A Kahuna places a curse on Rick and the King Kamehameha Club. Soon people get sick and die and a TV reporter sensationalizes what is happening and antagonizes Magnum. Episode aired Feb 19, 1981
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The Curse of the King Kamehameha Club is a fun episode to watch Scooby Doo episode. This episode is the Scooby Doo meets Magnum episode. There is a mystery curse, a death, and Rick gets sick just like the Saturday morning show. Of course Thomas Magnum does not believe in curses and the Mystery Machine is on the prowl. Magnum investigates the old land owner, a reporter, and the guy who gave the curse reminded me of a Saturday morning episode all I needed was some Captain Crunch. Of course just like the Mystery Machine Magnum came up with motive, logical deduction for what the curse really is and smooth move to solve the mystery. After Magnum talks to the Coroner he tells Rick’s doctor to check his potassium levels to which she asks why, implying she doesn’t understand why she should do it. This would have been checked automatically from the first blood test as a standard procedure and she should already know about it.
T.C. reads to Magnum out of a book on what a Kahuna (a Hawaiian word meaning priest, sorcerer, magician, wizard) and says, “according to legend, the only way to know for sure if someone is a Kahuna is by the presence of a ruby flash, detectable in the eyes”. In the final scene, Charlie has a ruby flash in his eye while talking with Magnum on the beach.
A Kahuna places a curse on Rick and the King Kamehameha Club. Soon people get sick and die and a TV reporter sensationalizes what is happening and antagonizes Magnum.
Elizabeth Smith and Manu Tupou both appear in this episode. They also appeared together in the Castaway Cowboy with James Garner. Gretchen Corbett (the reporter) had a recurring role in The Rockford Files, in which James Garner played a private detective. The first of very few episodes where the Robin Masters estate is not seen.
This is Gretchen Corbett’s (Christine Richards) first appearance in the series. She portrays a TV reporter in this episode and would later appear as a radio DJ (Holly Hudson) in Season 4 “The Look” (1983). She is the antagonist to Magnum in both episodes. One of the hallmarks of 80’s action/drama TV shows was their ability to mix and shift tones throughout the season. A prime example of this is the episode “The Curse of the King Kamehameha Club”, which if you can’t tell by the title, is one of the series’ less serious episodes.
There’s very little to recommend here save for the charming performances and great chemistry between series regulars Tom Selleck, John Hillerman, Roger E. Mosley and Larry Manetti. Even when this episode threatened to double down on dumb, these guys help to pull it back in line and make the whole ride a pleasant one.
This is the last episode where Ian Freebairn-Smith’s original theme for the series is used. Starting with the next episode, Mike Post’s and Pete Carpenter’s familiar theme, used on the end credits and in in-episode incidental music since “The Ugliest Dog In Hawaii”, takes its place on the opening credits.
The King Kamehameha Club is the private beach club managed by Rick, of which Magnum is a member and Higgins its director by proxy. A kahuna, a Hawaiian priest, places a curse on Rick and the club. Shortly thereafter a man dies while racing Magnum during a club-sponsored event.
There is a scene where Magnum and TC enter a sugarcane field during a harvest, when large sections of cane fields are set on fire. It is a very cool scene, especially if you haven’t seen something like it before.
There are peripheral characters whose importance to the story are not clear til later. One is a casual friend of Magnum’s who swims at the club, a humble Hawaiian named Charlie. Another is a pushy, sensationalist TV reporter named Christine. Third is Sidney Dolinger, the principal landowner of the King Kamehameha Club, who wants the land to stay in “the hands of all the people.” As much as a private club can benefit “all the people,” I suppose. Insert smirk.
Aggressive reporter Christine seems so determined to embarrass the club and bring it down. Her character was so over-the-top annoying, I found myself hoping she was guilty of something. The only thing left was for Magnum to actually connect her to the King Kamehameha Club, which he finally does. It wasn’t clear to me how she convinced the kahuna to place a curse on the club. I wouldn’t expect he could do it for money.
The only character left to explain is sage-like Charlie, who turns out to be the “magical Hawaiian” he seemed from the outset. The final scene is a nod to Hawaiian superstitions, as well as Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page.
The title refers to Kamehameha I or Kamehameha the Great, who conquered the Hawaiian Islands in the 18th/19th centuries and formally established the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1810. By developing friendships with the major Pacific colonial powers, Kamehameha preserved Hawaii’s independence. He is still honored over all of the rulers and historical figures in Hawaiian history.
Gretchen Corbett, who was a regular in The Rockford Files, guest stars as a pesky reporter, who in a major twist that Tales of the Unexpected would be proud of, is the perpetrator. Yes that’s right, there’s no real kahuna curse after all.
The ending was a bit supernaturalesque and would have made Black Mirror proud.
This is the final episode of Magnum to feature the famous Ian Freebairn-Smith opening theme, which kind of was a cross between CHiPs and The Love Boat. Still, a worthy theme.
