Hawaii police d'état

To me this is still one of the all time great cop shows. The thing I think made it so special was its irony. The fact that you it was set in probably the most beautiful of settings, yet it had all the crime of cities like Los Angeles and New York made it Honolulu seem just like any other major American city which is just what Honolulu is. Also, the fact that the native Hawaiians in the cast were not stereotyped made it a great show.

Jack Lord was perfectly cast as McGarrett and pretty much was the embodiment of the character with his tough and almost unemotional demeanor and James McCarthur was great as Danny. Of course, who could ever forget what Kam Fong brought to the show as Chin Ho. This definitely was a classic.

Th e1970's was often called the age of tv cop shows. You had shows like, Police Story, Cannon, Columbo, Toma, Baretta, The Streets Of San Francisco and Joe Forrester. However, Hawaii Five O was the grandaddy of them all. This show ran longer then any other police show in tv history, from 1968 to 1980, we all watched Steve McGarret unmask the villian and solve the mystery (oh and also to bark "Book 'em Danno" at the end of every episode. I am going to tell you something about Jack Lord that is not generally well known, I learned this from one of Paul Harvey's "The Rest Of The Stories". Although his role as the hard hitting cop would suggest he was anything but sensitive, Jack Lord was really a very different man in real life. He was an artist and a very sucessful one as well and it wasn't because he was a tv star. Five of his paintings are in the famous Metropolitan Musuem of Art in New York City. People have paid fortunes for them! As a student Lord won numerous awards for his art and people have paid fortunes for even his simplist watercolors. Lord often quoted Sean O'Casey and said "Let us find a way to spin joy into every moment of tomorrow's day". As Steve McGarret Lord was almost like a modern day knight. All the tv cop shows since in a way owe their sucess to him. He set a standard that will never be equalled.

Can't believe I am the first one to put in some comments on this show! Great show! Loved the cast, the action, the scenery, one of my biggest childhood TV memories is watching the big wave curl over the name of the show. (McGarrett always looked like Elvis, by the way, didn't he? They were pals, if you didn't know..) I felt bad when Jack Lord died a couple years ago, he was much older than I would have guessed...77 was it?

Anyways, one of the better, more durable shows of the era, kind of think of Kojak or Cannon whenever this comes to mind; I hope to see it in reruns again sometime.

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.

This show lasted for many seasons because of the talents of Jack Lord and great writing, but I think it helped that it was on CBS as well. CBS always seemed to stand behind it's shows longer, even after ratings begin to drop. Perhaps my memory is wrong, but didn't the show end because Jack Lord wanted it to instead of it being cancelled? There are many memorable episodes of course, but the one that always stands out in my mind was the episode with singer Nancy Wilson as the heroin addicted performer. I thought she did a great job! Hopefully the show will come out in a DVD set. I hope the show will always be in reruns somewhere at least!