196. You remind me of a chap I once served with in the Sudan, Binky Sliberton.

196. "The Theme from Magnum P. I." by Mike Post

After Hawaii Five-O ended in 1980, there was a huge gaping whole in the Hawaiian TV theme song industry. Fortunately, in that same year, Mike Post was able to fill that void with "The Theme from Magnum P. I."



From 1980 to 1984, this show was appointment television for me--every Thursday at 9:00 for 81-82 and 8:00 for 83-84. I always got a massive jolt of car envy every time the Ferrari peeled out in the opening sequence. (That Ferrari is STILL my dream car.) The day we pulled out the pep band sheet music for this song was one of the happiest days in my high school life. I liked this song so much that I even bought an album with a collection of six Mike Post TV theme songs just so I could listen to this song whenever I wanted. The album included:

A1 Theme from Hill Street Blues
A2 Theme From The Greatest American Hero (Believe It Or Not)
A3 Theme From White Shadow
B1 Theme From Magnum P.I.
B2 School's Out (From Richie Brockelman Private Eye)
B3 Theme From The Rockford Files

While I liked the White Shadow and Rockford File songs, the others were "Eh…"--especially the theme song to "Richie Brockelman Private Eye," which is probably the most forgettable of all of the Rockford Files spinoff shows. The best part of the opening credits for that show is watching Richie wreck his red convertible Mustang in the sand (which explains why Ford wanted to be a sponsor of the show) and then walk away with just a sore arm.

 

I still watch Magnum P. I. reruns today, and I still enjoy hearing the opening title song. Some are episodes that I'm seeing for the first time. That's because the series ran until 1988, and my mission president didn't allow us to watch Magnum P. I. while I was there from 85-87. Apparently, he didn't find the show to be as inspirational as I did. And I didn't have a TV at Ricks College in 87-88. So there's still lots of Ferrari-lusting fun left for me. As I watch these reruns, I've found that in my older age my appreciation for the character of Higgins has grown tremendously. When I was in high school, I thought that Magnum was the funniest person on the show. But now that I'm so much older, my sense of humor has become much more sophisticated, and I now see that Higgins was always the funniest one.