JAY HERNANDEZ WILL DO A MOVIE

Since his “Magnum P.I.” contract ends June 30, series star Jay Hernandez isn’t sitting around waiting for a call for a fifth season.

That was so yesterday. So, he’s going to the movies – the big screen – instead. No more waiting game.

According to Deadline, Hernandez is committed to do a film called “The Long Game,” with Jaina Lee Ortiz, Dennis Quaid and Julian Works, based on Humberto G. Garcia’s book, “Mustang Miracle.”

No specific word on who he’ll play, but the film is based on a true tale based in Texas of the mid-50s. The story focuses on five Mexican-American caddies at a ritzy golf club where the discriminatory rules of that era forbade them from playing golf, according to Deadline. Because these caddies loved golfing, they created their own course (albeit, simple one) in the Texas desert with the kokua of a Latino coach, and were skilled enough to beat the wealthy all-white team players in a 1957 Texas State High School Golf Championship, thus overcoming the racist, discriminatory practices of the elite golf course, elevating the pride and power of being Latino.

With filming beginning this month – not sure if it’ll be Texas – this simply means that Thomas Magnum won’t be available if and when CBS, NBC or a cable streaming network announces, very belatedly, the possibility of a fifth season.

OK, “The Long Game” does not have the reputation and respect of a certified weekly police drama set in our Hawaiian turf, but Hernandez is doing the right thing. Eliminate waiting. Find a job. Go for it. Create your own destiny.

Main thing: Forget the awkward and surprising termination of a bona fide hit show for CBS.

The new film, whatever its outcome, should be a redemption for Hernandez, who has helped steer the TV reboot into a reputable and respected project. Each week, there was a bona fide sense of ohana – family – in the episodes, and Hernandez’s wink-eye, have-fun approach, made “Magnum” an easy watch to applaud.

Remember? The season four finale, with Thomas Magnum and Juliet Higgins (Perdita Weeks) committing to each other romantically, begged for a follow-up, which would have logically been the fifth season. But the crude ending, without the follow-up, was a CBS blunder of major proportions. No aloha spirit…

One out, one in

The Actors Group (TAG) has adjusted its 2022-23 season, replacing “Soldier’s Play” with “The Poet and His Song,” in the Jan.20 to Feb. 12, 2023 playdates at the Brad Powell Theatre in Iwilei.

The substitute celebrates the poems of Paul Larence Dunbar, directed by Derrick Brown and Brad Powell.

Told by a cast of costumed actors, the play examines the triumphs and tragedies of the black life experience, in pre- and post-Emancipation America, in the eyes of the poet artists.

The production is written in both the black dialect of the times as well as standard English. It’s the kind of art TAG is savvy in staging in its intimate performing space..

Details: www.tagtickets@hawaii.rr.com or call (808) 722-6941. …

And that’s Show Biz. …