<P> A one - hour pilot for a new series was made in 1996 but never aired . Produced and written by Stephen J. Cannell, it starred Gary Busey and Russell Wong as the new Five - O team . James MacArthur returned as Dan Williams, having become governor of Hawaii . Several cameos were made by other Five - O regulars, including Kam Fong as Chin Ho Kelly (even though the character had been killed off at the end of Season 10). </P> <P> The one - hour pilot for a revived show, called Hawaii Five - 0 (the last character is a zero instead of the letter "O", which is the true title of the original series as well), aired September 20, 2010, on CBS, and as of October 2013, the series now airs Friday nights at 9 PM Eastern, 8 PM Central time . The remake version Hawaii Five - 0 uses the same principal character names as the original, and the new Steve McGarrett's late father's vintage 1974 Mercury Marquis is the actual specimen driven by Lord in the original series's final seasons . The new series opening credit sequence is an homage to the original; the theme song is cut in half, from 60 to 30 seconds, but is an otherwise identical instrumentation . Most of the iconic shots are replicated, beginning with the helicopter approach and close - up turn of McGarrett at the Ilikai Hotel penthouse, the jet engine nacelle, a hula dancer's hips, the quickly stepped zoom - in to the face of the Lady Columbia statue at Punchbowl, the close - up of the Kamehameha Statue's face, and the ending with a police motorcycle's flashing blue light . Starting with the Season 7 many of the clips that were part of the original opening were removed and more action shots of the cast were included . On the March 19, 2012 episode, Ed Asner reprised his role as "August March", a character he first played in a 1975 episode . Clips from the 1975 episode were included in the new one, even though the 2010 series is intended to be in a different narrative universe than the Jack Lord series . </P> <P> Another legacy of the show is the popularity of the Hawaii Five - O theme music . The tune was composed by Morton Stevens, who also composed numerous episode scores performed by the CBS Orchestra . The theme was later recorded by the Ventures, whose version reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, and is particularly popular with college and high school marching bands, especially at the University of Hawaii where it has become the unofficial fight song . The tune has also been heard at Robertson Stadium after Houston Dynamo goals scored by Brian Ching, a native of Hawaii . Because of the tempo of the music, the theme gained popularity in the UK with followers of Northern soul and was popular on dance floors in the 1970s . </P> <P> Although the theme is most widely known as an instrumental, it has been released with at least two similar but different sets of lyrics . The first, "You Can Come with Me" by Don Ho, opens with an instrumental in the familiar tempo, then settles into a ballad style for the sung portion . The second, by Sammy Davis, Jr., titled "You Can Count on Me (Theme from Hawaii Five - O)", maintains the driving style of the original instrumental throughout . </P>

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