Overview
The CBS television network produced Hawaii Five-O, which aired from September 20, 1968 to April 4, 1980. Currently, the program is broadcast in syndication worldwide, nationally it airs on Me-TV, and via on-demand streaming media from CBS Interactive. (CBS also has uploaded every episode of this show via its YouTube account.) Created by Leonard Freeman, Hawaii Five-O was shot on location in Honolulu, Hawaii, and throughout the island of Oahu as well as other Hawaiian islands—with occasional filming in other locales such as Los Angeles, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Hawaii Five-O was named in honor of Hawaii's status as the 50th State. Although the show's name has always ended with the number "0," the soundtrack album, released in the late 1960s, used the letter "O" instead of the number zero. Today, an "O" is often used to differentiate the original series and the revival which premiered in 2010. The show centers on a fictional state police force led by former U.S. naval officer Steve McGarrett (played by Jack Lord), who was appointed by the Governor, Paul Jameson (played by Richard Denning, though Lew Ayres played the Governor in the pilot). In the show, McGarrett oversaw State Police officers—a young officer, Danny Williams (played by Tim O'Kelly in the show's pilot but replaced in the regular series by James MacArthur), Chin Ho Kelly (played by Kam Fong Chun) and Kono Kalakaua (played by Zulu) for seasons one through four. Also, Honolulu Police Department Officer Duke Lukela (played by Herman Wedemeyer) joined the team as a regular, as did Ben Kokua (played by Al Harrington), who replaced Kono beginning with season five. Occasionally, McGarrett's Five-O team was assisted by other officers as needed: medical examiner Doc Bergman (played by Al Eben), forensic specialist Che Fong (played by Harry Endo) and a secretary. The first secretary was May (played by Maggi Parker), then Jenny (played by Peggy Ryan) and later Luana (played by Laura Sode-Matteson).
For twelve seasons, McGarrett and his team hounded international secret agents, criminals, and organized crime syndicates plaguing the Hawaiian Islands. With the aid of District Attorney and later Hawaii's Attorney General John Manicote (played by Glenn Cannon), McGarrett was successful in sending most of his enemies to prison. One such Mafia syndicate was led by crime family patriarch Honore Vashon (played by Harold Gould), a character introduced in the fifth season. Most episodes of Hawaii Five-O ended with the arrest of criminals and McGarrett snapping, "Book 'em." The offense occasionally was added after this phrase, for example, "Book 'em, murder one." In many episodes this was directed to Danny Williams and became McGarrett's catchphrase, "Book 'em, Danno."
Other criminals and organized crime bosses on the islands were played by actors such as Ricardo Montalbán, Gavin MacLeod, and Ross Martin as Tony Alika. By the 12th and final season, series regular James MacArthur had left the show (in 1996, he admitted that he had become tired and wanted to do other things), as had Kam Fong. Unlike other characters before him, Fong's character Chin Ho, at Fong's request, did not just vanish from the show but instead was murdered while working undercover to expose a protection ring in Chinatown in the last episode of season 10. New characters Jim 'Kimo' Carew (played by William Smith), Lori Wilson (played by Sharon Farrell), and Truck (played by Moe Keale) were introduced in season 12 alongside returning regular character Duke Lukela.
The Five-O team consisted of three to five members (small for a real state police unit), and was portrayed as occupying a suite of offices in the Iolani Palace. The office interiors were sets on a soundstage. Five-O lacked its own radio network, necessitating frequent requests by McGarrett to the Honolulu Police Department dispatchers, "Patch me through to Danno." McGarrett's tousled yet immaculate hairstyle, as well as his proclivity for wearing a dark suit and tie on all possible occasions (uncommon in the islands), rapidly entered popular culture. While the other members of Five-O also "dressed mainland" much of the time, they also often wore local styles, such as the ubiquitous "Aloha shirt."
In many episodes (including the pilot), McGarrett was drawn into the world of international espionage and national intelligence. McGarrett's arch-nemesis was a rogue intelligence officer of the People's Republic of China named Wo Fat. The Communist rogue agent was played by veteran actor Khigh Dheigh. The show's final episode in 1980 was titled "Woe to Wo Fat," in which McGarrett finally saw his foe Wo go to jail.
This television show's action and straightforward story-telling left little time for personal stories involving wives or girlfriends, though a two-part story in the first season dealt with the loss of McGarrett's sister's baby. Occasionally, a show would flash back to McGarrett's younger years or to a romantic figure. The viewer was left with the impression that McGarrett, at that point in his life, much like Dragnet's Joe Friday, was wedded to the police force and to crime-fighting. The altruistic teetotaler McGarrett often worked very late at the office, long after his colleagues had gone home, and he also worked a lot of weekends.
In the episode "Number One with a Bullet, Part 2," McGarrett spat at a criminal, "It was a bastard like you who killed my father." His 42-year-old father had been run down and killed by someone who had just held up a supermarket. Since Steve McGarrett was also a commander in the Naval Reserve, he sometimes used their resources to help investigate and solve crimes. Hence the closing credits of some episodes mentioned the Naval Reserve. A 1975 episode involving Danno's aunt, played by MacArthur's adoptive mother Helen Hayes, provided a bit of Williams's back story.
Hawaii Five-O would use actual phone numbers instead of the fictional "555" exchange for the first half of the series' run. In the 1969 episode, "Blind Tiger," McGarrett, who had been temporarily blinded by an attempt on his life (a criminal bombing his car), asked a hospital operator to connect him to 732-5577, which was the phone number at Five-O headquarters. Throughout the series, McGarrett and his Five-O team often refer to Hawaii as "the rock".
Hawaii Five-O survived long enough to overlap with reruns of early episodes, which were broadcast by CBS in their late night schedule while new episodes were still being produced. Once the program entered syndication after the original run of the series, CBS broadcast reruns of the 12th season in late night under the title McGarrett to avoid confusion with the episodes in syndication broadcast under the title Hawaii Five-O.
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