I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)
Moderator: Styles Bitchley
- J.J. Walters
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- J.J. Walters
- Founding Father
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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.
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.
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!
IMO this episodes is filled up with flubs. For example when Rick wakes up Thomas he says it`s 6.00 a.m., they hear voices, go outside and half of the crew tells Inky they are leaving. Clowns in full makeup?? That early in the morning? Next minute they start "to go" - nobody has a suitcase.
Other scene: Magnum talks to Inky Gilbert in Inkys office, drives to the estate immediately, talks to Higgins who tells him Inky was strangled.
When??? Magnum drives back, no police there, he sees that Beardlady and a guy leaving. Really?? Would the police let anybody go just like that?When several people were killed??
It goes on and on like this and that`s why I don`t like this episode.
Other scene: Magnum talks to Inky Gilbert in Inkys office, drives to the estate immediately, talks to Higgins who tells him Inky was strangled.
When??? Magnum drives back, no police there, he sees that Beardlady and a guy leaving. Really?? Would the police let anybody go just like that?When several people were killed??
It goes on and on like this and that`s why I don`t like this episode.
Sometimes I get so lucky, even I don`t believe it (TSM)
- J.J. Walters
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I wouldn't necessarily call those "flubs" Carmen. Time is a tricky thing in TV shows. Even though cetain scenes cut together quickly, you don't really know how much time has elapsed between them. Between the estate and the carny, Magnum may have stopped off at the "Day-N-Dark" store for a slushy, followed by waiting in line for an hour at the Hall of Records, or something. You just don't know. Plus, remember, Magnum has to constantly drive back and forth from the North Shore to the South Shore! It's usually safe to say, however, that not TOO much time has elapsed, but it could be longer than you think.
Regarding crimes scenes and police, there is ALWAYS an element of "suspension of disbelief" there - the police come and go quickly and crime scenes are processed in a blink of an eye.
I love the "clowns in full makeup at 6:00AM" bit, though! That's hilarious and probably is a flub. This is a small travelling carny. There wouldn't be two different shifts running for an operation like this. The carny would probably run from like noon to nighttime to maximize the number of visitors. After working all day and into the night, no way those clowns would be up, running, and ready to go by 6AM the next morning! Heh!
Regarding crimes scenes and police, there is ALWAYS an element of "suspension of disbelief" there - the police come and go quickly and crime scenes are processed in a blink of an eye.
I love the "clowns in full makeup at 6:00AM" bit, though! That's hilarious and probably is a flub. This is a small travelling carny. There wouldn't be two different shifts running for an operation like this. The carny would probably run from like noon to nighttime to maximize the number of visitors. After working all day and into the night, no way those clowns would be up, running, and ready to go by 6AM the next morning! Heh!
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!
I really did not like this episode at all. Can't say I hated it because...well, you know. It's Magnum! I think the only 2 things I liked about this one were...
Magnum wearing a lavender shirt. Nice color on him. lol
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.
Magnum wearing a lavender shirt. Nice color on him. lol
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.
- Italian Ice
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Nope,Steve wrote:I'm not a "flub" guy, but didn't Rick say he ran away with the Carnival when he was 14, until his old man found him.......I thought he and Wendy became orphans at age 12.......
You're "Wright"
(pa doom doom dum... try the veal!)
Rick's backstory is the most convaluted out of all the characters... contradictions abound. However, in defense, we didn't know about the exact age of Rick at the time of his parents death until Season 7's "Death of the Flowers"
Which was also odd because it showed Wendy as being around 5 at the time of their death, which would have made Rick 7 years older than her.
THUS... with Wendy being 22 in "Distant Relative", would have made Rick 29 in Season 4..... which doesn't make sense as he's probably a year or 2 younger than TC or Magnum... 4 TOPS.
There's tons of other contradictions, too.
- IKnowWhatYoureThinking
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There are lots of things we have picked up on watching the show. It makes you wonder if the writers looked at previous scripts before writing another one? The could've easliy had timelines and family histories for the characters before writing to avoid this type of confusion. Oh well, if that is the worst thing to come out of this series I can live with it. It doesn't ruin anything for me!
- Jay-Firestorm
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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…
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This review contains moderate spoilers.
Only on my review for the previous episode (‘Rapture’) did I comment that the sixth season wasn’t as bad as I remembered, and better than the fifth; then a terrible episode such as ‘I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway…’ comes along, showing that the sixth season still has some stinkers.
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.
This is another of those episodes that the show liked to offer up every so often, where the main characters get dressed up. Magnum and Rick are dressed as carnie workers, and a little later, Higgins becomes a decidedly scary looking clown! T.C. only appears at the very beginning of this one, so is only seen in regular clothes.
…Talking of which, I wonder if the story would have been any more fun if T.C. had been part of the story more; Rick seems like spare wheel in this story, so maybe if he’d had T.C. to interact with, it would have been more fun. Or maybe not, considering how weak this story is anyway!
As poor as this episode is, I can think of even worse (the third season’s ‘Mixed Doubles’ springs to mind, amongst others), and the climax, with the fire in the ‘Tower of Terror’ is pretty good, with the explanation to the episode’s strange title, and a nice final shot of Magnum and Higgins.
But those points are few and far between – elsewhere, the story is slow moving and rather uninteresting, and hardly captures the fun and thrills of the carnival!
All-in-all, hardly a great episode. Probably a candidate for weakest of the season.
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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:
* This appears to possibly be another episode working around the exterior of the Anderson Estate being unavailable. We get interior shots of the guest house and the study (filmed on a sound stage), but the only brief exterior shot we get is of Magnum driving up to it* in what is possibly stock footage).
(* - and what vehicle is that? It’s not the Jimmy.)
* More abridged act breaks… I wish they would leave them as the original version!
[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…
-----
This review contains moderate spoilers.
Only on my review for the previous episode (‘Rapture’) did I comment that the sixth season wasn’t as bad as I remembered, and better than the fifth; then a terrible episode such as ‘I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway…’ comes along, showing that the sixth season still has some stinkers.
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.
This is another of those episodes that the show liked to offer up every so often, where the main characters get dressed up. Magnum and Rick are dressed as carnie workers, and a little later, Higgins becomes a decidedly scary looking clown! T.C. only appears at the very beginning of this one, so is only seen in regular clothes.
…Talking of which, I wonder if the story would have been any more fun if T.C. had been part of the story more; Rick seems like spare wheel in this story, so maybe if he’d had T.C. to interact with, it would have been more fun. Or maybe not, considering how weak this story is anyway!
As poor as this episode is, I can think of even worse (the third season’s ‘Mixed Doubles’ springs to mind, amongst others), and the climax, with the fire in the ‘Tower of Terror’ is pretty good, with the explanation to the episode’s strange title, and a nice final shot of Magnum and Higgins.
But those points are few and far between – elsewhere, the story is slow moving and rather uninteresting, and hardly captures the fun and thrills of the carnival!
All-in-all, hardly a great episode. Probably a candidate for weakest of the season.
-----
Other notes, bloopers and misc.:
* This appears to possibly be another episode working around the exterior of the Anderson Estate being unavailable. We get interior shots of the guest house and the study (filmed on a sound stage), but the only brief exterior shot we get is of Magnum driving up to it* in what is possibly stock footage).
(* - and what vehicle is that? It’s not the Jimmy.)
* More abridged act breaks… I wish they would leave them as the original version!
JAY FIRESTORM
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Facebook: Jay Gathergood / Twitter: Jay_Firestorm NEW BLOG: http://thea-teamcaptured.blogspot.com/
My A-Team site - http://thea-team.org aiming to be the most detailed A-Team site on the Net - if I ever get around to updating it!!
- J.J. Walters
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Help me out guys. Does this look like Clancy Brown to you? His face and hair look spot on, but I'm not sure about the height. Clancy Brown is like 6'3". This guy appears to be smaller, but it's hard to tell. Clancy Brown is one of my favorite actors.
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!
- rubber chicken
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It does look like it could be him, but I'm guessing it isn't. He had done enough acting by this time to make me doubt he'd show up on Oahu for such a small part.
Plus, this episode aired in January of 86, and Highlander came out in March of 86, so I'm thinking he would have been busy with, or just completed his Highlander role, and again, wouldn't take a small part like this. That's my take at least. Funny how the face and hair are so similar though.
Plus, this episode aired in January of 86, and Highlander came out in March of 86, so I'm thinking he would have been busy with, or just completed his Highlander role, and again, wouldn't take a small part like this. That's my take at least. Funny how the face and hair are so similar though.
- J.J. Walters
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His build is very similar, too.
But yeah, you're probably right rubber chicken. He would have already filmed Highlander (April to August of '85) at this point. Why would he come all the way to Oahu for a 3-second, fire breathing, uncredited appearance on Magnum P.I.? Maybe he was vacationing in Oahu after the grueling shoot in Scotland?
James Cromwell made a brief, uncredited appearance in "Photo Play" after he was already an established actor, so I guess it's possible.
But yeah, you're probably right rubber chicken. He would have already filmed Highlander (April to August of '85) at this point. Why would he come all the way to Oahu for a 3-second, fire breathing, uncredited appearance on Magnum P.I.? Maybe he was vacationing in Oahu after the grueling shoot in Scotland?
James Cromwell made a brief, uncredited appearance in "Photo Play" after he was already an established actor, so I guess it's possible.
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!