Hawaii Five-O
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50 free Hawaii Five-O trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Hawaii Five-O ran on CBS for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980 and made Steve McGarrett one of television's great lawmen. Filmed on location in the islands, it paired tough crime stories with scenery no studio backlot could match, and its theme tune is still recognised around the world. This quiz covers the classic series from every angle: McGarrett and his team, the arch-villain Wo Fat, the actors behind the badges, famous guest stars, landmark episodes and the stories from behind the camera. A few questions follow the show's long afterlife, from chart hits to the 2010 reboot. It is written for fans who watched the original run, viewers who know it from reruns on channels such as MeTV, and quiz hosts who need a ready-made classic TV round. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play straight through or print the set for a group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the Five-O in Hawaii Five-O refer to, a distinction the islands had held for only nine years?
Being the 50th state
Being the 50th state gave the islands' police drama its name, because statehood had come only in 1959. The Five-O unit itself is an invention of the series.
Q 02Which Hawaii Five-O detective's nickname ends Steve McGarrett's famous command to book the arrested suspects?
Danno
Danno is McGarrett's deputy, and the command became the show's catchphrase after its first use in the first-season episode Twenty-Four Karat Kill. Many episodes end with it.
Q 03Which star of the rodeo drama Stoney Burke played Steve McGarrett in all twelve seasons of Hawaii Five-O?
Jack Lord
Jack Lord was cast at the last moment, reading for the part on a Wednesday and standing before the cameras the following Monday. He later became the show's executive producer.
Q 04Wo Fat, the master spy who is Steve McGarrett's nemesis in Hawaii Five-O, is a rogue agent of which country?
China
China is the homeland Wo Fat serves, though the series paints him as a rogue officer. He first appears in the 1968 pilot and was still scheming in the twelfth season.
Q 05Hawaii Five-O was America's longest-running police procedural until which series took the record in 2002?
Law & Order
Law & Order finally outlasted it. Hawaii Five-O had been the first American police procedural to enjoy an uninterrupted run of more than a decade.
Q 06Which detective series was created after Hawaii Five-O ended, to keep its expensive Hawaiian studios in use?
Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I. inherited the studios, and its early episodes refer to Five-O as if both shared one world. Its producers tried to coax the retired McGarrett star into a cameo, but he refused.
Q 07The future star of Hawaii Five-O was reportedly offered which Star Trek role, but asked for half ownership of the show?
Captain Kirk
Captain Kirk went to William Shatner instead, by Shatner's own account, after Gene Roddenberry refused the demand. The actor had been approached to replace Jeffrey Hunter.
Q 08Which actress, known as the First Lady of American Theatre, guest-starred in Hawaii Five-O opposite her own son?
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes played the aunt of her adopted son's character in the 1975 episode Retire in Sunny Hawaii... Forever. Her performance earned the last Emmy nomination the series received.
Q 09In which animated film does a royal trumpeter launch into the Hawaii Five-O theme and get smacked for it?
Shrek 2
Shrek 2 gives the gag to a fanfare trumpeter named Reggie, who plays the opening section of the tune. The scene later became an internet meme.
Q 10Steve McGarrett of Hawaii Five-O is known for wearing what on almost every occasion, an unusual sight in the islands?
Dark suit and tie
Dark suit and tie was McGarrett's uniform, setting him apart from colleagues who often wore aloha shirts. Along with his tousled yet immaculate hair, the look quickly entered popular culture.
Q 11Which Disney star of Swiss Family Robinson played Steve McGarrett's deputy for eleven seasons of Hawaii Five-O?
James MacArthur
James MacArthur left before the twelfth and final season, later admitting he had grown tired of the role. He had quit Harvard years earlier to make Disney adventures such as Kidnapped.
Q 12Which composer, who also scored episodes of Gunsmoke and Police Woman, wrote the Hawaii Five-O theme?
Morton Stevens
Morton Stevens also scored many episodes himself and has a cameo as a victim in the third-season episode Trouble in Mind. He had headed the network's West Coast scoring operation since 1965.
Q 13Which instrumental rock band took a cover of the Hawaii Five-O theme to number four on the Billboard Hot 100?
Q 21The creator of Hawaii Five-O borrowed the name of arch-villain Wo Fat from what kind of business in downtown Honolulu?
A restaurant
A restaurant in downtown Honolulu supplied the name. The local actor who ended up as Chin Ho Kelly had first auditioned for the villain's part.
Q 22What finally becomes of the master spy Wo Fat in Woe to Wo Fat, the last episode of Hawaii Five-O?
He is sent to jail
He is sent to jail at last, after McGarrett poses as a scientist and lets himself be kidnapped to reach him. The 1980 finale closed a feud that had begun in the pilot.
Q 23Which former Honolulu police officer auditioned to play the villain of Hawaii Five-O but was cast as Chin Ho Kelly?
Kam Fong
The Ventures
The Ventures spent 14 weeks on the Hot 100 with it in 1969, although session players from the Wrecking Crew also worked on the recording. It became one of the band's biggest hits.
Q 14Which Honolulu landmark is shown as the Five-O unit's headquarters in the original Hawaii Five-O?
Iolani Palace
Iolani Palace, once home to Hawaii's monarchs, was still the working state capitol when the series began. Exterior shots suggested the unit's offices were inside.
Q 15Steve McGarrett turns to the camera on the penthouse balcony of which Waikiki hotel in the Hawaii Five-O titles?
The Ilikai
The Ilikai was developed by Chinn Ho, whose name the show borrowed for detective Chin Ho Kelly. The 2010 reboot restaged the same balcony shot with its new leading man.
Q 16The opening titles of Hawaii Five-O cut to which image as the theme begins, before zooming in on a hotel balcony?
A big ocean wave
A big ocean wave launches the sequence, which director Reza Badiyi built from quick cuts and frozen stills. TV Guide readers ranked it fourth among television's best title sequences in 2010.
Q 17Most of Hawaii Five-O was filmed on which island, where the production was based at Fort Ruger and later Diamond Head?
Oahu
Oahu hosted nearly all the filming, and only a few episodes ventured as far as Los Angeles or Hong Kong. Heavy location shooting set the show apart from the studio-bound crime dramas of its day.
Q 18Which Australian actor inherited the role of Steve McGarrett when CBS revived Hawaii Five-O in 2010?
Alex O'Loughlin
Alex O'Loughlin played McGarrett for all ten seasons of the reboot, which swapped the title's letter O for a zero. A 2016 episode even paired him with a computer-generated image of his predecessor.
Q 19Which producer, who also produced the Clint Eastwood western Hang 'Em High, created Hawaii Five-O?
Leonard Freeman
Leonard Freeman died of heart trouble during the sixth season, and the show ran six more years without him. He had moved to the islands to recuperate after a heart attack.
Q 20Which actor, the brainwasher Dr. Yen Lo in The Manchurian Candidate, played the arch-villain Wo Fat in Hawaii Five-O?
Khigh Dhiegh
Khigh Dhiegh played Wo Fat from the 1968 pilot to the final episode in 1980. Born Kenneth Dickerson in New Jersey, he was also a Taoist scholar who founded a sanctuary in Hollywood.
Kam Fong had served with the Honolulu police before turning to acting, and CBS asked him to shorten his name from Kam Fong Chun. His son Dennis later played Duke Lukela in the 2010 reboot.
Q 24How does Chin Ho Kelly leave Hawaii Five-O at the end of season ten, an exit the actor himself requested?
Murdered while undercover
Murdered while undercover, Chin Ho dies exposing a protection ring, a fate no departing regular before him had met. An unaired 1997 revival pilot still brought him back.
Q 25Which burly Hawaii Five-O detective, played by the entertainer Zulu, was replaced by Ben Kokua in season five?
Kono Kalakaua
Kono Kalakaua vanished after four seasons when Zulu was fired following disagreements with the show's publicist. The 2010 reboot reinvented the character as a woman, played by Grace Park.
Q 26Which Samoan-born entertainer and former Stanford football player joined Hawaii Five-O as detective Ben Kokua?
Al Harrington
Al Harrington had already appeared in five episodes as other characters before joining the team. He came back in the 2010 reboot as Mamo Kahike.
Q 27Which College Football Hall of Famer, fourth in the 1945 Heisman vote, played Duke Lukela in Hawaii Five-O?
Herman Wedemeyer
Herman Wedemeyer was the first consensus All-American from the islands and sat in the state legislature while appearing on the show. Duke began as a uniformed sergeant before joining Five-O.
Q 28Which Creature from the Black Lagoon star left retirement on Maui to play the governor in Hawaii Five-O?
Richard Denning
Richard Denning agreed only after the show's creator guaranteed him five-hour days and a four-day week. He then played Governor Paul Jameson for all twelve seasons.
Q 29Tim O'Kelly played McGarrett's deputy in the Hawaii Five-O pilot, but a test audience judged him what?
Too young
Too young was the verdict, so the part was recast before the series began. O'Kelly is best remembered as the sniper in Peter Bogdanovich's thriller Targets.
Q 30Which Have Gun – Will Travel star was offered the part of Steve McGarrett in Hawaii Five-O but turned it down?
Richard Boone
Richard Boone was a friend of the show's creator, and one account credits him with urging that the series be shot entirely in the islands. Gregory Peck was also considered for the role.