They’re calling the remake of “Hawaii Five-0” this fall more of a reboot.
“It’s not a remake. We’re not kind of picking up where they left off,” says Alex O’Loughlin, who plays the 21st century Steve McGarrett. “It’s a reboot, and the characters are very different.
“I love Jack Lord’s McGarrett. I love Jack Lord’s hair. I love Jack Lord’s version,” O’Loughlin says. He even liked that “blue steel look” he originated.
“None of which I can get away with today in 2010 on television,” O’Laughlin says.
Likewise, Scott Caan, who plays Danny Williams, says, “I purposely didn’t go back and look at too much of the old show. I wanted to start fresh, and I didn’t want to have any old ideas.”
Still, executive producer Peter Lenkov says, “For somebody who’s seen the original show, they’ll see that we really took great care and respect for the original material.”
So one thing that will stay the same is that iconic theme song.
“One of the key selling points of this show is that theme song,” Lenkov says. “People want to hear it, and they’re going to look forward to hearing it week to week.”
They tried to do a remade anthem led by “a really popular rock star.” But it didn’t work.
Eventually, “we found the original musicians who did the first, the original theme, and brought them back in to re-record it,” producer Alex Kurtzman says. “Why mess with something that’s perfect?”