McGarrett returns
POSTED: Thursday, April 23, 2009
The sixth season of the classic cop action-drama “;Hawaii Five-O”; was released Tuesday.
'HAWAII FIVE-O: THE SIXTH SEASON'
(six-disc box set, Paramount Home Video, $49.99 retail price)
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The DVD box set contains 24 episodes that originally aired on CBS from September 1973 through February of '74.
(As with the previous sets for seasons 2 through 5, the only extra features included are episodic promos.)
Season 6 kicks off with one of the series' more memorable episodes, “;Hookman,”; with Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) doing battle with real-life armless detective Jay J. Armes (playing villainous cop killer Curt Stoner), who uses hooks for hands.
(Trivia note: Morton Stevens, who composed the famous theme for the series' title montage, won an Emmy award for his score for this episode.)
Other episode highlights include:
» “;One Big Happy Family”;: Only in the 1970s would you get an episode about a white-trash family of serial robbers/killers who come to the islands after stealing $40,000 and murdering, oh, say, 125 people on the mainland.
With location shooting including Maui and the Big Island, the episode features over-the-top guest acting led by veteran character actors Bo Hopkins and Slim Pickens.
It's no surprise that racial bigotry runs rampant in the family—during lunch at their hotel, the clan's matriarch (played by Barbara Baxley) comments about a nearby couple that “;She's eatin' with an Oriental—that white woman—got no shame at all!”;
She then tells Hopkins that “;next place we get to, I want you to make sure first it's for white folks only!”;
» “;Tricks Are Not Treats”;: McGarrett tries to keep the peace between the pimps and a mob boss, who is forcing them to pay more expensive “;commissions”; to allow them to ply their trade in Honolulu.
Mike Quigley
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Veteran character actors Glynn Turman and Gregory Sierra lead the guest cast, along with Ron Glass (one year removed from being a cast member on the long-running cop comedy “;Barney Miller”;) as a pimp who gets shot in the head at the beginning of the show; Pat Morita as the bar owner of the pimps' hangout; and Moe Keale, who would later have a recurring role as Truck Kealoha during the 1979-80 season.
» “;Death with Father”;: Jack Lord himself occupies the director's chair for an episode about warring drug lords. Veteran TV actors Peter Strauss and Andrew Duggan guest star.
» “;Nightmare in Blue”;: Regular contributing composer Don B. Ray offers up an appropriately dissonant score to this episode about a creepy rapist cop, played by John Beck. Once discovered, McGarrett asks “;the youngest and prettiest”; policewoman on the force to act as bait.
Other mainland guest actors longtime TV viewers might recognize while watching the Season 6 episodes include Nehemiah Persoff, Don Porter, Lawrence Pressman, Lew Ayres, Jack Carter, Perry King, Nicholas Hammond, Ed Flanders, Mark Lenard, Casey Kasem, Keene Curtis, John Byner, William Devane, Gail Strickland, David Wayne and a pre-”;Laverne and Shirley”; Cindy Williams.
And keep an eye out for appearances by local personalities Nephi Hannemann, Bill Bigelow, Fred Ball (better known as TV personality Professor Fun from the “;Checkers and Pogo”; afternoon kids' show), Doug Mossman, Lynne Kimoto, Bob Basso, Kimo Kahoano, Linda Ryan, Robert (aka Lucky) Luck, Danny Kamekona, Les Keiter, David “;Lippy”; Espinda, Eddie Sherman and Jimmy Borges in bit parts.