 I'm Rusty Kamori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou School Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books, Beyond the Lines, and Beyond the Game, and it's about inspiration, leadership, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is a producer on the hit TV show, Magnum P.I. He is Kenneth Burke, and today we are going beyond Magnum P.I. Hey Kenny, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hey Coach Rusty, good morning to you. Kenny, you have done such incredible work for so many years. I mean, maybe I know how old you are, but you have a lot of wisdom and you've accomplished so much, but can you share about some of the popular actors that you've worked with? I guess I've worked with Val Kilmer and Karen Allen and Chris Christopherson is quite a favorite of mine. Jim Cavizel, yeah, there's a ton. I've done over 60 feature films. Now Kenny, have you ever been an actor yourself? I wasn't an actor as a child, yeah. Now, what did you do? Did you do TV shows or was it theater? Mostly it was theater. I kind of came up in the theater. I sang Oliver at 11 and kind of started it. It was sort of like, oh, you're a good reader. You can be in a play. So I kind of, that's where I got attracted to it. And Kenny, can you share, what are the differences between being an executive producer, a producer, and a line producer? What are the differences? It's a good question. Everybody doesn't always understand why all these producers are always on the front of credit. I think executive producers, basically, in the TV world are the writers, right? They're the ones that put the whole concept together and tell the story. In film, they're usually the ones that bring the financing to the table and hire the line producer or hire the producers to see the creative side through. And producers really are on the hook for the creative side. The line producer is on the hook to liaison between the creative side and the business end of the stick. Because we're responsible line producers for doing the budget, the schedule, firing, firing, being the leadership role of like, I always say, like a general contractor, right? They hire the roofer. They hire the painters. They hire the village, basically, to put the whole show together. But they have the commerce side of it, which is really important because if you don't come in on budget, you don't, you know, we've blown the whole thing. And then the creative side is making sure the director's getting what he needs to tell his story. Oh, that's really interesting because for me, I didn't know what the differences are and I'm sure a lot of our viewers didn't know. But thanks for clarifying that. And Kenny, I want to know your thought about why Magnum PI is a successful show. Well, Hawaii is probably the best recipe that you can have for that show. We have the beauty of Hawaii. We have the island life. We have a Ferrari. It's a sexy show. We have action. The cast is such a gel together cast. They come in, hit it every time, do short hours and go home. Really, really, the magic in that is the cast and the beauty of Hawaii. So Kenny, let's talk about the four main actors like you just brought up. And I mean, it seems like they have such great on-screen chemistry. How hard is that to get and why do you think that those four main characters really gelled together? Well, I think they're also nice humans, right? It's not just that they're great on-screen but they're all nice humans. And being a nice human and getting along together makes it really easy to work together. But they're also pro. They're super pro actors that they come in and that's why our showrunner Eric Guggenheim, when he fires actors, he gets pro, right? Because they need it. We pump out a lot of pages every day. But I will continue to say that they're all nice humans and that's really part of it. Oh, I completely agree with you, Kenny. And can you share about the, I mean, the impact that the writer's strike and the actor's strike add on Magnum PI? Well, we kind of believe that kind of the reason we got canceled right this year when the writer's strike came in, they weren't going to keep paying all the actors and we didn't have a date when the writer's strike would be over and the stag strike would be over. So it was difficult to go ahead and keep investing on these payor plays for all of our cast and crew and keep it all going when it was just unknown. So we did really well on our season last season. We did really well on numbers and so unfortunately here we are. No, and Kenny, you guys had filmed an additional 10 episodes prior to getting canceled and those episodes that are being shown now, I mean, it's getting like 9 million plus views, right? Really, really good numbers, yeah. Well, it's a good show. And we actually, you know, when we, we went to NBC last year for the last 20 episodes and they kind of, you know, as they do, we needed to keep her faster, better and she trimmed our budget on us, right? So we saved up money at the first 10 episodes till Christmas and then after Christmas, we spent that money and really ramped up the action and all the stuff that we did on the last 10, the back 10 was they're really super huge. Like we did really big stuff. Oh, and Kenny, I can, I've watched every episode, every episode and every season and you're right. I mean, you can see that it's like awesome stuff in these remaining episodes and what are the, what do you see are the chances of Magnum being resurrected? Well, it's happened before. We happened to us between season four and season five. Chances are, you know, it's lemon none probably, but we are always hopeful because we like the show. We like making the show. The crews here in Hawaii are amazing and we're a family, right? We are a family, a billet that all works together and we, you know, we'll go on to something else. Of course, we're going to continue to bring other shows here and we'll all see each other again. But I'm not sure that that's going to come back. Now Kenny, can you share with our viewers some of the other shows, movies that you worked on previously in the past maybe two decades? Here on Island, I did Soul Surfer, the Bethany Hamilton story. That was quite an inspirational story. Another one that I always, when I think of you, Coach Rusty, I think of this movie called When the Game Stamps Call about a winning coach and about his leadership qualities and how he came in to do a job in theology. And then they gave him the varsity head coach. He's never done anything like it before. He put them through their paces. They ended up winning 151 straight games. Never been done before. I don't think pro high school, any record like that. They called it this three. That's the Jim Caviesel movie and it's quite inspirational. And it is about leadership and it ties right into your book. You know, I watched that movie. That was such an awesome movie, very inspirational. And like you said, Soul Surfer with Bethany Hamilton, that was inspirational as well. And you also did Polly Road. Can you tell us about Polly Road as well? Sure. That was a show Jonathan Lim directed. And it was with a Taiwanese star. I forget her name, actually. There's been a lot of actresses and actors in my life. But anyway, she was a star from Taiwan and she came in. And you know, we used a local actor as well, Henry Kuzak, who I totally appreciate. And he's such a strong actor. He's also in Wind and the Reckoning, that movie, the local movie, it's on Hawaiian air right now. But yeah, we say it's a woman going through sort of a midlife crisis and loses her herself and then refocuses and yeah. It's an interesting movie to see. Not a lot to do about Polly Road, but that's what they called it. You got at Sunset on the Beach for Magnum PI, you and your colleagues were honored by the city of Honolulu, the state of Hawaii. Governor Josh Green was there. How special was that to really get that kind of recognition from the city and state? Super, super cool. I always have wanted to give back to Hawaii. When I first started working here over 15 years ago, I just always wanted to leave a mark and do good things for the people of Hawaii because I just appreciated the cruise so much. And I wanted to see it go bigger, but to be recognized like that is super cool. It was also with the film, the state film and the County of Honolulu film, the film commissioners. Also George Skinner from Creative Industry, she was sick that night, wasn't there, but it's an honor to have governor give me an award Jackie Connick from Ed Gates' office. Yeah, super cool. It's the other one that gave me an award. Yeah, I mean, well deserved. I mean, and I love going to those sunset on the beach events. I mean, it's so great for the fans and the public, the community to really get to see the stars up close and in person. And Kenny, I want to ask you about my books. What are two concepts that stood out to you in it? It's just the leadership part that you talk about so much and how I've always said, you know, filmmaking or anything that you do is a collaborative effort, right? That I always say it takes ability. I say that a lot and it's true. People will say, you know, congratulate me on my show, but I'm like, it's an hour show. It's not my show. We all work together in unison to make it work. And that was one of them. The other one that of course I liked because it was Bethany, Hamilton was about current and encouraged being able to ignore fear. And I'm not, I'm butchering the quote actually, Coach Rusty, but it was, I thought that was kind of a strong statement. And it is all about not just one person, it's about a whole village. And that's what I think makes good leadership. Yeah, and I love that you brought up Bethany Hamilton and I love that you worked with her and I have to bring that up under that courage and conviction chapter because I mean, she's so inspirational and earlier you were saying about how as a producer, you're line producer, you're having to be kind of like a general contractor, you're the leader. What do you feel is your leadership style when you're on doing a production? Well, first of all, I never see red, I never overreact. I think you say this in your book as well. It was interesting because I kind of feel the same way about what you said in your book, but I always listen, react, process, and then react. So I don't just see red and fly off the handle and calm it, I think it's a big part. When you're in a movie with all these moving parts for this TV show with all these moving parts, you can't just react right away. You need to listen and process. That makes the difference. No, I'm glad you said that because I always say listen, first, speak, last. And you, I mean, that's what you do and not to react emotionally like you're talking about because decisions must be based on reason, not emotion, right? Yes, exactly. It never, when you get into the drama and we have drama, right? There's so many cast of characters on a TV show. So of course, we have dramas that come up, but you just kind of sit back and deal with the, did not put your emotion in it yet. Exactly right. Now, you're also like that that's a team that you're leading. You have a team and you got to have teamwork. So how do you navigate through that whole situation building your team that it's a new team every time, right? Well, I try not to. I try to work with the same people because we are a family and I try to keep the same people together. It's just like, it's a sports metaphor. And again, in your book, you do talk about these sort of things, but about like on everybody on the same line of screen, everybody knowing what to play and all that comes from preparation. So the biggest thing in any of this is to know what we're going to do. If anybody goes awry and goes on their own and not being part of the team, people get hurt in our industry. We're doing, I have Ferraris rushing down Chinatown with a drone and people almost getting hit because we were doing a stunt or like there's a lot of coordination to all this stuff. And as soon as one person doesn't say to the plan, people get hurt. No, that's so important. Like you're saying, I mean, you got Ferraris feeding down, you got the drones. I mean, who knows what could happen? And so all that preparation is so critical and Kenny, I wanna ask you about Brotherhood Grimes. You've been to a number of events at Giovanni Pascrami with Ryan Tanaka and you've seen the interactions with the sports teams, the UH athletes and how Ryan is really trying to create a network for them to really have the community leaders there to talk with to kind of get to know what are your thoughts about that? Oh, what a great thing to do. I know you're a part of it as well, Coach Rusty and Ryan Tanaka is such an angel. And I think the other gentlemen big city diner as well, right? Just taking care of our local athletes and keeping them going strong. It's like, these are our proteins here and I support UH a lot. I'm all about you of age, not so much volleyball though I'd love to go to games but I'm all about basketball because that program needs more love basically. Keep it going strong. Yeah, and Kenny, you have big city diner owned by Lane Morooka. I mean, such a great guy, great leader helping the community. And I wanna ask you more about UH basketball and can you share about what you're doing because you're documenting them, right? We're doing a documentary, Scott Mason and I decided after we were done with Magnum did not just throw our summer away. And so we went to Japan and we've been following them around. We've been interviewing them and welcoming the new players like Matthew Cotton and Justin McCoy at the airport and just really, you know, mic'ing coach up a lot, Eran Ganat and following some players around and boy, interesting stuff. And I think it's gonna be great especially because when I sort of lightly stripped of this, of course because you don't really strip the documentary but I did put in the closing of this, you know the final four because why wouldn't I? Yeah, so I told him you have to go to the final four because it's in the script. So we'll see you there. Yeah, but we're having fun with it. It's super fun to sit that team and what Eran brings to that team is they're just gentlemen. They're all very, very nice guys. They have good character and they're all gonna go far. Whatever they end up in, you know I don't know if it's basketball or law or I mean, some of them have two MBAs already, right? Matthew Cotton went to Yale. He's already graduated. He's doing his COVID year for us now. So they're just really respectful, great character. Well, Kenny, they're so lucky to have somebody like you really working to put this documentary together and is there like something that stood out to you whether it was coach Eran or any of the players that kind of like really opened your eyes? Yeah, it's just, it's fun. You get to, when you get to know the players you get to know who the clowns are. You get to know who the Saiyans are, the, you know they're all, they're all super nice. But, you know, Jevon is such a leader. He takes, he, with the coaches and around because they can't always be around, right? According to the NIL, he takes a leadership role and he's the senior. And, you know, it just, it's interesting to watch everybody fall into line. And by the way, he's an amazing player and it makes sense for him to also be a leader. I completely agree with you. We love Jevon. I mean, I had Jevon on my show and, you know his character, I mean, he is, he's just a man of great character and we should all just be so happy that him and his teammates, they're here representing Hawaii in the highest, greatest possible way with excellence. And, and Kenny, I want to ask you about your boat. I know you love being on the water. And I mean, that's among one of many things that you love to do in Hawaii. What is it about Hawaii that you love so much? I love water, right? Like when I told you I'm going off to do this film in Atlanta and I just will miss water. It's just like it's landlocked, right? I don't know. Hawaii, I like to surf. I like to sail. Those are things, you know, I like to snorkel. I like to, I don't know, just, I love the water. Maybe it's because I'm an Aquarius. I don't know. That definitely has to be a factor if you're an Aquarius. I'm a dolphin. Yeah. Now, Kenny, I want to ask you just recently you put together this filmmaking seminar here in Hawaii. Can you share about what you did there? We basically, in 12 hours, shotgun, you know, what did they say to me? They said it was like a water fountain fire hose or drinking, you know, drinking through a fire hose. We basically took you through pre-production, production, distribution, hose, went through all the legal fees that you need when you're doing film production, you know, soup to nuts, basically, all the way through. I mean, you're never going to get it in 12 hours, but we gave a really nice overview in 12 hours. And it was, I think we had 44 people on Saturday. And my biggest compliment to myself was 44 people came back on Sunday. So that was the test for me, like, oh, they all loved it. And then I was asking them what day was better? They were like, they were both so interesting, right? So we praded in directors, producers, writers, cast, Stephen Hill came down, Brian Pfizer came and talked about directing. We had a really well-known cinematographer, Eagle, it just went through all the cast of characters, hair, makeup, wardrobe, everything we could teach them about grip, electric, prop. Literally all the pros from Dover showed up and gave what they thought of film production and how they dealt with the producer. It was producer-centered, so it was about how they deal with the producer. Oh, that's so great to hear. And yeah, like you mentioned, our friend, Magnum PI actor, Stephen Hill, was there speaking. And wow, what a treat for the 44 of them to see all that. And like you said, for them to come back. I mean, that's a huge compliment to you, Kenny. And Kenny, I wanna get your thought about, you know, the effects that the film industry has in Hawaii, whether it be a TV series or a movie. I mean, how many people does Hawaii employ when a movie is being filmed? And what's the monies that's generated to really help the community here? So we will run on Magnum. We'll run a first unit of probably 120 people. Plus we'll have, you know, three to 400 extras per episode. So those are employed. We have all of these teamsters that we employ. I mean, we're spending, you know, five million every seven days. That's what we leave here. We pay, you know, of course we get a rebate, but that's what makes it work, is why we can keep production here. But yeah, and then we'll have a second unit as well. And that'll be 40 more people. And, you know, we do a lot for the community and I wanna keep that going. So yes, we wanna bring another show here. Kenny, what are your ideas to attract more shows and movies to Hawaii then? Well, we have the attraction. The rebate is really why a lot of films and TV shows come here because there's an incentive to come here. So the idea of getting the cap extended and or lifted. So, you know, I always say to the legislation body, if it's worth a dollar, it's worth two dollars. So we should keep expanding this program. One of the problems, we're about three deep on cruise. And we can literally, I employed 89% local last year on Magnum PI. So we don't have to bring a lot of people in. They are here. We have real top-notch talent in all of the fields here. And we don't have to bring anybody from anywhere else. What was my point? I told you I'll ramble on. But anyways, I do want to get another two cruise, three cruise going. So I am trying to get a trade school for both the logo line trade school going. It's gonna feed that the producer part was more of an above the line, which are important roles too. We should have a screenwriting workshop. We should keep teaching producing, keep teaching directing and just keep it going. But the first thing I think the best way to get people employed in union good paying job with pension and health is to start to below the line and get people interested in prop, get people interested in grip. Not a lot of you're on an island. What are your options? Go to the army, you go to a hotel or there's several trades available, but this is a really good trade, exciting trade with a really good paycheck and pension and health. So I think we should develop more young men and women into these roles. And then we can have more film production, more television production here. Well, Kenny, I mean, we're so lucky to have you living in Hawaii. I mean, you have so many thoughts and ideas to really take Hawaii, the film industry, to the next level. I mean, just the higher levels and be one of the maybe premier destinations in the world because are there, I mean, what other locations are there that might compete with Hawaii? Well, New Zealand, of course, Puerto Rico, they're kind of, they've lost a incentive. I just actually brought a hallmark show here last year because they were going to Puerto Rico and they lost the incentive there. So they came here instead. Australia is another one, I'm sure that can be. Our water is prettier than all of those places, by the way. And if anybody would know, it's you because you're an Aquarius. I don't know. That was a maybe, I don't know what that is. Kenny, I want to ask you about mindset because in my books, I talk a lot about mindset and when you're running the show, when you're doing that production and I mean, you have to, I mean, unforeseen things will happen. So you have to expect the unexpected and be able to adapt and adjust, right? Yeah, you need to be planned always. Always have that in the back of your mind. If this doesn't go right, where do I, how do I climb? Where do I go to next? Yeah, I always kind of have contingencies built in the back of my mind, just because it is what it is. Things change. All of a sudden you have weather on top of you and yeah, you got to always have a way to, well, let's just go inside and we'll shoot that scene and then when 30 minutes later, it's not raining, we'll go back outside or yeah. Oh, that's so interesting to hear that too. And Kenny, I want to ask you one more thing before we wrap up of the, in the acting world, okay? And after that you have not worked with, who would be an actor that you would love to work with? I'll go with my favorite actor, it's just Christophe Fultz. I'd love to work with him, he's amazing. Yeah, that's exactly who I would say because he's definitely my favorite actor, just to watch his work is amazing. All right, I'm going to have to put it out there to him. Make it happen. Go for it, go for it. Nice. Well, Kenny, I want to thank you for taking time to be on the show today. I mean, you've done so much to help Hawaii and the film industry and I just want people to really get to know you and appreciate you and really want to thank you for taking time to be on the show today. Yeah, thanks for having me on. I keep up your good work, Coach Rusty. You have wonderful books and keep this going. I like your positiveness and sharing. Awesome. Thanks, Kenny. All right. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Kenny and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find their Aloha. Thank you.