Created by Donald P. Bellisario
H.H. FLYNN is one of a handful of P.I.s on this site who don’t really exist. He was the hero of a script by TV writer Donald P. Bellisario for a pilot for a TV series that was never made.
In Bellisario’s original script, Flynn was a high-priced Los Angeles Vietnam vet turned private eye, who lived in the guest house of a Bel Air mansion, owned by a millionaire celebrity florist (Hey, it’s Hollywood!), and had offices on Rodeo Drive. He hung out in a bar with two fellow vets with whom he’d served: Rick, who had a thing for Humphrey Bogart and owned the bar, and T.C., a freelance helicopter pilot. And Flynn would often borrow the florist’s Ferrari when working cases.
Starting to sound familiar?
But nobody was interested.
Meanwhile, Bellisario’s boss, hot shot TV producer Glen A. Larson, best known for Battlestar Galactica and Knight Rider, had been approached by CBS to create a detective show called Magnum, to be set in Hawaii and to star Tom Selleck, who they had on contract. This new show would take advantage of the considerable investment in the studio CBS had built during the filming of Hawaii Five-O, which was winding down.
Larson’s script featured a former CIA James Bond-type who lived in a house on a cliff, guarded by a ferocious attack dog, and flew a hang-glider with machine guns on the wings.
Selleck was not impressed, and even Bellisario later admitted “it was not the best script I’d ever read.”
He had an idea, however. He dusted off his old script for H.H. Flynn, and combined in with Larson’s script, and Magnum P.I. (1980-88) was born.
Now that show, you might have heard of.
Bellisario and Larson ended up splitting the creative credit.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Not Quite Ready for Prime Time
P.I. Pilots That Didn’t Fly & Spin-offs That Didn’t Spin.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
