Hawaii Five-0 by Mark Evanier News From Me

For the entire piece: http://www.newsfromme.com/  BTW this post is a good example of why I value Mark Evanier's take on thing.

Mark Evanier:

I ran this on November 5, 2002 here, following a period when episodes of Hawaii Five-O (the original one) were turning up all the time on my TiVo. I actually liked the show, which is why I didn't block the TiVo from recording them and why I didn't just delete them unwatched. A couple of fans on the series however reacted badly to this piece, missing the part where I expressed my fondness for the early seasons, acting like I'd trashed an acknowledged television classic. I've watched more episodes since then and I stand by my list…but I must admit to more affection for the show when I don't see it too often…

My TiVo recently decided I must like old reruns of Hawaii Five-O and has been recording them whenever it has space available. In truth, my TiVo is wise, though a bit out of date. I did like Hawaii Five-O, at least for the first half of its 284 episodes. Along about its eighth year, it began to get a bit too repetitive. I also had a little problem watching its star, Jack Lord.

Mr. Lord, rumor had it, ruled his show with an iron fist and the belief that he was its one and only S*T*A*R. Such was his mania to preserve this reality that word began to leak, even while the show was up and operating, that its cast and crew seriously disliked the man who played Supercop Steve McGarrett. Writers and producers complained — within earshot of reporters — that he was rejecting scripts because they even slightly showcased other members of McGarrett's squad or didn't properly portray his character as brilliant, flawless and loved by women everywhere. Other cast members, sometimes anonymously, suggested the S*T*A*R had come to believe he was all that and more in real life. (Here's a link to an article that ran in TV Guide in 1971. For its time, it was surprisingly harsh about a major TV star.)

Ordinarily, I would not take such bad press at face value. But I ran into Jack Lord twice in bookstores, and heard tales from friends who'd also had the dubious pleasure. The way he acted — brusque and demanding, treating salespeople as servants to be ordered about — certainly made the reports easy to believe.