Magnum, P.I.

Legacy from a Friend - S3-E18

Character mistake: In the opening narration, Magnum says "Take my good friend Marcus, for example. I woke up one day and realised I was 32 and I'd never had a chance to be 22." In the second part of the very pilot of the series, Magnum says to Alice "One day I woke up age 33 and realised I'd never been 23."

Sammo

Legacy from a Friend - S3-E18

Plot hole: Magnum is amazingly naive in this episode, blindly believing the story about Tracy Spencer being a cop against every possible evidence of the contrary. This buffoonery aside, Tracy saves him from the two girls identifying herself as a cop, but a couple scenes later they both go meet their boss and try to set up a sting passing off as dealers of stolen goods. That does not make any sense.

Sammo

Legacy from a Friend - S3-E18

Visible crew/equipment: Aftermath of the sting gone wrong at Rose's. Tracy Spencer runs after Magnum saying "Please, just listen!" In the bottom right corner of the frame you can spot the boom mike shadow for an instant, then the operator's, following the movement of the two (and the camera's). (00:37:00)

Sammo

Legacy from a Friend - S3-E18

Continuity mistake: When the "policewoman" arrives and yells "Freeze! Police!" thumping her chest, Magnum at the bottom of the frame is getting up. In the next shot her hands are off her chest and Magnum is very far away from even the thought of getting up. (00:27:00)

Sammo

Legacy from a Friend - S3-E18

Continuity mistake: Magnum goes around the market to show around Marcus' photo. Multiple extras, such as a man with a blue Hawaiian shirt and a kid with a white jumper with red sleeves, can be seen roaming the premises multiple times in different shots. (00:24:00)

Sammo

Legacy from a Friend - S3-E18

Continuity mistake: Magnum takes a bottle of the infamous Coops beer from the fridge and puts it down while Higgins is doing his threatening smile routine. He puts it down with the label facing away from the camera. When he answers the phone, the bottle is again facing away from the camera, but the angle is the opposite than the earlier one. (00:13:10)

Sammo

Legacy from a Friend - S3-E18

Continuity mistake: Magnum's search for clues at Marcus' is interrupted by a banshee scream from the girl with glasses. In the first few shots of the sequence, Tom Selleck's left arm is never in the correct position, being low in frontal view and raised in reverse shot, doing the same movement twice in different shots, etc. (00:09:05)

Sammo

Legacy from a Friend - S3-E18

Continuity mistake: Magnum follows his inner voice and gets inside Marcus' quarters. The camera follows him and he stops in front of the desk where a picture is balanced on one side on some stacked papers. In the close-up that follows, the picture is flat on top of Marcus' appointments book. (00:08:45)

Sammo

Birdman of Budapest - S3-E15

Other mistake: Rick and TC are at the counter of the Chinese joint when they hear a bang and a car speeding off. The noises are almost simultaneous, which means the lone assailant exploded a gunshot from their car while they were at the wheel. Uncanny coordination, recovery time and reflexes, contrary to the parking custodian in a booth we see there, who reacts to the car passing by, but was unfazed and with their back turned after a shotgun has been supposedly been fired meters away from him. (00:28:25)

Sammo

Forty Years from Sand Island - S3-E17

Plot hole: The culprit is in cahoots with the man that Magnum is trying to expose as WWII war criminal, and fears nothing from him, as he even explains to Magnum later; in fact he is his goose with the golden eggs. Yet he, a politician, kills his guy in broad daylight, for no reason, running the risk not only to be caught red-handed, but also more logically to be linked to him due to the investigations that will unveil the deceased as one of his major supporters. Instead, he does not touch Magnum, someone he has no connections with and tons of potential enemies. Let's not forget that the main motive that pushes Magnum to investigate is his assumption that someone wanted to kill Higgins, which is not the case, and the culprit knows that.

Sammo

Forty Years from Sand Island - S3-E17

Continuity mistake: Magnum approaches the Nakamura house getting out of the car with light beige shoes. The young and pretty granddaughter of the deceased walks him around the corner, to her father. In the scene with Russell Nakamura, Nancy's Father, Magnum suddenly has dark brown moccasins, which you can see when he walks towards him and then away. And then when Nancy walks him back to his car, the beige shoes are back. (00:20:10)

Sammo

Forty Years from Sand Island - S3-E17

Revealing mistake: After the savage beating, the two other prisoners go check out what happened inside the restroom. The take of Kirin Nakamura lying face down begins with the actor stretching his finger before he has to play corpse for a while not moving a muscle. (00:04:25)

Sammo

Mac: Time has little to do with infinity and jelly donuts.

More quotes from Magnum, P.I.

A.A.P.I. - S7-E5

Trivia: At the awards ceremony, three men seated at a table together resemble three detectives from 1970s TV shows. Detective Mike Stone (played by Karl Malden) from ABC's Streets of San Francisco; Detective Frank Columbo (played by Peter Falk) from NBC's Columbo; and Detective Theo Kojak (played by Telly Savalas) from CBS's Kojak. (00:07:20)

Super Grover

More trivia for Magnum, P.I.

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.