BIG HAWAII (1977) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

BIG HAWAII (1977) – From a promising pilot movie to “poof” it’s canceled – that’s the story of and that’s the glory of Big Hawaii. I’ve rarely seen such a pronounced overhaul from a pilot movie to the resulting series. 

We’re not just talking about a change in some cast members here, this thing changed genres between its pilot film and its first episode and was definitely worse off for it. 

BIG HAWAII: DANGER IN PARADISE (May 12th, 1977) – The creative team came so close to changing the future of 1970s prime time programming by getting the jump on Dallas, which did not come out until 1978. The network suits or somebody chickened out after this powerhouse pilot movie.

The Paradise Ranch in Hawaii is the setting for enough family intrigue, corporate power struggles and romantic subplots to fuel what might have been the biggest prime time soap opera since Peyton Place.

JOHN DEHNER, forever remembered as the voice of Paladin on the Have Gun Will Travel radio western, played Barrett Fears, patriarch of the Fears family and a veteran power player in what would soon become Jock Ewing fashion.

Barrett rules through fear and a “divide and conquer” mentality when it comes to those around him. A stroke temporarily slows him down. 

INA BALIN as Barrett’s second wife Marla embodied the older-but-still-hot female character that would soon define a genre. Think Joan Collins and Linda Evans on Dynasty, Abby Dalton, Susan Sullivan and many more on Falcon Crest, Barbara Rush and Stella Stevens on Flamingo Road, Katharine Ross on The Colbys plus a few others I’m probably forgetting.

The sultry Marla Fears misled the much older Barrett into thinking she was a devoted wife but all the while she and her son plus every other man she could manipulate tried helping her steal sole control of Paradise Ranch – especially the priceless land on which it stood.   

In just this telefilm she subtly sabotages her recovering husband’s medical care, works with organized crime in a land-stealing venture, sleeps with her hunky flunky and even tries to seduce her stepson into an alliance against his father.

CLIFF POTTS has his cocky smirk in overdrive as Mitch Fears, the prodigal son of the Fears family. To get out from under his father’s insistence on controlling the lives of everyone around him, Mitch left Paradise Ranch five years before the pilot movie takes place.

Mitch has been leading a barely legal existence since then as a conman and professional gambler. He winds up back at the ranch when his father has a stroke that leaves him temporarily bedridden. This character was being set up as the real star of Big Hawaii as he battled his stepmother Marla for control of Paradise Ranch.   

Our man Mitch is the soap opera type you’re no doubt familiar with – brash, womanizing, shrewd, charismatic and the only family member who can sometimes hold their own against Barrett and his machinations. Most of the men are his buddy, most of the women want him, etc.

LUCIA STRALSER portrayed Karen “Ke Ke” Fears, Mitch’s tomboyish younger sister who can rope and brand cattle faster than Mitch or the other men at Paradise Ranch. She’s just hit 18 and available males on the Big Island are beginning to orbit the wealthy potential heiress.

Think of a less sexy version of Charlene Tilton on Dallas. 

MICHAEL MULLINS played Bobby Fears, Mitch’s younger brother. Bobby is a gifted musician and singer (we’re told, but he sounds awful) who wants to be a rock star rather than be burdened with ranch business. He was formerly addicted to pills and still fights temptation.   

JEAN MARIE HON is Reva, a Hawaiian beauty whom Dan-O would no doubt call “the sexiest number in the islands, Steve” on Hawaii Five-0. She has just married Bobby but Mitch’s return to the ranch rekindles her feelings for him and the pair oink and boink on his first night back. Coincidentally, Hon and Mullins had both starred in the sci-fi series Ark II the previous year. 

HARRY MOSES plays Stephen, the sleazy son of Ina Balin’s character. Harry Moses is the brother of Falcon Crest‘s William R. Moses so he looks like Cole Gioberti while acting like Lance Cumson. Stephen was adopted by Barrett Fears but he and his mother’s brawny lover – former Tarzan Denny Miller – aid and abet Marla’s schemes. 

RICHARD MCKENZIE portrays Carson Fears, the nephew of Barrett. Carson feels that Barrett defrauded his father out of his rightful share of Paradise Ranch, so he was like a forerunner of Cliff Barnes on Dallas. Carson plots to get what he considers to be rightfully his.     

There are plenty of other cast members, many of them Hawaiian locals that we’ve all seen plenty of times in episodes of Hawaii Five-0, Magnum P.I. and other programs set in the 50th state.

THE SERIES – Virtually EVERYTHING was thrown away from the pilot movie! Ina Balin and most of the cast plus the whole soap opera storyline and riveting subplots. In their place we got a bland version of the Charlton Heston film Diamondhead crossed with the tv series Family. 

THE EPISODES:  

GANDY (Sep 21st, 1977) – Don Johnson (who SHOULD have played Mitch Fears) shows up at the Paradise Ranch as Gandy, an old friend of Mitch. Gandy charms Karen (one of the few characters retained from the pilot movie) and cons her out of $2,500. Peter Marshall of Hollywood Squares fame guest starred. God knows why.      

SUN CHILDREN (Sep 28th) – Hippies are suspected of causing a typhoid epidemic on the Big Island. Ted Schackelford, future star of Knot’s Landing, guest starred along with Tricia O’Neil and Tommy Fujiwara.

PIPELINE (Oct 12th) – Mitch supervises the laying of a water pipeline to Paradise Ranch while also protecting his new girlfriend (Linda Gray of Dallas) from her abusive ex-husband. 

RED MIDNIGHT (Oct 19th) – Mitch pilots a plane with his father Barrett as a passenger but they crash land near a soon to erupt volcano.

GRADUATION EVE (Oct 26th) – With local law enforcement away on a big assignment, Mitch and the ranch foreman are deputized on the same night as local teens are holding a big graduation party.

SARAH (Nov 23rd) – Pamela Bellwood, soon to star on Dynasty, plays Sarah, a counselor who works at a women’s facility and is dating Mitch. Mare Winningham plays Teri, a troublemaker at Sarah’s reform center.   

YOU CAN’T LOSE ‘EM ALL (Nov 30th) – David Wayne of Dallas plays a rodeo hanger-on who talks Mitch into trying his hand at riding in a rodeo competition. Richard Jaeckel also starred.

YESTERDAYS (Dec 7th) – Then came Michael Parks as an old surfing friend of Mitch who tries to get him to relive their surfing days.

THE SUGAR WAR (Dec 14th) – Mitch’s flirtation with a sunbather (Marianna Hill) leads to a lawsuit from Falcon Crest‘s Robert Loggia.

TIGHTROPE (Dec 21st) – The murder trial of a Hawaiian local becomes a high-profile, high-tension affair.

THE TROUBLE WITH TINA (Dec 28th) – A woman (Cindy Eilbacher) rejected by Mitch accuses him of rape. 

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