History YMMV / MagnumPI

** "Tropical Madness" and "Smaller Than Life" use the word "m*dget" a lot more than would be deemed acceptable today. Magnum admits he doesn't know whether the man is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midget m*dget]] or a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarfism dwarf]], and in any case by the 1980s "little person" was the polite term, whether you knew or not.

** "Luther Gillis: File #521": Good luck seeing [[OnceAcceptableTargets an old woman]] being punched out cold for comedy on TV today.

** "Photo Play" has a murdered gangster character [[NamesTheSame named]] [[Series/DesperateHousewives Carlos Solis]].

** Pamela Bates in "Novel Connection", as not only does she not tell anyone why someone's trying to kill her (''[[WhatAnIdiot after]]'' [[WhatAnIdiot an attempt's been made, mind you]]), but she's an absolute JerkAss to Magnum to boot.

* FairForItsDay: Myrt Callahan in "Double Jeopardy", who's not only a female film director ''in 1982'' (virtually unheard of at the time), but this is never commented on, much less made fun of. Her only negative trait is that like William B. Knox, she's [[SkewedPriorities too anxious to finish filming]] ''Tahiti Kill'', despite the attempts on Jack Martin's life. In RealLife, Myrt's actress Kathleen Nolan was the first female President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1975 to 1979.

** Blink and you'll miss it in "One More Summer", but T.C. is revealed to be a graduate of HBCU [[https://www.gram.edu Grambling University]]. In a few episodes he wears a Grambling t-shirt. Nice.

** Blink and you'll miss it in "One More Summer", but T.C. is revealed to be a graduate of HBCU Grambling University. Nice.

** Higgins in "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime" stages a production of ''Theatre/TheMikado'' with a traditionally all-white cast, which goes on with no problem[[note]] (save for an unrelated assassination attempt on his friend Sir Cedric)[[/note]]. Nowadays, he wouldn't be able to do so without public outcry. They could include a line explaining that they just chose the best actors.

** In "One More Summer" Magnum interrupts a player who is methodically pounding his unhelmeted head into his locker. The player advises Magnum that he should never interrupt a player in training who's trying to concentrate. While the episode in general has a strong message about the fallacy of "playing hurt" as courageous and sporting, this head-bashing routine is not discussed again. Today, [[https://www.center4research.org/football-brain-injuries-need-know/ the debilitating and often deadly effects of head injuries in football]] even ''with'' a helmet are well known.

* TearJerker: John Hillerman (Higgins) passed away at the age of 84 on 9 November 2017. He made it onto the Creator/TurnerClassicMovies end-of-year InMemoriam short film, in a brief but memorable clip from ''Film/PaperMoon''.[[/note]]

* TearJerker: John Hillerman (Higgins) passed away at the age of 84 on 9 November 2017.

** "Tropical Madness" and "Smaller Than Life" use the word "m*dget" a lot more than would be deemed acceptable today, making Magnum's RunningGag in the former episode rather cringeworthy to hear.

** Magnum, Rick, and T.C. calling Lady Ashley a "dog" from her photo in "Computer Date" comes off as cringingly sexist now.

** Ivan calling T.C. by the "N" word in flashbacks was controversial even for the 1980s, but it certainly won't be said on U.S. network television now.

** Higgins in "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime" stages a production of ''Theatre/TheMikado'' with a traditionally all-white cast, which goes on with no problem[[note]] (save for an unrelated assassination attempt on his friend Sir Cedric)[[/note]]. Nowadays, he wouldn't be able to do so without public outcry.

** In "Skin Deep", Magnum says that women don't shoot themselves, hence his suspicions concerning Erin Wolfe's supposed suicide. While suicides by gun among women are still uncommon, the deaths of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shauna_Grant Shauna Grant]], Creator/MaryKayBergman and others have made Magnum's words [[HarsherInHindsight ring quite hollow today.]]

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Episodes like "Wave Goodbye" deal with the PTSD of Vietnam veterans.
** "Blind Justice" unflinchingly deals with domestic abuse.
** "Find Me a Rainbow" centers around a black-market baby adoption operation.
** [[spoiler:"The Aunt Who Came to Dinner"]] made ''Magnum'' one of the first television shows to address the subject of Alzheimer's disease.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/TedDanson, one year from his breakout role on ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', appears as Stewart Crane in "Don't Say Goodbye".

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Magnum a {{hero}} or an AntiHero? The show plays with both, as Magnum is benevolent, but can be quite ruthless.