... By Its Cover (3.21)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the third season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

Post Reply

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
4
4%
9.5 (One of the Best)
6
7%
9.0 (Excellent)
7
8%
8.5 (Very Good)
29
32%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
25
28%
7.5 (Decent)
7
8%
7.0 (Average at Best)
8
9%
6.5 (Not So Good)
2
2%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
0
No votes
5.0 (Just Awful)
2
2%
 
Total votes: 90

Message
Author
Seaver41
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 4:46 pm

#101 Post by Seaver41 »

while a slight improvement over the past 4-5 episodes, this doesn't reverse the downward trend the season has taken on. Even so, there really isn't a flat out terrible episode because the banter between characters usually bails it out........and you knew all along the little rodney thing was bogus.......come on......it's Angel speaking those words. Truly one of the iconic supporting characters from 70's tv on Rockford Files.

btw...how good was THAT theme song?

User avatar
Sisophous
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 232
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:00 pm
Location: New Rochelle, New York

#102 Post by Sisophous »

Too many second chances given by Magnum to his former friend who continually back stabs Magnum. Magnum delivers hidden drugs, gets shot at, nearly killed and the former friend leaves him for dead while running off.

Sometimes the script writers inject some idiotic reasoning and ruin episodes that potentially could have been great.

Who would turn the other cheek and give it a pass again and again after getting lied to repeatedly??? only Magnum I guess, not real.

marlboro
Baron Of GIFs
Posts: 655
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 2:31 pm

Re:

#103 Post by marlboro »

Sisophous wrote:Who would turn the other cheek and give it a pass again and again after getting lied to repeatedly???

Image


I liked this episode. I am a fan of the Rockford Files and Stuart Margolin was absolutely brilliant as Angel Martin.


"...By Its Cover" would have been a golden opportunity for a Magnum/Rockford crossover. I would have loved to have seen the Rod Crysler/Nam buddy character rewritten as Angel Martin visiting Hawaii with a cameo of Jim Rockford popping up at the end to deliver the "Rod/Angel doesn't have a son" line.


p.s. I assume most Magnum fans are fans of the Rockford Files, but if anyone out there hasn't checked it out, be sure to do so. And if anyone is a big fan of "...By Its Cover" be sure to check out the RF episodes Chicken Little is a Little Chicken, Backlash of the Hunter, and Counter Gambit - they all feature Stuart Margolin at his best.

marlboro
Baron Of GIFs
Posts: 655
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 2:31 pm

Re: ... By Its Cover (3.21)

#104 Post by marlboro »

Flub?

At the end of this episode Magnum gets into an elevator and the bill of his hat gets smooshed between the doors. Maybe it was intentional.

Tuan Vu
Captain
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:06 am

Re: ... By Its Cover (3.21)

#105 Post by Tuan Vu »

Hi, guys!

It's been a couple of years since I posted but thought I would comment after seeing this episode again after so many years.

One of the things I liked about this episode is that it has a lot to do with friendship, as is a common theme in Magnum P.I. In the beginning, TM tries to do a favor for his friend, Rod, and even when he gets into trouble for doing so, at least initially gives Rod the benefit of the doubt (even though the little voice in his head tells him otherwise). Likewise, TC and Rick help Magnum (through a bit of guilt-trip and manipulation Magnum puts on TC to get him to help deliver the box). TC helps Magnum and Magnum helps Rod, even though their friends are not perfect (and get them into trouble). And even though Magnum tells Rod he never wants to see him again, in the end he softens and says, "Give little Hot Rod a hug for me," suggesting that Magnum doesn't bear a grudge. At the end of the day, don't we all wish we had friends like TM and TC?

Another thing I liked about "By Its Cover" was the humor throughout and that it was not so serious. I like how Magnum breaks the fourth wall again when Tom Selleck's stunt double appears as "Mr. Peters". (I wonder whatever happened to Selleck's stunt double). I also like the fight scene where Ms./Miss/Officer Gordon has difficulty picking up a gun because everyone is fighting and kicking the guns on the ground. And when she finally picks it up and yells "All right, freeze," nobody listens to her! :P

Anyway, I would rate this a 9.0. Somehow, I just really enjoyed this episode. It had so many elements of what I watch Magnum P.I. for.

User avatar
Luther's nephew Dobie
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 1244
Joined: Thu May 30, 2013 4:16 am
Location: Swamps of Jersey

Re: Re:

#106 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

marlboro wrote:
Sisophous wrote:Who would turn the other cheek and give it a pass again and again after getting lied to repeatedly???
Image
I liked this episode. I am a fan of the Rockford Files and Stuart Margolin was absolutely brilliant as Angel Martin.
"...By Its Cover" would have been a golden opportunity for a Magnum/Rockford crossover. I would have loved to have seen the Rod Crysler/Nam buddy character rewritten as Angel Martin visiting Hawaii with a cameo of Jim Rockford popping up at the end to deliver the "Rod/Angel doesn't have a son" line.
p.s. I assume most Magnum fans are fans of the Rockford Files, but if anyone out there hasn't checked it out, be sure to do so. And if anyone is a big fan of "...By Its Cover" be sure to check out the RF episodes Chicken Little is a Little Chicken, Backlash of the Hunter, and Counter Gambit - they all feature Stuart Margolin at his best.
Hi Marlboro,
Excellent post, the response to the query of who would repeatedly be taken in by Rod, and you posting Rockford's photo made me laugh.
When I watched this episode I assumed Margolin's character was supposed to be a wink to his Emmy winning Angel Martin role.
I suspect the problem in any Rockford-Magnum crossover would have been they would have had to give a piece of the action to Rockford creator/producer Roy Huggins, a man infamous for glomming every penny he could any way he could.
He was a genius but was burnt early in his career by Warner Brothers policy of taking a reworked plot from one of it's old movies to be used as the pilot for any of their
new tv series. So Huggins could invent/create almost everything about the Maverick tv series, but by using a old movie plot for the ("based on") pilot Warners could deny the credit of 'created by' to the writer and cheat him out of big bucks.
A bitter Huggins from then on would demand huge bucks for any use of anything he created, and that would pertain to a no brainer gotta be a winner Magnum crossover, he'd likely charge so much Universal wouldnt even bother trying. Huggins was shameless, recycling whole scenes almost word for word from scripts that he did for Maverick and The Virginian for his Alias Smith & Jones on ABC. When it comes down to it, Rockford was Maverick updated to the 20th century.
I hope I am not off on a tangent here, just want to make everyone aware of what a sewer Hollywood really is, and how that fact probably affects chances of the public seeing a 21st century Magnum movie/series. Do any of you guys know who actually owns the creative rights to Magnum, be it the studio, Selleck, the creator or maybe the rights were sold off long ago?
Last edited by Luther's nephew Dobie on Mon Mar 14, 2016 12:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

marlboro
Baron Of GIFs
Posts: 655
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 2:31 pm

Re: ... By Its Cover (3.21)

#107 Post by marlboro »

You are right about Warner Brothers screwing Huggins out of his creators rights on Maverick by airing an episode based on an old movie script as the pilot. What you may not know is that Huggins actually wrote that script, but it was based on a novel that WB had bought the rights to. WB took Huggins script for the second episode, ran it as the pilot ,and claimed that he wasn't the shows creator since it was "based on" a property that they already owned.

They did something even shadier with Huggins' "77 Sunset Strip." They took the pilot episode and screened it at a handful of theaters in the Caribbean before broadcasting it on American television. Which is all they need to do to claim that Huggins didn't create the show, since it was "based on" a movie.

All of this to save $500.00 dollars per episode.

User avatar
Luther's nephew Dobie
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 1244
Joined: Thu May 30, 2013 4:16 am
Location: Swamps of Jersey

Re: ... By Its Cover (3.21)

#108 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

marlboro wrote:You are right about Warner Brothers screwing Huggins out of his creators rights on Maverick by airing an episode based on an old movie script as the pilot. What you may not know is that Huggins actually wrote that script, but it was based on a novel that WB had bought the rights to. WB took Huggins script for the second episode, ran it as the pilot ,and claimed that he wasn't the shows creator since it was "based on" a property that they already owned.
They did something even shadier with Huggins' "77 Sunset Strip." They took the pilot episode and screened it at a handful of theaters in the Caribbean before broadcasting it on American television. Which is all they need to do to claim that Huggins didn't create the show, since it was "based on" a movie. All of this to save $500.00 dollars per episode.
Hi Marlboro,
Wow, neat stuff. Maybe the element of being a con man who shears the rotten businessman who cheated folks, shared not just by Maverick and Rockford but other characters Huggins created, is based on Huggins himself. It's hard to blame him for getting even whenever he could.
Universal's reputation is even worse than Warner Brothers, they literally were racketeering when it came to cheating people out of money, till they ran up against probably the toughest SOB in Hollywood in Korean war combat vet James Garner.
He fought these thieves on a point of honor,a concept Hollywood has a problem understanding.
They settled out of court for their cheating him out of Rockford profits, savy people claim he got at least $40 million right as the trial was going to start, as he could have literally sent many of the biggest behind the scenes names in Hollywood to prison. If Seinfeld has made way over a billion the past 20 years, Rockford has to have generated half of that if not a lot more so 40 million was likely a bargain.
I think this matters in relation to Magnum PI being remade, as the books would be revisited in determining how to share the profits of a new series or movie. The studio may prefer not to have any light shown on what it previously claimed it owed Selleck etc.

marlboro
Baron Of GIFs
Posts: 655
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 2:31 pm

Re: ... By Its Cover (3.21)

#109 Post by marlboro »

When the parole officer misrecognized TM, she says (paraphrasing): "you look like the bunco type."


Tom Selleck and Robert Urich starred in the failed tv pilot "Bunco" in 1977. Just a coincidence, probably, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

p.s. is "misrecognized" not a word? My spellchecker says it isn't.

User avatar
308GUY
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 1228
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2013 11:42 pm
Location: OH,USA

Re: ... By Its Cover (3.21)

#110 Post by 308GUY »

marlboro wrote: p.s. is "misrecognized" not a word? My spellchecker says it isn't.
It is now! :lol: ....although I think the grammatically correct version would be..."mistook TM for" or "incorrectly indentified TM as" or something else that wouldn't be as short, to the point or nearly as creative as "misrecognized"! :magnum:

This:
I liked this episode. I am a fan of the Rockford Files and Stuart Margolin was absolutely brilliant as Angel Martin.
"...By Its Cover" would have been a golden opportunity for a Magnum/Rockford crossover. I would have loved to have seen the Rod Crysler/Nam buddy character rewritten as Angel Martin visiting Hawaii with a cameo of Jim Rockford popping up at the end to deliver the "Rod/Angel doesn't have a son" line.
Couldn't agree more.

"Of all the things that could be said, the saddest is: "It could have been."" Not sure who said it originally, but I find many instances where it applies.
"C'mon TC...nothing can go wrong!"

Croix de Lorraine
Admiral
Posts: 195
Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2011 6:49 pm

Re: Re:

#111 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

Luther's nephew Dobie wrote: Hi Marlboro,
Excellent post, the response to the query of who would repeatedly be taken in by Rod, and you posting Rockford's photo made me laugh.
When I watched this episode I assumed Margolin's character was supposed to be a wink to his Emmy winning Angel Martin role.
I suspect the problem in any Rockford-Magnum crossover would have been they would have had to give a piece of the action to Rockford creator/producer Roy Huggins, a man infamous for glomming every penny he could any way he could.
He was a genius but was burnt early in his career by Warner Brothers policy of taking a reworked plot from one of it's old movies to be used as the pilot for any of their
new tv series. So Huggins could invent/create almost everything about the Maverick tv series, but by using a old movie plot for the ("based on") pilot Warners could deny the credit of 'created by' to the writer and cheat him out of big bucks.
A bitter Huggins from then on would demand huge bucks for any use of anything he created, and that would pertain to a no brainer gotta be a winner Magnum crossover, he'd likely charge so much Universal wouldnt even bother trying. Huggins was shameless, recycling scripts almost word for word that he did for Maverick and The Virginian for his Alias Smith & Jones on ABC. When it comes down to it, Rockford was Maverick updated to the 20th century.
The girls in Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Big Ones Too keep calling Higgins "Huggins". At first I thought it was a reference to Miller Huggins, the famous former Yankees manager, but now I realize it was a reference to Roy Huggins.

User avatar
KingKC
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 571
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:16 pm
Location: Third World Country of Arkansas

Re: ... By Its Cover (3.21)

#112 Post by KingKC »

I will say one thing for Stuart Margolin: he can really play a character you love to hate. He was the show in this episode.

KingKC

User avatar
Turkey
Admiral
Posts: 184
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2014 2:06 pm
Location: Oz

Re: Re:

#113 Post by Turkey »

KingKC wrote:I will say one thing for Stuart Margolin: he can really play a character you love to hate. He was the show in this episode.

KingKC

He did such a great job in the episode, agreed
Make it two weeks.

jeffran
Captain
Posts: 60
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2017 11:03 pm

Re: Re:

#114 Post by jeffran »

Turkey wrote:
KingKC wrote:I will say one thing for Stuart Margolin: he can really play a character you love to hate. He was the show in this episode.

KingKC

He did such a great job in the episode, agreed
I agree, although I don't hate him. I actually like him, I just don't trust him.

Really good episode, I rated it 8.5 although it doesn't seem that highly rated by others. I agree, Stuart Margolin was great. I enjoyed the story as well. Solid.

marlboro
Baron Of GIFs
Posts: 655
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 2:31 pm

Re: ... By Its Cover (3.21)

#115 Post by marlboro »

FYI: Stuart Margolin recently popped up in an episode of the X Files revival called "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat." He's aged to the point of being unrecognizable, but he gave a very nice performance in a brief role.

I like to think the entire X Files Mythology is just some elaborate con Angel cooked up.

Post Reply