Hawaii : Hollywood Meets Hawaii 5-0

By David Ellis

We told you here some fifteen months ago that Hollywood was toying with a re-make of one of the most popular TV detective series ever, Hawaii Five-O that was filmed for twelve years from 1968, and which 30 years later is still on TV screens around the world today.

What we didn’t know at the time was that it would be an Australian, Alex O’Loughlin who would be chosen to play the part of “the new” Steve McGarratt – son of the original Steve McGarratt (played by Jack Lord) and who inherits his father’s role as head of an elite crime-fighting unit that’s responsible only to the Governor of Hawaii.

The first of the new series debuted in the United State four months ago, exactly 42 years to the day from when the original first went to air on September 20 1968. Here it’s just started on Channel Ten, while it’s also being shown in Canada and Europe.

And while there are all the old names – McGarrett, side-kick Danny “Danno” Williams, officer Chin Ho Kelly, the Governor (this time a lady,) and of course the evil Wo Fat – don’t expect it to be all like the original: this series has more biff and bash to it, with the young McGarrett far more physical than his famous dad.

And to appeal to those with fond memories of the original series, it was decided to update the hugely popular 1960s surf-pounding theme music with the help of a synthesizer. But when this was released online to gauge listener reaction, it bombed so badly that CBS reverted to studio musicians – including three who’d played the 1968 version – to re-record the original exactly as it was scored, but shortened to 30-seconds.

They also found the monstrous gas-guzzling 1974 Mercury Marquis Brougham driven by Steve McGarrett throughout the 1968-1980 series, and in the new series have young Steve discovering the car stored in a garage and deciding to restore it.

And of course every new episode simply has to end with McGarrett directing his side-kick to “Book ‘em, Danno.”

CBS hired veteran writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (“Transformers,” “Mission Impossible” and “Star Trek” amongst others) to write the pilot episode for the new series, and retained them to both write and co-produce with Peter M. Lenkov the twenty-two episodes it planned.

After searching around for a new Steve McGarrett it offered the role to Alex O’Loughlin, even though the 34-year old Aussie had had two other US TV series flop – and admits to playing bit parts for as little as $15 an hour before landing the plumb Hawaii Five-O lead.

But it seems he needn’t worry about this one bombing: it’s watched weekly by over 10-million loyal viewers in the US.

O’Loughlin’s story is almost a-kin to how Jack Lord landed the original Steve McGarrett role.

"They’d offered it to Richard Boone and Gregory Peck who both declined,” he told me back in 1990 over a long lunch at one of his favourite Chinese restaurants at Honolulu’s Diamond Head. “They asked me to cast for it on a Wednesday, told me on the Friday I’d got the role, and after I’d sweated over the script on a weekend flight to Honolulu, we were shooting the first episode on the Monday…”

Jack Lord and wife Marie moved permanently from Beverly Hills to Diamond Head and he was the only actor to play in all 278 episodes of the original Hawaii Five-O. And while today’s new-series cast is an all-professional one, the original had a number of Lord’s mates act-out roles just for the fun of it. They included full-time police officer Kam Fong who played Five-O team member Chin Ho, and a Waikiki beachboy and local DJ named Zulu who played another team member.

Jack Lord’s surprisingly impish sense of humour was also behind producers agreeing to have Chin Ho so-named – because that was the name of another of Lord’s mates who then-owned the Ilikai Hotel on Waikiki, while Wo Fat was named after another favourite Chinese Restaurant in Downtown Honolulu (and still there today.)

Finally Hawaii Five-0 was not a play on some regular or even secret Hawaii police unit or department. It was simply in deference to Hawaii being America’s 50th State.