Distributor: Universal
Home Entertainment Certificate: Not Rated |
Region 1 | NTSC | 18 hours and 33 minutes Audio: 2:0
Available to Buy Extras: Yes
ANYONE
IN IT WE KNOW?
Tom
Selleck, John Hillerman, Roger E. Mosley, Larry Manetti and the voice of
Orson Welles
WHAT’S
IT ABOUT THEN?
Ex
Vietnam Veteran Thomas Magnum
tackles his cases as a private
investigator in idyllic Hawaii. Magnum was also responsible for looking after the luxury
estate of the never seen Robin
Masters, working in conjunction
with Master's fastidious British
butler Higgins. The series was
initially pitched to the
networks in 1979 and was then
set in the hyper rich LA suburbs
of Bel-Air, sometime later CBS
gave the go ahead but with
changes; the crucial one being
the change of location to Hawaii
.
SO
IS IT ANY GOOD?
Fantastic!!
The man with the mo is back. Universal bring us all 18 episodes of
season one in a nicely packaged digipak set, even throwing in a bonus
disc of fun episodes into the bargain. Magnum, which ran for 8 years
from 1980 to 1988, was one of the most popular shows on the box back in
the day with Selleck the cool Hawaiian bound private eye, driving the
supercool Red Ferrari. Starting with the feature length opener
“Don’t Eat The Snow in
Hawaii
”the premise was quickly
set, Thomas Magnum a sometimes troubled ex-Vietnam vet tackled his cases
with a nice mix of self deprecating humour and action. Often helping
Magnum we have helicopter pilots Theodore “TC” Calvin (Roger E.
Mosley) and bar owner Orville “Rick” Wright (Larry Manetti) (both of
whom had been fellow vet’s with Magnum) and of course the gorgeous
Hawaiian locations add to the sunny feel of the show.
Magnum
is of course your typical crime of the week show but also more than
that, there is genuine character development through the course of the
show and situations that may have occurred in previous episodes would
often have an impact in future episodes. This goes a long to keeping
your involvement level with the show high and also means the show
doesn’t play down to it’s audience. It’s great to see more and
more classic TV getting a release and Magnum is a must have. Roll on
season two.
ANY
SPECIAL FEATURES?
No
extras as such but the fourth disc should be classed as an extra disc
containing as it does the rarely seen Magnum-Simon & Simon crossover
story, this featured Ki’l’s Don’t Lie from Season Three episode
three of Magnum followed up by the second season opener from Simon and
Simon Emerald’s Are Not A Girls Best Friend, a great idea and very
entertaining, also included on this disc is the two part episode Echoes
of the Mind the opener from season five of Magnum, included because
Sharon Stone is the main guest star. Well worth a look.
