J.J. Walters wrote:He sure is wilko! He's downright frightening!
If I was a kid, and I saw him, I would just drop my ice cream cone and run in the opposite direction!
Ha ha ha ha ha! Hiliaroius quote JJ. I found it to be extremely funny that Higgins dressed up as this creepy clown. And his costume kindve sums up this whole episode, pretty ridiculous but just flat out fun!
J.J. Walters wrote:This show never ceases to amaze me. I always regarded this as the worst episode ever. Now, this was based on one viewing over 15 years ago. Revisiting this episode now, I'm shocked at how much better I like it!
The carny scenes are all quite enjoyable, especially the ones with "The Gang" in costumes. There are a couple of really good dialog sequences referencing carnivals and side shows - Magnum's narration about his memories of the county fair as a kid and Inky's speech lamenting the upcoming demise of the traditional traveling carnivals.
And every scene inside the "Tower of Terror" is fantastic. It's dark, spooky, and is inhabited by a creepy, disfigured carnival geek who wears a Jason Voorhees mask and kind of looks like Freddy Krueger! It's light horror, something rarely seen in the show, that actually works quite well! Even the "blaze up" ending was better the second time around. And fantastic make-up work on Geoffrey Lewis. Creepy.
There are some bad scenes, however, and some pacing issues, but overall a decent episode, much better than I remember it!
Exactly! I wish they had used more "light horror" in Magnum as I like the episodes that had that element. And I totally agree about getting better with multiple viewings. I remember hating this one and as I've watched it a few more times I've liked it better and better.
Another memorable episode but it seemed like they took the rodeo of The Elmo Ziller story, changed it to a carnival, got everyone dressed up strangely (including TM this time) and solved a fairly decent mystery. It just seems like a lot of private detective shows and police shows end up at a carnival or county fair. Of all the friends of TM, TC, Rick and Higgins who show up after years and years, this one did not seem to fit. But...I tolerated it.
by the way: a week before this episode aired Tom made an appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman" and complained about poor ratings of "Magnum, P.I":
golfmobile wrote:The only thing I thought was more improbable than all the others in this episode is how quickly the Tower of Terror gets engulfed in flames -- I think it takes a little longer than instantly to get the whole thing burning. Plus when they come out, the fire engines are already there pumping water!
While I agree the fire seemed to spread far too rapidly, the fire engines were there before the fire started. Due to the hostage situation, I suppose. Lt. Tanaka was even on site already.
I didn't realize you were so addicted to pool. It's not pool. Billiards. Snooker! Snucker. SNOOKER!
J.J. Walters wrote:I just found a flub, which is rare for me.
Magnum says that one of the clues that helped him solve the mystery of "Donald Gilbert" is the fact that Higgins never mentioned "North Africa, August of 1942" in all of his years of "ramblings". August of '42 was when "Inky" and his brother Donald, as Americans, were with Higgins' unit (when Donald got flamed).
Magnum must have forgotten that when he was hanging out with "Willy" in "Basket Case" (3.15), Higgins tells the story of when he was in Tripoli in August of 1942 (Higgins actually says "August of 1942). After enduring heat, malaria, and bad food for weeks, he tried to raise morale by organizing a basketball game and created what was later known as the 'floating zone', or sphere defense.
I guess one could argue that Magnum just plain forgot about this story, but I suspect that it was really the script writer who forgot.
I took this as meaning Higgins did not speak of that specific incident, not that he never mentioned being in North Africa in 1942. For that matter, since he was in the army 37 years through some terrible times, I'm sure there were many things Higgins kept to himself.
I didn't realize you were so addicted to pool. It's not pool. Billiards. Snooker! Snucker. SNOOKER!
layne wrote:And Higgins after realizing Magnum may be trapped in the burning funhouse turning around to go back in after him. That was really touching. It's fascinating to me how much their relationship changed from the beginning seasons. Higgins hated the ground Magnum walked on the first season and now he wants to run into a burning building to save him. I loved that.
I really can't think of any other characters on television (especially men) who evolve so much in their relationship with each other. MPI really is one-of-a-kind.
While I don't disagree at all--being a huge Higgins fan--I think that Higgins would have gone back into the building for anyone. That's who Higgins is.
I don't think so. Not with firefighters working right there, who could simply be told there is a person inside and then allowed to do their job. If Higgins runs in he becomes another potential person needing to be rescued, thus adding to the firefighters' risk. He was going back in for Magnum, but IMO would have let the experts do their work for a stranger.
What I am not quite clear on is just what happened in 1942. My take on it is this: the burned guy is Inky's brother who Higgins thought had been killed, and finds fault with himself for not saving the guy back then, but the reality is that the guy was burned and not killed and Higgins didn't see that because he was doing what he was told to do instead of going above and beyond by trying to save him? Therefore he feels he needs to run into the burning building to save him now? If so, how and when did he figure out who the burned guy was?
Last edited by K Hale on Tue Mar 13, 2018 5:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I didn't realize you were so addicted to pool. It's not pool. Billiards. Snooker! Snucker. SNOOKER!
Doc Fred wrote:Regardless of the quality of the plots, when Higgins displays his honor and courage, it's a great show to me, and this was no exception. Perhaps I'm different from most folks, but I look for characters to show character, and all four of the main characters do that time and time again. This time it was Higgins' turn. When you consider all the things he did in his lifetime, you have to be impressed, very impressed. His respect for Magnum showed again when he recommended Magnum to Inky and called him "the best"... something he'd never tell Magnum directly.
My fav line from this ep.
Paraphrased-
Inky: "Higgins was right. He sent the best."
Magnum: "He SAID that?!"
Inky: "No, you have to know how to read him."
I didn't realize you were so addicted to pool. It's not pool. Billiards. Snooker! Snucker. SNOOKER!
I had forgotten about this episode . After rewatching it I know why . Just not a good episode I would bet TS would have liked to redo the scene where he is cutting the beef up in the guest house and Higgins comes in a startles him .that’s the scene someone should make a animated gif of .
Wow, 9 years later and my opinion of the carnie episode went from almost awful to pretty good!
It was a cult classic delight in fact! Once again I have seemingly become able to appreciate other show elements other than the "classic" theme as the years have gone by.
nha trang wrote:Wow, 9 years later and my opinion of the carnie episode went from almost awful to pretty good!
It was a cult classic delight in fact! Once again I have seemingly become able to appreciate other show elements other than the "classic" theme as the years have gone by.
Jay-Firestorm wrote:I haven’t watched this one for a while – and it’s pretty bad!
[rating=6.0]
When a performer is murdered at a struggling carnival that is run by an old comrade of Higgins, Higgins asks Magnum to go undercover with Rick as carnival workers to discover who is trying to put the show out of business. A pretty weak episode…
...I can imagine the writers coming up with this one – “Hey, let’s do a story set at a carnival”. And they didn’t work on it much more than that – the plot really is that thin."
Jay,
The plot really is an old chestnut, either a clown or insider at an entertainment venue is out to destroy the joint/rip off money.
Mannix did it, only on an amusement pier instead. Peter Gunn, Superman, Perry Mason.
I would cut the producers some slack, every episode can't soar or have at least one great scene in a otherwise average show.
I would guess Magnum PI has a better average than most when it came to making good to great episodes.
This one is an okay waste of an hour, I never mind spending time with our boys, except for the two or three worst episodes that I don't need to list, we
probably all agree on the stinkers.
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