When the folks at the studio were putting together the package art for the final season of
Hawaii Five-O (the classic original TV show), it must have seemed like a good idea at the time to include inserted pictures of actors Danny Kamekona (who guested in episodes over 30 times, in a variety of different roles) and Richard Denning (who played the Governor for most of the show's run). However, once we
posted that box art last week, many fans wrote in to us about it, pointing out that cast members unique to the final year of the program were being overlooked. James MacArthur ("Dan 'Danno' Williams," whose sadly passed away a year ago last Friday) had departed the cast for that last season, but the series added in William Smith ("Det. James 'Kimo' Carew"), Moe Keale ("Det. Truck Kealoha") and Sharon Farrell ("Det. Lori Wilson").
We passed that fan feedback along to CBS DVD Home Entertainment, and within a day the studio had pulled the original box art from circulation. Today they've begun distributing new, updated packaging image which replaces Kamekona and Denning with two of the three unique-to-
Season 12 characters. It seems CBS has elected to go with William Smith (recognizable for his other roles in film and TV such as
Red Dawn, Conan the Barbarian, Any Which Way You Can, Rich Man Poor Man, Laredo, etc.) and Sharon Farrell (the first female detective on the squad of the original series, and whose character has a namesake on the new version of the show). They also changed the title on box to make the official on-package name of the DVD set, "
Hawaii Five-O - The 12th and Final Season" (the previous version of the cover and spine had only said "
The Final Season"). Our thanks to various readers, like Jeff Herman, for taking the time to e-mail us so we could pass along the fans' concerns to the studio.
Fans have been wondering what sort of bonus material is being planned for this release. We don't have complete details yet, but CBS/Paramount's info to retailer mention "Series Promo" videos and something else (possibly a featurette?) which they refer to as "Crime Wave"; hopefully more details will follow soon. Here's a look at the revamped packaging for this item, which streets on
January 10th:
UPDATE: CBS DVD has kindly e-mailed us the rear package art for this title as well, as a "thank you" to our readers for their feedback which resulted in the box art change. In it we see that the "Crime Wave" special feature is described as a "music video tribute" to the show. You can see that image added to the bottom. Also, a couple of people have pointed out that I overlooked mentioning that the main image, that of Jack Lord of McGarrett, had been changed for the revised box art, too. Apologies for neglecting to point that out!
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