Hawaii Five-0 Philosophical Question

[Chicago Jake]

I watched a recent episode of the new "Hawaii Five-0" (which I love), and an interesting question occurred to me. McGarrett and Danno were discussing how they both loved the old cop show "CHiPs" when they were kids, and debating about which of them was more like Erik Estrada, as opposed to the other other, less masculine and less famous dude.

That got me to wondering: If this show takes place in a universe where "CHiPs" is a television show from the 1970s, does it also take place in a universe where "Hawaii Five-O" is a television show from the 1960s? And if so, why don't they acknowledge the similarity between their "reality" and that TV show? And if not, why is one show included in their reality, but another is not?

I just think this needs to be addressed!!........Jake

[Ardbeg... innit]

5-0 ran from 1968-80 on CBS while CHiPs ran from 77-83 on NBC. For most of its run McGarrett and Danno would have had no exposure to CHiPs other than what filtered across 1/2 of the Pacific through professional circles. By the time CHiPs did hit the air the 5-0 team was close enough to retirement that they 1) didnt want to threaten their pensions by acknowledging another network production, and 2) were close enough to senility to lose their self-awareness to even consider your question.

[Merlot Joe]

It's just like Star Trek. They can ch-ch-change things whenever they want. It makes they show more interesting that way.

Speaking of the CHiPS. The guy that played the other CHP was just convicted of some kind of a stock fraud deal. He got 5 years probation and 500 hours of community service. It was on some Hollywood website last week.