oscar-35
*Spoiler/plot- Hawaii Five-0, 1968. The TV series follows a fictional elite state police unit and it's iconic leader in it's law enforcement foreign or domestic work in the island state.*Special Stars- Jack Lord, James MacArthur.*Theme- No one is above the law.*Trivia/location/goofs- Jack Lord owned part of the show in later seasons. Filmed entirely in Hawaii. Conscience effort was made to use native Hawaiian actors in this show. Many of the main cast have become deceased. A new TV show series has come out of this franchise.*Emotion- A beautiful and well produced TV show highlighting the Hawaiian islands in their complexity and unique problems. Also this show is a time capsule on the social matters of the late 1960's. This show really made Hawaii a popular place to produce films in. The morals and dilemmas of the shows are informative and relevant today. This show is worth the viewer's time to experience.
bkoganbing
Outside of Jack Webb I don't think you could make a better case for a cop being totally professional than with Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett. Even with Webb you got hints of a private life usually in the squad car as he and Ben Alexander or later Harry Morgan rode around between locations on an episode. In fact usually TV series last because of various personal dimensions gradually introduced into a series for the characters. But in Hawaii 5-0, never. Lord was appointed by the Governor of Hawaii to head a special state police force to really go after the high level crooks. His jurisdiction was pretty well anywhere he wanted it. I never saw any complaints from Honolulu PD or any other local police entity about it in the 12 years Hawaii Five-0 ran. Lord had a picked team with James MacArthur, Kam Fong and several other local players from Hawaii as other police assigned to him. Richard Denning made some appearances every so often as the governor. In fact MacArthur as Danny Williams was the guy that McGarrett ordered almost every week to 'book 'em Danno' in the show's most celebrated catchphrase.Hawaii Five-0 had three great things going for it. The first was Hawaii itself. I for one can't get enough of the scenery. It's the most beautiful place on the planet and that's on several different levels. I don't the show would have lasted twelve seasons if it was done in East St. Louis.Secondly the writing was extraordinarily good matched by the editing. I don't recall a frame of extraneous film in any given episode. Like McGarrett and his team, every show got right down to business and moved.Lastly it was Jack Lord who created a character that solely and totally focused on his job. Normally those are not warm and fuzzy people, but the absolutely incorruptible Steve McGarrett was a guy that any citizen would want to know is serving and protecting. Even if he didn't seem to have a personal life.To live and work in Hawaii, it doesn't get better.
ddn32
Geographically and historically speaking, Hawaii Five 0 was very lucky. Aired from 1968 to 1980, anti colonialism, revolutions, student uprisings, racial issues, Asian communism and many other current events made compelling topics. Hawaii Five 0, with its stoic leader, McGarrett, tackled all these issues with fairness. Mc Garrett, despite his fierce devotion to law and order, was no old school ideologue. His political convictions were kept to himself; he loathed extremism on both sides of the political spectrum. Although a bit sexist, he had a multicultural team that must have been quite alien to audiences used to lily- white police shows. This show, although almost forty years old, is still highly watchable. The first six seasons are worth hunting down.
r13370_99
It is hard to believe that years after the development of the DVD, that this great series has not been released on this format. Personally, I think Five-0 was one of the best ensemble shows of all-time. Steve McGarrett was a larger-than-life (and too good to be true) character that you could root for in all occasions. The remainder of the team was cast with varying results, with both James McArther as Danno, and Kam Fong as Chin Ho Kelly being excellent in their roles. Even the mediocre Zulu as Kono would share the occasional "Hey brot'r". I personally feel that the long-time nemesis Wo Fat, played to the hilt by Khigh Dhiegh, is one of the best bad guys of all time TV. The running clash between McGarrett and Wo Fat always made Steve's life interesting. My favorite episode is the light and comical, "Over Fifty? Steal!" starring Hume Cronyn as Lewis Filer. Also exceptional was the 3 episode block, "V for Vashon" starring Harold Gould. This is one TV series that I will definitely be purchasing if it is ever available in the DVD format. For my money, I place my Top 3 all-time TV series as: 1) X-Files; 2) Hawaii Five-0; and 3) The Dick Van Dyke Show. The other two are available; hopefully the folks holding the current rights to Five-0 will realize there is a huge pool of people ready to spend their hard-earned $$ once available. Thanks for reading, I hope this was beneficial to you.