Legend of the Lost Art (8.10)

[mandolabar]

By my count, this was the fourth and final time he broke the fourth wall, following "China Doll", "Never Again ... Never Again" and "The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii". He did it in Seasons One and Eight, with nothing in between! Odd.

I don't remember those! Well, dang. I guess I'm just going to have to watch them again. Such hardship....

[Croix de Lorraine]

I normally don't like silly episodes too much, but I like howhere Tom Selleck gets an homage and is given the chance to finally play Indiana Jones (well, sort of).

As a matter of fact I was never a big fan of the Indiana Jones saga when growing up,and I think that charisma vacuum called Harrison Ford had a lot to do with it. Tom Selleck had much more presence and charisma as a semi-comic action hero and would have made a much believable Indiana Jones, in my opinion.

[stewpot01]

Hi everyone.
First post for me. I loved this episode and have not seen it since the original broadcast up until last week when I purchased the Season 8 DVD.
The spoof was excellent. considering they had to squeeze the story line into
45 mins.
Like how everyone kept saying "ark" instead of art

My only beef is that Universal don't have subtitles on the UK release and I am very hard of hearing

[Danno]

It seems you either love this episode or hate it.

I've been a fan of Indiana Jones and particularly Raiders Of The Lost Ark since I was about five, so I was extremely curious to see this episode. Raiders to me is possibly a perfect movie. Everything about it is right- including the casting of Harrison Ford. I have the hat, the whip, the jacket... the whole crazy kit.

You may have seen footage online of Selleck trying out for the part of Indiana Jones with Sean Young as Marion. It would have been such a different film.

The episode though is obviously just a lot of fun- a light hearted caper for the cast. Whenever Higgins does a 'hi-ya!' karate chop it has to be some of the best parts of the series. Selleck and Margaret Colin work well together and I agree with some of the previous suggestions- she would have been a perfect partner for Magnum- it's a shame we never see more of these two together...

The fate of the Hanole Prism?
It now lives at our house safely protecting the secret of the lost art of the ancients forever...

[runawayselleck]

I loved this episode. And this is why. I love Magnum PI, but if I have a problem with it it is that it steered too far into the heavy drama when it got to the later seasons and always seemed to be bogged down in flag waving and Magnum falling in love with women who ended up breaking his heart. There was still humour, but it was less than in the first few seasons. Here though the whole thing is great fun, and is exactly what the show was about, humour, adventure and Selleck being a hero without having a thousand flashbacks to "nam". A great episode!

Runaway Selleck

[Sinjin]

"Diminutive in size, gargantuan in intellect!"

I really enjoyed this blatant parody/homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark and movies that inspired it.

I thought Margaret Colin was a good pairing as the love interest Connie Northrop. She is attractive, funny, and seems like a better physical match height-wise with TS. And finally we see Magnum exercise his testosterone and put some moves on a woman, a plus in my book.

I liked the tie-in with movies of the past like Perils of Nyoka. I was curious about the scene Magnum refers to where the chariot goes over the cliff and found it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjeb0s5fdb8. The scene comes at the end. By the way, Perils of Nyoka serials are surprisingly entertaining. No wonder they were so popular in their day. Nyoka, played by Kay Aldredge, is a pre-feminist heroine who can handle herself in most situations and has a dog that is smarter than most people.

As humorous Magnum episodes go, this one ranks up near the top.

[SignGuyHPW]

I absolutely hated this episode. I have no problem with the comedy episodes, in fact I enjoy the bulk of them, but this complete farce/parody was horrible. There was no logic to what was happening, it didn't fit in with what the characters did in "normal" episodes, it was just about making sure the viewers knew Selleck was the original choice in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[DarCA]

I watched this episode again last night and had a smile on my face the entire time. I just love the way they did the spoof of Raiders of the Lost Ark - especially when Magnum kept naming the movie that Ridley-Smyth was acting out - and he never got the movie right. It's a 10 in my book.

[terryfromkerry]

Agreed. A good fun episode. Escapism does not always lend itself to logical analyisis.

[EZiller]

Very entertaining comedic episode. I really liked Margaret Colin as Connie Northrup as TM's old lover or as he described "he was engaged to be engaged to" or something. In any case, they did seem to have real chemistry and fun together, something that seemed to be lacking somewhat in his relationship with Cynthia Farrell and completely with Michelle, supposedly the love of TM's life.

9

[Doc Ibold]

Connie? Miss Northrup? Miss Connie Northrup!

I have no idea why that line delights me so much.

[J. Rickley Schneider]

I was highly anticipating watching this episode and it didn't disappoint.

As far as parodies go, it was a very clever one.

Did everyone recognize Margaret Colin from Independence Day?

[SignGuyHPW]

I just rewatched this one on the season 8 DVD set with the commentary. I thought that the commentary would distract me from a lot of what I disliked about the episode. I was wrong as the creative consultant had, seemingly, not watched much of the show in the 20 years or so they had been off of the air nor could he recall much of The Raiders of the Lost Ark which he used as material to spoof for this episode.

Jay Hugeley didn't seem to recall much about the series when he was trying to explain how different the series normally was compared to this episode. He was trying to recall things from a couple of decades previous which explains why he may have misrecalled things. For example, he didn't recall TC and Rick using guns which they did in a number of episodes, didn't recall Magnum having any casual relationships which he did in a handful of episodes, and didn't seem to recall the high body count there really was. He also referenced scenes coming up later in the episode that didn't play out exactly as he described. It was hard for me to listen to him and be thinking of the contradictions.

I found it interesting that the people involved in The Raiders of the Lost Ark, supposedly, were upset after the episode aired. It seemed clear to me that this was a spoof of it and not intended to infringe on intellectual property.

[StaveIsle]

Bam! There it is!! The greatest Magnum episode of all-time!!! In my humble opinion, of course.

This episode has everything that makes the show so great - action, comedy, mystery, excitement, zaniness, great lines, great locations, etc. - but times ten! This is really a two-hour movie crammed into a :46 minute episode! It's one fun, action-packed scene after another. It never lets up!

I just love the brilliant setup here - We're going to pay homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark (a film Selleck could have been in if not for his contractual obligation to MPI), but we are going to set it up so TM and the gang think the events might be based (staged) off other, unexpected (to the viewer) classic movies! And Jay Huguely does a GREAT job with the script. It's almost perfect. I can't wait to check out his commentary on the DVD.

Boy, Selleck sure must have had a lot of fun with this one. I'm sure they all did! What a great way to go into the final episodes..... with a bang!

And I really liked Margaret Colin here. She did a really great job.

"The Lost Art of the Ancients", I love it!



Note to Self: Add Perils of Nyoka (1942) to your Netflix queue.

I think I have to agree with you, JJ. The funny thing is, I NEVER saw this until a few days ago. 27 years after it was on TV, when I missed it, I just learned about it and found it. I am a huge Indy fan and Magnum fan. This show was pitch perfect with having fun with the whole idea. Higgins handing him the coat and saying Magnum should put it on when he gets back on the trail...and later handing him both the coat and hat...all the tongue in cheek references, scene stealing and subtle Indy music found within it, perfect. I laughed the entire way through.

Before I saw this, when I thought of favorite episodes, I thought of Laura, Did You See The Sunrise?, Home From the Sea, Paper War... but this is the one I will now think of as my favorite.

They held that Indy role for a full month for Selleck in hopes he could take it. Spielberg wrote him a letter saying he was really sorry it had not worked out and that it should have. What might have been if Selleck played Indy?

[StaveIsle]

Did folks notice in some followup episodes that Magnum had the Indy fedora hanging up near the door?