This is the official MM thread for Of Sound Mind (3.13). 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: 1/6/1983
It's no laughing matter when a practical joker dies in a plane explosion. Magnum is the surprised heir to the man's vast estate - but is the killer who caused the explosion now after Hawaii's newest millionaire?

This is a fun, unorthodox Magnum episode, which shouldn't be missed. TM spends most of the episode clanking around in a full-body-armor Knight suit. The wonderful Roscoe Lee Browne leads a good guest star ensemble cast. I love the ending, too. Hilarious!

_________________
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

This was the episode on Sleuth tonight, and we watched it again. This has just become one of my favorite episodes -- purely for TS' willingness to make a complete idiot of himself for the benefit of the show. I LOVED the costumes on the "regulars" -- and Larry Manetti was a good sport to be Marie Antoinette (I assume that was what his "drag" costume was). And Magnum's clumsiness in the suit of armor -- while Higgins stands there as Henry VIII, just watching his ineptitude -- is very clever! It's probably a pretty early effort to have an "action hero" be the joke. Did MPI start the idea of the "hero" with the willingness to also be the butt of the joke? Granted, to a certain degree Burt Reynolds started it in the early 1970s with his Cosmopolitan "spread," but who else did it as successfully? Bruce Willis in "Moonlighting"? Who else? I know you guys can come up with some other examples.

golf

_________________
"Portside, buddy."

James Garner in the Rockford Files- a show that Selleck has cited as a major inspiration for his Magnum portrayal.

As for film stars, Warner Bros. thought Eastwood had completely lost his mind when he decided to parody his image in Every Which Way But Loose.

On Sleuth Channel (again!) tonight -- and another episode using the Walker Estate! How many does this make, now?

golf

_________________
"Portside, buddy."

I just saw this episode for the first time (rented it from Blockbuster). What a hilarious episode! The cast must have had a blast filming it.

This is a great one, so much to like about it. Let them eat cake.

Funny episode!

Unlike the fine old oil paintings collected by Wilson MacLeish's ancestors, the suit of armor could hardly have been an antique -- Magnum is presumably (like Tom Selleck) 6'4", and they rarely made knights that size in the Middle Ages. If we are to assume that the armor he wears for the costume ball is the same one that we had seen earlier as part of the decor, then it must be a latter-day reproduction, that just happens to be sized for a modern-day tall man -- very convenient!

As noted in the Episode Guide notes, this is an offbeat episode. It actually strikes me as one of the lighter Murder, She Wrote types of plot, with no real attempt at realism (no FAA investigation? no search for a body?). I can just see Jessica as the astonished heir. The broken-leg angle would have worked well for that season when Angela Lansbury actually did have a broken leg or badly-sprained ankle or whatever it was (or am I thinking of some other actress in some other series? -- I can't seem to find any references to this situation).

Speaking of planes being destroyed (ala "Two Birds of a Feather"), I like how they did the bi-plane explosion at the beginning. It really does look real. Of course, it's a semi-closeup shot of an RC plane, but still. It must have been a lot of fun for whoever set that up and flew the plane - Whrrrrrr, 3-2-1 BOOM!

Charity Ball Jam

_________________
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

This is yet another episode that I missed and have never seen before...

My favorite part was when TM gets out of the hospital after hurting his leg.

Rick:I saw in this movie once where they bumped off this guy for his money. They took a lawnmower, an electric lawn mower and threw it right in the bathtub, bzzzzzzzzzz (que TC and TM's expression) It fried him just like that. You better take showers. (LOL)
TM: Guys!
TC: Come to think of it, you better stay out of the kitchen too, all sorts of things can happen in there. Gas, poisoning, garbage disposals
TM: Garbage disposals??
Rick: And look on the bright side of it pal, at least nobody's shooting at you...

Cue gun shots at the start of the charity ball. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that one.

I didn't know Donnelly Rhodes was in the show at all. He made a show called Danger Bay in Vancouver, which he started shortly after this episode. I walked by the film sets at our famous Vancouver Aquarium and watched some of the filming. He did a good job in this episode.

The practical joke at the end was priceless! For a second I thought Carlton was the murderer and even more so at the end, until Magnum took the gun from him, then I knew what was coming.....

Who could forget the costumes. Rick's was a good one. I admit that I was forced to be Magenta from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, so I admire Rick's courage for the costumes he's worn in the series!

_________________
Higgins: Dispatch the pig!!!