TV SERIES · 1980– · USA
Magnum, P.I.
72 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
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Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV (Tom Selleck) was a Vietnam War veteran. At the time, Vietnam and its aftermath were still controversial. Magnum, Theodore "T. C." Calvin (Roger E. Mosley) and Orville "Rick" Wright (Larry Manetti) were presented as some of the first positive portrayals of Vietnam veterans on a television series.
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The series was originally to be set in San Pedro, California (near Los Angeles), but it moved to Hawaii when Hawaii Five-O (1968) ceased production in 1980, because CBS did not want to shut down its recently renewed Hawaii production offices and sound stages. This series began production that year and occasionally included references to Steve McGarrett and "Five-O," though McGarrett was never shown. Interestingly, something similar happened when this series ended, and Jake and Fatman (1987) was once again set in Hawaii so as not to waste its Hawaiian locations.
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Robin Masters, whose face is never seen in this series, was voiced by Orson Welles. The producers eventually wanted Welles to appear as Robin Masters's face, but he died in the sixth season before the series ended. In the seventh season, Magnum began developing the theory that Higgins was Masters. In the final episode, the real Robin Masters finally appeared.
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The colorful helicopter T. C. used for his Island Hopper charter service was a Hughes 500, a commercial variant of the Hughes OH-6 Cayuse developed for the US military. Several different helicopters were used throughout the series, including both the D series (T-tail) and C series (Y-tail) variants.
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Roger E. Mosley was a licensed private helicopter pilot, but he was not allowed to perform the flying. The pilot crew would take the other seat and hide behind him with a second set of controls for close-ups, then cut, land and the actors would get out so the pilot could perform the flight or the stunt. The pilot would also wear a muscular body suit to resemble T. C., if necessary.
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Both of Tom Selleck's wives, his then-wife Jacqueline Ray and his future wife Jillie Mack, appeared in this series. Selleck had grown apart from Ray and later divorced her, and he later met Mack during the series's run. Selleck's father Bob Selleck, his mother Martha Selleck and his adopted son Kevin Selleck made brief appearances in this series. In later seasons, a photograph of Selleck's parents could be seen on Magnum's bedside table.
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The series repeatedly took advantage of Tom Selleck's athletic ability. Throughout the series, Magnum tried out as a quarterback for a professional team, competed in a triathlon, raced in a surf ski competition, played in a professional tennis match, played shortstop on Robin Masters's co-ed softball team and took part in a two-man volleyball tournament. He also plays a casual game of basketball.
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Shortly after this series ended, Universal Pictures raised the idea of a feature film with the original cast. Tom Clancy wrote a script about Magnum's return to the Navy and his subsequent adventures. Universal ultimately felt that the original cast and Clancy's script would not draw a large enough box-office audience.
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Jonathan Quayle Higgins III has several illegitimate brothers who share his father, General Albert Stanley Higgins, but have different mothers. Father Paddy McGuinness is an Irish priest. Elmo Ziller is a Texas rodeo owner. Don Luis Mongueo is the royal heir to the throne of Costa De Rosa in South America. There are also Soo Ling (Chinese), Elizabeth Whitefeather (Native American) and Catoomba Noomba (African). Only Elmo, Paddy and Don Luis were actually seen; each was played by John Hillerman in dual roles and each was portrayed as an extreme contrast to Higgins's characterization.
- #028
From the third season onward, a model of the famous bridge built by British prisoners of war in World War II, as seen in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), can be seen in the background of Higgins's study. Higgins was a British prisoner of war. He helped build the bridge at the time. The model bridge was broken several times over the course of the series.
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Thomas Magnum resigned from the U.S. Navy in 1979 after twelve years of service. He said the reason was that he had reached the age of thirty-three before he had even turned twenty-three. He then began working as a private detective and in 1980 moved into the guest house at Robin's Nest at the behest of the womanizing author Robin Masters, where he also served as security consultant on the estate in exchange for living rent-free and using Robin's Ferrari 308 GTS. There are conflicting dates for Magnum's birthday, ranging from 1944 to 1947. Given that Magnum was thirty-three in 1979, 1946 appears to be the most likely birth year. Magnum was a Navy SEAL. He served in the Vietnam War and later in Navy Intelligence ('NIA'/ONI) after a spell in a V.A. hospital. Magnum had lost his younger half-brother in the war and also believed he had lost his wife Michelle, who appeared several times in the series.
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Magnum's full name is Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV. His hometown was in Virginia's Tidewater region (thought to be Hampton Roads). He held the rank of Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy when he resigned in 1979. In the second season Magnum was recalled to service with the rank of Commander (skipping the rank of Lieutenant Commander). He was also briefly recalled to service in the sixth season. Magnum's father, Lieutenant Thomas Sullivan Magnum III, U.S.N., was a naval aviator killed in the Korean War in 1951. Magnum's grandfather, Captain Thomas Sullivan Magnum, Jr., U.S.N., appeared in the eighth-season finale.
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When Magnum's misfortunes brought trouble to the Robin Masters Estate, Higgins armed himself with a British Webley Mk-VI.455-caliber revolver. It was a standard British military weapon in both World Wars, so it is reasonable to assume it was Higgins's personal weapon from his time serving in the British Army during World War II.
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Along with his signature Detroit Tigers cap, Magnum also wore a U.S. Navy cover. The name and logo belonged to VMO-2, a unit stationed at Da Nang Air Base, a U.S. military complex in Vietnam during the war. This is the name of Marine Observation Squadron 2, which was based in Da Nang, Vietnam, from 1965 to 1971. He wore that cover as well.
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In an interview, Gerald McRaney said that before landing his role on Simon & Simon (1981), he auditioned for a part in the pilot episode. McRaney later played his Simon & Simon character in a crossover episode. He then portrayed General Patton opposite Tom Selleck's General Eisenhower in Ike: Countdown to D-Day (2004).
- #044
The original theme was written by Ian Freebairn-Smith and lasted only eleven episodes. It was replaced by the iconic theme by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter. The new theme received two minor reworkings, for the second and third seasons, and was then kept for the rest of the series. A one-off reworking of the theme was used for the fifth season, third episode, "Mac's Back."
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Thomas Magnum's weapon of choice was a Government model Colt 1911 A1.45 caliber semi-automatic pistol. When needed, he usually carried it tucked into his waistband, a practice also known as "Mexican carry." The Colt 1911 A1 was the standard U.S. military pistol during the Vietnam War, so it is reasonable to assume it was his personal weapon from his Navy days.
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An episode set to be filmed in Hong Kong was planned for the seventh season but was ultimately cancelled. Instead, the seventh season's first and second episodes, "L.A.," were filmed in Los Angeles, California. Although the series had scenes and episodes set around the world (France, Italy, Northern Ireland, Mexico, "Costa de Rosa," Kenya, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan), the only other filming done outside Hawaii was for the sixth season's first and second episodes, "Déjà Vu," shot in London, England, and the surrounding countryside.
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Like most pilots, this series' pilot episode was shelved for a time. Its writing date can nonetheless be determined from various references. There are numerous references to 1940/1941 being thirty years earlier (a sunken Japanese Zero from Pearl Harbor is thirty years old), and a Navy officer says he served in three wars within thirty years, which would have been impossible after 1975. Finally, a character is nineteen, married at eleven and served as a drug lord's badge in the 1960s. All of this points to the pilot being set in the early 1970s.
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