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'There's Comedic Relief, But We Deal With A Lot Of Storylines That Are Important': Zachary Knighton Talks 'Magnum P.I.' On CBS

August 20, 2020 / 7:30 AM PDT / CBS San Francisco

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(CBS Local)-- Hawaii is now home for actor Zachary Knighton thanks to his role on the hit CBS show "Magnum P.I." Knighton plays Rick on the CBS reboot starring Jay Hernandez and the team is gearing up to begin shooting season three shortly. Shooting a season of "Magnum P.I." takes almost an entire year and the actor enjoys living in Hawaii because he is an active surfer and diver.

While Knighton had a great run on the TV show "Happy Endings," being on the CBS gave him the opportunity to flex his comedic and dramatic muscles.

"I was a huge fan of the original and I grew up surfing and sailing and I'm a diver," said Knighton in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "I love the outdoor aspects of the tropical climate. Of course, the appeal of moving to Hawaii was great. I love the show and I love Larry Manetti, who was the original Rick. I was a fan of him, even pre-Magnum P.I. days. It just felt like a choice that made sense. I had gone down this road of a lot of pilots and things I had been doing since Happy Endings got cancelled. This felt like a sure thing and something that would stay on the air for a while. I love the team involved and it has been a blast. We are really fortunate that people love the show."

Knighton likes that the show didn't try to replicate what was done in the original series. He wanted to be loose, free and fun when it came to playing Rick.

"It was important to me that he not only be the funnier guy on the show, but also that there was a lot of heart," said Knighton. "There's a lot of comic relief on Magnum, but we deal with a lot of storylines that are important to me like stuff that we do with PTSD and veterans. We are trying to bring honor to those who served and we want to do them right. We want to portray situations and things our veterans encounter in life post-military."

In addition to his role on "Magnum P.I., Knighton is one of the stars of a new movie coming out on August 21 called "The Pale Door." The movie is a combination of a western and horror film and this is the type of movie that Knighton has been waiting to do for a long time.

"I've always had this dream to be in a western," said Knighton. "I've always pushed my agents and my manager to find me this western. I don't know what it is or where it is and I've always been searching for it. My career has sort of taken me down a comedy path and it's kind of hard to get taken seriously to do anything like that. Aaron Koontz was a fan of Happy Endings. He is also a fan of turning certain stereotypes on their head a little. His thought of having a comedy guy in a horror film was pretty appealing to him and the producers of the movie."