One of television's most successful series, "Hawaii Five-0," was about a special law enforcement unit that operated out of 'Iolani Palace and was responsible only to the governor.
The action-packed series not only made TV history as the longest-running police show — 284 episodes from 1968 through 1980 — but also proved to be a boon to the Hawai'i's tourism industry.
Seen in 80 countries at its peak, the program had a weekly audience estimated to be in excess of 300 million viewers.
Filmed entirely on location, "Hawaii Five-0" made household names of its regularly featured heroes and villains — including Dano, Wo Fat, Chin Ho — who occupied O'ahu's most exotic locations in the episodes. The show's climactic phrase, "Book 'em, Dano!," has a lasting place in Americana.
The series and its dominant force, Jack Lord — known to viewers as Steve McGarrett, the unflappable, stiff-as-a-board head of Five-0 — were virtually synonymous. To say one was to acknowledge the other.
The impact of "Hawaii Five-0" was such that a quarter of a century after the series went off the air, arriving first-time tourists were startled to discover that Five-0 was totally fictional and no such special unit had ever existed.
