Magnum's mustache

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MagnumFan
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Magnum's mustache

#1 Post by MagnumFan »

Maybe it's just me, but Magnum's stache seems bushier, longer, a little less trimmed in the earlier seasons than in the final seasons. In the final seasons, it looks little different from how TS wears it today. I'm wondering what you prefer. Also, what season would you say it was at its longest/thickest?

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Fr. Paddy McGuinness
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Re: Magnum's mustache

#2 Post by Fr. Paddy McGuinness »

Season 1; his freak flag was flying. The hair and mustache were both highlighted (naturally) and slightly unkempt. There was a long gap between the pilot and production because of a writers strike. TS was living in Oahu and working construction to make ends meet. He was also playing a lot of beach volleyball and participating in water sports. He showed up after the strike looking like a beach bum and the production company loved the look. He definitely brought that vibe to season 1.
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Luther's nephew Dobie
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Re: Magnum's mustache

#3 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

Fr. Paddy McGuinness wrote:Season 1; his freak flag was flying. The hair and mustache were both highlighted (naturally) and slightly unkempt. There was a long gap between the pilot and production because of a writers strike. TS was living in Oahu and working construction to make ends meet. He was also playing a lot of beach volleyball and participating in water sports. He showed up after the strike looking like a beach bum and the production company loved the look. He definitely brought that vibe to season 1.
Hi Paddy-o-furniture,
Was Tom waiting around in Hawaii awaiting for Magnum to perhaps(was it certain?) go in production, or had he chucked the Hollywood scene and gone 'native' as a beach bum?
There seemed to me to be more than called for "your a bum" insults directed at Magnum in the 1st season. Maybe the producers were taking shots at Selleck, or am I way off base here?
I could easily see how Tom could be sucked into the beach lifestyle. My amigo Triangle Tim, after his 1st year at Seton Hall, got a job in Ocean City as a cabbie for the summer, living in a 1 room shore apartment. He enjoyed it so much, with the beach life and constant influx of tourist girls, that he didn't go back to Seton Hall for 3 years.

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Pahonu
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Re: Magnum's mustache

#4 Post by Pahonu »

Luther's nephew Dobie wrote:
Fr. Paddy McGuinness wrote:Season 1; his freak flag was flying. The hair and mustache were both highlighted (naturally) and slightly unkempt. There was a long gap between the pilot and production because of a writers strike. TS was living in Oahu and working construction to make ends meet. He was also playing a lot of beach volleyball and participating in water sports. He showed up after the strike looking like a beach bum and the production company loved the look. He definitely brought that vibe to season 1.
Hi Paddy-o-furniture,
Was Tom waiting around in Hawaii awaiting for Magnum to perhaps(was it certain?) go in production, or had he chucked the Hollywood scene and gone 'native' as a beach bum?
There seemed to me to be more than called for "your a bum" insults directed at Magnum in the 1st season. Maybe the producers were taking shots at Selleck, or am I way off base here?
I could easily see how Tom could be sucked into the beach lifestyle. My amigo Triangle Tim, after his 1st year at Seton Hall, got a job in Ocean City as a cabbie for the summer, living in a 1 room shore apartment. He enjoyed it so much, with the beach life and constant influx of tourist girls, that he didn't go back to Seton Hall for 3 years.
Hey Dobie,

The gap between the pilot being picked up and production starting is for certain. The, now well known, story about Selleck having to turn down the Indiana Jones role happened during this period. He moved to Hawaii to start filming, having passed on Raiders which would have been a scheduling conflict, only to end up waiting around until late fall to begin because of a writer's strike. He mused later in interviews that he would have been able to do both because of the delay.

As far as depicting him as a bit of a beach bum, I think that was central to the shows story, at least in the beginning. A guy chucks a distinguished Navy career to do something totally different. He mooches an incredible place to live and a hot car. His friends had to raise an eyebrow at least. TC was by then a responsible business man and Rick, at least... a business man. :wink: It also provided a great comic contrast between Magnum and the regimented Higgins. Plus, there were many writers for those early episodes and I'm not so sure the producers influenced the details of those scripts as far as specific dialogue. All those writers would have referred to the "show bible" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_(screenwriting) in terms of traits and behaviors of the characters and it surely would have referenced his new choice of a "less responsible" lifestyle.

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Re: Magnum's mustache

#5 Post by Steve »

Fr. Paddy McGuinness wrote:Season 1; his freak flag was flying.
Freak flag was flying....Can I steal that line and use on my wife...LOL!

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Luther's nephew Dobie
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Re: Magnum's mustache

#6 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

Pahonu wrote:[quote=
Hey Dobie,
The gap between the pilot being picked up and production starting is for certain. The, now well known, story about Selleck having to turn down the Indiana Jones role happened during this period. He moved to Hawaii to start filming, having passed on Raiders which would have been a scheduling conflict, only to end up waiting around until late fall to begin because of a writer's strike. He mused later in interviews that he would have been able to do both because of the delay.
As far as depicting him as a bit of a beach bum, I think that was central to the shows story, at least in the beginning. A guy chucks a distinguished Navy career to do something totally different. He mooches an incredible place to live and a hot car. His friends had to raise an eyebrow at least. TC was by then a responsible business man and Rick, at least... a business man. :wink: It also provided a great comic contrast between Magnum and the regimented Higgins. Plus, there were many writers for those early episodes and I'm not so sure the producers influenced the details of those scripts as far as specific dialogue. All those writers would have referred to the "show bible" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_(screenwriting) in terms of traits and behaviors of the characters and it surely would have referenced his new choice of a "less responsible" lifestyle.
Hi Pahonu,
Excellent post, informative and you covered just about everything. Thanks pal.
Since this thread is "Magnum's Mustache", has Magnum Mania ever ranked Selleck's
cookie duster against those of other Hollywood stars? (excepting Madonna's of course)
Snidely Whiplash's and Yosemite Sam's were very cool, but of course they were cartoons, and Yukon Cornelius was a puppet.
The only mustache I can think of that rivals Selleck's is Stacy Keach's of Mike Hammer fame.
In fact I gotta put Stacy's at number one:

1) Stacy Keach of Mike Hammer
2) Tom Selleck of Magnum PI
3) Gerald McRainey of Simon and Simon
4) Mike Farrell of MASH
5) John Astin of The Addams Family
6) Caesar Romero on various shows(on Batman they covered it up in thick makeup)
7) John Cleese's cheesy mustache on Fawlty Towers, it underlined his character
8) Ron Glass of Barney Miller
9) Lee Horsley of Matt Houston
10) Richard Boone of Have Gun Will Travel

I realize these picks are from older series but mustaches were more popular back when, plus I stopped watching almost everything on the big four networks 20 years ago in favor of cable.

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Re: Magnum's mustache

#7 Post by Steve »

Luther's nephew Dobie wrote:
Pahonu wrote:[quote=


Hi Pahonu,
Excellent post, informative and you covered just about everything. Thanks pal.
Since this thread is "Magnum's Mustache", has Magnum Mania ever ranked Selleck's
cookie duster against those of other Hollywood stars? (excepting Madonna's of course)
Snidely Whiplash's and Yosemite Sam's were very cool, but of course they were cartoons, and Yukon Cornelius was a puppet.
The only mustache I can think of that rivals Selleck's is Stacy Keach's of Mike Hammer fame.
In fact I gotta put Stacy's at number one:

1) Stacy Keach of Mike Hammer
2) Tom Selleck of Magnum PI
3) Gerald McRainey of Simon and Simon
4) Mike Farrell of MASH
5) John Astin of The Addams Family
6) Caesar Romero on various shows(on Batman they covered it up in thick makeup)
7) John Cleese's cheesy mustache on Fawlty Towers, it underlined his character
8) Ron Glass of Barney Miller
9) Lee Horsley of Matt Houston
10) Richard Boone of Have Gun Will Travel

I realize these picks are from older series but mustaches were more popular back when, plus I stopped watching almost everything on the big four networks 20 years ago in favor of cable.
What, No Sam Elliott of..well just about everything..This will not abide, sir!

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Luther's nephew Dobie
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Re: Magnum's mustache

#8 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

Steve wrote:
Luther's nephew Dobie wrote:
Pahonu wrote:[quote=


Hi Pahonu,
Excellent post, informative and you covered just about everything. Thanks pal.
Since this thread is "Magnum's Mustache", has Magnum Mania ever ranked Selleck's
cookie duster against those of other Hollywood stars? (excepting Madonna's of course)
Snidely Whiplash's and Yosemite Sam's were very cool, but of course they were cartoons, and Yukon Cornelius was a puppet.
The only mustache I can think of that rivals Selleck's is Stacy Keach's of Mike Hammer fame.
In fact I gotta put Stacy's at number one:

1) Stacy Keach of Mike Hammer
2) Tom Selleck of Magnum PI
3) Gerald McRainey of Simon and Simon
4) Mike Farrell of MASH
5) John Astin of The Addams Family
6) Caesar Romero on various shows(on Batman they covered it up in thick makeup)
7) John Cleese's cheesy mustache on Fawlty Towers, it underlined his character
8) Ron Glass of Barney Miller
9) Lee Horsley of Matt Houston
10) Richard Boone of Have Gun Will Travel

I realize these picks are from older series but mustaches were more popular back when, plus I stopped watching almost everything on the big four networks 20 years ago in favor of cable.
What, No Sam Elliott of..well just about everything..This will not abide, sir!
Steve,
You are correct, sir! To quote Sam in The Big Lebowski,
"Sometimes you eat the bear,and sometimes, well, he eats you."
I have to revise the above list, especially as I also left Burt Reynolds off ,as pointed out by my friend Juanita whose twin sister only dates men with mustaches which cuts down the dating pool considerable.
Okay, here is the new list. By the way, when I typed the number eight it comes out as one of the"Smilies" for some reason.
Revised list:

1) Stacy Keach of Mike Hammer
2) Tom Selleck of Magnum PI
3) Sam Elliot of many Westerns
4) Burt Reynolds
5) Gerald McRainey of Simon and Simon
6) Mike Farrell of MASH
7) John Astin of The Addams Family
8) Caesar Romero on various shows(on Batman they covered it up in thick makeup)
9) John Cleese's cheesy mustache on Fawlty Towers, it underlined his character
10) Richard Boone of Have Gun Will Travel
Honorable Mention:
Groucho Marx's iconic movie mustache, which many never realized was a fake, it was grease paint.
Pancho Villa - he appeared in a movie so he qualifies, even if he did invade America. Pancho and the Japanese are the only foreigners to invade US territory since the War of 1812.

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Re: Magnum's mustache

#9 Post by Reef monkey »

According to Tom Selleck, his mustache has its own agent:

http://www.cbs.com/shows/the_talk/video ... wn-agent-/
My essay "In Country: Place and Historical Connection in Magnum PI", about the importance of the Honolulu/Vietnam connection in the show:
http://magnum-mania.com/Forum/viewtopic ... 850#p57850

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