Limited Engagement (4.5)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the fourth season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
0
No votes
9.5 (One of the Best)
7
8%
9.0 (Excellent)
6
7%
8.5 (Very Good)
21
24%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
25
28%
7.5 (Decent)
16
18%
7.0 (Average at Best)
6
7%
6.5 (Not So Good)
3
3%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
2
2%
5.0 (Just Awful)
3
3%
 
Total votes: 89

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rubber chicken
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#61 Post by rubber chicken »

Very clever, I hadn't remembered their names. I wonder if the sisters had a different surname when the script was first written, which was then changed to LaSalle when they found the car. Or they could have intentionally selected a LaSalle car to match the sister's surname as it already was in the script. Probably not a coincidence anyway.

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firefly
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#62 Post by firefly »

there is one flub that i noticed when watching this episode the other night, albeit it was certainly done for comedic value as opposed to being a serious part of the episode.

when magnum is at the auto-body shop and gets sprayed in the face with the paint there is no way that he would have been able to keep going like he did. even with the fact that he had his sunglasses on, the sheer amount of solvents (not to mention carcinogens like isocyanates) contained in auto paint back then would have left him on the ground.


i did like the episode, good but not great, i give it an eight. probably would have only gotten a seven if not for the previously mentioned scene where tc wins the final bingo round. i loved all of his plans for what he was going to use the money for. that and ms. wilcox was quite the cutie :D

Croix de Lorraine
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Re:

#63 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

lutherhgillis wrote:Yea, Wilcox was a looker but boy what a hostile attitude... I would consider her a b*@%&...
That only makes her sexier. Where is the fun in taming a meek horse?

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charybdis1966
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Re: Limited Engagement (4.5)

#64 Post by charybdis1966 »

I saw this episode last night and apart from a few comedic moments this will not be one I'll hurry to watch again.

The old ladies, while quite quaint initially, just got annoying when it came to accepting help from TM, of course there was a reason for that, as we discover later on, but they were rather condescending in their attitude and not terribly likeable.

The story seemed to be a bit confused and the plot twists rather goofy with the resolution of the episode being a bit convoluted and ultimately unsatisfactory in my opinion.
Last edited by charybdis1966 on Mon Mar 07, 2022 3:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

marlboro
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Re: Limited Engagement (4.5)

#65 Post by marlboro »

I thought this one was just "ok" Saving old people from being evicted by an evil landlord is a bit too "Highway to Heaven" for me.

I thought an interesting twist would have been to have the retirement community actually be a home for retired thieves and con artists. Have Magnum suspect that the oldsters are up to no good, but be completely unable to convince anyone that these sweet little septuagenarians are actually geriatric Bonnie and Clyde's.


p.s. I'm not usually into redheads, but I thought Mizzzz Wilcox was extremely attractive. The makers of Magnum certainly knew how to show their female guest stars at the height of their beauty.

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Stelth
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Re: Limited Engagement (4.5)

#66 Post by Stelth »

marlboro wrote:I thought this one was just "ok" Saving old people from being evicted by an evil landlord is a bit too "Highway to Heaven" for me.

I thought an interesting twist would have been to have the retirement community actually be a home for retired thieves and con artists. Have Magnum suspect that the oldsters are up to no good, but be completely unable to convince anyone that these sweet little septuagenarians are actually geriatric Bonnie and Clyde's.


p.s. I'm not usually into redheads, but I thought Mizzzz Wilcox was extremely attractive. The makers of Magnum certainly knew how to show their female guest stars at the height of their beauty.
Funny you should say that. I believe the late great Michael Landon ripped off this episode. The premise of Limited Engagement is very similar to the pilot episode of Highway to Heaven.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0601556/
The HtH episode aired in September of '84 so it is possible Landon "borrowed" heavily for his show after watching Limited Engagement.

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Doc Ibold
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Re: Limited Engagement (4.5)

#67 Post by Doc Ibold »

Stelth wrote:
marlboro wrote:I thought this one was just "ok" Saving old people from being evicted by an evil landlord is a bit too "Highway to Heaven" for me.

I thought an interesting twist would have been to have the retirement community actually be a home for retired thieves and con artists. Have Magnum suspect that the oldsters are up to no good, but be completely unable to convince anyone that these sweet little septuagenarians are actually geriatric Bonnie and Clyde's.


p.s. I'm not usually into redheads, but I thought Mizzzz Wilcox was extremely attractive. The makers of Magnum certainly knew how to show their female guest stars at the height of their beauty.
Funny you should say that. I believe the late great Michael Landon ripped off this episode. The premise of Limited Engagement is very similar to the pilot episode of Highway to Heaven.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0601556/
The HtH episode aired in September of '84 so it is possible Landon "borrowed" heavily for his show after watching Limited Engagement.
Wasn't there like a pool of writers in the 80s where there was always the same themes in different shows?

"Bikers take over a town" - A Team/Knight Rider
"Disabled person gets in a fix" A Team/Knight Rider/Magnum/Dukes of Hazzard
"Cute Old people get in a fix" See above
"Spunky Kid Melts Heart of traditionally grouchy person" See above

etc etc.

I guess though.. thats what makes the 80's great. You could never make an episode about an escaped military team helping a mom and pop trucking operation get theirmelons to market today.

Too many internet haters!

:lol:

Magnum luckily went it's own way, but even it was victim to the formulaic episode once in a while.

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Re: Limited Engagement (4.5)

#68 Post by SignGuyHPW »

I liked this one as a comedy episode, but it wasn't the greatest of episodes. It just struck me as odd that Magnum went that far out of his way to help the sisters when he had just met them. It would've been a nice touch if Icepick had been the one who sent the last of the needed funds to make up for not making it to the bingo gala, but it played out pretty well as it was.

For those of you thinking about the card flub consider this: Thomas went to his second game at that point. It's entirely possible that he didn't really become a huge baseball fan until later in life and was only a casual or new fan in 1952. He may have picked up that card in a trade later and thought that the stat was real without knowing better.

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#69 Post by Hawaii Winds »

rubber chicken wrote:Here's the "Day-N-Dark" convenience store.
Image
It seems the location used to be a Handi Pantry store and gas station and may now be a kidney dialysis center...
In addition, Liberty Dialysis-Hawaii LLC is investing $2.9 million to renovate an 8,000-square-foot building, formerly a Handi Pantry store and a gas station, at 3625 Harding Ave. It plans to open a new kidney dialysis center in mid-October.
But the address has also been used for Applied Graphics Warehouse, so I'm not sure what's there now. Anyway, it's too bad we can no longer visit a store there.


Ronnie's Speed Shop was located about here, but the three block area has since been redeveloped. Fortunately I was able to make out the street sign (with some difficulty), and the tallest building in the top right picture of the collage still exists.
Image
Image
I wonder if Ronnie's Speed Shop competed with Rodney Radcliff's "little shop" (from Old Acquaintance - 6.3). Or maybe Ronnie & Rodney were known to kick back and have a few beers once in a while in some china town dive.




pickled-egg-please
Image

What, no pictures of the blue 69' Camaro with the injector pipes comin out of the hood? Sure was a beautiful car though....wonder who owns it?

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Re: Limited Engagement (4.5)

#70 Post by Sir Fearing »

mandolabar wrote:I love this episode because of the scene where TC wins the final bingo round. He's so excited and suddenly just lunges at Higgins and hugs him, knocks over the stand with the ball-roller.

My daughter and I love this, because we have the strong impression that Hillerman was on the verge of breaking up with laughter....look at him, after TC lets go. It's a real smile, and he just has that "about to explode" look to him. :lol: We have a private theory that Hillerman walked offscreen right then because he had to, before he lost it--that was such a great bit of exuberance on Roger Mosley's part, he wouldn't want to ruin the take.
That was my impression, too. Maybe Hillerman was not prepared for the Ellery Queen reference T.C. made?
T.C.: “I won! I never won anything, since I won an Ellery Queen decoder ring when I was seven years old!”
(John Hillerman played Simon Brimmer in eight episodes of Ellery Queen between 1975 and 1976.)
Half a world removed from England

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Re: Limited Engagement (4.5)

#71 Post by Milton Collins »

I find this to be a total comedy episode and gave it an 8.0, not a great one but absolutely worth watching for the laughs. Some highlights:

- Limited engagement dishes out the laughs right from the get go. Seeing Thomas in his RIDICULOUS day n dark uniform stacking his beer can sculpure reminded me of college and was just too funny. His monologue about "great art" and non remembering who said it, monet or Higgins was priceless! And that little twerp, you just KNEW right from the beginning as he was eyeing the beer sculpture that he was going to cause Thomas headaches. I loved Magnum's irriation with having to get him quarters and fill up his "strawberry dream" lol. And I can hardly blame TM for grabbing the kid when he's stealing change out of the jar, but man if you grabbed a kid like that today you would bet more than punched, you'd be in jail! Funny scene though and poor TM get's blasted in the face by that big dude (how many times has that actor played bit roles? lol)

- while I found the Lasalle sisters semi annoying, they became more likeable as the episode went on and you saw their poor living conditions and that they were being used by that creepy red head! I loved how they kept calling Thomas "Tommy" ha ha ha ha ha.

- Magnum getting spraypainted green right in the face in that garage was hilarious! But the crowning comedic moment for me (and one of the better ones of the whole series in my opinion) was TC asking for the pickled egg. His body language and expression were awesome! So obvious that he was doing it just to torture TM lol.

- I loved the old man and the baseball connection and seeing TM's baseball card collection! Pretty cool that he was going to give the old timer his own card. But being a baseball fan I agree with the posts I saw that it was RIDICULOUS that Magnum, being a giant fan himself, would not have realized that the .381 batting average was a misprint. If a guy hits .350 its a very big deal and he's likely to win the batting title and possibly the MVP as well. There is no way that TM wouldn't have caught that the guy didn't hit .381 and that it was an error. Not a big deal but the sports fan in me has to rant a little:)

- Ms. Wilcox was not hard on the eyes! Sure she was stubborn, overly by the book, etc. but if I was stuck working in a day n dark I can think of worse bosses to have :)

To me this episode is just a fun one that makes me laugh. I sometimes enjoy these as a break to the more serious gritty episodes involving murders or Viet Nam. That's what makes Magnum so fun, the episodes are so diverse that it can be entertaining in many different ways. Not many shows can pull that off.

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Re: Limited Engagement (4.5)

#72 Post by BWheelz54 »

That snotty, bratty little kid at the Tempest arcade game in the convenient store is one of my favorite "background" characters throughout the series. It's because that kid's age would've been the age I think I would've been when this episode first aired. And like that bratty kid, I would've caused Magnum all the grief I could if it meant I could get my hands on another quarter for that video game. There was a convenient store like that one just a few blocks from my home growing up, and I owned all the top ten list of initials for the best players for any of those games. I would've sold my little brother into slavery for a bucket full of quarters. Sometimes, I still think I would come out on top of such a deal. Yeah, I laugh so hard whenever I see that kid in the background, because it puts things into some perspective and reminds me that I've not always been the same upstanding man of man character that I am today. Now, that's funny! :higgins:

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Re: Limited Engagement (4.5)

#73 Post by KingKC »

Overly demanding bosses, bratty kids, smart-aleck friends, old baseball players and dear sweet old ladies driving antique cars with one impersonating a man!! What else could you ask for in a light-hearted episode? I was glad that the voters in the forum gave it an 8.2. It was fun!!!

KingKC

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Re: Limited Engagement (4.5)

#74 Post by TSM308 »

As soon as Magnum dropped off the sisters at the retirement home, my 10-year old daughter said "I think those ladies are up to no good..."
"Don't look at the dogs, work the lock."

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Re: Limited Engagement (4.5)

#75 Post by terryfromkerry »

TSM308 wrote:As soon as Magnum dropped off the sisters at the retirement home, my 10-year old daughter said "I think those ladies are up to no good..."
LOL ! Love this post ! & Welcome TSM308. :)
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