Death Wish on Tantalus Mountain (#98) -- After McGarrett reads off a litany of the difficulties and peccadilloes of Alex Pareno (Ricardo Montalban), his son Niki (Michael Margotta), and his finacee (Diana Muldaur), Dan Williams comments, "I wonder if they pray together?" This is a reference to a public-service advertising campaign of the National Council of Churches during the 1960s and 1970s which had as its slogan: "The family that prays together, stays together."
You Don't Have to Kill to Get Rich, But It Helps (#99) -- Sam Tolliver (William Shatner), accompanied by undercover Five-O man Ben Kokua, is breaking into the home of head villain William Speer (Ric Marlow). He uses a credit card (which does look very much like an American Express card) and quips, "Never without it." For years, the advertising slogan of American Express has been "Don't leave home without it."
Pig in a Blanket (#100) -- Drug user Culpepper (Dennis Redfield), in the hospital under pain medication after having fatally shot HPD officer Olena (Frank Atienza), is particularly giddy because the action of the pain medication has been enhanced by his heroin use. He describes the high he's on as "the friendly skies." That, of course, was and still is the advertising slogan of United Airlines, which provided "production assistance and financial consideration" for Hawaii Five-O, according to the disclaimer in the end credits.
The Jinn Who Clears the Way (#101) -- At the end, Jonathan Kaye reluctantly informs Steve of the reason why he must let Wo Fat go. Kaye says, "There was a U-2 incident--" McGarrett retorts angrily, "That was under Eisenhower!" The U-2 was a CIA spy plane, essentially a large glider with an engine, which flew at high altitudes and was used to take aerial photographs of communist military installations. On May 1, 1960, in the waning months of the Eisenhower administration, a U-2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the USSR. It had always been assumed that a U-2 hit by an antiaircraft missile would be destroyed and with it the pilot. But Powers survived and was used by the Soviets to embarrass the U.S.
I'm a Family Crook--Don't Shoot (#109) -- As Steve and Ben enter the ransacked office of mobster Shibata (Seth Sakai), Ben looks at the bullet-splintered door and says, "Looks like those pictures from St. Valentine's Day." McGarrett tells Ben, "We're going toget what they never got in Chicago...a conviction." They're both referring to one expression of the competition to dominate the mobs in Chicago during the Prohibition era. On St. Valentine's Day (Feb. 14), 1929, Al Capone's men lined up members of George "Bugs" Moran's gang against the wall of a garage and mowed them down with gunfire. The Capone men were dressed as cops; they were never brought to justice.
The Listener (#112) -- The psychotic (Greg Mullavey) who has bugged the office, home, car, and clothes of psychiatrist Dr. Eric Fowler (Robert Foxworth) calls himself Cerberus, referring to this canine guardian of the underworld as having fifty heads. Actually, the doggie which guarded the gate of Hell in Greek legend had only three heads, according to Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Cerberus also had the tail of a dragon. It was his duty to allow the spirits of the dead to enter Hades; unfortunately it was also his duty to see that none would ever leave. Hercules, in his Twelfth Labor, had to bring Cerberus up from the underworld, using only his bare hands, and take him to Mycenae. He succeeded, but Eurystheus, King of Mycenae, didn't want that puppy around, and Hercules had to take him back. On at least two different occasions, the fierce and intimidating dog was placated by an offering of cake.
Why Wait Till Uncle Kevin Dies? (#128) -- Undercover man Calvin Cutler (Lawrence Pressman) and villain Zachary Talbot (Murray Matheson) get into a quoting contest. Cutler responds to Talbot'scomment that he (Cutler) needs money with, "Did John Paul Jones need an ocean?" Talbot then says, "To quote a countryman of mine, 'Hope springs eternal in the human breast'." Cutler counters with, "Man never is, but always to be blest." John Paul Jones, of course, was the officer of the U.S. Continental Navy who distinguished himself against the British in both American and foreign waters during the American Revolution. He's the one who, when a demand that he surrender was made, responded with, "I have not yet begun to fight!" Talbot's countryman whose words are quoted by both Cutler and Talbot is poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744). The two parts of the quotation go together: "Hope springs eternal in the human breast:/Man never is, but always to be blest." The couplet is from Pope's An Essay on Man (1733-34), perhaps his most famous work. Titled an essay, it is a poem composed of rhyming couplets.
Talbot continues to wax eloquent in the episode. Under arrest and being frisked by Ben Kokua, he recites: "Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,/A hero perish or a sparrow fall,/Atoms or systems into ruin hurled--" McGarrett steps into the frame and finishes the second couplet: "And now a bubble burst, and now a world." Pope wrote that, too, and it also is from An Essay on Man.
Anybody Can Build a Bomb (#132) -- The controller of the atomic blackmail operation uses the code name Hermes I (played by Allen Reisner, who directed many episodes of Hawaii Five-O), and the alchemical symbol for mercury as an identifier. This most likely refers to that quality of the metal mercury which gives it an alternative name: quicksilver. Mercury is fluid at room temperature, and is very difficult to pick up and hold. We see at the end that, though Hermes I and henchmen are destroyed in the fiery airplane explosion, Mercury as a concept will continue. Mercury,or Hermes, is also the mythological messenger, with wings on his heels. What makes the use of "Mercury" in this episode more fun is when Professor Haig (Lew Ayres) calls Hermes I and tells him that McGarrett has just arrived at his home by saying, "The pigeon is in the coop. He arrived on wings of Mercury." Well, actually -- says the Five-O fan -- he drove up in a Mercury!
Try to Die on Time (#133) -- McGarrett, finding that a killer has fled the scene of his crime in an old-fashioned manner, remarks: "Escape through a dumbwaiter? That went out with Bulldog Drummond." Bulldog Drummond was a private eye character in 1920s British detective fiction created by "Sapper" (Herman Cyril McNiele, 1888-1937). According to Julian Symons in his history of detective fiction, Mortal Consequences, Bulldog Drummond stories were "markedly xenophobic, and full of cliches of phrase and situation. ...The plots are absurd, but undeniably have their ration of excitement."
Banzai Pipeline (#136) -- Looking at the surf breaking high, Roger McDivitt (Nicholas Hammond), the 'star' of the surfing film being made by his brother Rick (Perry King), says excitedly, "Hey, man! That's Victory at Sea out there!" Victory at Sea was a documentary television series in the early 1950s that told the story of the U.S. Navy effort in World War II combining actual combat footage with a stirring and classical musical score by Richard Rodgers. The opening titles came up over a stormy sea characterized by high waves.
At the film lab, Rick tells the lab's owner George Bole (Terry Plunkett) that his movie will be better than Endless Summer. He's referring to the lyrical and technically excellent surfing film made in the mid 1960s, which won wide critical and popular acclaim.
One Born Every Minute (#137) -- The truism that there are more than enough gullible people in the world for con men to fleece was best expressed in a phrase attributed to Phineas T. Barnum (1810-1891), the famous circus showman: "There's a sucker born every minute."
Death With Father (#139) -- The title is a twist on Life With Father, a book by Clarence Day recounting fond, if a bit eccentric, memories of his childhood. It was in part a fond portrait of Day's father. This episode is quite the opposite in that regard.
Mother's Deadly Helper (#142) -- This is a twist on a phrase common in the culture. Many mothers refer to their small children who are trying to be helpful but just not quite up to the task as "mother's little helper." The phrase has also been applied in advertising to various products designed to lighten housework (a probably impossible task). The Rolling Stones had a hit rock-and-roll song in the 60s called "Mother's Little Helper" which criticized those (mostly women) who use pills (Valium, etc.) to get through the day. Considering that most rock groups of the 60s were drug-besotted themselves, this is nothing more than the pot--not to mint a pun--calling the kettle black.
The Young Assassins (#145) -- Smug confrontational terrorist "Army" (Scott Marlowe) is on the CB radio to the governor telling him where a meeting to comply with his ransom demand is to be held. He has designated the site Combat Position D. The governor, stalling for time at McGarrett's behest, asks for clarification--was it D or B? "Army" says it's "'D' as in 'Dudley Do-Right'." Dudley Do-Right was an inept Canadian Mountie in cartoon segments which were part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. "Army" is likening McGarrett's efforts to find him and his cohorts to the bumbling efforts of Dudley Do-Right in fighting crime. (What Army forgot is that Dudley Do-Right, bumbling as he may have been, always got his man.)
Also in this episode, the governor makes this comment after hearing the taped ransom demand from the terrorists: "I've been dreading this since the Germans released the Palestinian commandos after the Olympics." He's referring to the Winter Olympics in Munich in 1974 where terrorists got into the Olympic village and murdered several Israeli athletes. The point he is making is that to yield to the demands of terrorists is to embolden them to more acts of violence.
A Gun for McGarrett (#154) -- At the beginning of the episode, McGarrett receives a plaque declaring him the "Man of the Year" of the "International Montaigne Society," which proves to be a fake organization. It's a way of getting a bomb into his office. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) established the essay as a literary form. He was one of the first humanist writers, advocating tolerance in a time of deep religious intolerance. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Montaigne believed that "the highest human wisdom and happiness...would be to know our exact duty to others and to ourselves. Against the glamour of public action he upholds private life as more demanding, for in it man needs virtue, not its semblance. Private life seeks man's most important knowledge: how to live in conformity with his natural condition. Through self-examination and self-control, it leads to moral independence." That sounds like McGarrett!
A Woman's Work is With a Gun (#160) -- This is a parody on an anonymous saying: "Man may work from sun to sun, but woman's work is never done."
Ring of Life (#162) -- McGarrett pronounces the five figurines of the Kashmiri Ring of Life--which have taken a tumble down a slope in their carrying case--safe from breakage. "Who've we got to thank for that?" Dan Williams asks. McGarrett says, "How aboutKrishna?" In the mythology of India, Krishna is worshipped as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, as well as being considered a god in his own right. Chief aspect of his place in the pantheon, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, is "the exploration of the analogies between divine love and human love." As a child, Krishna--like the Hawaiian god Maui--was a trickster. And like the Greek Achilles, he had a vulnerable heel which proved his undoing.
And the Horse Jumped Over the Moon (#164) -- The title comes from a nursery rhyme which we all know. Though in the rhyme it is the cow which jumps over the moon, the "horse" in the story is heroin, and "jumped over the moon" refers to the method by which the heroin was smuggled into Hawaii. A small private airplane picked up the drugs from the water, where they were dropped by an inbound ship. The "horse" then "jumped over" the security of the Coast Guard, HPD, and Five-O, being carried onto Oahu by a parachute jumper.
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