Hawaii Five-0 in the Media

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  *  In the episode of the British show New Tricks entitled "In Vino Veritas" (Season 11), the barkeeper recognized the detectives and asked, "Five-0. Right?" Throughout New Tricks, Detective Gerry Standing (Dennis Waterman) drove a 1977 Triumph Stag bearing the license plate "VTU 50IR." When this was coupled with the fact that the series included major characters with the names Jack (Halford portrayed by James Bolam), Steve (McAndrew portrayed by Denis Lawson), and Danny (Griffin or Gryfon portrayed by Nicholas Lyndhurst), it is easy to think person or persons associated with New Tricks just might have been fans of Hawaii Five-0.

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  * The Five-0 theme song was heard in the Australian movie, The Dish (2000). Set in 1969, in Parkes, New South Wales, Australia, The Dish was based on a true story. There, a huge satellite dish was erected to broadcast the Apollo 11 lunar landing. A few nights before the scheduled landing, a celebration was held with the American ambassador (John McMartin, who portrayed Commander Ron Nicholson in "F.O.B. Honolulu", Season 3) in attendance. The American national anthem was announced; however, the teenage boys comprising the small band, which was supposed to play it, did not know the anthem. Instead, they played the theme to Hawaii Five-0! Afterwards, the mayor of Parkes apologized for the mix-up, but the ambassador only laughed and said, "Sometimes, I wish it was our anthem." 

 * Blue Bloods seemed to have been influenced by Hawaii Five-0. Consider the character names: Jack, Garrett, Danny, and Jameson. And that's not all. Episodic themes seemed to have been inspired by Hawaii Five-0, as well. A diamond exchange was robbed in "Officer Down" ("10,000 Diamonds and  Heart", Season 3). A football player raped an unsuspecting and somewhat naive young woman in "Privilege" (on Hawaii Five-0, three football players gang raped an unsuspecting and somewhat naive waitress in "A Touch of Guilt", Season 8).

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 * At a televised PBS fund-raising, entitled 60s Pop, Rock & Soul, the theme from Hawaii Five-0 was played by The Ventures and the program’s orchestra. During the song, scenes from the opening sequence were shown. Whenever  an image of Jack appeared, the audience cheered and applauded with great gusto. It was a wonderful salute to the star of Five-0, a man who was a generation older than most of the artists featured on the program. 

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 * "Book 'em, Danno" was spoken on the NCIS episode "Capitol Offense" (Season 6). Forensic scientist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) gave the order after determining that Detective Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) had stolen a cupcake given to her as a thank-you gift by Detective Ziva David (Cote de Pablo).  

 * While making an arrest in NCIS episode "Power Down" (Season 7), Special Agent in Charge Gibbs (Mark Harmon) said, "Book 'em, DAN-ozzo" to which Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) replied, "Nice Hawaii Five-0 reference, Boss." In a certain sense, this episode was a tribute to Hawaii Five-0 and other shows of its era. When counter-intelligence knocked out the power to Maryland, Virginia, and the District, the NCIS detectives were required to solve the case in the time-honored way, by going through boxes upon boxes of financial records and fingerprints and by pounding the pavement. At first, they were grumbling, but when they managed to solve the case, they felt a sense of reward and satisfaction they had not known before.

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*  A rock musician served mushrooms that were thought to have killed a fashion model in the Blue Bloods episode "Model Behavior." When Detective Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) suggested that the musician killed her to put the lyrics of a new song at the top of the charts, the musician replied, "That would be number one with a bullet." The phrase "number one with a bullet" was used in the two-part episode of Hawaii Five-0 "entitled Number One with a Bullet" (Season 11).

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 * Numerous references to the Five-0 team and McGarrett were made on Magnum, PI. The first occurrence was in the pilot episode, "Don't Eat the Snow in Hawaii." Two thugs chasing Magnum in their car went over a cliff and burned. Magnum said that, rather than stay and spend hours explaining it all to Five-0, he crept home at 35 mph. It should be noted that Magnum, PI’s creator and executive producer, Donald Bellisarius, tried to get Jack to appear on Magnum, PI, but Jack declined.

 * A British columnist, writing about struggles in Parliament, wrote, "Do you remember the canoeists at the end of TV's Hawaii Five-0? Every week we saw them in the closing credits surging toward the beach. Every week the poor souls were no closer to land. All that effort for so little gain! Maddening. Yet they pressed, morale undimmed, an example to us all." (Letts, Quentin. "Clegg performs better than Lynne Featherstone. But then so does a hamster." Mail Online. December 2, 2010.)

*  Near the end of the last episode of Stephen Fry in America (BBC, 2008), the following exchange took place between the host (Fry) and his escort on Kaua'i.

     Fry:  Titus inveigles me to join up with some of his family for a quick paddle to his home on one of the most stunning beaches I've ever been to. It's quite hard to resist humming the theme tune from Hawaii Five-0, which everybody does, of course. It's a terrible cliche, but it's hard to resist.

     Titus:  No, that's it. That's what everybody can relate to. In the world, it's Hawaii Five-0 and canoe paddling, and . . .

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*  In the episode of Family Affair entitled “Marmalade” (Season 1, Episode 5), gentleman’s gentleman Mr. French (Sebastian Cabot) ends the episode by saying, “What is fame but an empty bubble?” after declining to become the proper English spokesman for a marmalade. At the end of the Hawaii Five-0 episode, “A Bird in Hand . . .” (Season 12), McGarrett said, “What is fame? An empty bubble.” His recitation was the correct quotation by R. Priest.

*  Family Affair was produced by Don Fedderson Productions, which, in the early 1960s, produced a half-hour dramatic series entitled Tramp Ship. The series, which followed the activities of a modern tramp ship’s captain, mate, and passengers, was based on Jack’s idea and writing about his own experiences at sea. Sadly, the series failed to be picked up by a network.

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*  In the episode of Longmire entitled "Highway Robbery" (Season 4), Sheriff Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) recited the line of poetry by John Donne that McGarrett recited in "Just Lucky, I Guess" (Season 2): "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind."

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