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MAGNUM, P.I.: J "DIGGER" DOYLE (TV)
Summary
One in this detective series set in Hawaii, starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a former naval officer turned private investigator. In this episode, the mysterious Robin Masters is ambushed in his car in France, but manages to escape. The thieves, seeking the tapes with the dictation of his latest novel, are unsure of at which of his multiple properties Masters has stashed the recordings. In Hawaii, Magnum goes for a morning jog and spots a pretty woman, whom he sees again when he joins Rick for breakfast. Rick tells Magnum that she is Joy ‘Digger’ Doyle, an unfriendly archaeologist, but Magnum wins her affections when he engages her in a surf-ski race. She offers him a ride home, and he notes that she has the same car as the one he is borrowing from Masters, and she is intrigued that he lives on the author’s estate. Apparently starstruck, she asks to see the home. Elsewhere, on a plane, Masters finally gives the pilot a destination, heading for the hidden tapes. Higgins speaks with Masters on the phone and is unimpressed when Magnum arrives with Joy and requests to give her a tour, but they are both taken aback when she pulls a gun on them both and reveals herself to be an agent working for a private security company called StarGuard, hired by Masters himself to test his home’s defenses. She explains the situation, but Magnum is frustrated with her lies. TC arrives and is equally annoyed when he is chased up a tree by Zeus and Apollo, further proving the estate’s poor security by entering unnoticed. Joy declares that their alarm system is out of date and has been tampered with, and she requests that Magnum, Rick and TC use their military experience to protect the estate until Masters’ tapes are securely in his editor’s possession. TC balks at the offer at first, saying he has been hired by a wealthy tourist family to give them a seven-day tour, but Magnum manages to scare them off by pretending that TC is a terrible pilot, and he gives in.
Joy conducts a meeting with the men and describes her strategy, doling out assignments to everyone except Magnum, who then tests her by calling her superiors to verify her identity. In his car, Higgins begins to record a message to Masters, saying he is resigning out of shame over Robin’s Nest’s lax security. He sees a woman run off the road and rushes to help, but he is then captured by the criminals pursuing Masters. He is taken to a compound and tied up, and though he seems unafraid, he is soon dosed with a “truth serum” and interrogated, although he tells them nothing useful. Back at the estate, Magnum wonders about Higgins’ whereabouts, and Joy tell him about her father’s influence on her career, saying he would not have approved of her flirting with Magnum to get the job done, but admitting there was a genuine attraction, which he returns. They soon discover that Higgins left the tape recorder running in his car when he was kidnapped and narrated his location, and they track him to the headquarters of a company called Laseronics, perched high on a hill. Magnum and Joy employ TC’s helicopter and climb down the hill to the building, where they find a drugged and loopy Higgins and attempt to smuggle him out. They are caught, however, and just barely escape over the hills as Higgins annoys them both with his intoxicated ramblings about his army days.
Back at home, they find out that the tapes are indeed stashed at the Hawaii estate and that Masters is on his way, and the president of StarGuard, David Clark, arrives. Magnum realizes that Masters’ new book concerns lasers and that StarGuard also protects the president of Laseronics, and he begins to suspect Joy, although she denies any involvement. Rick, posted at the front gate, observes a “survey crew” setting up on the street and knows it is the criminals, and they soon begin firing on one another. Masters arrives and enters Robin’s Nest, and Clark reveals himself by demanding the tapes—but it is Higgins, serving as a decoy as the real Masters departs safely with the recordings. Later, Magnum and Joy’s romantic moment is interrupted by Higgins, who says that Clark’s associates were arrested and the tapes are safe with Masters’ editor, and Magnum reveals that he had the tapes all along, stashed along with his music collection, which leads to another long story from Higgins’ past. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: April 9, 1981 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:49:49
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:11182
- GENRE: Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/private detective
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1980-1988
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Donald P. Bellisario … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- J. Rickley Dumm … Producer
- Gilbert Shilton … Associate Producer
- Glen A. Larson … Created by
- Winrich Kolbe … Director
- Mike Post … Music by
- Pete Carpenter … Music by
- Tom Selleck … Cast, Magnum
- John Hillerman … Cast, Higgins
- Roger E. Mosley … Cast, TC
- Larry Manetti … Cast, Rick
- Erin Gray … Cast, Joy 'Digger' Doyle
- Stewart Moss … Cast, David Clark
- Jacquelyn Ray … Cast, Lisa
- Orson Welles … Cast, The Voice of Robin Masters
- Ric Marlow … Cast, Rene
- Dean Wein … Cast, Ticket Agent
- Philip Bancel … Cast, Charles
- Patrick Bishop … Cast, Attendant
- Diane Crowley … Cast, Mrs. Blaisdell
- J.D. Jones … Cast, Pilot
- Bruce Atkinson … Cast, Robin Masters
- Sherly Kaahea … Cast, Luana