Magnum, P.I.

Magnum, P.I. (1980)

412 mistakes in season 1

(12 votes)

China Doll - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: Waiting for the valet to bring the car in front of the King Kamehameha club, Magnum silently asks for the explanation from Mai Ling. Her hair is behind her shoulders as she sighs, and in front of her shoulders when she begins explaining about the deadly assassin with the kiddie decal. (00:26:00)

Sammo

China Doll - S1-E3

Character mistake: Rick is supposed to be at least competent in first aid, but there's a short (and awkwardly edited in) clip with TC trying to get up and groaning in pain where the taping around his torso is so loose he shouldn't have bothered at all. (00:25:10)

Sammo

China Doll - S1-E3

Audio problem: Sorting the whole 'protecting the vase' business when it's first brought up, Higgins asks "Is the vase Chinese?" The audio in the scene becomes really spotty, culminating with Magnum saying "Mai Ling" in audio, with Tom Selleck mouthing something else entirely. (00:17:40)

Sammo

China Doll - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: After Magnum bursts into a racially insensitive joke that amuses the minority player, he turns to his left obviously pleased with himself. Mai Ling is in a different position at the cut, and the hair disappeared from the front of her left shoulder. (00:16:50)

Sammo

Don't Eat the Snow in Hawaii - S1-E1

Factual error: Magnum manages to lure the dogs outside making them wail in pain as he plays a sound that greatly bothers them. As great and sensitive as dog hearing is, Magnum put in the sand past the perimeter wall of the mansion a little Sony Micro cassette recorder M-202 and played the sound off its in-built speaker. That would hardly produce, especially at that distance, an output worth the kind of reaction displayed here.

Sammo

China Doll - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: When Choi walks down the street narrowly missing Magnum, the same extras are recycled between shots, some of them like the woman with the blue shirt make some real slalom going constantly left and right on-off the sidewalk with no logic. (00:13:00)

Sammo

China Doll - S1-E3

Plot hole: Choi spends less than a minute inside the antique store. Magnum and Mai Ling left another minute earlier, tops - you could see Choi making his way to the store in the same street shot when M&M were leaving. And yet, TC's chopper is already passing over Choi's heads when he asks where the girl and her precious belonging are. Of course it makes no sense especially considering that TC had landed on a beach spot, tied down the rotor, argued with Magnum...it'd take minutes to take off, and Magnum and Mai Ling were in no rush at all, not making a run for it. (00:13:00 - 00:14:45)

Sammo

Magnum, P.I. mistake picture

China Doll - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: When Choi asks Ho about Mai Ling after exterminating all the tabletop curio in his path, miraculously the china by Ho comes back whole between shots. (00:14:25)

Sammo

China Doll - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: The Bruce Lee wannabe with the rub-on transfer on his hand breaks a vase punching a vase off a table when he gets inside the store. Ho (unlike the extremely squinty killer) barely blinks at that. He then breaks another vase and Ho this time freaks out, which is understandable, since somehow Choi produced a vase to knock from the same table he already cleared out of the first time. (00:14:00)

Sammo

China Doll - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: Magnum and Mai Ling come out of the "Treasures of the Dove", crossing paths with recognizable passersby such a woman with a long dress and a bag, and a guy that walks in with a big smile. Cut to the mysterious wing chun guy, and then there's a repeat of the previous sequence with a closer focus, same footage reused. (00:12:50)

Sammo

China Doll - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: Mai Ling walks back into the front of the store with luggage. In the wide shots of the store (the beginning and an intermediate) she has hair cascading in front of both shoulders, instead of just the left one. (00:11:20)

Sammo

China Doll - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: Magnum gets in the store and introduces "Uncle" Ho. When the two have the awkward lack of conversation at the counter, Ho's hand positions don't match between shots and their reverse, nor the movement he makes to change (for instance when Magnum suggests to "blink or somethin'", Ho is bringing his right hand across to the left corner, the next shot contradicts that). (00:10:10)

Sammo

China Doll - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: Mai Ling opens the door of the store with a big smile, and a roll in her right hand, kept vertical. Wider shot, and she has the roll in the other hand, and horizontal, until she switches, this time on camera. (00:10:40)

Sammo

China Doll - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: During the opening credits, two sailors are walking down the street. They pass the "Esquire book store" sign, and reach the "topless bottomless" one. Cut, and they have yet to go past the book store. Similarly, in POV the hooker offers her services, and behind her there's a burly guy with poofy hair and a yellow and white shirt. New shot, and the guy is several meters in front of her. (00:01:45)

Sammo

Don't Eat the Snow in Hawaii: Part 2 - S1-E2

Continuity mistake: When Magnum is in the airport lobby, extras are recycled continuously; look at the old man with a black and white pattern shirt, sometimes carrying a bag and sometimes with a woman in blue; he walks in the opposite direction than Magnum's in the first shot, reappears with a long delay and coming from the wrong side, then he is behind Magnum as he pushes aside the two Swedish stewardesses, then he's ahead of him, etc.

Sammo

Don't Eat the Snow in Hawaii - S1-E1

Factual error: Magnum phones Rick at his Casablanca-like establishment and tells him; "Two guys tried to run me off the Pali Highway. They deep-sixed about a mile past Lanai Lookout." Lanai Lookout is not on the Pali Hwy, it's 15 miles driving south off the east end of the highway, and Magnum was in the Nu'uanu part. (00:40:35)

Sammo

Mac: Time has little to do with infinity and jelly donuts.

More quotes from Magnum, P.I.
More trivia for Magnum, P.I.

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.