Magnum PI’s Stephen Hill on His "Great Relationship" with Roger E. Mosley — Despite Some Early Resistance

 Hill also revealed how he honors Roger E. Mosley's original take on the character of TC in a small easter egg on Magnum P.I.Magnum P.I.’s Stephen Hill enjoyed a “great relationship” with Roger E. Mosley, who played his character Theodore “TC” Calvin on the original series — but Hill has admitted Mosley wasn’t initially eager to pass the torch.

Hill told NBC Insider’s Stephanie Gomulka he reached out to Mosley after first booking the job to play TC, Thomas Magnum’s buddy and a former US Navy Seal, but the veteran actor wasn’t exactly welcoming — at least, at first.I reached out to him and, you know, he said, ‘Yeah, you don’t even know if you have a show yet. I’ll give you my advice when you have a show. Let me know when you got Season 2,’” Hill recalled. “I couldn’t believe it went like that, but if you know Roger, you know he could be a little ornery like that.”

Hill believes Mosley may have been rightfully hesitant to mess with the solid legacy of the original series, which ran from 1980 to 1988 and also starred a young, mustached Tom Selleck.The thing is those guys blazed a trail for us so that torch that he was going to pass over to us, it didn't come very easily,” Hill said. “He made me earn it a little bit.Mosley’s resistance didn’t last long. After watching the first few episodes of the reboot, which stars Jay Hernandez in the titular role, Mosley was impressed by the way the new cast made the series their own and agreed not only to help Hill out, but to guest star in the new rendition himself.

“He ended up becoming a mentor of mine, you know. I got to take him around the island. We did some local press here together,” Hill said. “I hung out with him in L.A., you know, so we had a great relationship and I am very appreciative.Mosley appeared in the first season of the reboot as TC’s barber, John Booky, providing the helicopter pilot with some sage words of wisdom and enlisting him in an impromptu dance party in the middle of the barbershop. He reprised the role in Season 3.