Bored She Hung Herself

"Bored She Hung Herself" (sic) is the rarest of the 284 episodes of HAWAII FIVE-0 that were produced during its 12-season run on CBS. It aired only once—January 7, 1970—and has not been broadcast since. It has never been rerun on CBS or in syndication, and CBS/Paramount, regrettably, omitted it from its recent HAWAII FIVE-0: THE SECOND SEASON DVD box set.

CBS and Paramount have never revealed exactly why they have censored this episode, although most fans believe it is because of its opening scene, in which a hippie character is seen hanging by the neck without harm for the purpose of meditation. A few minutes later, his girlfriend is discovered hanging from the ceiling in the same noose, but quite dead. Reportedly, someone really did attempt to hang themselves based on what they saw on this episode and was killed.

Only one copy of "Bored She Hung Herself" appears to exist. It looks like a 16mm print that was sent to network affiliates and contains bumpers, leader, etc. Audio and visual quality is barely watchable, as though the print were projected onto a wall and recorded by a video camera. It also seems to be considered not one of the series' highlights, although I thought it was quite interesting and stands outside the program's usual formula.

Five-0, Hawaii's special four-man police task force, headed up by Steve McGarrett (series star Jack Lord), investigates the death of Wanda Parker (Pamela Murphy), who is found hanging by the neck in the beach cottage she shares with her boyfriend Don (Don Quine). Wanda's father Warren (perennial TV guest star William Smithers) strongly believes that Don is the murderer and tape-records a conversation with him that he thinks confirms his suspicions. McGarrett, a by-the-book cop through and through, refuses to stand by the tape, claiming that it would never hold up in court. Parker, though a good friend of McGarrett's, storms out of the Five-0 office while threatening McGarrett's job.

Devoid of the gun battles and screaming car chases often connected to the show, "Bored She Hung Herself," which was written by Mel Goldberg and directed by John Newland (the former host and director of the ONE STEP BEYOND TV series), is an absorbing mystery, despite its paucity of suspects, and has at least three strong scenes dominated by their performances and direction. The teaser between Don and Wanda is surprisingly frank and violent, and very quickly sums up their relationship and hers with her father. Later, the dialogues between Warren and Don and between McGarrett and Warren, in which they debate the morality of Parker's tape recording, are crisply performed and directed by Newland, who returned for only one more of the 284 shows.