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Magnum, P.I. Season 1 Episode 10

Lest We Forget

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 2/12/81

Magnum is hired by a Supreme Court nominee to find the woman he married on the eve of the raid on Pearl Harbor. He was a young Navy Ensign, she was a prostitute, and after their marriage they subsequently became separated in the bombings, with the Judge presuming her dead—until recently, after he started receiving blackmail threats relating to an incident 40 years ago.moreless

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Fan Episode Reviews (2)

A Supreme Court nominee employs Magnum to locate a former lover, who may be trying to blackmail him.

10

By nizhnykid, May 01, 2010

Though Magnum PI featured military themes and footage from its inception, "Lest We Forget" is the first episode of the series to relate, at length, specifically to World War II. The Magnum series was remarkably successful at appealing to a large and diverse audience of different generations, and part of this success was achieved by crafting the show's storylines around some of the defining events of those generations.

"Lest We Forget" is a great episode not just for the good acting, great comedy, and engaging plot typical of a classic Magnum episode, but for reminding us that Hawaii itself has a rich and romantic history that figured prominently in the course of the United States and the lives of many of its citizens. Unlike many of the action/detective television shows of the eighties (such as Miami Vice or Simon & Simon), or now for that matter (CSI: Anyplace), Magnum, PI spent many episodes developing its location--the island of Hawaii--as a main character with as much depth and personality as any of the supporting cast.moreless
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Magnum is hired by a Supreme Court nominee who gives him 24 hours to find the woman he married on the eve of the Pearl Harbour raid and was subsequently separated from, believing her to be dead. A cleverly structured and polished episode...moreless

9.5

By Jay-Spacedust, May 01, 2010

'Lest We Forget' is a particularly good first season episode of 'Magnum'. Although not containing as much action as I might ordinarily like, it is a very well written episode (it's penned by Donald P. Bellisario, so you wouldn't expect otherwise)!

It is an intriguing idea to have Jose Ferrer and June Lockhart's respective offspring, Miguel Ferrer and 1980's TV regular Anne Lockhart, play younger versions of themselves. I don't know if the idea had ever been used in a TV show or movie before or not, but either way, it is put to excellent use here.

(The same concept of father and son playing same the same character set years apart would be used again in the fifth season's 'Let Me Hear the Music').

As with many of 'Magnum's most successful episodes, the guest cast really help make the episode. The Ferrers and Lockharts really breathe life into their character, but also to spot is Scatman Crothers as piano player Tickler, and the gorgeous Elizabeth Lindsey – Miss Hawaii 1978 – as Kiki. Her ocean swimming grandfather Maku (Sonny Ching) is also a fun character.

There is a subplot involving Higgins being nice to Magnum, who he believes to be an expert bridge player, in return for T.M. making up the numbers in a forthcoming game. Although not the best structured Magnum-Higgins sub-plot, nevertheless it makes up for a few nice moments as Higgins goes out of his way to be nice to Magnum.

Also of note with this episode is the music – by this point, the standard Mike Post & Pete Carpenter scores were being phased in, and this episode has some really nice in-episode pieces.

One of the reasons that I like this episode is that it deals a lot with World War II. The series often went beyond the standard detective vs. bad-guy-of-the-week plots and come up with great stories revolving around such times in history, and this is one of the first examples of such.

In fact, I even sat and watched this episode on DVD with my (late) Grandmother, who loved anything set during the wartime and lapped it up; after that she became quite a fan of the series, but would never admit it!

Overall, this is a very good, and very polished, episode, with some fine writing and acting. Another first season great.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Tom Selleck	Thomas Magnum
Larry Manetti	Rick Wright
Roger E. Mosley	Theodore "T.C." Calvin
John Hillerman	Jonathan Quayle Higgins

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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June Lockhart	Diane Westmore Pauley (1981)	Guest Star
Anne Lockhart	Diane Westmore (1941)	Guest Star
Miguel Ferrer	Bobby Wickes (1941)	Guest Star
Remi Abellira	Moki	Recurring Role
Reri Tava Jobe	Hostess	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (4)
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- When Magnum is in the car outside of the hotel eating the lunch prepared for him by Higgins, he reads an article about Judge Caine, but in the close up, under the headline ("Local Judge Offered High Court Seat") you can easily read most of the article itself, and it's about something else entirely (a review about music performances).
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- Two shots of Diane's chauffeur, Dutch, fleeing in the limousine, are noticeably reversed back-to-front (the steering wheel incorrectly appears on the left-hand side, it should be on the right).
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- At the climax of the story, two of Rick's lines, "Now what's he trying to do" and "I thought I'm supposed to be the driver", are noticeably added in post-production (on the former, his mouth doesn't move in time with the dialogue).
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- In the scene with Magnum driving along with Kiki, just before the hitman takes a shot at them, notice the background noise changing slightly between Kiki's dialogue and Magnum's, where close-ups of the two were filmed separately and edited together in production.
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QUOTES (1)
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- (Higgins is being nice to Magnum, because he wants him to play bridge with him)
  Higgins: Put Magnum's bill on my tab. (bartender looks very surprised, hands up in the air in defense)
  Bartender: I always do.
  (Higgins is trying not to get angry at Magnum)
  Higgins: Tomorrow at three?
  Magnum: I'll try.
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NOTES (4)
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- The German episode titles are "Rückkehr von den Toten" ("Return of the Dead") and "Von den Toten auferstanden" ("Risen from the Dead"). The French title is "On n'oublie jamais", meaning "We Never Forget". The Italian title is "Per non dimenticare", an exact translation.
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- This episode is dated by a check that Judge Caine writes to Magnum, dated January 29, 1981 (about two weeks before this episode was originally broadcast).
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- The closing credits contain the credit: We gratefully acknowledge the U.S. Department of Interior for their cooperation during the filming of this episode.
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- In an intriguing piece of casting, both June Lockhart and Jose Ferrer play characters in the present day, and their actor off-spring—June's daughter Anne Lockhart, and Jose's son Miguel Ferrer—play the same characters in 1941. (A similar method is used in the fifth season episode "Let Me Hear The Music", where Dennis Weaver and his son Rustin play the same character, present day and 45 years previously.)
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ALLUSIONS (0)
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