52 Fun Facts About Magnum, P.I.

On which network did the original Magnum, P.I. air from 1980 to 1988?

CBS. The network kept Magnum, P.I. on Thursday nights for most of its run, and thirty years after the finale it revived the title with a reboot that premiered in 2018.

What is the name of the Oahu estate where Magnum lives in the guest house?

Robin's Nest is the beachfront Oahu estate of novelist Robin Masters; Magnum lives in its guest house in return for handling the estate's security.

Which model of Ferrari does Magnum drive around the island?

308 GTS. The red Ferrari belongs to his employer, not to Magnum, and the production swapped in newer GTSi and Quattrovalvole versions; cars from the show were later auctioned off.

What are the names of Higgins's two Doberman guard dogs, 'the lads'?

Zeus and Apollo are Higgins's two Doberman Pinschers, 'the lads', who chase Magnum across the grounds and returned for the 2018 reboot.

Which baseball team's cap does Magnum usually wear?

Detroit Tigers. The cap was no accident: Tom Selleck was born in Detroit, and in 1991 the Tigers sent him up to pinch-hit in a spring training game, where he struck out.

Who provided the voice of the unseen novelist Robin Masters?

Orson Welles. He voiced the never-seen author in a handful of episodes, and in the finale Higgins tells Magnum that he is Robin Masters himself, only to say later that he lied.

What is the name of T.C.'s helicopter charter and tour business?

T.C. owns Island Hoppers, a helicopter charter and tour service flying a striped Hughes 500D; Magnum constantly commandeers the chopper and never pays for fuel.

Magnum's friend Rick Wright refuses to go by which given first name?

Orville. The name makes him a namesake of aviation pioneer Orville Wright, and the show put it in the title of a late episode in which Rick is arrested and confesses to a killing.

On Magnum, P.I., Rick manages which exclusive members-only beachfront spot?

King Kamehameha Club. Rick lands there after the nightclub he owns in the pilot is dropped from the show, and he answers to a board that includes Higgins.

In the pilot, Rick's bar was modeled on the cafe from which classic film?

In the pilot Rick, a Humphrey Bogart devotee, ran a bar copied from the cafe in Casablanca and dressed in 1930s style; the conceit was dropped once the series proper began.

Who composed the up-tempo Magnum, P.I. theme that replaced a jazzier original during the first season?

Mike Post and Pete Carpenter. Their theme, with Larry Carlton on guitar, took over from Ian Freebairn-Smith's jazzier original, which was later cut from the syndicated reruns altogether.

After Magnum, Tom Selleck spent 14 seasons as New York police commissioner Frank Reagan on which drama?

Blue Bloods. When the Magnum reboot arrived in 2018 its makers asked Selleck to appear, and he turned them down flat, saying he was busy with Blue Bloods.

Magnum star Tom Selleck led which 1987 film, that year's top-grossing US release?

Three Men and a Baby. A rumor later spread that a ghost boy stands at a window in one scene, but the figure is a cardboard cutout of co-star Ted Danson left on the set.

Higgins actor John Hillerman played Howard Johnson in which Mel Brooks comedy?

Blazing Saddles. Hillerman was American, yet his Higgins, which won him a 1987 Emmy, so convinced English viewers that they wrote to him as one of their own.

Tom Selleck's Magnum, P.I. contract famously cost him which film role?

Indiana Jones. Selleck won the part but his Magnum contract kept him from taking it; a Hollywood strike then stalled the series for months, long enough for him to have shot Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Which mystery series staged a two-part crossover with Magnum in November 1986?

Murder, She Wrote. The story began in Magnum's 'Novel Connection' and finished on Jessica Fletcher's own show, where Magnum is arrested for murder and she has to clear him.

The Magnum, P.I. episode 'Ki'is Don't Lie', about a cursed Hawaiian artifact, concluded on which detective series?

Simon & Simon, starring Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker as San Diego private eyes, finished the story; the 1982 crossover helped turn the struggling show into a hit in the slot after Magnum.

In 1982–83, its best Nielsen season, Magnum, P.I. finished just behind 60 Minutes and which prime-time soap?

Dallas. Only 60 Minutes and the Ewing saga out-rated Magnum that season; it was the peak, and within four years a slide in its numbers had the network moving the show to a new night.

What is the title of the Magnum, P.I. series finale, first shown in May 1988?

'Resolutions', the two-hour finale aired on May 1, 1988, sees Magnum rejoin the Navy and reunite with his young daughter before the final fade-out.

Each year Magnum, whose Navy-pilot father died in the Korean War, spends which holiday alone at sea?

Fourth of July. One year the ritual nearly kills him: a reckless boater capsizes his surf ski, and he treads water for hours, kept going by memories of his parents.

In the original series, which branch of the Navy did Magnum serve in as an officer?

Naval Intelligence. Magnum, also a former Navy SEAL, resigned in disillusionment in 1979 to become a private eye, yet the series finale ends with him going back to the Navy.

Which Magnum, P.I. co-creator went on to create Quantum Leap, JAG and NCIS?

Donald P. Bellisario. He had served four years in the Marines, and his heroes followed suit: Magnum, JAG's Harm Rabb and NCIS's Gibbs are all Navy or Marine veterans.

In season seven Magnum moved from Thursday to Wednesday to escape which sitcom's ratings juggernaut?

The Cosby Show. With Magnum stumbling against it, Tom Selleck stepped in as a producer and the network moved his series to a new night.

Which legendary singer made his last major acting appearance in the Magnum, P.I. episode 'Laura'?

Frank Sinatra. He played retired New York policeman Michael Doheny, who comes to Hawaii to hunt the men who killed his granddaughter and draws Magnum into the search.

Which future star played a client with a split personality in Magnum, P.I.'s two-parter 'Echoes of the Mind'?

Sharon Stone. Years before Basic Instinct she played Diane Dupres, who hires Magnum because she fears her twin sister; the menacing twin turns out to be Diane's own second personality.

Which comedy legend played Susan Johnson, a client who ended up locked in a bank vault with Magnum?

Carol Burnett. Her bank teller Susan Johnson accidentally locks herself in a time-release vault with Magnum, then returns in the final season as a private eye working the other side of his case.

Magnum's treasured wristwatch, inherited from his father, is what brand?

Rolex. The GMT-Master belonged to his father, a Navy pilot killed in the Korean War when Magnum was five, which is why he counts it as his most prized possession.

Which recurring Magnum, P.I. character is killed by a car bomb meant for Magnum at the start of season three?

Lt. Mac MacReynolds. Actor Jeff MacKay returned all the same, both as Mac's ghost and as Jim Bonnick, a con man who is Mac's double.

What is the name of the daughter Magnum had with his wife Michelle?

Lily. Michelle leaves the girl in Magnum's care without telling him she is his daughter, and by the finale he has returned to the Navy and become her full-time father.

On Magnum, P.I., what is Jonathan Higgins's middle name?

Quayle. Jonathan Quayle Higgins III is grander than his job suggests: the estate's majordomo is the second son of a Scottish duke and holds a Cambridge doctorate in mathematics.

John Hillerman played the very English Higgins, but in which US state was he actually born and raised?

Texas. Hillerman was born in Denison and Higgins's accent was pure performance; before Magnum he had played a pompous radio sleuth on Ellery Queen, and when he retired he moved back to his home state.

Before Magnum, Roger E. Mosley starred as which blues musician in a 1976 Gordon Parks biopic?

Lead Belly. Mosley played Huddie Ledbetter in Leadbelly; once cast as T.C. he refused to let the character smoke or drink, saying that was not what he wanted Black children to see.

Magnum's red parrot-print Hawaiian shirt and his team ring are now in the collection of which institution?

The Smithsonian. Its National Museum of American History keeps the shirt, the ring and two of his caps from a series it credits with showing Vietnam veterans thriving after the war.

Before Magnum, Selleck had a recurring role as the naive private eye Lance White on which series?

The Rockford Files. Selleck's Lance White is so lucky and so admired that he drives Jim Rockford to distraction in two episodes, and Selleck came to regard James Garner as a mentor.

What is on the Ferrari's vanity license plate?

The Ferrari's Hawaii plate reads ROBIN 1, marking it as Robin Masters's property; the estate's other vehicles carried the numbers that followed.

Who plays Thomas Magnum in the reboot that premiered in 2018?

Jay Hernandez. His Magnum is updated for a new era: the Vietnam veteran of the original becomes a Navy SEAL home from Afghanistan, where he was held as a prisoner of war.

Who plays Juliet Higgins, the gender-swapped version of the character, in the reboot?

Perdita Weeks. Her Higgins spars with Magnum just as the original did, but the reboot plays it as a slow-burn romance, and the two are a couple by the final season.

In the reboot, Juliet Higgins is a former agent of which intelligence service?

MI6. Juliet was disavowed by the service before she became majordomo of the estate, and in the second season she signs on as Magnum's partner in his detective work.

The reboot swapped Magnum's classic Ferrari for which newer model?

488 Spider. The pilot pays its respects first: when the new car is damaged Magnum takes out a vintage Ferrari like the original's, and wrecks that one too in a chase.

After its original network cancelled it in 2022, which network picked up the Magnum P.I. reboot for a fifth and final season?

NBC. When the reboot's first network dropped it, co-producer Universal Television went looking for a new home and landed it at its own sister network, with an order for 20 more episodes.

Which Fast & Furious director made the Magnum P.I. reboot's pilot episode?

Justin Lin. He stayed on as an executive producer for the whole run, and his pilot opens big: two of the estate's Ferraris are smashed up before the hour is over.

In January 2020 the Magnum P.I. reboot staged a two-part crossover with which series?

Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum, both run by Peter Lenkov, share a universe; the crossover aired on January 3, 2020, and the 1980s Magnum had inherited the original Five-O's Honolulu production facilities.

In season two of the reboot, why does Magnum propose marriage to Higgins?

To fix her expiring visa. Higgins agrees to the green-card wedding and the preparations begin, but she backs out, telling Magnum she cannot go through with a sham marriage to anyone.

Roger E. Mosley, the original T.C., returned to play what character on the Magnum P.I. reboot?

T.C.'s barber. Mosley played Booky, a Vietnam veteran who cuts the new T.C.'s hair and dispenses advice; Larry Manetti also guested, at the piano as Nicky DeMarco, while Tom Selleck declined to appear.

What is the title of the Magnum P.I. reboot's 2018 premiere episode?

'I Saw the Sun Rise', the pilot aired on September 24, 2018, echoes the original's 'Did You See the Sunrise?' and opens with the death of Magnum's SEAL teammate Sebastian Nuzo.

What do the initials of Magnum's helicopter-pilot friend T.C. stand for?

Theodore Calvin. Roger E. Mosley really was a licensed helicopter pilot, yet the show never let him do T.C.'s stunt flying: professional pilots took the controls.

What is the nickname of Francis Hofstetler, the Chicago loan shark who is a father figure to Rick?

Icepick. Elisha Cook Jr., the gunsel Wilmer in The Maltese Falcon, played the old gangster, and when a hitman sent to kill him turns up dead, Rick takes the blame with a full confession.

What happened in 2018 to the Waimanalo estate that served as Magnum's home on screen?

It was demolished. The 1933 house was razed by Marty Nesbitt, a close friend of Barack Obama who had bought the estate three years earlier, and it came down without any historic review.

Before he ran the estate, Magnum's sparring partner Higgins reached which rank in the British Army?

Sergeant major. Higgins was expelled from Sandhurst after being blamed for a prank that injured a cadet, so he never became an officer and enlisted in the ranks instead.

Which Honolulu police lieutenant on Magnum, P.I. is known for his casual dress and ironic humor?

Yoshi Tanaka. Kwan Hi Lim's detective lasts until the final season, when he is murdered during an undercover drug deal and Magnum sets out to find the killer and clear his name.

What does Pahonu, the Hawaiian name of the real estate that played Magnum's home, mean?

Pahonu means 'turtle enclosure': pā is a wall or pen and honu a sea turtle, after the ancient stone-walled turtle pond on the shoreline in front of the Waimanalo estate.

The squadron cap Magnum often wears honors Rick and T.C.'s Marine unit, based in which Vietnamese city?

Da Nang. VMO-2 was a real Marine squadron based around the city, and on the show its veterans Rick and T.C. fought beside Navy SEAL Magnum in a joint team whose ring all three still wear.