Five-0 `Hookman’ remake’s similarities, differences

Feb. 5: Updated with a correction about the credit fonts.

CBS’s new Hawaii Five-0 followed the 1973 version of “Hookman” pretty closely in the remake that aired Feb. 4. But there were some significant differences, as well. Here’s a sampling of the similarities and differences:

Episode title: The new Five-0 repeated “Hookman” as the episode titles. The new show, that debuted in 2010, usually uses Hawaiian words as titles while not actually showing those episode titles on screen. (CLICK HERE for an example.) Apparently, “Hookman” doesn’t have a good Hawaiian equivalent. Also, the title “Hookman” was shown on screen just before the main titles. The villain had prosthetic hands rather than hooks, but “Prosthetic Hand Man” wasn’t nearly as good a title as “Hookman.”

Credit fonts: It appeared that Five-0 used the same, or at least a very similar font for the credits as the one used in the original show. Presumably this was intended for a “retro” look that CBS had hyped in promoting the episode. (Shoutout to Mike Quigley, webmaster of The Hawaii Five-O Home Page for pointing out differences in the fonts.)

Car chase: In both the 1973 and 2013 versions, the villain takes off in a Ford Mustang. In the original show, Ford Motor Co. was the supplier of vehicles. In the new show, General Motors Co. has that role (McGarrett 2.0 tools around in a Chevrolet Camaro). It looked like the crew attempted to obscure the Mustang logo in the front grille of the Feb. 4 show.

Meanwhile, in the original, McGarrett chased after the villain by himself. In the Feb. 4 show, both McGarrett 2.0 and Danno 2.0 are in McGarrett’s Camaro. Naturally a “cargument” (a schtick of the new show) ensues between the two men.

Things not shown in the original: In the 1973 “Hookman,” we don’t see the villain send his car into the bay; we’re just told about it later. Such a scene was staged in the remake. What’s more, the Feb. 4 show had a flashback sequence showing how the villain lost his hands. In the 1973 version, McGarrett provides a quick recap. Also, in the new version, it was McGarrett’s father who was involved in that case, rather than McGarrett himself.

Score: Morton Stevens won an Emmy for his “Hookman” score. The score on the Feb. 4 story keeps with the general Five-0 background music by Brian Tyler and Keith Power that seems like it’s the poor man’s Hans Zimmer from Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies.

New ending: McGarrett 2.0 “meets” the ghosts of the villain’s victims, something that didn’t happen at all in the original.

UPDATE (Feb. 5): You can CLICK HERE to watch the Feb. 4 episode on CBS’s Web site.

McGarrett 2.0 clearly has never watched Die Another Day

Because if he had, he wouldn’t have gone to North Korea. Or, as somebody said in Return of the Jedi, “It’s a trap!”

As you might gather, we were watching the Nov. 21 episode of Hawaii Five-0, featuring the latest confrontation between Steve McGarrett 2.0 and his arch-enemy Wo Fat 2.0. We’re not even halfway through the episode but he’s already been betrayed by Jenna Kaye (female version of the original show’s spymaster Jonathan Kaye). Lesson for viewers: If somebody says you need to go with them to North Korea, DON’T GO!

Station break. We’ll update this post. And follow us on Twitter as the episode unfolds.

UPDATE I: A friend of this blog tells us that Doug Mossman, one of the regular bit players of the original series, was in this episode.

UPDATE II: It only took 40 minutes, but we finally see special guest star Jimmy Buffett.

UPDATE III: The Korean sequences of this Five-0 episode have the same washed-out look as the Korean sequences of Die Another Day.

UPDATE IV: Wo Fat 2.0 kills off Jenna Kaye, the second female version of a “legacy character” to be whacked by Wo. The first was he woman governor in season 1 (Jean Smart), based on the intrepid Gov. Paul Jameson of the original show. Gov. Pat Jameson was working for Wo Fat, who doesn’t like loose ends. Wo 2.0 eliminates loose ends himself; the original had flunkies who did the killing.

UPDATE V: Will Neal Purvis and Robert Wade call their lawyers tomorrow morning to demand a royalty from this Five-0 episode?

UPDATE VI: How can Kono 2.0 get such great wireless connections IN THE MIDDLE OF NORTH KOREA? (NOV. 24 — watching again she may have been simply in a VERY REMOTE OF SOUTH KOREA JUST SOUTH OF THE BORDER, getting incredibly fast, real-time information about what was going on in North Korea.)

UPDATE VII: This episode would be so much more entertaining if Morton Stevens were still alive to do the score.

UPDATE VIII: McG is freed by his friends and Wo Fat is still at large. Despite the ridiculous elements (love how the Five-0 team waltzes into North Korea and Kono gets a great wireless connection), this was a pretty entertaining episode. Perhaps there should have been a “Special Thanks Lee Tamahori” credit.

UPDATE IX (Nov. 23): Mike Quigley, webmaster of a great Hawaii Five-O/Five-0 Web site has a very detailed review of this episode. He doesn’t like it, only giving it one-and-a-half stars on a scale of four stars. We recommend you check it out BY CLICKING HERE and scrolling down to episode 10 (of the second season).

Hawaii Five-O season 12 out on DVD in January

Season 12 of Hawaii Five-O, the last campaign of the 1968-80 show, is scheduled to come out on DVD on Jan. 10, according to the TV Shows on DVD Web site.

By this time, star Jack Lord as lawman Steve McGarrett was the only remaining member of the original cast still present. James MacArthur departed at the end of the 11th season. A new supporting cast was recruited, led by veteran character actor William Smith as James Carew, a cop looking for the men who killed his wife. Also on board was Sharon Farrell as Lori, the first Five-O woman officer. Prior to this, Five-O occasionally utilized policewomen working for the Hololulu P.D.

But there were notable returns. Composer Morton Stevens, who wrote the Five-O theme, was back scoring episodes after skipping the 11th season. Ross Martin, who had appeared in three season 11 episodes as a Hawaiian crime boss, was back in the role for two episodes in season 12. And Khigh Dhiegh as archvillain Wo Fat reprised the role one more time. The back of Five-O Season 12 box has at least three images from the episode, titled “Woe to Wo Fat.”

Most season 12 episodes don’t receive good reviews on the Web site of Five-O expert Mike Quigley. Hard-core Five-O fans, we suspect, will still seek out the DVD set.

Here’s the final scenes of the series, with Morton Stevens supplying the music.

Hawaii Five-O season 11 DVDs go on sale Sept. 20, CBS says

CBS has started running ads saying the Hawaii Five-O season 11 DVD set will be out on Sept. 20. Here’s one of them:

For the ad, CBS uses the 1:30 version of Morton Stevens’s theme music from the 1968 TV movie pilot. Anyway, we we’ve noted before, season 11 includes appearances by one-time TV spies Robert Vaughn and Ross Martin as well as former James Bond George Lazenby. Star Jack Lord, of course, was also the first screen Felix Leiter.

Here’s the introduction (with German titles) for the first episode of season 11, “The Sleeper”:

UPDATE: Mike Quigley’s Five-O Home Page says, based on a version now available on Netflix, that one season 11 episode, The Execution File, has been stripped of a Rod Stewart song (presumably for music rights reasons). You can check out his report BY CLICKING HERE and scrolling down to the July 4 update. The Web site also has a comparison of the original and Netflix version that you can check out BY CLICKING HERE.

Quigley’s report says the two-part episode Number One With a Bullet, based on the Netflix version, does retain a number of disco songs. They’re actually important to the story, which is about a conflict between Hawaiian and Mainland gangsters for control over Hawaiian discos. Here’s the start of that story, once again with German titles and this time with German dialogue dubbed in.

UPDATE II: Mike Quigley’s site says the original disco music was DROPPED for Part II of Number One With a Bullet while retained for Part I. For details, just CLICK HERE.

CBS promises better quality on remaining Five-O DVD sets

There’s still no official release date for the Hawaii Five-O season 11 DVD set, even though you can pre-order it on Amazon.com. But CBS promises any remaining Five-O DVD sets (only two seasons are left) will have better quality than the season 10 set that came out last year.

The company commented on the Home Theater Forum and said the following:

CBS Home Entertainment appreciates its dedicated fan base and values consumers’ desires to communicate and share information about its properties. For the remaining seasons, we will make every effort to achieve the same quality standards of seasons 1 through 9. We look forward to your continued interest in “Hawaii Five-O.”

That was a reference how the season 10 set episodes were not digitally remastered, unlike the previous nine season sets. That in turn stirred a lot of negative consumer reaction such as Amazon.com’s customer reviews for the set.

Season 10 had both Maud Adams and Luciana Paluzzi as guest stars in episodes and thus was of some interest to 007 fans. The season 11 set has former Bond George Lazenby in the season’s final episode as well as participation by former TV spies Robert Vaughn and Ross Martin (the latter in three season 11 episodes). It’s also has James MacArthur’s final series appearance. Jack Lord’s McGarrett would go Danno-less in its 12th and final season.

(Also here’s a shoutout to Mike Quigley’s Hawaii Five-O fan page, which tracks all this quite closely. It’s also where we discovered what we linked above. That page says there are rumors the season 10 consumer reaction delayed the season 11 release, originally set for last month.)