NBC’s ‘Las Vegas’ Makes a ‘Magnum P.I.’ Reunion

LOS ANGELES, CA (August 21, 2007)

Tom Selleck is returning to TV for the first time in a decade as a series regular on NBC’s “Las Vegas” this fall replacing James Caan as the show’s lead. Selleck tells Access Hollywood he will be playing a mysterious billionaire who steps in and buys the Montecito Casino. Selleck isn’t saying though what exactly will happen to Caan’s character, Ed Deline, who was the casinos head of security for the past three seasons, “I don’t fire him no but I can’t tell you what it is. I think we are doing a two hour first episode and the first part of that episode wraps up the cliff hanger from last year.”

Though Selleck has made numerous made for TV films and guest starred on shows like “Friends” and “Boston Legal“, in the last ten years, he hasn’t signed on for a series since 1998’s short lived CBS sitcom, “The Closer.”

It was ten years earlier, in 1988, when Selleck’s breakout series, “Magnum P.I“, about a Hawaiian based private investigator, took its final bow after an eight season run. This “Las Vegas” gig will feel like a sort of “Magnum P.I” reunion though. His co-stars from that hit series, Larry Manetti (Orville “Rick” Wright) and Roger Mosley (Theodore “TC” Calvin), recently finished taping an episode of “Las Vegas.” It’s the first time the three actors have performed together since the series ended.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, Manetti says Selleck came up with the idea for the reunion, “Tom plays this ranch guy in Nevada. The script first called for his two cowboy buddies to come in, but he changed it to where Roger and I replaced the cowboys. We were all in the Marines together. I play a multimillionaire who wears tailor-made suits and owns 250 nightclubs and restaurants around the country, and Roger owns this mega-aviation company, helicopters.”

In the ‘Magnum’ series Manetti played a nightclub owner and Mosley played a helicopter pilot. He told the Las Vegas Sun it seems like old times, “It’s great. The dialogue is the same as it was on ‘Magnum,‘ the same kind of banter. It was just like old times, except when we were taping I turned around and instead of seeing palm trees, I saw slot machines.”

John Hillerman, the fourth star of the series is not featured in the episode. According to Manetti he thinks Hillerman is retired. Manetti also tells the Las Vegas Sun that he and Mosley will have recurring roles in the series.

A clip featuring Tom and his buddies filming a scene on a balcony overlooking the casino floor was show on Tuesday’s night “Access Hollywood.” “Las Vegas” returns to NBC for its fifth season on September 28th.