LOS ANGELES -- If you think “Magnum P.I.” got a little sexier after it moved to NBC, you’re right.
“It is sexier,” Executive Producer Eric Guggenheim says.
And, yes, the relationship between Jay Hernandez’s Thomas Magnum and Perdita Weeks’ Juliet Higgins has heated up.
“Some of the language has changed a little bit,” Weeks says. “It does feel like it’s sort of grown a bit.”
While the characters still squabble, there’s a different vibe that could surprise viewers.
Guggenheim says they hadn’t thought of putting the two together until much later in the series’ run. “The chemistry between these two actors is just amazing and it was becoming harder and harder, honestly, to keep them apart.”
When CBS dropped the series, producers had an opportunity to regroup. Fans bombarded social media demanding the series return; petitions helped convince NBC to pick it up. And, then, the changes started to surface.
“It was a shock that the series was going to go away in the first place,” Hernandez says. “I was genuinely confused as to why that happened.”
The search for a new home began within minutes of CBS’s decision. “I was on the phone with John Davis, one of our executive producers, and John was like, ‘Don’t take another job. Don’t sign another deal. Let’s find a home for this.' And NBC stepped in immediately,” Guggenheim says.
Weeks was back in England when she got the news. “I’m kind of new to the American TV world and, as such, I’ve never heard of something like that happening,” she says. “I have been assured that it is unusual.”
Giving an old series new life, however, has been a way of doing business for the networks. Everything from “Beverly Hills 90210” to “Hawaii Five-O” has had an opportunity to recapture old glory.
Hernandez, however, knew stepping into Tom Selleck’s aloha shirts a handful of years ago wasn’t going to be easy.
“There’s such a heavy nostalgic element to Tom Selleck,” he explains. “I watched the show. I felt his charisma and understood why everybody loved him. But I wasn’t concerned with trying to replicate that because if that was the intention of the creators, they would sort of find somebody who was exactly like him.”
Selleck’s mustache was a key part of his character. Hernandez thought it might have to stay but, quickly, producers assured him it didn’t have to be a trait of his Magnum.
Then, once the series gained traction, fans started yelling, “Magnum,” when they saw him on the street. Now, he’s Magnum for a new generation.
When it was cancelled, Hernandez noticed viewers were focusing on its messages of family and positivity.
“Those sort of things really speak to people in these times that are so complicated and divisive,” he says. "Ohana" wasn't just a buzzword.
Hernandez and Weeks have become so fond of filming in Hawaii they couldn’t imagine cutting ties and moving on to something else.
Weeks, in fact, takes a swimsuit wherever they film so she can “nip into the sea for a dip.” And Hernandez has realized how calming surfing can be.
“Oftentimes, we’ll find ourselves in a location and it’s just breathtaking,” he says. “I got into surfing two years ago and it changed everything for me because it expands the realm of possibility. I get in the water more…and it is a special place, for sure.”
“Magnum P.I.” begins its run on NBC Feb. 19.
