Hi, I'm new here and I did try the search function to look this up (as well as outside of the forum).... I have been watching the show on Paramount this year. I had watched the show a little at various times, but hadn't regularly watched it until this year.
Anyway, is there a story to why Chin Ho was killed off? Was it just that he didn't want to do the show anymore? I really couldn't find any info on this and it was surprising to me...
Hi rickms and welcome!
The only I can tell you is to check out this page: http://www.fiveohomepage.com
This is Mr. Mike's Hawaii Five-O Homepage and was one of the first pages I found when MeTV began airing Five-O in 2017. It has a LOT of information and the reviews are to die for! They're funny! Mr. Mike did a great job and while you may not agree with everything in his reviews (there's points I disagree, but that's me) - they're still worth checking out.
He also has each episode on its own page including galleries (the galleries are my favorite!).
A Death In The Family can be viewed here: http://www.fiveohomepage.com/5-0log10.htm#238
His Comprehensive Index is a newer feature. It's here: http://www.fiveohomepage.com/comp-index.html
Hope this helps and welcome to the Forum!!
http://fiveohomepage.com/mahalocon.htm
When asked about his demise at the end of the tenth season in #238, A Death in the Family, Kam [Fong] said that he originally wanted Chin Ho to "retire gracefully," and fought the idea of having his character murdered. There was even talk of the production company suing Kam for breaking his contract! Then someone told him that it was an honour if you were a regular in a TV show and you were knocked off ... this meant that no one else could play your character. Later Kam said it was a Hollywood superstition that "if one of the regulars leaves, the show falls down." Someone in the audience said, "Oh, this must mean that everything after the fourth season [when Zoulou left] was no good!"
Interesting stuff!
Thank you both.
I have browsed the forum a little. Since I have seen episodes just once (for the ones that I have seen), I don't have association to jump into a lot yet, since it's hard to remember it all, but I am enjoying the show.
Your question has been answered in a most recent posting:
https://hawaiifiveo.org/forum/showth...ut-of-the-show
Yeah, I just saw that (It's been a minute since I have had a chance to visit here).Originally Posted by Mr. Mike
BTW, recently started the final season and once again, another departure, but with no fanfare (or tragedy). I know tv shows were a little different at the time, but wow.
As for the season, I wish the additional team member had a little more character. I mean, even for a show with dry, serious characters, they are rather generic.
Just did another rewatch of “A Death in the Family “. Every time I view it, I like it more and more, despite a few silly plot shenanigans in the latter half.
For me, it marks a brief return-to-form for the series, like a season 1 episode, with a fiery, angry, emotional and energetic performance from both Jack Lord as well as the 2 guest stars, Manu Topou and Rene Santoni, who play the villains. The scenes between McGarrett & Pahoa, McGarrett & Rego, and Pahoa & Rego all crackle with intensity. It had been a while since Lord gave such a strong, passionate performance, at least not in Season 10.
The episode is somewhat revolutionary because it was one of the first shows to ever kill off a beloved long-running character (so did MASH a few years prior), plus it introduced the Kumu storyline which continued in various season 11 and 12 episodes (ongoing storylines had not happened in cop shows prior nor again until Hill St Blues and Wiseguy in the 80s). It also featured a revolutionary sequence (for TV shows of the era) presented in a widescreen letterbox aspect ratio near the episode’s beginning, in which we see a police raid montage.
Another revolutionary aspect was the shocking season-ending cliffhanger itself, which certainly hadn’t been done before in a cop show. It’s also a rare later-season show where McGarrett and the bad guys go at each other in multiple scenes where they are in explosive confrontations.
Additionally, it’s one of 3 episodes in which we see McGarrett cry, the others being Season 1’s “Once Upon a Time” and Season 9’s “Man in a Steel Frame”.
Speaking of “Steel Frame”, “A Death in the Family’s” climactic showdown evokes a callback to “Frame’s” equally-thrilling climax in which McGarrett surprises a loved one’s killer at a beach house, chases him thru a forest on a beach and beats the crap out of him.
Another call-out here is the episode’s strong music score by Walter Scharf, which features a number of scenes with music sequences that enhance the intensity of key emotional moments, including the preview at the beginning, the opening arrest montage, Chin’s tension-filled interrogation, the shocking discovery of his body on the Palace footsteps, McGarrett’s subsequent emotional breakdown, his meet-up with Chin’s daughter after her arrival as they console one another and the scene’s transition to the grim details of his death from the coroner, and the beatdown at the end. Definitely a musical high-point of the season for me.
The episode also connects to a couple of earlier-season shows where we see Chin Ho’s kids, namely his oldest daughter (though she had a different name in Season 5’s “Engaged to be Buried”, if the character was even intended to be the same daughter as before).
Finally, McGarrett’s startling realization that he got Chin killed by letting him go undercover when he was too well-known is a fairly rare acknowledgment by Steve of a serious error in judgment. Even though Danno and Duke try to ease McGarrett’s emotional torment, it seems pretty clear that his guilt is well justified.
There’s so much for me to unpack from that episode that was relatively fresh new ground in an otherwise disappointing season. It remains a mystery to me as to why CBS doesn’t include it in their current remastered 209-episode TV syndication package, yet an handful of other lesser episodes are included from these last three seasons. For viewers discovering it for the first time on Me-TV+ and H&I, there’s no explanation as to why Chin Ho suddenly disappears from the show by season 11.
Last edited by JeffH; Yesterday at 09:58 PM.
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