Just one problem with this article:

“I went to Honolulu three years ago for the purpose of setting a TV series there, and during an interview with Governor Burns, he told me about this unit. He gave me my series right there, something a little different than another Naked City or Dragnet, and with the faces of Hawaii I figured it would have a new look," says Freeman.

Obviously Freeman is bending the truth there. Governor Burns couldn’t have told him about this unit because no such unit existed then or now. I guess Freeman was really trying to “sell” the show to the audiences by embellishing things. In fact Freeman says in other interviews that they came up with the 5-0 moniker because Hawaii was the 50th state. So he’s basically contradicting himself. I do know that Governor Burns played a big part in helping get the show off the ground to be filmed in Hawaii. No doubt that played a great deal in Freeman making the Governor (Richard Denning) a fairly important part of the show, with McG answering directly to him.