It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

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Higgins (aka Bondtoys)
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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#46 Post by Higgins (aka Bondtoys) »

IvanTheTerrible wrote: But that is a HUGE reason to get emotional. We don't need a Shiggins. We need a Higgins. Higgins is supposed to be an older British guy, not a butt-kicking chick. You mentioned earlier that the new show is not trying to be PC and that the old show was PC too. No clue what you mean by that. The old show had 4 dudes and that was fine. But in the new one you can't have 4 dudes anymore. Gotta throw in a chick into the mix, otherwise it's a sexist show, hence why it's PC. And of course Magnum is played by a Hispanic actor. Non-PC you say? Seriously??? They did the same with the new Five-0 - why was Kono not a guy like on the old show??? Again, because 4 guys working together on a team without a girl in the mix is politically incorrect. So they throw in a scrawny chick into the mix who can kick butt with the best of them and take down 2 or 3 guys twice her size! So yes people do take issue with crap like that.

I'm against all remakes period. Create original shows and don't bother with remakes. But if you're going to do a remake you better do it right and be faithful to the original show and the original characters. Changing sexes and races is NOT an option!
I will not get into every aspect of your post because in my opinion it's just a hateful mess.
But as you have quoted me about the pc-ness:

To me pc-ness is mostly about mindset, words and actions and not about casting 2 men + 2 women =pc, but I may be wrong. I am European.

To me pc'ness is not to use sexually abusive pejorative language and actions but all this starts in the minds of people.
On the giving and receiving end btw.

Example can be sexually charged remarks, jokes, "slimey flirting" and so on. Slapping women's butts or similar would be an extreme example for lack of pc-ness or unvountarily commenting on their bodies.

In that sense, the old series is much better than many series from that time and the new series still is. That was my message and not the casting choices, whatever motives are behind it.

I was just discussing the topic with a friend: If they'd been casting an older man (probably from the UK) for Higgins, firstly the mainly young audiences may have been bored or annoyed by it and the stereotypes and secondly all the old fans would have complained, that the new actor (whoever he was) was just a cheap copy of the "Real Higgins". So a new male Higgins could have only lost.

Instead they kind of wiped the HDD and made Higgins completely different by still putting nods to the old fans. Brilliant move in my opinion.

And please allow me one remark - and I must be very careful about my wording:
As you criticize the "new" casting choices for being overly pc-motivated - have you ever thought about, why one of the main actors of the old series was african-american? I am sure that the decision to go with Mosley was also in parts a pc-decision of that time. So, there is not much of a difference back then compared to today.

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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#47 Post by MagnumsLeftShoulder »

I will not get into every aspect of your post because in my opinion it's just a hateful mess.
Oh, please. :roll: It's totally fine for somebody to hate and snark on a TV show for whatever reason they want. It's just a TV show. If Lenkov and Hernandez can't take the heat, they're in the wrong business.

How do we know that's really what Millennials want when that's all that's offered these days?
We don't really, but marketing and media people are convinced that the twitter mob is representative of the real world. When in reality, the twitter mob is tiny.

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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#48 Post by K Hale »

Bondtoys.de wrote: I was just discussing the topic with a friend: If they'd been casting an older man (probably from the UK) for Higgins, firstly the mainly young audiences may have been bored or annoyed by it and the stereotypes and secondly all the old fans would have complained, that the new actor (whoever he was) was just a cheap copy of the "Real Higgins". So a new male Higgins could have only lost.

Instead they kind of wiped the HDD and made Higgins completely different by still putting nods to the old fans. Brilliant move in my opinion.
This is why the entire reboot concept sucks. There's simply no way to do it right. As it exists, it looks to me like a parody. If they had cast a tall guy with a mustache as Magnum and a short fat guy as Higgins, in my mind that would be even worse. At least now I can point and laugh. Although I admit the only thing I've watched is 30 seconds of the Pizza Hut commercial, which was already too much for me.
And please allow me one remark - and I must be very careful about my wording:
As you criticize the "new" casting choices for being overly pc-motivated - have you ever thought about, why one of the main actors of the old series was african-american? I am sure that the decision to go with Mosley was also in parts a pc-decision of that time. So, there is not much of a difference back then compared to today.
I think people forget sometimes how progressive MPI was for its day. Let's look back.

There was the episode where Magnum sympathized with a terrorist (No Need to Know)
There was the episode where Magnum believed letting a Soviet spy walk free was the right thing to do (Texas Lightning)
There were several episodes where it's made clear how much Higgins appreciates Japanese culture and has all these Japanese friends, despite the fact he fought a war against them
There was the episode where the only girl on the basketball team just happened to be the star (Basket Case)
There was the episode where Higgins is doing research (or writing the book himself) on what it was like to be a Japanese-American interned in a prison camp (Forty Years from Sand Island)
There was the time Magnum went all koom-bay-yah "let's all just be friends" between a suspected IRA terrorist sympathizer and a British army officer (Faith and Begorrah)
There was the episode where a dwarf was a CIA agent (Smaller Than Life)
There was the episode where TC lectured us about kwanzaa (Operation Silent Night)
There was the episode where they made a Vietnam conscientious objector a sympathetic character instead of a cowardly cartoon villain (Tran Quoc Jones)
There was the episode where they help three young women escape sex trafficking and the young women wind up beating the crap out of their captor (the oft-derided Love-For-Sale Boat)
There was the episode where it's revealed Higgins disobeyed orders because they were too immoral for him (Torah Torah Torah)
There was the episode about dolphin rights (Old Acquaintance)
There was the episode where Higgins tells Magnum that it's childish to pursue a woman only for her looks and to prove you can get her (Forty)
There were all the episodes featuring strong female characters (nearly every episode where a woman appeared)
As you mention, there was the fact a black man was cast in the show to begin with (nearly all the other main and recurring characters are white)

If these things took place today, would they not be labeled political correctness?
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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#49 Post by K Hale »

If you ask me -- and nobody did -- here's what they should have done if they wanted to make another Magnum show for the modern era. Make it a sequel, not a reboot.

1. Make it about Lily. She's come back to Hawaii and is struggling to fill her father's shoes as a private investigator. This way, Selleck can do cameos since he would be playing Magnum.
2. Use Perdita Weeks (since y'all tell me she's the only one who can act) as Juliet Higgins, but make her a relative of Higgins, perhaps a niece. She's inherited the estate from Robin/Higgins/however you want to arrange it. Higgins would not be in the show but would be present in the dialogue/script.
3. For extra points, make one of them (but only one) gay.
4. Cast two guys in supporting roles, but do not call them Rick and TC.
5. Make one of the guys Hawaiian (PLEASE!)
6. Make one of the guys 10-15 years older than the other three characters. This could be the Hawaiian guy or the other one.

I would watch the hell out of this show. The reboot mess? Forget it.
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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#50 Post by K Hale »

giant_albatross wrote:
Chris109 wrote:...Millennials don't want storylines. They want blood and guts and lots of crashes and sex. And has to be PC...
The original Magnum had lots of gratuitous violence, car crashes, and sex.
Not at all.

The only gratuitous violence I can recall is that guy throwing "Legs" off the lighthouse. All other violence in the show was necessary to the plot. Nor was the violence always all that violent — sometimes someone would be shot and killed but there’d be no blood! :roll:

There were some car crashes, but very few over 162 episodes.

I recall two sex scenes, one in Memories are Forever and one in Echoes of the Mind. Both were discreet and carefully placed in the context of romantic love. Unless you count sex as Magnum taking his shirt off or a girl in a bikini appearing?
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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#51 Post by Higgins (aka Bondtoys) »

K Hale wrote:If you ask me -- and nobody did -- here's what they should have done if they wanted to make another Magnum show for the modern era. Make it a sequel, not a reboot.

1. Make it about Lily. She's come back to Hawaii and is struggling to fill her father's shoes as a private investigator. This way, Selleck can do cameos since he would be playing Magnum.
2. Use Perdita Weeks (since y'all tell me she's the only one who can act) as Juliet Higgins, but make her a relative of Higgins, perhaps a niece. She's inherited the estate from Robin/Higgins/however you want to arrange it. Higgins would not be in the show but would be present in the dialogue/script.
3. For extra points, make one of them (but only one) gay.
4. Cast two guys in supporting roles, but do not call them Rick and TC.
5. Make one of the guys Hawaiian (PLEASE!)
6. Make one of the guys 10-15 years older than the other three characters. This could be the Hawaiian guy or the other one.

I would watch the hell out of this show. The reboot mess? Forget it.
What we all forget is that almost 40 years after the first episode has aired - nobody can afford to make a series for us old farts. Deal with it, we are old, we don‘t buy our stuff along tv commercials, we are not important for a contemporary tv series. They don‘t care if we like it and they don‘t care what we want.

Its just like the original Magnum was never targetet at our moms and dads.

The new series, no matter how they design it, has to be successful by the age group 14-45 and if they don‘t watchit and the ads, it will be over. Then we can watch our DVS again with the warm and cuddly feeling how great we where when we where young and nothing has changed ever since.

So instead of demanding to get our youth back ( and the original series or totally stop it because we fell bad to be so unimportant), we should appreciate that Lenkow still gives us some nods and elements instead of totally slashing him for ruining our heroes.

If our parents would have hated MPI in the 80s to a degree of some that show up here, we all would have laughed them off and deleted their complaints on Twitter if it had existed in the 80s

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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#52 Post by K Hale »

Bondtoys.de wrote:
K Hale wrote:If you ask me -- and nobody did -- here's what they should have done if they wanted to make another Magnum show for the modern era. Make it a sequel, not a reboot.

1. Make it about Lily. She's come back to Hawaii and is struggling to fill her father's shoes as a private investigator. This way, Selleck can do cameos since he would be playing Magnum.
2. Use Perdita Weeks (since y'all tell me she's the only one who can act) as Juliet Higgins, but make her a relative of Higgins, perhaps a niece. She's inherited the estate from Robin/Higgins/however you want to arrange it. Higgins would not be in the show but would be present in the dialogue/script.
3. For extra points, make one of them (but only one) gay.
4. Cast two guys in supporting roles, but do not call them Rick and TC.
5. Make one of the guys Hawaiian (PLEASE!)
6. Make one of the guys 10-15 years older than the other three characters. This could be the Hawaiian guy or the other one.

I would watch the hell out of this show. The reboot mess? Forget it.
What we all forget is that almost 40 years after the first episode has aired - nobody can afford to make a series for us old farts. Deal with it, we are old, we don‘t buy our stuff along tv commercials, we are not important for a contemporary tv series. They don‘t care if we like it and they don‘t care what we want.

Its just like the original Magnum was never targetet at our moms and dads.

The new series, no matter how they design it, has to be successful by the age group 14-45 and if they don‘t watchit and the ads, it will be over. Then we can watch our DVS again with the warm and cuddly feeling how great we where when we where young and nothing has changed ever since.

So instead of demanding to get our youth back ( and the original series or totally stop it because we fell bad to be so unimportant), we should appreciate that Lenkow still gives us some nods and elements instead of totally slashing him for ruining our heroes.

If our parents would have hated MPI in the 80s to a degree of some that show up here, we all would have laughed them off
But it isn't for old farts. It's two young women, one possibly gay, a young man and an older man, one of them Hawaiian. What about that holds no appeal for 14-45 year olds? LOL for God's sake I'm only 47.

My parents (born 1916 and 1931) loved the original series. We all watched it as a family. We were all Higgins aficionados!
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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#53 Post by Chris109 »

K Hale wrote:But it isn't for old farts. It's two young women, one possibly gay, a young man and an older man, one of them Hawaiian. What about that holds no appeal for 14-45 year olds? LOL for God's sake I'm only 47.
47? Wow. Just think, within the next 2 years you will be getting non-stop invites to AARP. And they will harass you until the day you die.
Sometimes even after. Me mum died 15 years ago and she STILL gets invites.

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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#54 Post by Pahonu »

giant_albatross wrote:
Pahonu wrote:...I might also add, I recall reading that in the original version, the creators looked to add some female roles to the show because the female demographic watching it just to see Selleck without his shirt was dropping after the first couple of seasons. They specifically developed the Carol Baldwin and Maggie Poole characters for this reason. I believe it was a TV Guide article from the 80's during its run where I read it. Having female characters isn't just about being PC, it brings in viewers, which if we're honest, is the whole point. ...
That's debatable, at best.
I don't get which part is debatable? I read an article in the past about the attempt to improve female viewership by adding recurring female characters. I remember it clearly, perhaps not the publication name, but the content for certain. It could have been in another magazine, but I'm pretty confident it was in TV Guide. The whole point is to get more people to watch so the show will stay on the air. How's that debatable? It's certainly not to have fewer people viewing. Is the implication that I made up a magazine article and story? Again, I don't understand the basis of the comment.

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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#55 Post by K Hale »

I think it's debatable that "the female demographic" was watching the show merely to see Selleck take off his shirt.
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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#56 Post by Chris109 »

K Hale wrote:I think it's debatable that "the female demographic" was watching the show merely to see Selleck take off his shirt.
I'm pretty sure guys watched Charlies Angels cause of this and not the story lines. I know i did and I was just coming of 'that' age.


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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#57 Post by K Hale »

Chris109 wrote:
K Hale wrote:I think it's debatable that "the female demographic" was watching the show merely to see Selleck take off his shirt.
I'm pretty sure guys watched Charlies Angels cause of this and not the story lines. I know i did and I was just coming of 'that' age.
Okay. Not sure what that has to do with what I said. :)
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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#58 Post by MagnumsLeftShoulder »

I don't get which part is debatable?
I think it's debatable that women wanted the show to have more female characters. I am female and I never cared that MPI had only male characters. However, I readily admit that so-called "women's shows" are not my cup of tea.

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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#59 Post by NotthatRick »

K Hale wrote:If you ask me -- and nobody did -- here's what they should have done if they wanted to make another Magnum show for the modern era. Make it a sequel, not a reboot.

1. Make it about Lily. She's come back to Hawaii and is struggling to fill her father's shoes as a private investigator. This way, Selleck can do cameos since he would be playing Magnum.
2. Use Perdita Weeks (since y'all tell me she's the only one who can act) as Juliet Higgins, but make her a relative of Higgins, perhaps a niece. She's inherited the estate from Robin/Higgins/however you want to arrange it. Higgins would not be in the show but would be present in the dialogue/script.
3. For extra points, make one of them (but only one) gay.
4. Cast two guys in supporting roles, but do not call them Rick and TC.
5. Make one of the guys Hawaiian (PLEASE!)
6. Make one of the guys 10-15 years older than the other three characters. This could be the Hawaiian guy or the other one.

I would watch the hell out of this show. The reboot mess? Forget it.
This is a show that I would have gladly watched! :)

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Re: It seems Peter Lenkov can't take the heat

#60 Post by K Hale »

MagnumsLeftShoulder wrote:
I don't get which part is debatable?
I think it's debatable that women wanted the show to have more female characters. I am female and I never cared that MPI had only male characters. However, I readily admit that so-called "women's shows" are not my cup of tea.
I applaud inclusion and strong female characters, as long as it doesn’t turn into pandering.

I never had an issue with MPI being about four guys. Never had trouble relating to Higgins. :lol: :higgins: :higgins: :higgins:
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