BOOK 'EM DANO!
In the early '70s as soon as 8:00 pm strikes on a Thursday night most TV sets in the Asingan ( and I bet all over the Philippines ) would switch on to only one program: HAWAII FIVE-0..
Most of the TV sets in the Philippines at this time were still black and white. Some houses would position their sets on a ground floor living room so the screen would face the street. As soon as the TV was on, a sizable crowd would gather in front of that house. And the owner do not seem to mind. ( Otherwise, why would he leave the window open?)
A Box set of this popular program went on sale last Tuesday, March 6 and I braved the -20 weather just to lay my hands on a copy from the FUTURE SHOP a popular electronic store here in Toronto owned by BEST BUY. I was a fan of this Leonard Freeman police story series and I have been waiting a long time for this program to come out.
The package was worth the freezing weather trip. This season one set was well mastered; the background views of Hawaii explodes in bright colors and viewed on a huge LCD TV, you can notice each line of MacGarret's (Jack Lord ) facial close ups. The 2 hour pilot episode was a movie called COCOON ( no similarity to the SciFi movie of the same title directed by Ron Howard concerning space aliens )..But the pilot set MacGarret's character as a hard hitting, no nonsense police Detective who heads a unit called 5-0.
In this episode, Dano was not still played by JAMES MACARTHUR, the son of famous lady actress Helen Hayes, a long time star in the Hollywood screen. She is one of the best known and loved actresses. And one has to watch the 10th episode of this series to hear McGarret's immortal closing statement.."Book 'em Dano!"
My wife addicted to Police TV programs like LAW AND ORDER and CSI MIAMI said HAWAII 5-0 would still blow the most of them out of the water: Story wise, action scenes and over all production values. The theme song is still being played in Filipino parties along with the other dance tunes of that era. Rain said it was the music used when she learned the Hawaiian dance in a Dagupan dance school when she was still young ( I do not know how young ) . Her dad would always make her do the dance publicly in programs, convocations, etc.
At the closing scene of the first 007 movie DR. NO, some movie goers exclaimed when they saw a star in a cameo role turning towards his face towards the audience.."Hey, it is Hawaii 5-0!"
It was Jack Lord, playing Felix Leiter, the ever present aide of the British spy in his assignments in North America.
-victorio costes
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