Steve McGarrett
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Steve McGarrett is a fictional character in the long running crime drama television series Hawaii Five-O. McGarrett was the lead character in the series with a regular supporting cast. Throughout the series he was a fictional police officer. Before the series started he was a Naval Intelligence officer with two presidential citations. McGarrett was appointed the command of a fictional state police force for the state of Hawaii, known as Five-O. It was named for Hawaii's status as the 50th state. McGarrett was appointed to his job by Governor Paul Jameson (Richard Denning) sometime prior to the events in the pilot film. McGarrett's job was to lead Five-O against organized crime, murder, foreign agents, and felons of every type, as well as dealing with the occasional state wide disaster.
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[edit] His Top Aide
McGarrett (Jack Lord) ran a four-to-five-man police force. Five-O did however borrow other local police officers as needed. One of McGarrett's most defining relationships was with his right-hand man Danny "Danno" Williams (James MacArthur). McGarrett nicknamed him "Danno" and many episodes ended with McGarrett saying "book 'em Danno", words that are then followed by the naming of a criminal offense. Those words became one of the show's most popular catch phrases. Another popular catch phrase was McGarrett saying "Okay, what have we got?" This meant that he was thinking about the facts and was beginning to formulate a solution to the episode's mystery. McGarrett's style of leadership was a tough no-nonsense one with an insistence on whatever it took to get the job done. One episode has him saying to Danny Williams "how much do you know about hang-gliding Danno?" Williams replied, "Nothing, Steve." McGarrett says "Oh, how'd you like to learn?" Williams replies, "Do I have a choice?", to which McGarrett replied, "No."
[edit] His Adversaries
Another of McGarrett's most defining relationships was with his number one adversary, the Chinese spy and later terrorist Wo Fat. Wo Fat, as far as is known, began his criminal career as the head of Red China's entire spy operation in the Pacific theater. Later he started acting on his own. Wo Fat became the leader of a Chinese secret society known as the Nine Dragons and plotted a coup against the Chinese government. McGarrett had eleven encounters with the criminal mastermind over the course of the series. The first one was in the Five-O pilot film Cocoon (H50 TV Movie) which was broadcast one week before the series started. The last one was in the show's final episode twelve years later. In between those two episodes, their encounters always ended with Five-O foiling Wo Fat's latest scheme, but never being able to arrest the man.
During those encounters McGarrett developed a strong, almost admiring, but still antagonistic relationship with Wo Fat. In the episode "The Nine Dragons," McGarrett read a letter sent after a major heist from a secure vault. He read the letter aloud to the Five-O team and said, "No signature, none necessary. Only one man could have planned this heist." To that Danny Williams replies, "Wo Fat". McGarret says "Wo Fat. I know his methods and the way that he thinks." Most of McGarrett's adversaries would be arrested and gone for good after one encounter. Only after eleven encounters and in the show's final episode was McGarrett finally able to arrest the criminal mastermind.
Although most of McGarrett's adversaries went down for good after one encounter, he had a few adversaries who challenged him and his Five-O unit several times. Wo Fat was the foremost of those recurring villains, but there were a few others. One of them was gang lord Honore Vashon (Harold Gould). He was the patriarch of a crime family who blamed McGarrett for the death of his son. Other recurring villains include a vicious gang lord nicknamed "Big Chicken" played by Gavin MacLeod, and Lewis Avery Filer, a con-man and disguise expert with a talent for escape, played by Hume Cronyn.
Other adversaries of McGarrett and the Five-O team include ganglords, fancy thieves such as a group that posed as Five-O, foreign terrorists such as the Japanese Red Army, serial killers, drug runners, hitmen, vicious small-time thieves, counter-culture terrorists, and the occasional vigilante whose brand of crime fighting makes them criminals. These villains were only seen once.
[edit] His Other Aides
Allies of McGarrett against these villains include Detective Kono and Chin Ho Kelly (H5O character). The two of them were from the early years. The murder of Chin Ho in a later episode bought out McGarrett's vengeful side. Later in the series McGarrett is joined by policemen Duke Lukela and Ben Kokua. He was also aided by medical examiner Doc Bergman and forensic specialist Che Fong, as well as a succession of secretaries.
[edit] Personal Data
Although McGarrett seemed to live out of his office, he did have occasional relationships with attractive women. He had never been married and none of his relationships seemed to last long; in fact, some ended tragically. McGarrett also had a friend named Hennessey from his Navy Intelligence days who was lost in the pilot episode, and a nephew who was lost in the show's first two-episode storyline. The mother of the nephew was McGarrett's sister, who lived in Los Angeles. McGarrett's key hobby was to indulge in a passion for sailing.
In the pilot, one character said that "McGarrett only takes orders from the Governor and God and sometimes even they have trouble." McGarrett also seemed to listen to the orders of the Navy when he was, from time to time, called back to service. One of those times resulted in another battle with Wo Fat. When McGarrett received these call-backs, Danny Williams was placed in charge of Five-O.
In FOB Honolulu (Part II), the Governor states the McGarrett went "to the Academy." This is presumably the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.
In the pilot McGarrett was asked why he became a cop. The only explanation that he provided was that he cares.
[edit] Comparisons with other fictional crime fighters
A regular and ongoing group of aides as well as a long a diverse group of adversaries gives McGarrett something in common with Dick Tracy, Steve Carella and Theo Kojak. Having another job where he also fights crime gives him something else in common with Dick Tracy. Detective Tracy was also a naval intelligence officer. McGarrett's relationship with the governor is similar to Batman's relationship with the police commissioner. His ongoing struggles with Wo Fat are similar to other detective/master criminal match-ups such as Sherlock Holmes vs. Professor Moriarty, Sir Denis Nayland Smith vs. Fu Manchu, Nero Wolfe vs. Arnold Zeck, and James Bond vs Ernst Stavro Blofeld.[citation needed]
In his role as a tough, incorruptible, no-nonsense, thoroughly dedicated commanding officer of an elite special investigative squad, McGarrett also resembles real-life law enforcer Eliot Ness whose exploits were fictionalized for the TV series The Untouchables. Leonard Freeman, the creator and producer of Five-O, also produced The Untouchables for one season several years before creating the Hawaii-set series.
[edit] Reasons that he is the Lead Character
Steve McGarrett was the only character in the series to appear in every episode including the pilot film. Jack Lord portrayed him in every appearance. That is unlike Danny Williams who was portrayed by one actor in the pilot and another for the rest of the series. McGarrett was clearly the brains of Five-O. He was the one who tells people what to do in a crisis, he was the one who does most of the sleuthing and he managed the arrests. For these reasons McGarrett is more the center of the action than the other characters.
[edit] Sources
- Adventure Heroes:Legendary characters from Odyseus to James Bond by Jeff Rovin published by Facts on File
- The Hawaii Five-O Homepage at MJQ.net
- The Hawaii Five-O season one DVD
