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
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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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J.J. Walters
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Limited Engagement (4.5)

#1 Post by J.J. Walters »

This is the official MM thread for Limited Engagement (4.5). All discussions and reviews for this episode should go here. If you wish to rate the episode, please do so with the poll. The avg. score will be the official 'community rating', which will be used on the episode page (updated monthly).

This thread is also linked in the episode page of the Episode Guide.


Original Air Date: 11/3/1983
A strange series of convenience store robberies introduces Magnum to the LaSalle sisters, two elderly women who are about to be evicted from their run-down boarding house. While still pursuing the perpetrator of the robberies, Magnum and Higgins take it upon themselves to organize a charity bingo game for the little old ladies.
Last edited by J.J. Walters on Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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N1095A
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#2 Post by N1095A »

TC: "Pickled egg please".
One of the funniest scenes ever. My wife makes pickled eggs often, and when we're in the living room, and she goes toward the kitchen, I always say "Pickled egg please." Of course she knows the gag by now, and usually just shakes her head and rolls her eyes.
"But Higgins, I can explain."

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J.J. Walters
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#3 Post by J.J. Walters »

Yeah, that scene is a classic!

This is a fun episode with Magnum undercover as a "cashier jockey", and features two silver screen heavies - Mildred Natwick and Martha Scott. I love all the baseball references, including the fictional player Johnny Wells. The scenes with Magnum and Johnny hanging out hug at your heart. Also, who can forget that scene with Magnum getting spray painted in the face!

This episode also has one of my favorite flubs of the show -- Magnum has a Johnny Wells misprint baseball card. The card mistakenly says Johnny hit .381 (instead of .281) for the '52 season. Apparently, for his whole life, Magnum thought .381 was his real stat and not a misprint! Come on, Magnum's a baseball nut. Surely he would have known Johnny didn't have the third highest season batting average of the modern baseball era!?
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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lutherhgillis
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#4 Post by lutherhgillis »

James,

I agree with you about the .381 batting average flub. Magnun would have been 7-years-old when Johnny Wells had the supposed .381 year. Any 7-year-old who loves baseball will know the current baseball news. A player averaging .381 is huge news. Magnum would have known the baseball card had a misprint. I do believe, however, that this episode made for some good human interest points to be scored by the characters. They got outside of their own interests for a while to do what was best for others (Higgins, TC, Magnum). I think this is a solid episode even though it is not one of the most dramatic or mysterious ones.

Luther H Gillis

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IslandHopper
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#5 Post by IslandHopper »

This is one of my favorite episodes from season 4. This episode offered some new locations. I liked the fact that they filmed much of this episode in an actual store, and not some made-up set. If you look hard enough you can make out many of the products on the shelves, particularly the beer cans and bottles in the coolers. In one scene toward the end after he had been fired, Magnum comes into the Day-N-Dark and stands in front of a beer cooler while talking with Ms. Wilcox. The beer in the cooler behind him appears to be Natural Light and next to that appears to be Michelob.

We also get to see TC doing his over-acting routine in a couple different scenes. First when TC is posing as a customer and requests the infamous "pickled-egg" and then when TC is at the Bingo Gala and he reaches in his jacket for his wallet for the $100.00 donation. TC's reaction was more like a shy teenage boy who has just met the girl of his dreams ( :oops: ), not the reaction one would expect after he had just been coerced into making the $100 donation. However, the most difficult thing to digest was Mildred Natwick impersonating a man. :shock:

In addition to a couple of flubs there are some interesting noteworthy items. First the flubs, which include:

1. TC refers to the “Day-N-Dark” as the Day-N-Night. This occurs after Magnum follows TC out to Rick’s Mercedes with the pickled-egg.

2. While in the study with Magnum, Higgins calls Magnum’s attention to his Annual from Sandhurst. Higgins said that he saw the LaSalle sisters “37 years ago this July.” He shows Magnum the theater program from Blackpool, as Higgins says, “the summer I completed my upper second at Sandhurst.” This episode aired on November 3, 1983, which would mean Higgins finished his upper second at Sandhurst in July, 1946. This contradicts what is already in Higgins’ history. In 1946, Higgins was in Egypt; Nuremberg, Germany; and Vienna. Higgins was supposedly at Sandhurst from 1934 through 1937, where he was sent down in the winter of his third year as he was falsely accused of injuring a fellow classmate during a school prank.

Noteworthy items include:

1. One of the first scenes we see is a girl showering at a beachside shower. This same footage is used in “China Doll” (season 1) when Magnum is waiting for instructions from the Tong Warrior near the public telephone.

2. Gas/Fuel/Petrol was 31.9 cents per liter when this episode was filmed. Apparently the “Day-N-Dark” had a gas station which can be seen in at least two separate scenes and you can clearly see the sign which says 31.9 per liter. I was on the island of Oahu in 2001 and do not recall paying for gas/petrol by the liter. :?

3. There are at least 27 separate Day-N-Dark stores. Magnum says to TC and Rick that store #27 was hit. At first I found this hard to believe considering Oahu is not a very big island, but there are 44 7-Eleven stores on Oahu, so I guess it‘s possible.

4. Magnum tells Johnny that he saw him play on June 10, 1952, and that it was the second major league game he had attended. The Washington Senators did in fact play a game on June 10, 1952. The Senators played the Cleveland Indians at Griffith Stadium. Cleveland won 4 to 3. Griffith Stadium was demolished in 1965 and was located on the campus of Howard University. Howard University Hospital now sits where Griffith Stadium once stood.
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

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lutherhgillis
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#6 Post by lutherhgillis »

IH:

You have too much time on your hands... :lol:

Thanks for the info.

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#7 Post by J.J. Walters »

IslandHopper wrote:However, the most difficult thing to digest was Mildred Natwick impersonating a man. :shock:
LOL! So true. It's kind of an unnerving disguise, isn't it? She sort of looks like a short David Niven! :shock:

Nice pickup on the Sandhurst reference and date. It's definitely a major timeline flub.

Not sure what to make of the "gas by the liter" at the Day-N-Dark. Maybe because of the large Asian community in Hawaii, some gas service stores sell it by the liter?!
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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#8 Post by IslandHopper »

This weekend I happened to come across several old autographed baseballs my Dad had given me years before. I knew two of the three balls were signed by the Minnesota Twins (‘68 & ‘71). I didn’t know about the third baseball, so I researched the signatures on the baseball to determine what team they represented. Some of the signatures on the ball included Mickey Vernon, Ed Yost, Ken Wood, Gil Coan, Pete Runnels, Tom Ferrick, Joe Haynes as well as many others. Based on my research, I finally pinned it down to the 1952 Washington Senators team. Yes, the very same team that Johnny Wells said he played for in the episode. I had a little Magnum history and didn’t even know it. :)

Johnny and Magnum had a lengthy dialogue about Johnny playing for the ‘52 Senators. In fact, Magnum, said he saw Johnny play on June 10, 1952. Magnum says that he grew up in Virginia and never got over the Senators leaving Washington. In response, Johnny says “the wisest thing they [Senators] ever did was move the franchise to Texas.” There might be a flub here because the 1952 Washington Senators that Johnny would have played for actually became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. The Washington Senators team that later moved to Texas in 1972 was an expansion team that started in 1961 to fill the void left by the original Washington Senators. Therefore, the Washington Senators that Magnum said he saw on June 10, 1952 was definitely not the same Washington Senators team that moved to Texas to become the Texas Rangers. None of this was apparent to me until I did the research in search of the team that signed that particular baseball.
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

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#9 Post by SelleckLover »

I think I might be able to shed some light on the "per liter" gas prices. Since I was an adult in the mid-to late 1970's, I remember that the "powers that be" tried at that time to slowly switch the USA over to the metric system. Soda pop used to be sold in quantities other than liters, hence today we have liter soda quantities. But that's about as far as it went here on the mainland. It never caught on, but maybe it was switched in Hawaii, and was still in effect in the early to mid 1980's.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it! :D

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#10 Post by lutherhgillis »

I remember when a handfull of gasoline outlets charged by the liter in the late 70s & early 80s. I was in the southern US at the time. Needless to say, it didn't catch on...

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#11 Post by Steve »

This weekend I happened to come across several old autographed baseballs my Dad had given me years before. I knew two of the three balls were signed by the Minnesota Twins (‘68 & ‘71).
Island Hopper, I am curious what autographs you have on those baseballs. I grew up in Minnesota from age 12 to age 29 (1965 to 1983) and was a huge Twins fan in the late 60's and 70's. I was especially a big fan of Rod Carew and tried my best to copy his batting and throwing style when I played Baseball. Interesting how he was one of those ball players that came close that elusive .400 batting average (.388 in 1977) and that is not a missprint...... LOL.......

Steve
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IslandHopper
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#12 Post by IslandHopper »

Steve wrote:
This weekend I happened to come across several old autographed baseballs my Dad had given me years before. I knew two of the three balls were signed by the Minnesota Twins (‘68 & ‘71).
Island Hopper, I am curious what autographs you have on those baseballs. I grew up in Minnesota from age 12 to age 29 (1965 to 1983) and was a huge Twins fan in the late 60's and 70's.
Steve,

Per your request, here are the signatures on the baseballs.

1968 Minnesota Twins signatures include:
Bob Miller, Jim Roland, Frank Kostro, Jim Merritt, Bruce Look, Tom Hall, Jim Holt, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Dave Boswell, Rich Rollins, Jim Perry, Rich Renick, Bob Allison, Dean Chance, Al Worthington, Cesar Tovar, Rich Reese, Tony Oliva, Jerry Zimmerman, Jim Katt, Ron Keller, Ted Uhlaender. There are a few other signatures, but I can't make them out. They may be part of the coaching staff, but I'm not sure.

1971 Minnestota Twins signatures include:

Steve Luebber, Rick Renick, Bob Gebhard, Jim Perry, Tom Tischinski, Phil Roof, Jim Holt, Harmon Killebrew, Rich Reese, Jim Nettles, Tony Oliva, George Thomas, Tom Hall, George Mitterwald, Jim Katt, Danny Thompson, Hal Haydel, Bert Blyleven, Stan Williams, Brant Alyea, Steve Braun, Cesar Tovar, and others that I cannot make out.

The signatures from the 1952 Washington Senators include:

Mickey Vernon, Ed Yost, Ken Wood, Gil Coan, Pete Runnels, Tom Ferrick, Joe Haynes, Sandy Consuegra, Frank Campos, Julio Moreno, Randy Gumpert, Mel Hoderiein, Spec Shea, Mickey Grasso, Don Johnson, as well as others.

Hope this helps Steve.
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

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#13 Post by Herman »

IslandHopper wrote:This episode aired on November 3, 1983, which would mean Higgins finished his upper second at Sandhurst in July, 1946. This contradicts what is already in Higgins’ history. In 1946, Higgins was in Egypt; Nuremberg, Germany; and Vienna. Higgins was supposedly at Sandhurst from 1934 through 1937
I've noticed that Higgins has made several mistakes about how long ago certain events occurred, usually of about ten years. When he mentions a date and place, his memory is reliable; but when he calculates how long ago something happened, he undershoots. It's like his mind refused to continue marking the passage of time about ten years ago.

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#14 Post by rubber chicken »

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
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Last edited by rubber chicken on Tue Apr 26, 2011 3:59 am, edited 2 times in total.

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#15 Post by Steve »

Nice work, Rubber Chicken. I just wish you would have done this one year ago as it was last April I went over there and drove my wife absolutely nuts looking for some of the filming locations. In fact, after visiting The Estate and frolicking in the tidal pool I had to look for locations on the sly as we were driving around. That was one spot I was truly trying to find as having worked for 7 Eleven for a couple of years back in the seventies I had sympathy for TM having to wear a silly work smock/shirt, having to deal with bratty kids playing the video games and having the slupee machine blow up in my face way to many times to count! I also think Darleen Carr was sexy as all gitout having that prissy exterior, but you just know she would look great in some Victoria Secrets.........LOL. I think I got fairly close to that location as I had a feeling it was somewhere near H1 and in the vacinity of Diamondhead, as many locations were.

Steve
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