Island tourism officials were torn. A new television program promised to showcase Hawaii, but it was a police drama.

Plot lines involving murder, mayhem and villainous characters could spoil the idyllic image of white sandy beaches and swaying coconut trees they were selling.

As it happened, the show was a boon for tourism and now that “;Hawaii Five-0”; is in a network's lineup once again, the industry is stoked, hoping for a rerun of visitor swells as big as the Banzai Pipeline in the show's opening sequence.

It was in 1968 that “;Five-0”; debuted. Though Hawaii was already on the tourism map, it was more of a pinpoint, a far-horizon destination.

The show's mixture of real-world scenery and fictional crime proved intoxicating. Hawaii's atmosphere—sapphire seas under bright skies, green forested hills, sugar and pineapple stretching across red-dirt fields, rugged untouched shorelines and plantation cottage neighborhoods reflecting life at a slower pace—was enticing.

Then there was Steve McGarrett. Even with the understanding that the protagonist was just actor Jack Lord in all his square-jawed glory, the character affirmed to viewers on the continent that exotic landscape, cultures and population aside, the islands were truly America.

What “;Five-0”; will offer viewers 42 years later isn't apparent.

Hawaii is a well-known, if not wearied, travel venue. Though still attractive, the dwindling number of travelers with deep pockets have already been here and bought and sold the vacation condos, leaving Hawaii to a less-affluent crowd that burdens natural and fiscal resources nonetheless. While Kauai, Molokai and Hawaii island retain pieces of paradise, most of Maui and nearly all of Oahu have seen substantial growth cut into their allure.

It would be interesting to compare scenes from “;Five-0”; then to what exists now. Waikiki would be a startling contrast. So would the once-clear Ewa Plain and Central Oahu that have been transformed into thick suburbs of muchness.

For locals, the good-fun part about watching the old “;Five-0”; was seeing McGarrett and Danno make impossible geographic leaps, like speeding down Kalanianaole near the Blow Hole and minutes later, jumping out of the car at Kaena Point. Traffic was less congested then, but even so they would have to be beamed up to travel that quickly. The new show would also require major suspensions of belief should Steve drive the H-1 from the Punahou onramp to the airport viaduct in less than an hour on non-furlough days.

If the new series runs 12 years as the first did, the crime-busters could be riding the rail, at least for three miles or so. And by then, Hawaii—particularly Oahu—will certainly have changed as dramatically as it has during the “;Five-0”; hiatus.

What will the tourism industry want shown off then? Zipline rides from Koko Crater? Fake farms where visitors can pick non-native plants? Re-enactments of “;Lost”; episodes at the sites they were filmed? Or a few remaining pockets of the natural beauty that lured visitors to the islands long ago?

To find out, we'll probably have to be there. Aloha.