Peter Ishkanian, a long-time MPI film editor, contacted me recently about the site. Great guy! He worked on the show in various film editing capacities from the pilot to the finale! He had a big role in cutting "Old Acquaintance" and several later episodes. He still works for Universal, and edits documentaries and DVD releases of old movies.
Anyway, he's been gracious enough to answer some questions (if he can) about the show!
If you have a question you'd like me to ask him, please post it here. I'd like to get a final list to send to him by early next week, if I could.
Did anyone from the editing dept. ever save and or compile the bloopers and flubs from the show and if so does he have any knowledge of if they will ever be released on the DVD's..
Very cool. It would be interesting to hear an overview about the whole process of editing an episode.
For instance the time frame of when the show was shot (any particular time of year that happened?) and how long after that the editors would start working on it (I assume in L.A.?).
Then how long the editing process would take, and who outside of the editors would have input (Mr. Selleck and the cast at all?). And how long an episode sat completed before airing on tv.
What else was he working on during the Magnum years? (I'm assuming Magnum P.I. didn't take up all his time.)
Also what was the show shot on? I assume film? How did that film differ from the film being used for movies.
I'm sure you've already thanked him for his work on the show. It's very nice of him to contact you and do this for us Magnum P.I. fans.
Hey, great questions so far! I don't think I was very clear before, but these questions are not restricted to just film editing. Anything goes, as long as it's not inappropriate or "out of line".
Something I've always wondered about is the episode scores. Outside of the theme song, how much did Post/Carpenter contribute? If only a little, which ones?
How long did they have for each episode to deliver a "final cut" to the studio?
Since you said he works on DVDs for Universal (of old movies) maybe we could ask if season eight of Magnum P.I. could have any good extras (or at least request it), like something produced especially for the DVD. The cast members getting together (or if not possible, separately) to speak about the show would be phenomenal.
I don't know whether it would be appropriate and it sounds like he doesn't work on Magnum DVDs so I'd understand if he didn't answer or wasn't able to answer.
I've also wished they would have kept the episode synopsis on the Magnum DVDs like they had for the first season. It's more convenient than having to go to the DVD case and take out the holder and search for it there. But that's another matter.
And my second was the question about bloopers/outtakes. What a shame if they were just discarded or destroyed. Every other show has them, even as far back as "Star Trek," for example. So surely they would have been kept??? If he's a film editor and can get ahold of them, I bet he could edit them beautifully and make a DVD that most of us would be more than willing to pay for -- it wouldn't even have to be an "extra" on the season DVD release -- a separate DVD that could be purchased would be fine with me.
golf
P.S. James, I'm SO glad someone actually affiliated with the show has found "your"/our site! I know we've told Mr. Manetti about it but we don't know that he ever even checked it out. Hey, could we ask Mr. Ishkanian if he would be willing to tell Mr. Selleck about the site? Of course, TS says he's virtually computer-illiterate, but I'd like to think (hope?) that he would sometimes check in to see what we are talking about and be mildly amused by our antics.
I don't know if it would be a proper question, but I would like to ask (if he knows) why the fictional location of the guest house was different from the actual location of the building that "portrayed" it on the Anderson estate.
You could also ask if he ever visited the set in Hawaii.
Since I don't know anything about it, I could see it being either way - common for an editor to visit the set in Hawaii, or common for an editor to have no reason to visit the set and simply do all the work in L.A.
I'd also be interested to hear what documentaries and classic film dvd releases he has worked on, and what he's working on now. I watch many older movies and I'm sure I've appreciated some of his work without knowing.
I always wondered how much of the stunt work TS did himself and how much was done by a stuntman. I've read that he did most of the Quigley Down Under stunts himself.
