Hawaii Five-O - Legacy

Legacy

The show was the longest running crime show on American television until Law & Order surpassed it in 2003. The popularity of the Hawaii Five-O format spawned various police dramas on all the major television networks.

Known for the location, theme song, and ensemble cast, Hawaii Five-O is also noted for its liberal use of exterior location shooting throughout the entire twelve seasons. A typical episode, on average, would have at least two-thirds of all footage shot on location, as opposed to a "typical" show of the time which would be shot largely on sound stages and backlots. It is also remembered for its unusual setting, notable during a time when most crime dramas of the era were set in or around the Los Angeles or New York City areas.

The Hawaiian-based television show Magnum, P.I. was created after Hawaii Five-O ended its run, in order to make further use of the expensive production facilities created there for Five-O. The first few Magnum P.I. episodes made direct references to Five-O, suggesting that it takes place in the same fictional universe. Magnum's producers made a few attempts to coax Jack Lord out of retirement for a cameo appearance, but he refused.

The vast majority of characters in the show were non-Hispanic Caucasian, whereas only 40% of the population of the state identified themselves as such. However, many local people were cast in the show, which was ethnically diverse by the standards of the late 1960s. The first run and syndication were seen by an estimated 400 million people around the world.

Mad Magazine's lampoon of the show appeared in March 1971 (issue number 141). Mad's parody was called "How-Are-Ya Five-O", with the characters renamed Steve "McGarrish" and "Dummy" Williams.

A one-hour pilot for a new series was made in 1996 but never aired. Produced and written by Stephen J. Cannell, it starred Gary Busey and Russell Wong as the new Five-O team. James MacArthur briefly returned as Dan Williams, now governor of Hawaii. Several cameos were made by other Five-O regulars, including Kam Fong as Chin Ho Kelly (even though the character had been killed off at the end of Season 10).

The slang expression "Five-O", meaning police or the presence of police activity in a given area, has been used in New York City and other mainland urban areas since the show's television run.

The one-hour pilot for a revived show, called Hawaii Five-0 (the last character is a zero instead of the letter "O"), aired September 20, 2010 on CBS, and as of October 2010, the series now airs Monday nights at 10 PM Eastern, 9 PM Central time. The reimagined Hawaii Five-0 uses the same principal character names as the original, and the new Steve McGarrett's late father's vintage 1974 Mercury Marquis is the actual specimen driven by Lord in the original series's final seasons. The new series opening credit sequence is an homage to the original; the theme song is cut in half, from 60 to 30 seconds, but is an otherwise identical instrumentation. Most of the iconic shots are replicated, beginning with the helicopter approach and close-up turn of McGarrett at the Ilikai Hotel penthouse, the jet engine intake, a hula dancer's hips, the quickly stepped zoom-in to the face of the Lady Columbia statue at Punchbowl, the close-up of the Kamehameha Statue's face, and the ending with a police motorcycle's flashing blue light. On the March 19, 2012 episode, Ed Asner reprised his role as "August March", a character he first played in a 1975 episode. Clips from the 1975 episode were included in the new one.