‘Three Minus Two’ as 9.5, which is annoying me, ‘cos I’m not exactly a fan of that episode!!)

[rating=9.5]

Magnum thinks Higgins is pulling a trick when he supposedly meets Higgins’ illegitimate half-brother Elmo, a Texan rodeo owner. But it begins to seem as if Elmo may be real, and T.M. must find the people trying to murder him. Very silly but a lot of fun…

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This review contains spoilers.

I have a confession: When I first saw ‘The Elmo Ziller Story’, many moons ago now, I thought it was a bit stupid. But what was I thinking?! – the episode is great fun, and shows how well the show could switch between drama in some episodes, to all-out comedy in other eps such as this one.

The episode begins a trend in the series, of Hillerman doubling up as both Higgins and as a family relation (see also season three’s ‘Faith and Begorrah’ and season six’s ‘Who Is Don Luis Higgins… And Why Is He Doing These Terrible Things to Me?’, as well as the sixth season’s feature-length ‘Deja Vu’).

One touch I really like is how Higgins protests the innocence of his father, supposedly being taken advantage of by women in various situations. This is a nice little touch that would become recurring through the various ‘half-brother’ Higgins episodes.

It has been commented that native Texan Higgins has a better British accent as Higgins, than he does a Texas accent as Elmo. This may be true, but as it turns out that Higgins is posing as Elmo all along, it could be explained away.

A small character to look out for is the hotel receptionist, played by Gillian Dobb, who would become Agatha Chumley, the much recurring friend of Higgins, from the next season onwards.

The episode has a lot of amusing moments, and really leaves you guessing throughout as to whether Elmo is real, or simply Higgins putting it on. Kudos to Hillerman to being able to pull it off convincingly.

Then there is Rick and T.C. having to dress up as clowns, one of a number of episodes where the duo is collared into wearing fancy dress.

At the conclusion of the episode, I found it rather unclear is the real Elmo was alive or not; it was a bit ambiguous, although future episodes may suggest that Elmo is indeed still alive.

This episode would have made a perfect finale to the season in my opinion, and maybe it was originally intended as such, as ‘Three Minus Two’, produced much earlier in the season, seems a bit tacked on.

All-in-all, a really fun episode. Yes there are plotholes and inconstancies, but it’s very hard not to warm to the story.

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Other notes, bloopers, and misc.:

* For a moment, I thought teetotaller T.C. was drinking beer with Magnum and Rick; but it seems to be Cola (the L and the A can be seen on the label).

* Magnum smokes his fifth cigar of the series.

* Most of the rodeo acts are noticeably made up from pre-existing stock footage.

* Tom Selleck does much of his own horse riding for this episode.

[J.J. Walters]

This may be my favorite screen cap ever....

[MaximRecoil]

I find it ironic that Hillermna, a native Texan, has a better British accent than he does a Texas one.

Well, Hillerman was playing a native Englishman who was faking a Texas accent, so he may have taken that into account.

Also, I've never heard his native accent, but it might be a somewhat neutral one that doesn't sound particularly "Texan" at all, and it could be that he's practiced the English accent far more than he has the stereotypically "Texan" accent.

As an example, I'm a native Mainer, yet I have a neutral accent rather than the stereotypical "Maine accent". My older sister, father, and mother all have the Maine accent, while my brother, younger sister, and I have a neutral accent that sounds like it could be from countless places throughout the USA and Canada; even though us kids were all raised together, with our parents that both have a Maine accent.

Now, I can't do a convincing fake Maine accent at all; though I can do it better than the horrible fake Maine accents on Murder, She Wrote (Tom Bosley's was especially bad).

[charybdis1966]

Talking of accents, I emailed this site a while back to point out a flub – or at the very least an inconsistency – with John Hillerman’s English accent in this episode. When Higgins is about to leave the estate at the beginning of the episode he opens the window in his cab/limo and tells Magnum that “the details of the tasks…” for the estate are on a list. Hillerman puts emphasis on the second syllable of “details” which is not how an Englishman would say it. Hillerman says “duh-tails”(shortening the first syllable) whereas it should be “dee-tails.”
It’s one of the few accent mistakes I’ve noticed Hillerman make because I always thought he was English until I saw him in some other sitcom and heard him speak in his natural voice and thought “Wow, he does that American accent well.”
Finally, does anyone know why I can't vote on the rating poll for this episode?

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

I think you're right on him not having much of an accent with his natural voice. Most Hollywood types really don't have an accent when they speak, and maybe that is because they use their voices in a variety of ways in their jobs.

[robspace54]

I had totally forgotten the details. Higgins pretending to be Elmo, pretending... oh never mind. It's like time travel - too confusing.

In the trailer scene, I guessed, wrongly, that Higgins was standing in for (well lying in for) Elmo to protect him. But all was revealed.

Must have been a fun episode to shoot and I can only imagine the fun the crew had with it. Did Elmo ever show up in Mexico and did that little cowgirl come back next summer? Probably a story out there somewhere.

Rob

[timm525]

My question was how can two babies born from different mothers end up being identical twins?

I've never heard of that one before?

I liked this ep. as it was sort of a fun one to watch.

I did wonder how Higgins could run from the guest house back to the estate and change that quickly and then come down the stairs and not at least be breathing hard?

I liked the line "round up breakfast". I was laughing almost as hard as TC when I first heard that one.

I think Higgins' father would have been in serious trouble today! How many times can a guy get "taken advantage of" by multiple women and still make it believable?

"No honest honey..."

[Coops]

Sort of like 2 friends of mine that are brothers that I grew up with, same mother and father, yet they look NOTHING alike, I mean no similar features at all; one had straight honey blonde hair and fair eyes and tall. The other is short, wavy brown hair and freckles.

John really did act his rear-end off in this one.

[Milo Minderbinder]

I've finally been able to watch some more episodes - such fun!

I live in Austin, which is the very eastern edge of the Texas Hill Country. No one in town dresses or talks like that, but I'm sure that many of those stereotypes were a bit more closer to home back when this was filmed, especially out in the rural areas. There are still lots of ranches out there. The land out here generally has lots of trees, so my guess is that the producers tried to find a spot in Hawaii that looked like what they thought the hill country might look like.

My favorite line was in the beginning when Higgins is rushing off to the cab and says something about how being around Elmo is "intellectually life threatening" - loved that line!

A minor flub was in the first scene when the two bad guys ride up on horses to the crashed truck. One of them gets off his horse behind the truck and goes to the passenger side to light the tank on fire. When he's done and goes to get on his horse, it's over by the driver side door along with the other horse...

All in all, a fun episode. From the very beginning, I thought it was really Elmo and never suspected it was really Higgins.

[JT]

I found a flub. In the beginning of the episode Magnum is running on the beach, when he get's to the guest house his shirt is sweaty, when he enters the guest house the sweat is gone!
I really liked this episode, man is John hillerman an outstanding actor!

[miltontheripper]

Good episode, Rick and TC as Rodeo clowns is hilarious.

[MaiTaiMan]

As I stated in my post/rating for the episode "Billy Joe Bob"...I do not really like cowboy/western type episodes or movies! They're just too "hick/hillbilly" for my taste. I know usually they're supposed to be for humor purposes...but they're not funny--just stupid!

"The Elmo Ziller Story" was no different...it was so ridiculous and dumb that I usually end up thinking about something else while it's on. I think John Hillerman is an awesome actor and can play different roles very well. Ironically he also is in reality from Texas--so maybe that's why he wanted to play the dual role in this episode. But, I would hope he was not as ridiculously "hick" as he was in this!

Ironically this season started with a "hick" episode...and almost ended with one too. What saved season 2 is all the other awesome episodes in between.

[jimhalinda]

I just watched this for the first time, and while I did enjoy it and take it as a sillier episode, there is one thing that bothered me.

I agree that Hillerman is a great actor, and Higgins is my favourite character in the show (Magnum is my second-favourite). However, in the first half of this episode, when playing Higgins, I felt he was almost trying too hard to be Higgins (maybe to further separate his Higgins role from his Elmo impresonation?). He just seemed a little flat and more sarcastic than usual. Now I suppose it could just mean that Higgins was trying not to reveal anything and the hostility was meant to cover that up? It just seems a little out of place this late in season two, as by now Higgins has been starting to show some respect for Magnum.

Having said that, it gets better as the show progresses, and I loved the ending, when Magnum thanks Higgins for believing in Magnum's professional skills, and Higgins brushes it off by attributing Magnum's successes to dumb luck. They may be starting to respect each other, but both are too proud to admit it, and that keeps me chuckling as I feel they both play that so well.

Regards,

Jim

[MaiTaiMan]

Yeah, the respect that Magnum and Higgins started to develop for each other was interesting and sometimes humorous to watch. I suppose that was one aspect to this episode that could be watchable.

But, I agree that sometimes other things seemed "forced" and "faky". The whole Elmo Ziller character seemed too hicky and over-the-top. It was a little to ridiculous for me.

[KENJI]

The scene with Higgins leaving the estate for some RR shows the tennis court in the background with what looks to be some sort of mural/logo.... on the practice wall. I haven't seen a close up of it, so I'm thinking it is something Eve Anderson wanted left up/untouched etc. Can anyone make it out?