The Hotel Dick (6.5)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the sixth season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
1
1%
9.5 (One of the Best)
5
6%
9.0 (Excellent)
7
8%
8.5 (Very Good)
14
17%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
28
34%
7.5 (Decent)
15
18%
7.0 (Average at Best)
4
5%
6.5 (Not So Good)
4
5%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
3
4%
5.0 (Just Awful)
2
2%
 
Total votes: 83

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Doc Fred
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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#41 Post by Doc Fred »

It was enjoyable and different..

I loved Magnum slugging Clyde!

I also enjoyed Leslie; thought she was a fun character.

Did anyone notice they showed the scene of the big, heavy guy jumping into the pool twice... both of them the same exact shot?
Woof, woof... thirty years uglier!... woof, woof...

eagles
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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#42 Post by eagles »

Loved the curtains covering a bare wall rather than a window in Magnums office

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Re:

#43 Post by Hawaii Winds »

IslandHopper wrote:I've always thought that this episode had one of the thinner plots. I know that this is fiction for TV, but c'mon. For example, the robberies in the hotel always occur in the honeymoon suite with a guy rappelling down into the room. Despite knowing this the cat burglar continues to do the same thing. Magnum does wait in the room when a call interrupts his stakeout and scares the burglar away. However, the burglar always takes the same escape route, and ultimately jumps onto an adjoining roof top and descends down a ladder. You would have thought that Magnum would have had an associate with a radio who he can call to wait for the burglar when he descends down the ladder and before he could escape, or maybe stakeout the roof of the hotel and nab him before or while he is rappelling.

I realize that this would have messed up part of the story, but I think the writers should have mixed it up a little by having the burglar take an alternate route or something, or at least address some of those issues.
Almost as if they were running out of plots for new episodes...

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Milton Collins
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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#44 Post by Milton Collins »

I can't put my finger on it but I've always really liked this episode, an 8.5 for me. As many of you have mentioned, a very non typical and unorthadox episode: no estate, Magnum gets a "real job" (as Higgins would put it), and we see some of TM's personal insecurities and his frustration with some things in his life as a private investigator. The end was awesome, kindv'e like an "early life crisis" as TM goes from being a younger man to an "older" younger man and wanted to know if he still had it! This motivates me as I'm 35 and like to stay in shape and it's not as easy as it used to be so I love how he "went for it" and took the leap at the end, awesome! I COULDN"T STAND Clyde the hotel manager and it was so fun to see TM punch him out at the end. I loved the slow build up with him taking off his coat and Clyde getting more and more scared with each second. I did however enjoy the Leslie character played by Candy Clark. She was fun, funny, and while she drove Magnum crazy you could tell he really liked her deep down. I liked the other episode with her in it as well, season 7's "Straight and Narrow." I checked her out on IMDB and she was cute back then but it also showed one recent picture and she still looked pretty good. Anyway, an overall fun episode with an awesome hotel setting, a cat burgler that could show up at any time, and it still incorparated all the guys (I loved Rick as the pompous rich hotel guest with Cleo on his arm) which made it all the better!

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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#45 Post by eagle »

I'm working through the entire series now, and I think yesterday was the first time I've ever seen this episode. It was pretty low in my book, because of the very things that Milton mentioned: no estate, no Island Hoppers, no Ferrari. I see Milton's point about TM's character development, but still ranked it pretty low for those earlier reasons.

To me, it was like the first of the Daniel Craig-as-007 movies, which were missing the critical elements of theme song and intro.

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Tesza
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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#46 Post by Tesza »

Episodes where the MPI main cast is sent abroad (whether it's U.S. mainland, Britain, France, Cambodia or just the other side of O'ahu) must always have been hard to create, of course, they are lacking of that "home advantage" and have to convince at another point. In this case it's not only an "away game" but also another step away from the characterization we're used to. I can't describe the real reason, but I think they did it perfectly well in here. Reading the other comments I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling this way, which makes it less unusual to me. :)

This one gets one score point more for my most favorite Magnum narration quote. "... but the reason clichés are clichés is because they ultimately either are true, or they work. That's why you never hear sayings you've never heard before. Those are the ones that haven't worked." He's just a philosopher disguised as a Private Investigator. Q.e.d. :lol:

By the way, I'm not sure withe the episodes, but it was not the first time Magnum wore reading glasses. I think he already had them in the first two seasons, if I'm not wrong ... :?:
Last edited by Tesza on Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#47 Post by thechickinthemiddle »

Re-watched this recently, and while I can see how some might find the premise a tad stifling, I didn't find it terrible or unbearable to watch. Granted, Clyde Daltrey is on par with Judge Doom in terms of hilariously obvious villains, but the payoff at the end is pretty well-earned. Plus T.C. leaping on top of the pile of people in the jewelry convention commotion is downright hilarious.

And that end shot! :D

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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#48 Post by KingKC »

I think this episode was decent to pretty good and kind of fun to watch. This is one of the few episodes where I see hidden meaning to MPI. TM tries a "real job" because he senses the private investigator gig is not working out, especially financially. It is that slow realization, starting with Mac's Back, that all is not well in TM's life, he is doubting himself, and changes are needed. TM quickly reverts back to the easier life of a PI but I think he knows things will have to change permanently at some time.

KingKC

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Mark R.Y.
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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#49 Post by Mark R.Y. »

KingKC wrote:I think this episode was decent to pretty good and kind of fun to watch. This is one of the few episodes where I see hidden meaning to MPI. TM tries a "real job" because he senses the private investigator gig is not working out, especially financially. It is that slow realization, starting with Mac's Back, that all is not well in TM's life, he is doubting himself, and changes are needed. TM quickly reverts back to the easier life of a PI but I think he knows things will have to change permanently at some time.

KingKC
That's a good point about TM still going through the crisis we saw in "Mac's Back." "Maybe normal wasn't normal," as he says toward the end of this ep. He is seeing middle age coming up fast, and he needs to deal with that.

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Luther's nephew Dobie
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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#50 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

Hi Guys,
I am not aware of anyone on the Magnum Boards finding the below in joke before, so maybe I can get it into the "Notes" section of the Episode Guide for "Hotel Dick".
Around the 29/ 30 minute mark Magnum explains to Clyde the hotel manager that he wasn't talking to anyone in his room, rather

"I had the tv on. You know one of those silly family sitcoms with these cute little kids and the father, see, he's a doctor".

At the time this episode aired, October 17, 1985,The Cosby Show, about a Doctor and his family, was running on NBC opposite Magnum PI.

Luther's nephew Dobie

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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#51 Post by ConchRepublican »

KingKC wrote:I think this episode was decent to pretty good and kind of fun to watch. This is one of the few episodes where I see hidden meaning to MPI. TM tries a "real job" because he senses the private investigator gig is not working out, especially financially. It is that slow realization, starting with Mac's Back, that all is not well in TM's life, he is doubting himself, and changes are needed. TM quickly reverts back to the easier life of a PI but I think he knows things will have to change permanently at some time.

KingKC
Excellent observation, fits in with the larger view I take of the show about a vet readjusting to life post war.
Luther's nephew Dobie wrote:Hi Guys,
I am not aware of anyone on the Magnum Boards finding the below in joke before, so maybe I can get it into the "Notes" section of the Episode Guide for "Hotel Dick".
Around the 29/ 30 minute mark Magnum explains to Clyde the hotel manager that he wasn't talking to anyone in his room, rather

"I had the tv on. You know one of those silly family sitcoms with these cute little kids and the father, see, he's a doctor".

At the time this episode aired, October 17, 1985,The Cosby Show, about a Doctor and his family, was running on NBC opposite Magnum PI.

Luther's nephew Dobie
That's cool, I like when they drop little things like that in . . .
CoziTV Superfan spot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPTmsykLQ04

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Luther's nephew Dobie
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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#52 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

ConchRepublican wrote:
KingKC wrote:
Luther's nephew Dobie wrote:Hi Guys,
I am not aware of anyone on the Magnum Boards finding the below in joke before, so maybe I can get it into the "Notes" section of the Episode Guide for "Hotel Dick".
Around the 29/ 30 minute mark Magnum explains to Clyde the hotel manager that he wasn't talking to anyone in his room, rather:
"I had the tv on. You know one of those silly family sitcoms with these cute little kids and the father, see, he's a doctor".
At the time this episode aired, October 17, 1985,The Cosby Show, about a Doctor and his family, was running on NBC opposite Magnum PI.
Luther's nephew Dobie
That's cool, I like when they drop little things like that in . . .
Hi Conch,
One might be surprised how many times tv writers slip in in jokes. On the Honeymooners, when they show the Raccoon Lodge, a chalkboard lists members in arrears for dues and the names are the main writers for the series.
I believe I have found the mother of all in jokes, an amazing one considering who is involved, and I figure people who like Tom Selleck westerns will like the following:


Wagon Train - Season 4 E09 The Colter Craven Story - YouTube

Check out the 42:30 mark at the above link for the Wagon Train episode,
"The Colter Craven Story" directed by John Ford.
In the scene where Adams(Ward Bond) meets General Grant at Shiloh,
General Sherman rides up and says, "Sam, Buells up. Means we can resume fighting in the morning."
But it is without a doubt Duke Wayne's voice and knowing that, you can easily discern it's Wayne in the darkly lit scene.
The credits(can't see them on Youtube, I again saw them on tv the other day) say Michael Morris played Sherman.
As you know Wayne's real name is Marion Michael Morrison.
Wayne previously portrayed Sherman in How the West Was Won where he is seen talking with Grant at Shiloh in a scene staged so like this episode there can be doubt the Wagon Train version is an in joke as both were directed by Ford.
Other members(Ken Curtis, Hank Worden,) of the John Ford stock company also appear in this episode with Ford favorite Ward Bond.
Ford also includes in this episode, as he did in many of his films such as The Searchers, a lingering shot of Ward Bond from behind to highlight his enormous rear end, just to again tick Bond off.
I have books on Wayne and Ford, saw many documentaries on their work but no one mentions the above, at least that I have seen. I did send it in to that IMBD or whatever its called movie site, they had it up for awhile, uncredited, then it disappeared.
By the way, just a few years ago some movie mavens determined that given total sales of his movies, how often they are shown world wide on various platforms, public interest/books/blogs/articles about them, that John Wayne is still the biggest movie star in the world, sorry Harrison Ford. Amazing, given he died in 1979.

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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#53 Post by eagle »

I'm back around to this episode again, and it occurs to me that early on in the episode, the chase shows a good example of early parkour.

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Re:

#54 Post by K Hale »

Carol the Dabbler wrote:For one thing, since when was Magnum ever all that worried about his finances? Sure, he'd like to have more cash, and sure it'd be nice to get Rick, TC, and Higgins off his back -- but those have never seemed to be major priorities. It's not like he has to pay rent or anything. Now, all of a sudden, he's willing to give up his flexible lifestyle for the foreseeable future, just to have a more reliable income. Huh?

Rockford, on the other hand, does have to make trailer payments and pay utility bills every month. He's chronically under threat of having his phone service cut off for nonpayment. Taking a "real" job at least long enough to get his back bills paid would be a believable move for him.
I agree with all this and really disliked this dull episode, but just as an aside, I don't think utilities were included in the free living at the guest house. Remember the episode where it's believed that Magnum has not paid his phone bill, and it becomes a running gag throughout the episode? Can't recall which one, S1 or S2 I think. Turns out the lads chewed up the wires. But, if he pays a phone bill, I bet he has to pay electricity and water too. The guest house must have its own utilities.
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Re: The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#55 Post by Sam »

Hi K.Hale... I think it was season 1.. Don't Say Goodbye..Higgins was mad because a call was placed to the estate for Magnum... Agatha Kimball

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