QUICK PLOT:
As Steve McGarrett, head of the Hawaii state police agency Five-O, investigates the death of an intelligence operative who he knew, he becomes romantically involved with the man's girl friend.
PLOT:
An American intelligence officer named Hennessey is seen floating in a sensory deprivation tank which is under the supervision of Wo Fat (Khigh Dhiegh). Hennessey has been there for almost four hours. He is taken out of the tank and a mask over his face is removed, along with some white material in his eyes, ears and nostrils. He screams.
The head of the state police force Hawaii Five-O Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) arrives at the Iolani Palace as a bus full of tourists is outside the place. Yankee Chang (uncredited) is the tour bus guide, telling the gawking Hawaiian-shirted people on board that the palace "houses offices of Governor, Attorney General, and State Police Unit Five-O." McGarrett is wearing a lei.
Almost immediately, McGarrett gets a call that Hennessey, who he knows, has been found dead at Hanauma Bay. He drives there to see the body, which is on the beach. Some swimmers found Hennessey, apparently drowned.
At Hennessey's apartment, an Asian man (Bill Saito) is snooping around. He rips some pages out of a memo book taken from a desk and sets them on fire. McGarrett arrives at the place and finds some fragments of these pages which weren't burned. The Asian guy tries to attack McGarrett with a knife, but McGarrett shoots him dead.
Two Intelligence agents, Miller (Andrew Duggan) and his superior Brent (Leslie Nielsen) show up and take over the investigation. When McGarrett balks at this, Miller says, "Everybody knows that Steve McGarrett only takes orders from the Governor and God. And occasionally, even they have trouble." McGarrett leaves, telling them "nobody backs me off a homicide on my beat." Miller cautions Brent, who has a hostile attitude, "That's no way to handle McGarrett."
At McGarrett's office we meet the Five-O team: Danno (Tim O'Kelley), Kono (Zulu) and Chin Ho Kelly (Kam Fong). May, the receptionist, is played by Mitzi Hoag. Kono reports that the night before, Hennessey had dinner with Rosemary Quong (Nancy Kwan), a graduate student from the University of Hawaii.
"Doc," the medical examiner (Neville Tarrant) reports to McGarrett that Hennessey indeed drowned. But the substance in his nose, ears and eyes is gutta-percha, usually used for temporary dental fillings.
McGarrett goes to the Intelligence office, and he is told that Hennessey will be buried the next day. There are still hostile vibes from Brent, especially after McGarrett tells him "You seem more interested in a quiet funeral than in finding out who killed your man."
Hennessey's service is at the National Memorial Cemetery and McGarrett is in attendance with the other men from Five-O. After the funeral, McGarrett is approached by Miller, who is kind of a "Mr. Safe/Mr. Strictly Second Banana" type of agent. He tells McGarrett that fingerprints confirm the man shot in Hennessey's apartment was an important Red Chinese agent. Miller says that recently other intelligence agents in major cities met mysterious deaths like Hennessey did. He describes Brent as "either a total incompetent or worse."
McGarrett goes to visit the Attorney General (Philip Ahn) to help get the body of Glen Anderson, one of the other dead agents, exhumed from where he is buried in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Back at the Five-O office, Danno is trying to make sense of the burned fragments which contain the word "cocoon" as well as what looks like "Arcturus." Kono reports that he found Rosemary Quong, who is in the lockup across the street with some "kooks" who were arrested for demonstrating against police brutality.
McGarrett goes to meet Rosemary and tells her he wants to make a deal for "some straight answers to some simple questions." Back at his office, Rosemary calls him "Mr. Fuzz," saying that she doesn't think the information she can provide about Hennessey will be useful. She mentions that the previous evening when Hennessey was at her place for a dinner she was making, he suddenly left after getting a phone call where she overheard him say "Yes, sir, the pier."
McGarrett suddenly has a brainstorm that words on the burned pieces of paper are S.S. Arcturus, the name of a ship.
As he leaves the office, McGarrett sees that he is being followed. In a classic scene, he calls for members of the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) to help him bust the guy tailing him (Baird Miller), who turns out to be another intelligence officer. Furious, McGarrett goes back to the local office where, after throwing another agent (William Boyett) across the room, he tells Brent "Don't you ever put a tail on me again."
McGarrett goes to see the port captain (Russell Thorson), who he has already spoken to. While touring the harbor, they see a steamship by the name of Arcturus which is kind of a "rust bucket." McGarrett asks how he could get inside, and the port captain says he will arrange for him to get a job doing repairs.
That evening, McGarrett hangs out on the beach with Rosemary. There is a romantic attraction between the two of them. She asks him "Why did you become a cop?" and he replies, "Why did you become a hippie?" They smooch.
The next day, McGarrett goes to work repairing inside the Arcturus. As the men break for lunch, McGarrett manages to hang back and then look around inside the ship, eventually finding the deprivation chamber or "cocoon."
McGarrett goes to report his findings to the Governor (Lew Ayres), who says that Brent is making trouble because of McGarrett's recent outburst. The autopsy for Anderson has come to the Governor's desk and mentions gutta-percha in the agent's eyes, nose and ears. McGarrett says "What we're dealing with here is murder, mass murder" and suggests that if they exhume the 20 bodies of the other agents, they will find similar evidence.
McGarrett describes the cocoon that he found inside the Arcturus. He says that this is an issue that is "too hot for Five-O to handle alone." The Governor agrees, saying "maybe too hot for any local agency," and puts in a call to Jonathan Kaye (James Gregory), chief of Pacific Operations, counter-intelligence, who works out of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Kaye arrives quickly and tells McGarrett that he has delivered "quite a bomb." Kaye says that aside from the gutta-percha, "every agent that died had one other thing in common, they all talked. All five, tested men of absolute dedication. Before they died, they spilled their guts, every code, every contact, every scrap of information."
Kaye goes on: "For some time now, we've suspected that the Chinese Reds had some kind of a brain drain, a doomsday weapon. From what you've uncovered, my brain boys have come up with a theory. So far all we can state with certainty is, we know what Chinese intelligence is after: 'Control,' the one man who knows every brick in the Pacific-Asiatic security wall. If they capture Control, that wall could be toppled overnight. Each agent drained has led them a step closer, and led them ultimately here, to Hawaii."
Kaye says that Control is not in Hawaii, but he wants "a special type of man" to stand in for him, someone who is "unbreakable, a man who refuses to be beaten." In other words, McGarrett himself.
With the help of Dr. Bernard (Noah Keen), who is accompanying Kaye on the flight, McGarrett will be programmed using "forced hypnosis." Bernard says that he can have McGarrett ready in 24 hours. Once he is prepared, McGarrett will respond to the word "control" by feeding the Chinese false information which will "blow their whole intelligence to shreds," and known double agents will be liquidated.
The next evening, McGarrett takes Rosemary on a date at a touristy night club where there is a hula dancer (Helen Torco) and a band (Sterling Mossman and the Barefoot Gang). He gets a call and ends up near the Arcturus where he is captured by men from the ship, as well as Miller, who he describes as a "dirty, double-dealing fink." (We have seen Miller at the very beginning of the show as well with Wo Fat, where his face was hidden.)
McGarrett is put into the deprivation tank for eight hours. When the mask and gutta-percha are removed and Wo Fat asks him for details about who is Control, McGarrett says that he is Control, and starts relating bogus information about agents that Bernard programmed into him. Wo Fat takes note of everything, and when McGarrett is finished, leaves the ship and heads to the airport for a trip back to China with all the intel he obtained.
When the plane is in the air, Five-O and the cops launch a raid on the Arcturus. Its captain (Wright Esser) threatens them with a machine gun, but Kono, using a shotgun, shoots him dead. Miller hurries to the cocoon area, but McGarrett, having recovered from his ordeal, fights with Miller when he arrives and puts him out of action.
The show concludes with McGarrett and Rosemary again on a date. They drink a toast to "cops," to "hippies" and to "peace."
WHAT DOES THE TITLE MEAN?
One dictionary definition at m-w.com of "cocoon" (usually "an envelope often largely of silk which an insect larva forms about itself and in which it passes the pupa stage") is "something suggesting a cocoon especially in providing protection or in producing isolation."
REVIEW:
The Hawaii Five-O pilot, known as "Cocoon," premiered on TV on Friday, September 20, 1968, 6 days before the series itself began. It had previously been seen in a Honolulu's Royal Theater on Monday, February 19 of that year. Most fans regard the pilot as "Episode Zero."
This production has a major international vibe to it, combined with "intelligence," as in "Central Intelligence Agency," which is never referred to by that name. As well, Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) is romantically interested in Rosemary Quong (Nancy Kwan), girl friend of Hennessey, his intelligence operative friend who is found dead at the beginning of the show after being deprogrammed in the "cocoon" of the title, a sensory deprivation chamber secreted in a rust-bucket ship named the Arcturus. McGarrett as a male romantic lead is in contrast to the series itself, where the top cop was married to his job, though there were occasional hints that he had a life outside of work, including romance. On the other hand, the "intelligence" angle gives the McGarrett character plenty of opportunity to deal with "Feds," particularly those who are jerking him around, something that is explored in numerous later episodes.
There is some interesting photography during the show. The director of photography was Richard Rawlings, who only did this one episode for the series. As Hennessy's room is being cased by a Red Chinese agent, the camera turns upside down. Other interesting shots are looking up from Hennessy's grave at his funeral and some of the angles during the fight between McGarrett and Miller at the end of the show. There is very effective use of color during the show as well, especially on the remastered DVDs.
In this pilot, we are introduced to the Five-O team, which will soon have a major change.
Chin Ho Kelly (Kam Fong) is pictured as kind of an overly jolly guy who announces himself grandiosely whenever he appears. He says "Chin Ho Kelly strikes again" twice, to which McGarrett orders him (also twice) "Shut up and sit down." On another occasion, Chin starts out "People of Hawaii, have no fear. Chin Ho Kelly is...." but he is picked up and forcibly removed from the office.
Chin works hard for his money, as does Kono Kalakaua (Zulu), who seems kind of subservient. When McGarrett tells Kono to locate Rosemary Quong, who knew Hennessey, Kono says quietly, "Yes, sir." Later on when Kono arrives at the Five-O office, he has to be buzzed inside by May the receptionist and McGarrett says "Send him in." Kono is later seen stuffing his face with food from McGarrett's desk.
Danno is played by Tim O'Kelly, best remembered these days for playing the homicidal sniper Bobby Thompson in the 1968 Peter Bogdanovich-directed cult film Targets. His Five-O career was derailed after negative response from a test screening audience to the film. Producer Leonard Freeman called on James MacArthur, who he had worked in the western film Hang 'Em High, to replace O'Kelly, whose last name is spelled "O'Kelley" in the pilot credits. O'Kelly. whose career petered out after Five-O, died at the young age of 48 in 1990.
Kono does track down Rosemary, supposedly a university student who seems about half McGarrett's age. When the show was filmed, Jack Lord was about 47 years of age; Nancy Kwan was around 28. McGarrett calls Rosemary "a pain in the ... neck," and she calls him "Mr. Fuzz." After McGarrett gets her to reveal Hennessey's last words, he calls the Five-O team back into the office and plays back a reel-to-reel recording he just made of her saying this. Why doesn't he just get her to repeat the phrase since she is sitting right there? Later, McGarrett and Rosemary become chummy. As they sip champagne on the beach (a rarity for the teetotaler McGarrett), she says, "I wish I could psych you out." She goes on, "Why did you become a cop?" and he asks, "Why did you become a hippie?"
Strictly speaking, Rosemary is far from being a hippie compared to other such types seen later on the show, including those in the series first episode, Full Fathom Five. As Karen Rhodes says in her book about the series, Booking Five-O, "[Kwan's] clothes are more chic boutique than standard Salvation Army thrift store hippie garb" and "Her attitudes are too conventional; she's only marginally radical and is more polite to 'the fuzz' (McGarrett) than a true counterculture denizen would be." There is also the issue of Kwan's English accent (the actress spent some of her early life in England) which sounds odd.
Something else in the story which is not exactly right is the way that McGarrett uses a job he gets as a laborer repairing the Arcturus to snoop around the ship searching for the cocoon. The workers, including McGarrett, who are fixing the ship are under the eye of several guards, and when the men go for a lunch break, McGarrett holds back and sneaks away, even though one of the guards seems to be looking right at him! McGarrett then works his way through the ship, often hammering in a very noisy way, before he finally finds the secret room where the cocoon is. Whether there is a lot of space for a relatively large chamber like this in the ship is a good question, though it is stated that the ship is "sitting low" in the water.
Khigh Diegh playing Wo Fat is charmingly sinister, and there is a connection to earlier movies featuring the actor, The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Seconds (1966), both directed by John Frankheimer, which also involved brainwashing and programming. "Intelligence" operative Miller (Andrew Duggan), who is a friend of McGarrett's, is in cahoots with Wo, and McGarrett denounces Miller after he is captured near the end of the episode as a "dirty, double-dealing fink." Later, Captain Schroeder of the Arcturus (Wright Esser) tells Miller that he will receive "thirty pieces of silver" for his complicity, suggesting he is like Judas. The long speech by Wo prior to McGarrett being put into the cocoon's large pool does tend to go on quite a while, despite a few clever lines like "As we clever Chinese say, 'the plot thickens'," and "I can see your mind racing, 'What medieval Chinese torture'?"
The show has some iconic sequences of McGarrett driving, particularly the one when an agent of Intelligence boss Brent (Leslie Nielsen) tails him and he gets the assistance of the Honolulu Police Department to bust the guy using a "riot drop." This is the first time we hear McGarrett utter the immortal words "book him," followed by McGarrett's visit to Intelligence headquarters where he tells Brent to never have someone tail him again in no uncertain terms. As well, several of the musical cues from this show ended up on the soundtrack album and would be repeated often during the series itself.
CASUALTY LIST:
-
Death: Hennessey found washed up at Hanauma Bay.
Death: Red Chinese agent in Hennessey’s apartment is shot dead by McGarrett.
Death: Captain of Arcturus is shot by Kono during raid.
Injury: Miller is knocked out by McGarrett during fight in cocoon.
MORE TRIVIA:
- Both Jack Lord as McGarrett and Philip Ahn as the Attorney-General mispronounce the word "autopsy" with the accent on the second syllable.
- The name of the cop on the beach at Hanauma Bay who talks to McGarrett as the latter examines Hennessey's body is L. McCallum.
- Wright Esser, who is the captain of the Arcturus, will later appear in the series as Interpol boss Karl Albrecht, among other roles. The captain's name is Schroeder (some connection with East German Commies who are pals with the Chinese?) which only appears in the end titles of part two of the two-part version of the pilot. When Miller asks the Captain for his payment near the end of the show, he addresses him as "Herr" Captain.
- The Arcturus is registered in Iran and has a Chinese crew.
- Wo Fat departs on Pan American, not United, later the series' airline of choice.
- Hennessey's place is at Apartment 204, 26 Kilea ["Colair" on the DVD subtitles] Road.
- Soon-Tek Oh (credited as Soon Taik Oh) plays Wo Fat's lab technician. He utters the first words in the show: "Ready, sir." His voice sounds like it has been dubbed for this line.
- McGarrett eats something from a box when he is at his desk at the beginning of the show. A friend suggests this is cereal like Kellogg's Corn Flakes. I think it is macadamia nuts.
- The beefy guy with tattoos helping McGarrett do his job in the hold of the Arcturus who says "We'll bust this bugger loose after lunch" is Mark LeBuse, who will appear in a couple of future episodes.
- The first thing McGarrett says in the show is in Chinese to Yankee Chang, guide in the Ale Ale Kai tour bus.
- During the classic tailing sequence in the show, if you look in McGarrett's rear view mirror, you will see at one point he is driving downtown in Honolulu. But after what is presumably a few minutes of driving elsewhere, a look in the rear view mirror shows that he is driving down exactly the same street in the same location as before!
- McGarret's car starts out as a four door car in the stock scene as he leaves his office and then has become a two door car when arrives to look at Hennesey's body. Also, the sound effects in the first scene with Wo Fat are the same as classic Star Trek sound effects — the sound of the meter moving as Wo Fat's assistant looks on is the communicator sound effect, and the bed with Hennesey on it being raised is the same sound effect as the turbolift door opening. (Thanks to Vivek — from 1999!)
- Both Brent and Miller smoke pipes. Danno smokes cigarettes in the Five-O office, something also done by James MacArthur's Danno in the first season. This is surprising, because Jack Lord became very anti-smoking during the show's later years, as a sign affixed to the dashboard of his Mercury Marquis testified.
- McGarrett takes some tourists' picture as he goes to meet Miller after Hennessy's funeral. This takes place on a viewpoint overlooking downtown Honolulu, which is odd, because after the funeral, McGarrett is seen climbing the steps in front of the statue on the far wall at the National Cemetery of the Pacific (referred to in the show as the "National Memorial Cemetery") seen in the main titles. The viewpoint is actually near the other end of the cemetery, quite a long way away from the statue.
- The shot with Kono running on to the Arcturus with a rifle is featured in the main titles. Some of the final altercation between McGarrett and Miller seems sped up.
- McGarrett and Rosemary go to a restaurant featuring the hula girl of the show's main title (the late Helen Kuoha-Torco, who became a professor of business technology at Windward Community College). You see her face in the titles of the original pilot and the show at the restaurant; in the series, you only see her hips in the opening credits.
- The Outrigger Canoe Club is dressed to resemble the Barefoot Bar, which was too small to accommodate both patrons and a camera crew. Sterling Mossman's Barefoot Bar Gang performs the Tahitian number behind Kuoha-Torco as well as "Ain't no big thing," to be heard a few times during the series. McGarrett gives Rosemary his key as he departs. She says "Last time I took one of these [i.e., from Hennessey], it didn't work out too well."
- Doctor Bernard (Noah Keen), who arrived in Hawaii with Washington bigshot Jonathan Kaye (James Gregory) at the request of Hawaii's governor (Lew Ayres), uses hypnotism on McGarrett and has been reading up on McGarrett's accomplishments: "Your service record makes quite interesting reading. Rebel, brilliant operator, hardhead, organizational misfit, brilliant operator, flies by the seat of his pants, couple of field promotions, couple of presidential citations."
- As McGarrett begins to unwind during Wo Fat's deprogramming, he calls Wo Fat "Fatso." This scene is not on the DVD, but is in the two-part version of the show broadcast at the end of season one (see below).
- In the show's original script, a character is named Lee Keeto. In the film, he is Kono Kalakaua. The character named Kono in the script is Danno in the film.
MUSIC:
Score by Morton Stevens.
The two times at the beginning of each line in the list below are when the cue appears in the show and the length of the cue. Click the arrow in the player to hear a suite containing these cues. To finish before the end, click the stop (‖‖) button. The number in red is the approximate time you will hear the cue in the suite. This can vary by a second or two because the cue times are rounded to the nearest tenth of a second and also depend on which browser you are using.
#1, 0:21, 00:22, 00:00, Hennessey is floating in the water in Wo Fat's sensory deprivation chamber.
#2, 3:37, 01:40, 00:22, Hennessey screams after Wo Fat removes the deprivation mask from his face, leads to main titles.
#3, 5:17, 01:17, 02:02, McGarrett arrives at work at the Iolani Palace as a bus full of tourists is outside. (Interlude from Five-O soundtrack album)
#4, 7:25, 01:36, 03:19, After Hennessey's body is discovered at Hanauma Bay, McGarrett goes to check it out. (The Floater from Five-O soundtrack album)
#5, 15:39, 00:17, 04:56, After McGarrett leaves Hennessey's apartment, Miller continues the investigation.
#6, 15:57, 00:11, 05:12, Danno tries to figure out the meaning of the writing on the burned notebook pages McGarrett found at Hennessey's.
#7, 18:30, 00:44, 05:23, McGarrett remembers his friend.
#8, 21:28, 00:44, 06:07, McGarrett talks to Doc at the medical examiner's office, then goes to visit Brent and Miller. (Call to Danger from the Five-O soundtrack album)
#9, 24:20, 00:38, 06:51, 'Taps' is played at Hennessey's funeral.
#10, 26:04, 01:25, 07:29, After the funeral, McGarrett takes the picture of a couple of tourists and then meets with Miller.
#11, 30:14, 00:24, 08:54, McGarrett goes to visit the Attorney General to request exhumation of the body of another agent.
#12, 36:05, 00:07, 09:18, McGarrett visits Rosemary Quong in jail and says he can get her out if she can provide information about Hennessey.
#13, 40:29, 03:35, 09:24, Classic sequence where McGarrett is followed by one of Brent's agents. (The Chase from Five-O soundtrack album)
#14, 44:34, 01:06, 13:00, McGarrett gets some HPD cops to book the guy who has been following him; he visits Brent's office and lets him know what he thinks of being tailed.
#15, 46:48, 01:40, 14:06, McGarrett and Rosemary hang out on the beach as music from the Barefoot Bar plays in the background.
#16, 49:33, 00:34, 15:46, McGarrett and Rosemary hold hands on the beach, and then kiss.
#17, 51:17, 03:46, 16:20, McGarrett goes undercover repairing the Arcturus, the ship where the cocoon is located; as the other workers take a lunch break, he snoops through the ship and finds it. (The Long Wait from Five-O soundtrack album (partially))
#18, 1:05:58, 03:14, 20:06, McGarrett and Rosemary have a date at at the nightclub which features hula dancing as well as singing; McGarrett is called away.
#19, 1:10:54, 00:16, 23:19, McGarrett goes to the dock outside the Arcturus where he is captured.
#20, 1:19:00, 01:14, 23:35, The brainwashing of McGarrett by Wo Fat begins.
#21, 1:23:12, 00:44, 24:48, McGarrett's treatment in the cocoon is finished.
#22, 1:27:09, 03:08, 25:32, McGarrett gives Wo Fat bogus intel; the Chinese mastermind leaves the ship and heads back to China; the cops raid the Arcturus.
#23, 1:31:29, 00:37, 28:40, The captain of the Arcturus fires a machine gun to clear the cops from the boat, but Kono shoots him dead with a shotgun.
#24, 1:32:34, 02:53, 29:17, Miller returns to the cocoon where McGarrett, who has recovered, is waiting for him; they fight, ending up in the deprivation tank, where McGarrett defeats him.
#25, 1:35:47, 01:31, 32:10, End credits after McGarrett and Rosemary drink a toast.
VARIATIONS:
The original pilot episode (the feature film version as mentioned above) is included in the first season DVD box set and the Columbia House VHS tapes. There are several differences between the original pilot and the two-part version of the pilot which was broadcast almost three months after the last regular episode, especially the opening credits.
DVD/VHS COLUMBIA HOUSE VERSION - ORIGINAL PILOT
Production number is 1310-5246-2669. DVD total time is 1:37:24; the Columbia House VHS tape time is 1:35:19. The DVD has a card at the beginning, approximately 21 seconds long, explaining that the two-hour pilot was broadcast a week before the show began.
The end credits for the DVD/CH version are superimposed over the champagne glasses that McGarrett and Rosemary have clicked together at the end. The type used for these credits doesn't look right to me; it is too white and too clean. Instead, it looks like something that someone manufactured for the Columbia House tape which was used as the basis of the pilot on the DVD.
On the DVD season one disk one, the pilot episode does not have "acts" like the show did later, the ends of which are preceded by "The Wave." There are arbitrary chapters which are placed as follows:
- (0:00) Beginning of the show, preceded by the 21-second card which explains that this version of the pilot was originally a feature film.
- (3:47) Opening credits for the show.
- (5:17) First scene with the tourist bus in front of the Iolani Palace, McGarrett arriving at work, and his learning that Hennessey's body has been found.
- (15:56) Danno tries to make sense of the pieces of burned paper which McGarrett found at Hennessey's apartment.
- (36:11) Having been sprung from jail, Rosemary Quong is in McGarrett's office where she tells him "I'm scared."
- (55:09) Dressed in his dirty workman's clothes, McGarrett arrives at the Governor's office. The receptionist Mildred (Maxine Jennings) tells him he is expected.
- (1:11:10) McGarrett is on the docks, just before he is captured by dropping a net over him.
- (1:23:55) The conditioning of McGarrett by Wo Fat is finished.
- (1:35:47) End credits.
TWO-PART VERSION
This consists of the original pilot edited into two one-hour episodes which were shown at the end of season one after the other episodes had finished. My version came from KICU in San Jose.
The production number is 1310-1729-1383 for each of both parts. According to some CBS episode listing I have, the production numbers for parts one and two as separate episodes are supposedly 1331/6824 and 1331/6825 respectively. These two numbers (the last part of each) are the same as in the CBS syndication bible. This information is for "international syndication only." There is nothing about the original pilot in this listing at all; the CBS bible (see my WWW site) explains how the two-hour shows are numbered.
Each part of this two-part version begins with a brief "Wave" at the beginning of the teaser, typical of seasons one to four. The original pilot does not have a wave preceding the teaser. Each part also has a commercial bumper in the middle. There is a lengthy "previously on" segment at the beginning of part two.
I went back to the original tape I got of the KICU broadcast and "analyzed" it carefully, which produced the following:
Part One
Original air date: 4/6/69 — Opening Credits — End Credits
Director: Paul Wendkos; Producer: Leonard Freeman; Writer:
Leonard Freeman; Music: Morton Stevens
Timings: Teaser: 3:35; Main Titles: 0:57; Act One: 8:26; Act Two: 18:18; Commercial Bumper: 0:05; Act Three: 9:27; Act Four: 9:09; End Credits: 0:48; Total Time: 50:45.
Teaser - Same as in the original pilot except for the "Wave" at very beginning, ends with Hennessey silently screaming.
Act One - McGarrett runs down steps and gets in his car to go to Hanauma Bay to see Hennessey's body. What is eliminated before this: the tour bus in front of Iolani Palace with Yankee Chang as the guide; McGarrett arrives for work; he wishes May happy birthday; Danno tells McGarrett HPD found Hennessey's body. The act ends with Miller in Hennessey's room finding a piece of the burned paper; there is a freeze-frame. (There was also a freeze-frame earlier when the Chinese agent turned after he heard McGarrett being let into the apartment by the landlady — this is not unique to the two-part version.)
Act Two - Kono comes into the office, saying to McGarrett "Sam [who is that?] says you want to see me." What is cut out before this: Danno examines pieces of burned paper found at Hennessey's; McGarrett takes a call from Doc, who is yelling on the phone; Chin Ho announces his arrival in a grandiose way; Danno is still puzzling over the paper; Chin shows McGarrett counterfeit money (subject of another investigation); as Chin Ho leaves, he makes some other big pronouncement; Kono picks him up and deposits him in the outer office. Act ends with McGarrett offering a deal to Rosemary who is in jail.
Act Three - Rosemary in McGarrett's office says that she is scared. Act ends with Miller tapping his pipe in the ashtray after McGarrett's outburst in the office telling Brent not to tail him.
Act Four - Starts with Rosemary and McGarrett on the beach. Act ends with McGarrett lifting up the hatch which allows him to see into the cocoon.
Part Two
Original air date: 11/6/69 — Opening Credits — End Credits
Director: Paul Wendkos; Producer: Leonard Freeman; Writer:
Leonard Freeman; Music: Morton Stevens
Timings: Teaser - "Previously On": 5:57; Main Titles: 0:57; Act One: 16:35; Act Two: 8:07; Commercial Bumper: 0:05; Act Three: 6:37; Act Four: 11:46; End Credits: 0:48; Total Time: 50:52.
Teaser - "Previously On," almost 6 minutes in length (see below for more detail), there is a "Wave" at the beginning.
Act One - McGarrett arrives at Governor's office dressed in his work clothes. Act ends with McGarrett on the docks by the Arcturus, he bends down to go under a door.
Act Two - McGarrett is captured by Wo Fat and his men. Act ends with what looks like a sheet of paper being heated over a bunsen burner. This is supposed to represent the gutta-percha, though it usually comes in the form of blocks.
Act Three - McGarrett's deprogramming by Wo Fat has been going on for 6 hours. There is a section added in this act (not in the original pilot) where McGarrett calls Wo Fat "Fatso" (this is discussed below). The act ends when McGarrett is taken out of the cocoon pool.
Act Four - McGarrett in the isolation suit is straightened up; Wo Fat removes the mask. Act ends with McGarrett and Rosemary on the beach drinking a toast. Before the end credits, there is a card for "Executive Producer Leonard Freeman."
Some of the music in the "previously on" is what actually was heard in the show behind the included scenes, but the rest of it is dubbed in from other scenes. You can listen to the audio here.
The "previously on" contains the following:
- Hennessey in cocoon pool, seen from above
- He is hoisted out of water and moved into observation room
- Wo Fat removes Hennessey's mask, he silently screams
- A shot of ocean surf coming towards the camera. This was not in the original pilot; it was later seen in S01E14, Up Tight, between the scene where Danno and Donna go to David Stone's place and the next scene where Donna finds Stone on a lounge chair at her place and at the beginning of S02E03, Forty Feet High And It Kills!
- McGarrett checks out Hennessey's body on the beach with HPD cop standing nearby
- At Hennessey's apartment, McGarrett inspects burned pieces of paper, saying "cocoon"
- McGarrett is attacked by Asian guy, shoots him
- McGarrett in autopsy room, describes use of gutta-percha to Doc as "baffling"
- Soldiers give Hennessey a salute with rifles at his funeral
- McGarrett climbs steps after funeral, talks to Miller
- Miller says guy who attacked McGarrett was a Red Chinese agent
- McGarrett asks what was Hennessey working on (no answer, cuts to…)
- Whip pan to next scene
- McGarrett is tailed by one of Brent's agents (edited)
- Cops corner the agent at McG's earlier radioed request, McGarrett says "Book him"
- Whip pan to next scene
- McGarrett tells Rosemary who is in jail that Hennessey is dead, wants to make her a deal for info
- McGarrett and port captain, touring harbor, see Arcturus, McGarrett says he wants to get aboard, PC will arrange this
- Whip pan to next scene
- McGarrett and Rosemary hold hands and kiss on beach
- McGarrett using hammer works inside Arcturus with beefy guy
- Beefy guy says "We'll bust this bugger loose after lunch"
- McGarrett snoops inside Arcturus, eventually lifts up entrance to cocoon which he sees, leads into...
- The series' main titles
There is a scene omitted from the original pilot version that appears in the second part of the two-part show where McGarrett calls Wo Fat "Fatso."
Here is an analysis of both versions:
Original Pilot Version
After McGarrett is captured, he is suited up for his reprogramming in the cocoon. Wo Fat gives him a long speech about the treatment he is going to endure, then he asks McGarrett "Will you cooperate? Will you answer?"
McGarrett just gives Wo a dirty look and Wo bristles, ordering his henchmen to get McGarrett ready. We then see the gutta-percha being treated with a bunsen burner.
At this point, we cut to the Five-O team outside, who are doing surveillance. I think this scene is kind of dumb, because it is very likely that the people on the Arcturus which is nearby could see them easily! Chin Ho tells Danno and Kono to go and get some coffee and that he is going stir crazy: "I gotta have something to do or I'll blow my stack."
Then we are back in the cocoon. The time that McGarrett has been in the pool, according to the equipment there is now 6 hours. Miller says to Wo, "I thought you said no man could stand six hours without breaking." Wo says "No man ever has." Wo walks close to the chamber and says, "You know the proverbial character you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley? That's the man," pointing at McGarrett.
The next scene is a brief shot of the exterior of the Arcturus outside. Chin Ho is still alone doing surveillance. There are a couple of shots of walkways on the ship.
Then we are back in the cocoon. The time is now 7 hours and 52 minutes.
(The following is an aside...)
At this point in the show, McGarrett starts muttering "kumu."
Wo says that "kumu" means "red salmon," or "in Hawaiian slang, 'Kumu — Oh, you doll.' A dame, a love object. After seven hours and 52 minutes, McGarrett is chasing a mirage of kumu. He's falling in love."
This is not what it says in one Hawaiian dictionary which I consulted online:
kumu, n. 1. Bottom, base, foundation, basis, title (as to land), main stalk of a tree, trunk, handle, root (in arithmetic); basic; hereditary, fundamental. Kumupali, base foot of a cliff. ʻIke kumu, basic, fundamental knowledge. Aliʻi kumu, hereditary chief. Alanui kumu, main street. ʻAuikumu, nominative case. Kumu kāhili, staff of a kāhili. Kumu nalu, source of waves, as where surfing starts. Mai ke kumu ā ka wēlau, from trunk to tip [all, entirely]. (PPN tumu.) 2. Teacher, tutor, manual, primer, model, pattern. Kumu alakaʻi, guide, model, example. Kaʻu kumu, my teacher. Kumu hoʻohālike, pattern, example, model. Kumu hula, hula teacher. Kumu kuʻi, boxing teacher. Kumu kula, school teacher. Kumu leo mele, song book. Kumu mua, first primer. 3. Beginning, source, origin; starting point of plaiting. hoʻo.kumu To make a beginning, originate, create, commence, establish, inaugurate, initiate, institute, found, start. 4. Reason, cause, goal, justification, motive, grounds, purpose, object, why. Kumu no ka ʻoki male, grounds for divorce. Kumu ʻole, without reason or cause. He aha ke kumu i ʻeha ai kou wāwae? What is the reason for your foot hurting? 5. An article bought, sold or exchanged; price. Cf. kumu kūʻai. Kumu lilo, price paid, cost. Kumu loaʻa, selling price. 6. Herd, flock. Cf. kumu hipa, kumu pipi. 7. Tenon (RSV), socket (KJV). (Puk. 26.19.)
And what about the use of this word in later seasons of the show where it refers to an equivalent to "Hawaiian organized crime," whose boss is either Cappy Pahoa or Tony Alika?
Two-Part Version, Part Two
McGarrett is suited up as above, Wo gives him the speech, McGarrett will not co-operate; and the gutta-percha is prepared.
This is the end of Act Two, and there is a "Wave."
After the commercial, back in the cocoon, McGarrett has been there for six hours, far more than anyone else, according to Wo. Wo makes the comment about a man in an alley.
At this point, we cut to the sequence mentioned above with the Five-O team outside, who are doing surveillance. Chin tells Danno and Kono to go and get some coffee and that he is going stir crazy: "I gotta have something to do or I'll blow my stack."
The "Fatso" scene follows:
Wo Fat is sitting in a chair with his eyes closed while Miller has his pipe in his mouth. Suddenly we hear McGarrett's voice.
McGarrett: Soundproof cocoon, baloney! You goofed, Mister Wo Fat! You hear me? You goofed, Fatso! I hear it – creaking, rubbing noises. That gurgling noise.
McGarrett is seen floating as before, but moving his arms and legs.
Miller: Hallucinating. He's breaking!
Wo Fat: No, he hears.
Lab Assistant: How?
Wo Fat: Hyper acuity of senses resulting from the extended time spent in the deprived situation. McGarrett is hearing sounds few men have ever heard, sounds produced within his own body: joints moving, breathing, heartbeat, peristalsis. We have something special this time. Something very special in our little goldfish bowl.
Miller walks in front of Wo, who yawns. The camera moves in on Wo.
We cut to the scenes on the outside and on the ship with Chin Ho alone watching from the surveillance point nearby.
Inside, where it is now 7 hours and 52 minutes on the timer, McGarrett is shown floating again.
Shortly after this, we jump to the scene where McGarrett is talking about "kumu" which continues as in the original pilot version.
The end credits for the two-part version are in the usual font used for the first season on, superimposed over the blue light on the back of the motorcycle. The actors' credits reflect who is in the part, i.e., Leslie Nielsen is only in the first part, James Gregory and Lew Ayres are only in the second part. The production credits like music, editor, etc. are the same for both parts.
(Thanks to Virginia for information regarding the "Fatso" scene and Ringfire for help with music cues.)
ONE-PART VERSION
I have a one-part version of Cocoon which was broadcast on TBS sometime in the 1990s. TBS had similar versions of two-part shows like F.O.B. Honolulu and The 90-Second War, though I don't know if they were edited into one part by TBS or CBS/Viacom.
This version of Cocoon was seemingly edited together from the two part version of the pilot seen in 1969 after the end of the regular season (see above). The timings are similar to the individual parts from the two-part version, but overall they are a bit longer, suggesting that the two-part version I watched from KICU San Jose was sped up a bit.
The timings are as follows. The square bracketed number is the time from the KICU version.
EQUIVALENT TO PART ONE
Teaser: 3:38 [3:35]
Main Titles: 0:58 [0:57]
(Total time for Teaser and Main Titles = 4:36 [4:32])
Act One (McGarrett leaves Hennessey's, ends with a "Wave"): 8:35 [8:26]
Act Two: 8:36 + 10:07 = 18:43 [18:18]
(In the TBS version, a commercial break is inserted in this act at 8:36 which lasts for 3:11. There is a "Wave" at the end of this long act which ends with McGarrett offering Rosemary a "deal" in both versions.)
Act Three: 9:39 [9:27]
(Ends with McGarrett telling Brent not to tail him.)
Act Four: 9:18 [9:09]
(McGarrett lifts up hatch and looks into the cocoon, the end of part one in the KICU version.)
EQUIVALENT TO PART TWO
Act One: 16:20 [16:35]
(There is no "Previously On" or Main Titles in the one-part version.]
Act Two to Four: 26:43 [8:07 + 6:37 + 11:46 = 26.30]
(The last three acts in the TBS version are combined with no commercial breaks, and there is no break before the end credits either.)
End Credits: 0:50 [0:48]
(At the very end of the TBS version is an animated Viacom logo which lasts five seconds (like this one).)
TOTAL TIME: 1:34:44 [1:33:45] (The time for the commercial bumpers and "Previously On" in the KICU version has not been included.)
Other differences:
- There are no commercial bumpers in the TBS version.
- The shot of the surf seen before McGarrett checks out Hennessey's body on the beach is not there, just like in the original pilot version.
- The end credits for the TBS one-part version are from Part Two of the two-part version.
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