Video: Hawaii Five-0 says “Thank you” to fans

A big “Thanks” back to CBS for this gift to Hawaii Five-0 fans!

FOR VIEWERS OUTSIDE THE U.S.: VIDEO

Hawaii Five-0 actor comes full circle

Mike Gordon of the Star Advertiser has interviewed Hawaii Five-0′s latest bad guy, Karl Herlinger.  Will “Toothpick”  be a character that we love to hate, or want to see come to an early demise?  Tune in tomorrow for the Season 2 finale to find out.

Mahalo to Deb for providing this article to 50undercover.com

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Even with a latte in hand, Karl Herlinger looks like a villain or, at the very least, someone capable of extreme road rage.
His eyes are set close together, his brow quick to furrow. The television actor from Kailua can wither with a glance.
“I get cast a lot as a bad guy,” he said recently at a Kaimuki coffee shop. “I think it’s the way I look. But I’ve also gravitated toward those roles because they are fun. And it’s interesting to find the humanity in the badness.”
Of course, that makes him perfect for a menacing role in Monday’s season finale of “Hawaii Five-0″ (9 p.m., KGMB). Herlinger is the second Hawaii-born actor in as many weeks to wear the bad-guy mantle on the CBS hit. (Last week it was Mark Dacascos, aka Wo Fat.)
Herlinger plays a character named “Toothpick.” He won’t elaborate on the part except to say he creates mayhem for the “Five-0″ team — and he hopes to stress out the show’s fans.
“If I have done my job right, they will either love hating me or there will be some kind of level of disgust,” Herlinger said.
Having a guest spot on a series shot in his hometown is a dream come true, said the 40-year-old Herlinger, who was born at Castle Hospital, grew up in Enchanted Lake and graduated from Kalaheo High School.
The actor, who now lives in Los Angeles, said the final episode will leave fans hungry for the season three premiere.
“This episode has a lot of action,” he said. “It has a great start and it doesn’t let up. It’s what you want a finale to be.”
Herlinger has been a working actor, on stage and television, since graduating with a degree in theater arts from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1994. His first TV role was on “Law & Order,” but his first appearance on a series was in 1979 as a background extra in the final season of the original “Five-0.”
He had never seen the old “Five-0″ episode until he found it on Netflix last week. His parents wouldn’t let him watch it — Herlinger was only 7 — because the plot involves a child who gets lured into a car by strangers.
“They were protective of certain types of influences at a young age,” he said. “I later watched the show, but I think at the time they just wanted to preserve as much innocence as possible.”
Herlinger and his wife, Malia Musick, have a 5-year-old daughter they protect just as much. (They’re expecting a baby boy in August.)
“She has never seen anything that I have done because everything I have done has pretty much been some kind of violence,” he said.
HIS acting roots are decidedly innocent, though. As a boy he tagged along with his older sister when she took dance and acting lessons, and wound up onstage. His résumé through high school included “The King and I,” “Music Man” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” But he also appeared in a stage drama for Hono­lulu Theatre for Youth and said the experience was powerful.
“It added a level of depth to the art that I had not thought was there before,” he said.
While he was in Hawaii shooting “Five-0,” Herlinger began sending Twitter messages from the set. He kept the plot secret but aroused fans by saying he was going to turn the Steve McGarrett character into mochiko chicken — and including a photo from lunch.
“I made a conscious decision to do that for this show,” Herlinger said. “Prior to this I didn’t tweet a lot. I thought it would be fun to tweet as the character and really engage the public.”
Herlinger got tremendous response and exchanged numerous messages. But he kept the plot secret, in part because the final scene of the finale wasn’t even printed on his version of the script; the ending consisted of blank pages with asterisks on them.
But the fans didn’t know that. He kept them hanging as only a villain could.
“It’s fun to have a secret and toy with people,” he said. “All of it feeds into this character.”
AND that’s a wrap …

Hawaii Five-0 Promo: The Big Bang

I guess CBS doesn’t want to give away much more about the season 2 finale, since this latest promo only shows more of  the massive explosion we saw in a prior teaser.

Behind the scenes of Hawaii Five-0′s Season 2 finale

CBS posted some photos to whet our appetite for Monday’s second season finale, “Ua Hala.”   Is their tactic working?

Photos: E-PR/CBS

Up Next on Hawaii Five-0: “Ua Hala”

I’m not a fan of threatening to kill off characters in order to bring in viewers, but that technique has become the norm in television drama these days.  The preview after Monday’s episode showed us sweet, dorky Max getting gunned down, and if that weren’t enough, there’s shocking footage of an unconscious up Kono going overboard.  Did this make my heart skip a few beats?  Yes!  Was it factor in whether or not I’ll be watching the Season 2 finale?  Absolutely not.  I either like a show, or I don’t; threats of death don’t convince me to watch.  But, if the “who’s going to die” manipulation lures in more viewers, I’ll grudgingly say, “more power to you, CBS.”

To throw a monkey wrench into fans’ speculation as to who might depart, the show has brought back many recurring characters, giving us a plethora of possible victims to choose from. Who do you think will be pushing up daisies?  Or swimming with the fishes?  Taking a short walk off a long pier?

It doesn’t quite seem right that Wo Fat isn’t making an appearance in the season ending episode, but we’re introduced to a new miscreant, with the frightening moniker of “Toothpick” (Unhand me, or I shall hor dourves you to the death!)  OK, perhaps it isn’t that terrifying, but actor Karl Herlinger has promised that his character is bringing absolute mayhem to our team.  Herlinger, is one of those actors whose face you’ve probably seen, but have never been able to put a name to.  The Hawaii-born actor is also scheduled to appear in the opening episode of Season 3 to continue his harassment of Five-0.  Although often playing a villain, Karl, (who’s tried to stay in character on Twitter) actually seems like a very nice guy.  You can follow him on that medium at @regnilreh.

So, as I’ve said, although I’m not fond of doing away with characters in exchange for ratings, the networks seem to demand it. And after this past week’s electrifying episode, I’m going to trust Peter Lenkov and the gang to make this finale the best it can possibly be.

Photo: Norman Shapiro/CBS

Ua Hala*” – Five-0 is in hot pursuit of a shooter who guns down one of their own, while another team member is forced to choose which of their kidnapped loved ones will live, on the second season finale of HAWAII FIVE-0, Monday, May 14 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network.
(*Ua Hala is Hawaiian for “Death in the Family”)

SERIES REGULARS:
Alex O’Loughlin (Steve McGarrett)
Scott Caan (Danny “Danno” Williams)
Daniel Dae Kim (Chin Ho Kelly)
Grace Park (Kono Kalakaua)
Masi Oka (Dr. Max Bergman)

RECURRING:
Terry O’ Quinn (Joe White)
Tom Sizemore (Chief Vincent Fryer)
Taylor Wiley (Kamekona)
Teilor Grubbs (Grace Williams)
William Baldwin (Frank Delano)
Reiko Aylesworth (Malia Kelly)

GUEST CAST:
Dennis Chun (Sgt. Duke Lukela)
Maeve Quinlan (Sandra Fryer)
Taylor Cole (Hilary Chaver)
Karl Herlinger (“Toothpick”)
David Lombard (Dr. Armstrong)
Spam Laupola (Guard)

WRITTEN BY: Peter M. Lenkov, Paul Zbyszewski and Elwood Reid
DIRECTED BY: Steve Boyum

Promo: Hawaii Five-0 ups the ante in “Ua Hala”

Trust me, people – you’re not going to want to miss this one!

Photo: Norman Shapiro/CBS

Behind the filming of “Ua Hopu”

Undercover Special Agent Kelly was on hand as director Larry Teng transformed a street in downtown Honolulu into a busy alley in Osaka, Japan.  Alex O’Loughlin as G.I. Joe, er, Steve McGarrett, suited up for an assault on arch-enemy, Wo Fat.  Mahalo Agent Kelly!

Final “Live” ratings from Monday, May 9, 2012

ABC’s promos featuring Richard Castle professing his love for Kate Beckett in the season finale, did the trick.  The show won handily in overall views, and eked ahead in the 18-49 demographic that advertisers love so much.   Hawaii Five-0 fans were eagerly anticipating the return of Steve McGarrett to the screen, so hopefully when the DVR numbers are tabulated in a few weeks, they will give CBS a nice boost.

Grace Park and Ian Anthony Dale

From TVbytheNumbers

Final Monday broadcast primetime ratings for Monday, May 7, 2012

Hawaii Five-0 Season 2 finale promo

Daniel Dae Kim on the return of McGarrett

Daniel Dae Kim seems to have a emerged as the official Hawaii Five-0 cast ambassador, popping up everywhere recently.  He took a few moments to chat with Sandra Gonzalez of EW and discussed the return of Alex O’Loughlin.  Daniel also sang the praises of the show’s writers, and promised big things for the last final episodes of the season.

Daniel Dae Kim is well versed in secret keeping. It was, he jokes (or not?), a “job requirement” on Lost. But if there’s one thing he’s not coy about, it’s his praise for the Hawaii Five-0 writing team, who dealt with unforeseen circumstances brought on by co-star Alex O’Loughlin’s sudden absence to seek prescription drug treatment.
“It was a development that could conceivably shut down a production, but we kept going and we hardly missed a beat. I really admired how they dealt with that,” says the actor. “[In tonight's episode] we have Alex back. I feel we’re much stronger all together as a group, but it’s nice to know we can function while one of us is away.”
McGarrett’s return (after a mere one-episode absence) is not done in a small way by any means. (The episode finds him taking on arch-nemisis Wo Fat, played by Mark Dacasos, as they both are pursued by the Japanese mafia.) The explosive hour sets the stage for the huge season finale, airing May 14. “Our finale is really something to watch,” says Kim. “Our show is known for big stunts and dramatic turns and the finale is kind of that on steroids. So I actually found the finale to be a real page turner.”
In the page turner is a death that will launch the team into a “direction that leads to a couple of other plots.” “The repercussions of that death are something that all the team members have to deal with,” says Kim. “The death is in the thick of things and it’s definitely a spring board for other events.”
But will it top last year’s season closer, which found the team going their separate ways and McGarrett in jail for the death of the governor? “Just wait,” says Kim. “It’s big.”