User Reviews

Chief Clifford is delighted to be going to a police convention in Hawaii, because it will get him away from McCloud... until, at the very last minute, McCloud finds out his office back in Taos is sending him to the same convention. Clifford tells McCloud it'll work out, as long as they avoid each other.

But then... a phone message, presumably from Clifford's EX-fiancee, who he hasn't seen in 20 years, lures him to a hotel, and the next morning, he wakes up on a beach next to a dead dancer. It's obvious to him and Sam that he's being FRAMED-- but by who, and why?

This episode is INTERMINABLE. Things move so slowly, are dragged out so long, so painfully, I'm not sure if this had been done as a 90-minute story if it would have worked. At 2 hours, it's excessively excessive, and my LEAST-favorite story among seasons 2, 3 & 4.

Sam spends nearly half the story just trying to talk to Clifford's ex, whose extremely-jealous business husband with political ambitions repeatedly has his paid thugs threaten, hassle, beat up and get beaten up by McCloud, and in the end, she STILL refuses to help the man who still thinks highly of her. Her husband, meanwhile, says he has a grudge against Clifford-- but under the circumstances, this is NEVER explained. The only thing I can figure, after watching this several times over the years, is that he was NEVER the man she left him for-- and in the long run, it led to her cheating on her husband with someone else.

That someone else, it turns out, has MOB connections... and set things up for the murder and framing... all to keep Clifford away from testifying against a NYC mob boss. It takes more than 3/4ths of the story before Sam & Clifford, together, figure this all out... but the path to get there, while filled with beautiful landscapes and lovely women, is a seemingly-endless dredge to sit through. Oh, well, things do get better next time.

The guest-cast this time includes Louise Lasser ("BANANAS", "MARY HARTMAN") as a NYC cop on vacation. My memory played tricks on me for many years. I thought it was Teri Garr-- it seems like it should have been her-- instead of this woman with the most annoying voice and personality in the history of Hollywood. There's also Richard Denning ("THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON", "MICHAEL SHAYNE", "HAWAII FIVE-O") as the jealous husband; James Gregory (an endless resume including "AL CAPONE", "STAR TREK", "BARNEY MILLER" and "BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES") as a fellow cop who's not what he seems; and singer Don Ho, essentially playing a fictional version of himself, who by the end of this story made me start to hate Hawaiian music.

The funniest moment in the story is when the local cop warns Sam that if he steps out of line, he'll make things VERY hot for him, and Sam replies, "Hey, I'm startin' ta feel right at home!"