Pilot (Hawaii Five-0)

"Pilot"
Hawaii Five-0 episode
The new Unnamed Police State Task Force becomes used to their new office space and begins to think of a name for their team.
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 1
Directed byLen Wiseman
Story byAlex Kurtzman
Roberto Orci
Peter M. Lenkov
Teleplay byPeter M. Lenkov
Editing byNick de Toth
Production code101
Original air dateSeptember 20, 2010 (2010-09-20)
Running time44 minutes
Guest appearances
  • Jean Smart as Governor Pat Jameson
  • Will Yun Lee as Sang Min
  • Norman Reedus as Anton Hesse
  • James Marsters as Victor Hesse
  • William Sadler as John McGarrett
  • Allison Chu as Chen Chi
  • Patrick Crowley as Co-Pilot
  • Teilor Grubbs as Grace Williams
  • Lexi Hara as Local Girl
  • Meagen Hensley as Jaycee
  • David B. Johnson as Captain DeMarco
  • Blaine Kia as Minister
  • Thomas McCurdy as Jovan Eteinne
  • Kelemete Misipeka as Samoan No. 1
  • Brendon Pave as Local Boy
  • Jonathan Clarke Sypert as Fred Doran
  • Taylor Wily as Kamekona
  • Sonya Seng as Car Jack Lady
Episode chronology
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"Ohana"
Hawaii Five-0 (2010 TV series, season 1)
List of episodes

The pilot episode of the reimagined crime series Hawaii Five-0 premiered on CBS in the United States on September 20, 2010. The pilot's teleplay was written by Peter M. Lenkov, based on a story developed by Lenkov, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, and was directed by Len Wiseman. The episode introduces the four main characters: Alex O'Loughlin as series protagonist and Navy SEAL, Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett, Scott Caan as Steve's partner Danny Williams, a former Detective from New Jersey who moved to Hawaii to be close to his daughter, Grace, Daniel Dae Kim as Chin Ho Kelly, a disgraced HPD cop and Grace Park as Kono Kalakaua, a former surfer-turned-HPD Academy graduate who is also Chin's cousin. In the pilot, McGarrett returns to Hawaii to find Victor Hesse (James Marsters), a terrorist who murdered his father, John McGarrett. The Governor of Hawaii, Pat Jameson (Jean Smart) offers McGarrett to head a new task force to fight serious crimes by any means.

Since the end of the original Hawaii Five-O series, there had been a number of attempts to create a remake, but ultimately none went beyond the pilot stage. CBS later hired Lenkov to pitch a pilot story. Kurtzman and Orci were approached; while originally hesitant to participate in the project, they were impressed with Lenkov's pitch. The episode was filmed in March 2010 and took over two weeks to shoot. When the episode became too long certain sequences were cut from the final product, including the funeral scene with Taryn Manning as McGarrett's sister; the character would be introduced in a later episode. Almost 14.2 million Americans viewed the pilot, increasing to 17.59 million when Live+7-day digital video recordings (DVR) are taken into account, and was also considered a ratings success in other countries. Critical reactions were generally positive.