Magnum P.I.: Season 2

MAGNUM,PI was an American private detective drama starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, an ex-Navy officer/Vietnam Veteran now turned beach-bum private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii that ran on CBS from December of 1980 thru May of 1988 and consistently ranked in the top 20 U.S. television programs during its first 5 years that this series was originally telecast in America.Magnum also resided in the guest house of a posh 200-acre beachfront estate known as Robin's Nest in Hawaii at the invitation of its owner(Robin Masters) which was the celebrated-but-never-seen author of several dozen lurid novels. Obstensibly this is quid pro quo for Magnum's services based upon Magnum's claimed expertise in security, the pilot suggests Magnum also did Masters a favor of some kind.In addition, Robin's Nest was guarded by 2 highly trained Doberman Pinschers named Zeus & Apollo, & all other aspects of the estate were managed by the often exasperated Englishman Jonathan Quayle Higgins III(played by Texas-born veteran actor John Hillerman), a snooty ex-British Army Sergeant Major with whom often as a humorous aside during various episodes of this series, Magnum must barter for use of the estates amenities other than the guest-house & the Ferrari 308 GTS, the tennis courts, wine cellar, expensive cameras, etc.During the early seasons of MAGNUM, P.I., the voice of Robin Masters heard only a few times per season was voiced by Orson Welles. A recurrent theme throughout the last 2 seasons involves Magnum's suspicion that Higgins was actually Robin Masters.That possibility was contradictory to numerous references throughout the series run that make it clear that Higgins & Robin Masters were 2 different people.In spite of this controversy, Higgins dual identity remained an open question until the series finale episode where Higgins first admits he's Robin Masters, but later suggests what he had said about being Robin Masters was a lie.Magnum seemingly lived a dream lifestyle: He'd come & go as he pleased, worked only when he wanted to, had the almost unlimited use of the Ferrari as well as many other of Robin Masters luxuries.Magnum would also keep a mini-fridge with a seemingly endless supply of fictional Coops beer, wore his fathers treasured Rolex GMT Master wristwatch, was seemingly surrounded by countless beautiful women who were often his clients or victims in the cases he solved & enjoyed adventures with his old Navy buddies from the Vietnam War T.C.(Roger Mosley)and Rick "Orville" Wright(Larry Manetti)that had a love/hate relationship with Magnum.Interestingly, Magnum & Higgins often broke the fourth wall by "locking eyes" with the audience; other characters do this, but a lot less frequently.At the end of MAGNUM's 7th Season, Magnum was killed off and its 1986-87 Season was intended to be the end of this 8-year detective drama, but there was an outcry from fans in the Spring of 1987 and an 8th Season was produced as its final season in the Fall of 1987 to bring Magnum "back to life" and to round the series off in the Spring of 1988.I love this 1981-82 Season of this detective drama the best throughout Magnum's whole 8-year run on CBS, since it had most of my favorite episodes like "Try To Remember", "Italian Ice", "The Last Page", "Wave Goodbye", "The Taking Of Dick McWilliams", "Texas Lightning", "Three Minus Two", "The Elmo Ziller Story", etc. along with the fact that Magnum was still in its honeymoon phase of the show during this season too.In addition to why I like MAGNUM's Second Season the best, this season was funnier and more amusing, especially during all the fall-outs that Magnum often had with Higgins, TC, and Rick along with the fact that Magnum obviously used Robin's Ferrari more in the 2nd Season than he did in most other seasons, especially more than he did in the last 4 seasons of this private detective drama, which was another reason why I was so excited and dying to have MAGNUM's complete 2nd Season released on DVD.In addition to that; this MAGNUM DVD was complete and uncut like they were originally shown on CBS with the proper introduction, unlike the case when MAGNUM, P.I. was shown in reruns on WGN, USA, A&E, and COZI-TV which had too many deleted scenes with too many added commercials in between, plus COZY-TV, A&E, USA, and WGN didn't use the proper introduction to this season or most other seasons of MAGNUM on top of that, since COZY-TV, USA, A&E, and WGN had revised all the episodes of MAGNUM, PI to use the Sixth Season introduction to every single episode instead, which really sucked, because that made the seasons of this private detective drama less interesting to watch, since there wasn't much to compare to between each season all the way from the First Season to the Eighth Season.But it was very interesting when you'd watch an episode from an earlier season and compare it to a later season, especially when the introduction between older and newer episodes are different, so you can compare to see how Magnum, Higgins, T.C., and Rick and them looked in the earlier seasons and how they ended up looking in the later seasons, which the introductions show you as well when they don't use the same intro to every single episode along with the fact that the same introduction to any show gets old and boring after while, unless of course the introduction changes eventually.In addition to why this 1981-82 Season of MAGNUM was one of the best seasons of MAGNUM, P.I.; this was also one of the seasons when Magnum would do his swims on the beach as a pasttime instead of playing more sports during his spare time since Magnum had stopped doing his swims on the beach by the time MAGNUM hit its 6th Season when Magnum started playing baseball and basketball with Rick and TC on his leisure time rather than swimming.I also liked the way Universal provided the original air-dates to each of these episodes with a brief summary too.For instance, the original air-dates to each of these 1981-1982 Season episodes on CBS were10/8/81-BILLY JOE BOB10/15/81-DEAD MAN'S CHANNEL10/22/81-THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH10/29/81-FROM MOSCOW TO MAUI11/5/81-MEMORIES ARE FOREVER11/12/81-TROPICAL MADNESS11/19/81-WAVE GOODBYE11/26/81-MAD BUCK GIBSON12/3/81-THE TAKING OF DICK MC WILLIAMS12/17/81-THE SIXTH POSITION12/24/81-GHOST WRITER1/7/82-THE JORORO KILL1/14/82-COMPUTER DATE1/28/82-TRY TO REMEMBER2/4/82-ITALIAN ICE2/11/82-ONE MORE SUMMER2/18/82-TEXAS LIGHTNING2/25/82-DOUBLE JEOPARDY3/4/82-THE LAST PAGE3/18/82-THE ELMO ZILLER STORY4/1/82-THREE MINUS TWOSomething else that baffles me is like I had mentioned on my review about the MAGNUM, PI-Season 4 DVD is that in "The Jororo Kill" episode of this season, the Ed Russler character was played by Burr De Benning, but in "The Jororo Farewell" episode of Magnums 4th Season, Ed Russler gets played by John Saxon instead of Burr DeBenning for some reason even though Russler was supposedly the person and same character meeting up with Magnum again for a second time in MAGNUM's Fourth Season 2 years later in the Winter of 1984 since "The Jororo Kill" episode was shown for the very first time on CBS in the Winter of 1982.So now I am anxiously and eagerly awaiting for Magnum's 8th Season to be released on DVD on Tuesday March 4th, 2008.I also noticed that this was the season when T.C. started calling Higgins "Higgy Baby" more often along with the fact that Magnum's fallouts with Higgins, TC, and Rick were a lot more hilarious in this season than they were in the last 5 seasons of this private detective show, but the only problem I have with this 1981-1982 Season DVD is that it freezes & skips too much, especially in the episodes "Wave Goodbye" & "One More Summer" which is probably due to this season box set being put on double-sided discs instead of single-sided discs like the last 3 seasons of MAGNUM, P.I. which have no flaws, freezes, or skips on them which is why I'm hoping Universal will re-release this season on 1-sided discs soon to avoid all the frustration of getting all those freezing & skipping interruptions.I also used to get a kick out of Higgins exclaiming his frequent used line of "Oh My God" and Magnum's often used line in his narrations of "I Know What You're Thinking" throughout all the episodes during MAGNUM's whole 1980-88 run on CBS. This season also takes me all the way back to memory lane when CBS's motto was "Reach For The Stars" and when Selleck was voted as TV's sexiest detective back in the early 1980's as well as his second year of being a superstar.It was also interesting seeing guest stars like*Joanna Kerns in "The Last Page" episode before her co-starring days as Maggie Seaver on GROWING PAINS*Julie Sommars in the "Texas Lightning" episode before her co-starring days on MATLOCK*Beverly Garland in the "Two Minus Three" episode before her co-starring days on the detective drama SCARECROW & MRS. KING*James Whitmore, Jr. in the "Billy Joe Bob" episode before his co-starring days as Hunter & McCall's incompetent fellow officer(Det. Bernie Terwilliger) on the police drama HUNTER*Tyne Daly in "The Jororo Kill" episode before her co-starring days on the police drama CAGNEY & LACY*Football celebrity(Dick Butkus)in the "One More Summer" episode before his co-starring days on the sitcom MY TWO DADS*Judith Chapman in "The Woman On The Beach" episode before her co-starring days on YOUNG & THE RESTLESS, DAYS OF OUR LIVES, and ALL MY CHILDREN*Nancy Grahn in the "Try To Remember" episode after her co-starring days on GENERAL HOSPITAL & ONE LIFE TO LIVE & before her co-starring days on SANTA BARBARA*Pat Morita in the "One More Summer" episode before his co-starring days on THE KARATE KID and HAPPY DAYSAdditionally, this season takes me all the way back to memory lane to when we had all those budget cuts going on from the recession we had back in 1981-1982 when Ronald Reagan was the president. So now that Universal has all 8 seasons of MAGNUM out on DVD, hopefully this has inspired Warner Bros. to finally put the private detective drama MATT HOUSTON with Lee Horseley & Pamela Hensley out on DVD soon, since I've been waiting for MAGNUM's biggest rival MATT HOUSTON to be released on DVD for years now, especially throughout all the years I'd been awaiting for all 8 seasons of MAGNUM, PI to be put on DVD, since MATT HOUSTON was also a cool TV show that was in competition with MAGNUM throughout MATT HOUSTON's 3-year run on ABC, not to mention the amazing slight resemeblence between Thomas Magnum(Tom Selleck) and Matlock Houston(Lee Horseley), except Houston was a lot huskier, a lot tougher, a lot spunkier, and a lot more fortunate than Magnum was since Magnum was just a beach-bum private detective who lived on a shoe-string budget rent-free at the so-called Robin Masters estate in Hawaii barely able to stay afloat, but Houston was a filthy-rich Texas style private detective & former Vietnam veteran who lived in the L.A. Area to take over a family business overseas who did detective work on the side as a hobby and lived high on the hog in a ritzy penthouse in Hollywood.Therefore Magnum was always broke and Houston never was since Houston was 3 times luckier than Magnum ever was since Houston was a playboy who was always rolling in dough living in luxury & owned all his cars & vehicles and often had pretty women around him and even more chicks than Magnum ever had around him too & had a PI agency office of his own in Downtown L.A., unlike Magnum who didn't even have an office or even own a car, plus Houston frequently paid people money in $100 bills to get information to find leads to help solve his investigations. Therefore you could say that MATT HOUSTON was like a rich-mans MAGNUM especially since Magnum(Tom Selleck)was outclassed by Houston(Lee Horseley)along with the fact that Magnum could never even touch Houston since Houston lived the kind of lifestyle that Magnum envied & would have preffered to have, especially on a private investigators salary along with the fact that Magnum often used to get snookered by his clients a lot more often than Houston did just like Rockford(James Garner)did, which somewhat almost makes it seem so amazing how MAGNUM was able to outlast MATT HOUSTON, despite the fact that MATT HOUSTON was a private-eyes fantasy kind of show which made it a lot less realistic than most other private detective shows like MANNIX, THE ROCKFORD FILES, and SIMON & SIMON for instance.In fact during MATT HOUSTONs whole 1982-85 run on ABC, various people used to tease Lee Horsley by asking him if he was trying to copy Tom Selleck, but Horsley would always reply back to them by saying "No, but I'm flattered you see a resemblence" & would never take it personally even though he knew people who asked him would just do that to irritate him on purpose, because of knowing that MATT HOUSTON was a very popular TV show in the 80's just like MAGNUM was, despite the fact that MATT HOUSTON didn't last nearly as long as MAGNUM, PI did since MATT HOUSTON tanked after it's 3-year run on ABC when MATT HOUSTON lost a lot of viewers thru MIAMI VICE when it debuted on NBC in the Fall of 1984.Unfortunately MATT HOUSTON took a nose-dive in the ratings when it hit its Third Season on ABC when MIAMI VICE made its debut on NBC in the Fall of 1984 which led to MATT HOUSTONs cancellation in the Spring of 1985 when MAGNUM's Sixth Season was underway on CBS, but part of what makes this 1981-82 Season of MAGNUM, PI so interesting is knowing that MATT HOUSTON wasn't even made yet when MAGNUM was in this season or in the 1st Season for that matter either since MATT HOUSTON didn't make its debut on CBS's rival network ABC till the Fall of 1982 when MAGNUM kicked off its Third Season on ABC's rival network CBS along with the fact that MATT HOUSTON had more action in it than MAGNUM, PI did on top of that.As a matter of fact, MATT HOUSTON premiered on ABC on Sunday September 26th, 1982 which coincidentally happened to be on the same night KNIGHT RIDER made its debut on NBC, but MAGNUM, P.I. made its debut on CBS on Thursday December 11th, 1980 since MAGNUM premiered in the late Fall of 1980 2 years before MATT HOUSTON even came along.Fortunately, MATT HOUSTON was never shown on the same night as MAGNUM, PI was, which definitely would have contributed to MAGNUM losing some viewers thru MATT HOUSTON, but throughout most of MATT HOUSTONS 3-Season run on ABC, we'd all get to watch MATT HOUSTON the day after watching MAGNUM, P.I. since MAGNUM was shown every Thursday night at 8PM on CBS and MATT HOUSTON was shown on ABC every Friday night at 10PM which made us all able to watch them both on the same week which eliminated any scheduling conflicts since MAGNUM & MATT HOUSTON were both on 2 different nights at 2 different time slots on 2 different networks, but it seemed almost as if MATT HOUSTON had came close to killing MAGNUM, PI during MATT HOUSTONs first 2 seasons on ABC since Magnum's lifestyle couldn't even touch Houston's lifestyle either. In fact, something else I've noticed is every other person who has guest starred on MAGNUM, PI has also guest starred on MATT HOUSTON too such as Robin Dearden, Ed Grover, Alan Fudge, Steven Keats, Marta Dubois, Jill St. John, Cameron Mitchell, Burr DeBenning, Beverly Garland, Robert F. Lyons, James Fujioka, John Calvin, John-Dennis Johnston, Barbara Rush, Cesar Romero, Alan Hale, William Windom, Russ McCubbin, Lenore Kasdorf, Bill Lucking, Jack Hogan, Nancy Grahn, Dick Butkus, George Kee-Cheung, Katherine Cannon, Rebecca Holden, Jack Kruschen, James Luisi, Jenny Sherman, etc.This detective drama also takes me back to the days before we had cell-phones, Internet, emails, and before sex, violence, swearing, & bad manners took over & corrupted television & when TV was much cleaner & trustworthy enough to watch. In the meantime, I just got word that Paramount will finally be releasing MATT HOUSTON-Season 1 on DVD on Tuesday March 9th, 2010 and that Shout will be releasing SIMON & SIMON-Season 4 out on DVD on Tuesday April 6th, 2010, which gives us 2 private detective dramas in the works to look forward to in the Spring of 2010.

I have enjoyed it for years and admit to having about 40 VHS tapes commercials and all. So, needless to say, I was thrilled when I heard that the show was going to be produced on DVD. I bought Season One and there were a number of eps that I had never seen - cool. But I have had to ration my watching while waiting to see if Universal would indeed release Season Two.My basic review is that for the fan and semi-fan, having the EP's on DVD is indispensible. This show is one of the best series of the 80's - it is hysterical to see people hustling to find a pay phone to use and to see the 80's Hawaiin clothing. Season Two contains some of the better episodes of the show and this set will be a great addition.However, as a caveat, UNIVERSAL has done a TERRIBLE job producing both the Magnum and Miami Vice series. Here are a few of the problems primarily for Magnum but which relate to Vice too.1) There are simply NO SPECIAL FEATURES. Except for five very short documentaries on the Vice set, there is nothing about the particular show beyond the eps themselves. How difficult would it be to track down the actors and interview them?! There are minimal notes attached to each ep which gives information that any fan, or anyone with an internet connection already has.2) There are multiple times on both series where the audio is out of sync with the video...and not just barely. Magnum's or Crockett's lips will move and the words will come about a half a second later.3) Universal must have some serious manufacturing problems. I bought Magnum Season One and have had to return it three times - I am on my FOURTH brand new copy of Magnum and am close to taking my Vice set back too. The first two times I returned the DVD's because the first disc had issues (scratches, etc.) the second time bc the audio and video was so out of sync on the second disc it was unbearable. (Maybe Universal will get the picture when all these defective returns start showing up on their doorstep!)4) Universal gets the theme song in Magnum wrong. In the broadcast version the theme song changed to the well-known version used for 7.5 seasons in the ep entitled "The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii." However, on the DVD, the new theme song pops up strangely in ep 13! What?! And no explanation is offered - this may have been an interesting note to put in special features or in the intro materials. On Vice, the theme song kind of evolved rather than changed drastically. But no mention of this is made and the intro to the first ep will seem rather strange to the casual fan or newcomer.5) Magnum Season Two - significant improvements with the packaging. Each disc gets its own plastic sleeve which is significantly better than the hard-to-balance packaging of Season One. However, there is nothing to hold the plastic sleeves in the case, they just slide in and out of the cardboard box. Concerning extras, again, there is nothing except for an ep from season two of the A-team and Knightrider. These are not so much bonus features as they are advertisment for other Universal dvds. The A-team ep is pretty cool but Knightrider is too cheesy to finish.

Good show

I know what you're thinking ... but Magnum P.I. has held up really well over the years, and it's SO much better without all the commercials. I almost feel a guilty rush watching as one scene segues right into the next! Basically, Magnum has never looked better.The core charaters - Magnum, Higgins, Rick and T.C. - had a real chemistry, and you could watch the show just for their banter and friendships. The guest star performances haven't aged as gracefully, maybe because the characters only have 45-48 minutes to develop, and the plots are only as sophisticated as that time allows.But, every time I watch an episode, it's like a trip back to Hawaii in 1981. It all works together. The depth of the main characters, and the writing, is several notches better than anything else I remember on television, and the setting has its own charm. The Ferrari still looks great, and the Robin Masters estate is timeless. I don't think I would willingly watch any of the other shows of that era now, but now I realize what solid actors Selleck and John Hillerman were/are.Highly recommended - and the packaging for Season Two is a lot better than Season One (Those discs are hard to remove and the plastic retaining pieces broke right away - the separate plastic cases for Season Two are really the way it should be done).And if you want to see how bad everything else was, check out the Simon and Simon episode in Season One and the A-Team episode here.

Regalo perfecto, la imagen se ve bastante clara en una pantalla de 32 pulgadas, muy buena calidad.

The product is good. The series showing its age.

en lo particular me gusta esta serie y la encontré a buen precio

I'm pretty sure everybody knows Magnum P.I. The second season is more good stories with a cavalcade of guest stars.The highlight for me would be episode 9 , "Mad Buck Gibson " with guest star Darren McGavin , perhaps you may know him as"the old man " ( father ) in the movie " A Christmas Story "or perhaps as " The Night Stalker ". He is always , for me , justso believable , almost like he is not acting at all. This episode also has a plot that involves rather heavy subject matter , which is dealt with in a most unusual way , takes a turn at the end that I didn't think Hollywood could get away with.All good , and for me much better than current TV.

Selleck was in fine form for this series. Magnum...TC...Rick...and the loveable yet high-strung Higgins..does it get any better? Interesting fact: Tom Selleck was inspired by an earlier series of the same ilk "The Rockford Files" with Jimmy Garner.