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Shocking Flubs!

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Image Flub Episode Description
Magnum (Tom Selleck) The Disappearing Ferrari Roof Pilot Movie (1.1) At the end of the famous opening scene of the "Pilot Movie", after he successfully "steals" the Ferrari, Magnum pulls over to the side of the road and slides the roof off (while remaining inside the car) to the rear. He then looks at the camera, smiles, and accelerates back onto the road in the controlled slide. Great scene, but even casual viewers will be scratching their heads wondering where the roof went, or why Magnum would ditch a perfectly good (and expensive) Ferrari 308 roof! Fortunately, only the smile and slide are used in the opening title sequence of every episode, not the roof removal part!
Main House @ Robin's Nest Placing Robin's Nest @ The North Shore All The Robin's Nest location on Oahu was only mentioned four times in the show ("Italian Ice", "Double Jeopardy", "The Big Blow" & "Unfinished Business") and each time it's referenced as being "somewhere" on the North Shore. The North Shore!? The North Shore has breakers. We never see any waves breaking at the estate. And how can there be a tidal pool on the North Shore? We also often see Rabbit Island in the background. Rabbit Island isn't anywhere near the North Shore! Why didn't they just make the location in SE Oahu, near Waimanalo Beach, where the real estate (the Anderson Estate) is located?!
Magnum (Tom Selleck) Magnum's
Date of Birth
Memories Are Forever (1) (2.5), Try to Remember (2.15) & Others When was Magnum born? How old is he? We don't really know! Magnum's birth date has been contradicted in several episodes. In "Memories Are Forever (1)" (2.5) his drivers license shows his birth date as 1/5/46. In "Try to Remember" (2.15) his birth date is given as 8/8/44. In "Letter to a Duchess" (4.6) his age is mentioned as 38, which would make his birth year 1945. In "Forty" (7.17) we see Magnum celebrating his 40th birthday which would put his birth year at 1947! And in the series finale "Resolutions" (8.12), Magnum has a surprise birthday party thrown for him during his trip to Annapolis, a trip where he is seen wearing a heavy leather jacket, scarf and gloves! Despite the contradictions, 8/8 is considered to be the right date and has been confirmed by series creator/executive producer Donald P. Bellisario. Bellisario's own birth date is also 8/8.
T.C.'s Chopper T.C.'s Magical Chopper The Look (4.9), Under World (5.5) & Others T.C.'s chopper has been known to magically change its appearance in mid-flight! One minute he's flying the Hughes 500D (with a T-Tail), then the next minute he's flying the 500C (with a Y-Tail). In "The Look" (4.9), he strapped a birthday sign for Higgins on one of his skids. During the same aerial sequence, the sign disappeared and reappeared several times! All of this is, of course, due to the use of stock chopper aerial footage that is reused many times. It just wasn't practical (not to mention expensive) to shoot new aerial footage for every episode that called for scenes involving T.C.'s chopper in the air.
The Guesthouse Guesthouse Location Numerous Episodes The real guesthouse (a boathouse, actually) is located behind the tennis courts, adjacent to the ocean. In the show, you are lead to believe it's located behind the main house, accessible via the often-seen portico (short tunnel at the end of the driveway). This, of course, is nowhere near the real building that is used to represent the guesthouse! Often times you'll see Magnum enter the "portico", go behind the wall, then magically appear on the other side of the estate in front of the guesthouse! Not really a true flub, but once you know where the boathouse is located (which isn't too hard to figure out), these "portico"/guesthouse cutaways will confuse the heck out of you!
Young Magnum The Watch Home From the Sea (4.1) & Others Magnum inherits his father's watch after his death in 1951. A close-up of the watch during the funeral reveals it to be a Rolex Oyster Perpetual GMT Master (16750 with the "pepsi" bezel). Unfortunately, Rolex didn't start rolling out GMT Master watches until the mid-1960s, and the 16750 model wasn't made until 1981! Also, for the first three seasons Magnum was walking around with a Chronosport Sea Quartz 30 watch!
Aunt Phoebe Sullivan (Barbara Rush) "Sullivan" Several Episodes Ok, are you ready? Magnum's name is Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV. Magnum's mother's side of the family is the "Sullivan" side (we meet his Aunt Phoebe Sullivan in "The Aunt Who Came to Dinner"). Is it supposed to be a strange coincidence that his father married a woman whose last name matched the middle name of his great-grandfather (father's side), as well his grandfather, father and self?? Magnum also mentions an "Uncle Sully", presumably short for "Sullivan", which further complicates matters.
Col. Buck Greene (Lance LeGault) Col. Buck Greene's Last Name Several Episodes Poor Buck. The guy's last name kept flip-flopping between "Greene" (the correct spelling) and "Green" (the wrong spelling). Sometimes his badge would say "Green", sometimes it would say "Greene". Sometimes the episode credits would proclaim "Green". Even his aide was once credited as "Buck Green's Aide".
Admiral Hawkes (Paul Burke) Two Admirals, One Actor Memories Are Forever (2.5 & 2.6), Did You See the Sunrise? (3.1 & 3.2) & Blood and Honor (6.10) In two of the most important episodes of the series, the same actor (Paul Burke) played two completely different, and very important, Navy Admirals (Admiral Kitchner & Admiral Hawkes)! Talk about confusing the audience! But wait, there's more. In the second episode that Admiral Hawkes appeared in ("Blood and Honor"), his rank dropped to Rear Admiral (with no explanation given as to why), but people still address him as "Admiral", including the episode credits!
T.C. (Bob Minor) Ron Pennington Avenges His Own Death! Round and Around (6.6) This one is odd and just plain hilarious! Stunt legend Bob Minor, Roger E. Mosley's stunt double, plays a character named Ron Pennington who is close friends with T.C.. Ron is killed early in the episode in a robbery gone wrong. Later in the episode, T.C., seeking revenge for his friends death, is involved in a long fist fight with a drug dealer. Guess who the stunt double is for the fight scene? That's right, and you can clearly see Bob Minor's face in many of the shots! This creates the bizarre situation where Ron Pennington has seemingly returned from the grave to avenge his own death!
Joey Peterson on The Wall Joey Peterson
(We Must Never Speak Of Him Again!)
Going Home (6.7) Magnum had a younger half brother named Joey Peterson who was killed in Vietnam. You didn't know? That's probably because he was only mentioned/referenced once, in one episode, for about five minutes. And then, he was never mentioned again! Rick, T.C. and Higgins' siblings were mentioned numerous times, why not Magnum's?
Rick (Larry Manetti) Rick's Parents
(They're dead, they're alive ... no wait, they're dead!)
Distant Relative (4.4), Jororo Farewell (4.11) & others Early in Season Four we learned that both of Rick's parents died when he was very young. Seven episodes later, in "Jororo Farewell" (4.11), we are shocked to hear Rick say he is writing a recipe for chicken marsala to send to his mother! In later episodes Rick says they are indeed dead, and in "Death of the Flowers" (7.12) we see flashbacks to their funeral in 1958 (car accident).
Tran Quoc Jones (Roland Harrah III) Goodbye
Tran Quoc,
Good Luck!
Tran Quoc Jones (5.9) "The Gang" lets Tran Quoc go back to the streets?! Are we supposed to believe they wouldn't try to find this kid after all they did to try to reunite him with his family?! Especially T.C. who, 1) Is about ready to kick some @ss for this kid, 2) Talks about searching for aunts and uncles, 3) Says to have TQ call him whenever he needs him. I mean, lets look at his resources, 1) Higgins - who is in with charities for wayward boys and whatnot, 2) Rick - who has underworld connections and can keep an eye on the street, and 3) Magnum - who has experience in, A) Finding Delta Force operatives who have been missing for 10 years, B) Locating con artists in the witness protection program, C) Solving decades old murder cases using his freakin' dreams! Tracking down Hungarian orintologists who haven't been seen since the 1940s, D) Knowing when emotionally unstable women are about to be attacked by dogs, E) Tracking down the murderer of his friend using psychic clues, F) Taking down a revolutionary army with his 3 friends. Um, Yeah, I have a little hunch that they could find this kid!
(Submitted by Doc Ibold)
Uncle Lyle's Castle Blitz Uncle Lyle's "Castle Blitz" Who is Don Luis Higgins? (6.19) This is a double whammy, a shocking flub and a shocking blunder! Higgins supposedly plays chess at the expert level and has one of the best chess ratings on the islands. Yet, in a series of games against Magnum, he falls for the same opening trap, Uncle Lyle's "Castle Blitz", in one game after another?! Any half decent player would have altered a move, or switched openings all together, to avoid it if it was so deadly. Also, from a chess perspective, the notion of a "Castle Blitz" is absurd. Supposedly, it's a seven-move opening for Black, which if White makes the right moves, results in Black queenside castling with checkmate! What makes this scene even more shocking is that the final position they show on the screen is NOT checkmate. In fact, it's not even close to checkmate!




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