police procedural

Portrayed by Don Quine (*1938, The Fugitive, Peyton Place, The Virginian), swinging Sixties bachelor stock character Don Miles ushered in the new decade with some controversy that American audiences were unprepared for in an episode of Hawaii Five-O aired once and never shown again—even in syndication nor much later in commemorative box sets, called “Bored, She Hung Herself” in which our charismatic gigolo is implicated in the death of his sometimes girlfriend Wanda, played by Pamela Murphy (*1945, All in the Family, Silver Spoons, Dallas), found hanged dead in their apartment. Wanda’s death wasn’t at issue since crime and murder were stock and staple of this sort of television programming, but rather how it presented as accidental, “was she under the diabolic influence of her mystic boyfriends—or was it murder?” a hazard of practising yoga with a noose, as Miles offered as testimony of the couple’s engaging in the activity for health reasons. Though not named specifically, the episode described in some detail auto-erotic asphyxiation and tragically a viewer died while trying to replicate the technique. The family of the victim sued the network and the controversial episode was wiped from CBS archives.