Tom Selleck never liked the "P.I." in MAGNUM, P.I.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

One of the articles or interviews promoting Selleck's new book (can't remember which one) has Selleck talking about the MPI title and how he never liked the P.I. part of it and that he vowed to always refer to the show as just "Magnum". Apparently that was the original title of the show until the execs decided to add the P.I. at the end to make it more descriptive I guess. Or to differentiate it from Dirty Harry's magnum revolver (or the film Magnum Force). Something like that. Anyway Selleck apparently hated the P.I. addition and it's interesting because I never noticed it before but Selleck really never does call it Magnum P.I. It's always "Magnum". When I did Magnum. When I got Magnum. When I was on Magnum. The interviewer will always call it Magnum P.I. but Selleck always calls it Magnum.

And then it got me thinking how Thomas himself on the show always hated being called a P.I. and would always correct someone with "private investigator". I'm wondering if this was actually scripted or something Tom himself came up with initially, due to his dislike of the P.I. being in the show's title. And then it kind of caught on and became a running gag in the show. Something to think about. Somehow it just feels like it was Tom's idea from the start.

[Pahonu]

One of the articles or interviews promoting Selleck's new book (can't remember which one) has Selleck talking about the MPI title and how he never liked the P.I. part of it and that he vowed to always refer to the show as just "Magnum". Apparently that was the original title of the show until the execs decided to add the P.I. at the end to make it more descriptive I guess. Or to differentiate it from Dirty Harry's magnum revolver (or the film Magnum Force). Something like that. Anyway Selleck apparently hated the P.I. addition and it's interesting because I never noticed it before but Selleck really never does call it Magnum P.I. It's always "Magnum". When I did Magnum. When I got Magnum. When I was on Magnum. The interviewer will always call it Magnum P.I. but Selleck always calls it Magnum.

And then it got me thinking how Thomas himself on the show always hated being called a P.I. and would always correct someone with "private investigator". I'm wondering if this was actually scripted or something Tom himself came up with initially, due to his dislike of the P.I. being in the show's title. And then it kind of caught on and became a running gag in the show. Something to think about. Somehow it just feels like it was Tom's idea from the start.

He corrected people calling him a detective too, not just a PI. I think it was probably a little of both in terms of the scripts. TS likely voiced his opinion about the PI title to the producers early on and subsequently, writers added this detail into the scripts.