It’s over for now — at least until August, but if the Screen Actors Guild goes on strike July 1, it might be longer than that. The big white CBS and Universal trucks, the dressing trailers, the police controlling the traffic and most obviously the fans, will be off the streets of Honolulu for at least four months.

“Magnum,” whose last week’s episode drew 21.5 million viewers on the Mainland and was second only to “60 Minutes” as the most heavily watched program in the Nielsen ratings, has finished taping for the season. There will be a couple of background shoots in the next two days, but essentially, the party’s over.

And it has been a party for the thousands of fans who have trooped all over the Island to watch the taping. Well, actually, it’s not the scenery and the cameras and all those technicians that drags them from Waimanalo to Chinatown, it’s Tom Selleck, who plays the laidback Thomas Magnum, private investigator.

It’s Selleck, who was recently named as TV’s favorite actor and the best-looking actor by People magazine, who draws the crowds. The final tapings in public places were Wednesday at a small hotel on the corner of Paokalani Avenue and Lemon Street, that night at O’Toole’s at the end of Merchant Street and Thursday at Aloha Tower.

Friday the crew was in the Kalakaua Gym and yesterday they were at Kawailoa Ranch at the end of Kaneohe Bay. Tomorrow and on Tuesday, a small crew will complete the background shots, but most of the cast and crew will leave this weekend. Selleck will be here through April 9 for the Honolulu Symphony benefit, and then will fly to London where he will spend the next 16 weeks starring in “Lassiter,” produced by Al Ruddy and described as “a detective story” in the film columns.

Non of this “Magnum” schedule is announced to anyone but those directly concerned with the taping, but the crowds gather anyway. According to Hank Wong, who heads the Hawaii Film Office and the state Office of Planning and Economic Development, it isn’t that difficult for those sufficiently motivated.

Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.