Hawaii 5-O Series (The Original)

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  Posted by Web Diva March 25, 2023 - Filed in Arts & Culture - #Jack Lord  #Hawaii 5-0  #biography  #McGarrett  - 461 views
  

  You may or may not recall Jack Lord from the original series Hawaii 5-0.  The series Hawaii 5-0 spanned some twelve seasons.

  Remembering Jack Lord:

  https://www.rememberingjacklord.com/biography

  Six months before Jack finished college, the United States was drawn into World War II with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared war against both Japan and Germany. With that and backed by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, Congress and President Roosevelt took control of all shipping activities and drafted the civilian mariners into branches of the military as they were needed

  My family has been watching the original Hawaii 5-O series recently.  We are on season 3 now.  It's a pretty amazing series when you consider the history that was preserved as the series started in the late 1960's and ended after 12 seasons.  You can clearly see the challenges of the times between China and Russia, how drugs proliferated the islands, as well as politics of the time.  Hawaii's location is partly the reason that China was part of the series because Hawaii receives thousands of visitors from all of the world and China had a strong influence on trade because of Hawaii's port city at Pearl Harbor.  The main villain was Bo Fat and his character has been intertwined throughout each season in some fashion.  The first pilot episode was with the character Bo Fat and he kidnapped Steve McGarrett and took him to his lair for underwater experimentation, to wit, McGarrett did not break under Bo Fat's form of torture.

  Some of the noticeable traits of Hawaii 5-O were in the way gun-fire scenes were filmed, how principled McGarrett was with always being very capable in any form of stress and the only boss above him was Hawaii's governor.  Even with the governor, McGarrett was true to his integrity and always new how to handle any situation.  Almost like a super-hero but without the cape. The gun scenes were much like old west shoot-outs, there wasn't any hesitation to start firing a gun and if the cast was wearing western clothing you would likely notice the same experience. McGarrett also accelerated his car and raced his car  wherever he had to go, and if you recall, cars of that time were like boats.  Every time McGarrett pulled in to a crime scene, he would make an abrupt stop and the car would float like a boat.  We do laugh at those scenes because it appears that was just a trademark of H5O that the cast would always peel out and fast brake in to a scene.

  We have enjoyed all of the main characters such as Danny "book'em Dano", Kono, Chin  Ho, Che Fong (forensic), the governor and the rest of the cast.  We were disappointed when Kono was no longer in the series but after some research, learned that Kono was a real life DJ in Hawaii, so we figured he went back to that.

  Some of the trivia we've learned about H5O was that Jack Lord insisted that all of the police fleet would be all Ford brand vehicles.  If you watch H5O with that in mind, you will see all of the cars are Ford's.  Later, Jack Lord would take over the production of H5O, as well. Jack Lord was also insistant on using talent from the islands, so all of the supportive cast were from Hawaii, with exception of the guest stars.

  Our only disappointment is that when an episode ends, it ends.....it's abrupt.  We'd like to see a bit more, but we are getting used to that though. 

  It's been an enjoyable process to witness the challenges of the times with politics, drugs, crime sprees, common violence, and watch McGarrett (Jack Lord) and his team fight crime and mostly win in the end.  If you are watching the new series and haven't revisited H50 in a very long time, you might like it.