Thursday, March 08, 2007

McGarrett vs. Hippies

The first season of Hawaii 5-0 came out this week. This show is not really my thing, but the DVD set is very well done: good quality prints and transfers, and, as a bonus feature, a long making-of documentary originally made for Hawaiian TV.

The impression I get from watching Hawaii 5-0 is that CBS is airing very similar shows today; the network hasn't changed much. It's a Dad type of show, where a stern and grim hero battles against all the annoying people in the world. Like CSI, it's very violent -- the first season has plenty of blood and beatings, people expiring in extreme close-up, that sort of thing. And while it has lots of violence, it has very little sex; it doesn't even have many women in bikinis (unlike the show that took over its Hawaii crew, Magnum P.I.). It's a show for people who want to see justice done as brutally and efficiently as possible. That's not my kind of show, as I said, but it's a decent example of the type.

Here's a scene of McGarrett (Jack Lord) telling off a bunch of hippies and thereby competing with Joe Friday (from the Dragnet revival) for '60s TV's greatest hippie-teller-offer.



2 comments:

Brent McKee said...

Arguably the greatest theme music in the history of TV. Where else would you encounter a character named Chin Ho Kelly or a credit that read "Zulu as Kona."

Unknown said...

BTW,that's Jessica Walter form "Arrested Development" playing Carla in that clip from the 7th season in 1974. Odd that McGarret was still scolding hippies in the Ford Adminstration.