The Missing

A “lost” episode of the 1968-1980 crime drama Hawaii Five-O? I don’t think I had ever heard of “Bored, She Hung Herself” until reading about it (rather belatedly) in copywriter-critic Marty McKee’s blog, Johnny LaRue’s Crane Shot.

“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-O: 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.

McKee has more to say about that episode here. Does anybody out there remember seeing this installment of the series? It rings absolutely no bells for me.