Hawaii Five-O

Hawaii Five-O is a United States television series that starred Jack Lord and James MacArthur as detectives for a fictional Hawaiian state police department. (Hawaii, in fact, has no state police.)

Legacy

The show became the longest running police drama until Law & Order broke the record almost twenty years after Hawaii Five-O ceased production. The popularity of the Hawaii Five-O format spawned various police dramas on all the major television networks since its debut. Another legacy is the popularity of the arranged Hawaii Five-O theme song performed by The Ventures, a surf music band (The TV theme sounds different than The Ventures one.). Also, the term "Five-O" was adopted by American gang culture as a street slang term for the police.

Related Topics:
Law & Order - The Ventures - Surf music

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The opening credits were no small part of the show's popularity. The show would begin with a "teaser" or prelude suggesting the sinister plot for the night's program. Cut to the big ocean wave ("Hawaii Five-O") and the start of the show's dynamic theme song. Fast-zoom-in to the top balcony of the Ilikai Hotel, where McGarrett would turn to face the camera ("Starring Jack Lord") followed by many quick-cuts and freeze-frames of Hawaiian scenery (including, memorably, a grass-skirted hula dancer from the Pilot, "Cocoon") and of the supporting players, thus setting the mood for the show, and the opening credits ending with a flashing blue light on a police car racing through a Honolulu street.

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At the conclusion of the action-packed, suspense-filled episode, after the obligatory "Book 'em!", Jack Lord would narrate a teaser for the next week's episode, often emphasizing the "guest villain", especially if it was a perennial such as Khigh Dheigh, Hume Cronyn, etc, then closing the preview by saying "be there...aloha!"

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The closing credits repeated the theme music, over a short film of either some outrigger canoists battling the surf (second season onwards), or the top of a police car (seen only during the first season), rushing through a darkened street with its flashing light in one corner of the screen. The latter image was eventually satirized in Leslie Nielsen's TV series and movies centering on a law enforcement team called Police Squad.

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Another measure of the show's continued high popularity is that it was lampooned in Mad Magazine, in a typical not-very-subtle satire called "How-Are-Ya Five-O", which appeared in 1971. The characters were renamed Steve "McGarrish" and "Dummy" Williams.

Related Topics:
Mad Magazine - 1971

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It has been rumored for many years that Jack Lord was a silent partner in all aspects of the production of Hawaii Five-O, even more so as the series grew in popularity during the 1970s. To critics and viewers, there was no question that Jack Lord was the center of the show, and that the other actors frequently served as little more than props, standing and watching while McGarrett emoted and paced around his office, analyzing the crime. But some episodes would focus on the other players, and let them showcase their own talents.

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The legacy of Five-O continued on into the series that replaced it, Magnum P.I., with many of the characters often referring to both Five-O and McGarrett. (Also, the show is filmed in Hawaii)

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For many years after the show finished its run, GTE Hawaiian Tel included a warning to tourists in its phone books that in an emergency, they should dial 911 and not Hawaii Five-O.

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Jack Lord was the only actor to appear in all episodes of Five-O and was the only original cast member remaining when its last episode aired in 1980.

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Today, James MacArthur is the only surviving original Five-O cast member, as Lord, Zulu and Fong have since passed away.

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