418 replies to this topic

[Brian Flagg]

This is the exact breakdown of contributors to this thread.

I must admit that while I have not posted in here for a while (for the reason detailed above) I still come in every time there's a new post. Which suggests that my defenses might be breaking down and I just might buy a few more boxsets.

Neat trick. I'll bet the M:I thread has similar stats! I guess we old folks are just in the way of progress.

[Brian Flagg]

Just a reminder that Five-O season six is due out in the U.S. next tuesday, April 21st and that Amazon has the first five season sets on sale: Three, four, and five at $26.99 and one and two at $20.99. A good time to catch up, if you haven't already.

Edited by Brian Flagg, 14 April 2009 - 01:12 PM.

[Brian Flagg]

A brief review of the sixth season DVDs.

[Blofeld's Cat]

MODERATORS NOTE: Topic title updated.

[Brian Flagg]

Sixth Season---Out Today!

[Blofeld's Cat]

You seem eager.

[Brian Flagg]

You seem eager.

I do? I've been trying to play it down, like I'm indifferent to the show---like 99% of CBn...

[TheSaint]

Normally I would wait for a cheaper version of the set to appear on Amazon Marketplace, especially in my currently unemployed state but I have been chomping at the bit for this so I picked it up at Best Buy for $34.99 plus tax.

[Brian Flagg]

Normally I would wait for a cheaper version of the set to appear on Amazon Marketplace, especially in my currently unemployed state but I have been chomping at the bit for this so I picked it up at Best Buy for $34.99 plus tax.

Oooooh, you're that TheSaint!!! See you over at FSM, pal!

[Brian Flagg]

HOOKMAN was impressive on every level and seemed more like a high-quality TV movie than a regular episode. Reminded me of the pilot movie, Cocoon. Morton Stevens' score is fantastic and the Curt Stoner character is menacing, even without much dialogue. And that 1970s urban blight was in full flower, with that rotting tenement building that looked like it was about to collapse. I forget, having watched so many studio-bound, 1960s shows how Five-O opened things up and used its locale as a studio in its own right.

A great beginning to the sixth season.

Edited by Brian Flagg, 30 April 2009 - 12:14 AM.

[TheSaint]

Oooooh, you're that TheSaint!!! See you over at FSM, pal!

Yup-that's me, Brian/Jim. Easier to use the same screen name on different boards, unless someone else beats you to it.

[Napoleon Solo]

I haven't gotten the season 6 set yet (my birthday is coming up soon and I'm hoping to get it as a present). One note: Season 6 won an Emmy for Morton Stevens's outstanding score for "Hookman."

[Brian Flagg]

"Draw me a Killer" is still eerie after all these years, given the subsequent psycho stalkings of Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley, Jr.; Actor Elliot Street even resembles the two real-life killers! He essentially plays the same type of character he did in S3's "The Grandstand Play", only this time he's a psychopath.

The show is still quite strong, though the cinematography and color isn't as vivid as in past seasons; looks like 1970s (this season is 1973-74) realism is kicking in. There's lots of gritty action and plenty of urban blight, which is typical of the first half of the seventies. The sixth season is a highlight for the musical undersore, though. Composers Morton Stevens and Richard Shores are delivering top-notch efforts.

[Brian Flagg]

The music in the show continues to get better, as if that were possible. Amazing compositions by the Five-O "stable", to use a term from "Tricks are Not Treats"!

"The $100,000 Nickel" was an entertaining episode, complete with waka-jiwaka score by Bruce Broughton, reminding us that the show is well into the 1970s.

Victor Buono was a welcome guest star. If Five-O had debuted in say, 1965, he would have been cast as Wo Fat!

Don B. Ray scores wall-to-wall action in "The Flip Side is Death." It's...funktastic!

The last few episodes have been quite good, with the Five-O team working together and replicating the feeling from those earlier-season shows.

[Napoleon Solo]

And Morton Stevens won an Emmy (I think) for "Hookman."

The music in the show continues to get better, as if that were possible. Amazing compositions by the Five-O "stable", to use a term from "Tricks are Not Treats"!

"The $100,000 Nickel" was an entertaining episode, complete with waka-jiwaka score by Bruce Broughton, reminding us that the show is well into the 1970s.

Victor Buono was a welcome guest star. If Five-O had debuted in say, 1965, he would have been cast as Wo Fat!

Don B. Ray scores wall-to-wall action in "The Flip Side is Death." It's...funktastic!

The last few episodes have been quite good, with the Five-O team working together and replicating the feeling from those earlier-season shows.

[Brian Flagg]

Yes, Steven won an Emmy for Hookman and my favorite episode so far, A Thousand Pardons, You're Dead!

Some thoughts on the sixth season, as I've started on the last disc.


Lots of downbeat endings to episodes this time around, though Five-O had dark material from the very start and was never the typical cops and robbers program the oft-repeated "Book 'em, Danno" phrase would lead us to believe. The show covered many issues, from bubonic plague (several times), Cold War maneuvering, contemporary issues, as well as seemingly far-fetched topics that turned out to be ahead of their time.

In season six, it's 1973-74 and there's a cynicism stemming from Vietnam and Watergate with so-called "top men" turning out to be seriously unreliable: The scientist in Anyone Can Build a Bomb, the forgery expert in "The Finishing Touch", the treasury agent in Murder is a Taxing Afffair, the "wash-out" cop in Nightmare in Blue, and the thirty-year police veteran in Death with Father. In fact, "Death with Father" is a highly-disturbing episode, but still among the best that season. Seems like Five-O had an abundance of downbeat endings (remember S3's "Trouble in Mind" and "To Kill or be Killed"?)

Something else I've noticed, which began in the fifth season, is the use of darker cinematography. Notice the shadows on walls, even in McGarrett's office, as if everything was framed in darkness. This may have been due more to current trends in "realist" photography, but its in nearly every episode going back to the fifth year. The show's colors are muted in comparison to those earlier seasons. This begins around the fourth season.

[Napoleon Solo]

I remember watching "Death With Father" on its original network showing. I was absolutely stunned. I haven't gotten the sixth season set yet (I have a birthday coming up and have asked for it as a present). But if I remember correctly, it was written by Anthony Lawrence, who seemed to specialize in non-happy endings in his Five-O scripts (Three Dead Cows at Makapuu in season 2 also comes to mind).

The Bob Sweeney-William Finnegan era (seasons four through seven) was the most stable from a producer perspective except for the very big caveat of Leonard Freeman's death following the end of Season 6's production. The Sweeney-Finnegan regime leaned heavily on scripts by Jerome Coopersmith, who had done a few scripts prior but who really did a lot starting with season four, and Alvin Saplinsley.

Another major highlight of season six is Sapinsley's "One Big Happy Family," another story that stunned me when I saw its original network airing.

Edited by Napoleon Solo, 10 May 2009 - 10:58 PM.

[Brian Flagg]

Finished off the sixth season of Five-O today and I've compiled my top ten list, always subject to change:

10) One Big Happy Family
9) Mother's Deadly Helper
8) Tricks are Not Treats
7) The Flip Side is Death
6) The $100,000 Nickel
5) Murder is a Taxing Affair
4) Draw me a Killer
3) Death with Father
2) Secret Witness
1) Hookman

[Napoleon Solo]

Finished off the sixth season of Five-O today and I've compiled my top ten list, always subject to change:

10) One Big Happy Family
9) Mother's Deadly Helper
8) Tricks are Not Treats
7) The Flip Side is Death
6) The $100,000 Nickel
5) Murder is a Taxing Affair
4) Draw me a Killer
3) Death with Father
2) Secret Witness
1) Hookman

This is a good list, hard to argue with. I still get the creeps from "One Big Happy Family."

[Brian Flagg]

Thanks. I would have included "Nightmare in Blue", but it's such a dark, disturbing episode! "Fight me! Don't scream, just fight me!"

That's some seriously twisted stuff for 1973-74 TV.

[Brian Flagg]

Morton Stevens composed an absolutely brilliant score for "Death With Father"! Check out that trombone version of the Five-O theme about eight minutes in when McGarrett is driving over to see Cliff Morgan (Andrew Duggan), also put your ear out for that fantastic piano cue when Duggan is stealing the drugs out of the HPD property room.

"Come on, you're coming with me."

"No, pop; you're coming with me."

Chilling.

[Brian Flagg]

Amazon.com has the first two seasons of Hawaii Five-O on sale for $20.99 and seasons three and four for @21.49.

[Brian Flagg]

Five-O's sixth season is on sale at Amazon for $26.49. Hey Napoleon Solo---tell the wife and kids!

[Brian Flagg]

The "subject to change" factor has just kicked in:

3) Hookman
2) Secret Witness
1) Death With Father

I've just been thinking about how powerful that episode is, with a great Andrew Duggan performance, and the young Peter Strauss showing the fine actor he would become...oh, and Jack Lord is supreme, as usual...


Looks like this thread is becoming my own personal Five-O diary! Oh well, at least it's on topic!

[Napoleon Solo]

The "subject to change" factor has just kicked in:

3) Hookman
2) Secret Witness
1) Death With Father

I've just been thinking about how powerful that episode is, with a great Andrew Duggan performance, and the young Peter Strauss showing the fine actor he would become...oh, and Jack Lord is supreme, as usual...


Looks like this thread is becoming my own personal Five-O diary! Oh well, at least it's on topic!

I've been watching episodes since I got the set as a present last week. Secret Witness was one I didn't remember and I definitely got caught up with it.

Also, on Death With Father, I liked how at the opening of the episode, Stevens amps up the music every time one of the credits appears. I remember being serious weirded out when that episode aired on its original network run with the ending.

Unfortunately, Leonard Freeman didn't live to see Death With Father aired. He passed away two days before.

And a similarly sad note, I just stumbled across how William Finnegan, a producer of Five-O for seasons four through seven, passed away late last year at age 80.

UPDATE: Here's Finnegan's Variety obituary. He had quite a post-Five-O career

http://www.variety.c...6...yId=25&cs=1

Edited by Napoleon Solo, 07 June 2009 - 06:52 PM.

[Napoleon Solo]

A few behind-the-scenes Five-O stories by Eddie Sherman, including how Leonard Freeman nearly fired Jack Lord, how Zulu lost his job and Jack Lord yelling at Bill Finnegan to "get off my island!":

http://www.oahuislan...-eddie-sherman/

[Brian Flagg]

Wow! Faascinating reading!

[TheSaint]

I remember being serious weirded out when that episode aired on its original network run with the ending.

I can't get that ending out of my head. That guy must've really hated his father to take him with him, so to speak. Did he fear jail so much that death was preferable? How much time would he have had to serve? Hawaii didn't exactly have the Rockefeller laws regarding drugs that NY has.

One of the 5-0 fan sites has info that Season 7 will come out in October. As I have 4 episodes left to watch I'm hoping the release date is sooner.

[Napoleon Solo]

I remember being serious weirded out when that episode aired on its original network run with the ending.

I can't get that ending out of my head. That guy must've really hated his father to take him with him, so to speak. Did he fear jail so much that death was preferable? How much time would he have had to serve? Hawaii didn't exactly have the Rockefeller laws regarding drugs that NY has.

One of the 5-0 fan sites has info that Season 7 will come out in October. As I have 4 episodes left to watch I'm hoping the release date is sooner.

Also, did the father have some kind of death wish himself? Did he not smell the gas when his son started releasing the gas?

I don't know the answers but the questions arise from the disturbing ending.

Also, writer Anthony Lawrence seems to have specialized in unhappy endings. Besides Death With Father, he did Three Dead Cows at Makapuu back in season 2, which had an unhappy conclusion. And he did another episode (I forget which season) where a military man (John Anderson) has a final rupture with his young son.

[Brian Flagg]

I don't know the answers but the questions arise from the disturbing ending.

Also, writer Anthony Lawrence seems to have specialized in unhappy endings. Besides Death With Father, he did Three Dead Cows at Makapuu back in season 2, which had an unhappy conclusion. And he did another episode (I forget which season) where a military man (John Anderson) has a final rupture with his young son.

That would be S3's "To Kill or Be Killed", which has some powerhouse ensemble acting in that final scene, as well as some brilliant editing/direction.

I love the chilling use of silence in that final scene of "Death With Father." Jack Lord's directorial debut was quite effective.