With their college graduation looming in 1973, Rod Baker and Glen Olson began to worry. The aspiring TV writers had co-authored five scripts, but they didn’t have jobs lined up.

Cut to a few months later, when they were celebrating their debut — in prime time — after writing an episode of their favorite TV show, "Hawaii Five-0."

They called it "Hookman." It was an hour of television that fans couldn’t resist and reviewers couldn’t dismiss.

It was so tense that Variety said it startled viewers with a telephone ring. The Hollywood Reporter said the episode was one of the finest hours in the history of "Five-0."

That sounds like a tough act to follow, even 40 years later, but CBS will attempt that Monday with a tribute episode that duplicates the original "Hookman" scene for scene. Many of the original locations were used in the update.

The story, then as now, centers on a killer who lost both hands during a botched bank robbery. Fitted with prosthetic hooks, he seeks revenge against the Hono­lulu police officers he blames for his misfortune.

Peter Weller ("RoboCop") stars as the killer and also directed the episode. Close-up shots of his prosthetic hands, however, will show Jason Koger, a 33-year-old Kentucky man who lost his hands in an accident nearly five years ago. The new script was written by Joe Halpin, a former undercover narcotics detective for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and a regular "Five-0" writer.

When Olson read the new script at his dining room table recently in Frisco, Texas, the 67-year-old retired writer matched it with a copy of the original. He was flattered.

"If the production comes out as well as it’s written, matching up, it will still hold water," Olson said. "I think the audience is going to love it."

Baker and Olson met with Halpin, who told the writers he had fallen in love with the original episode. He told them of the show’s plan and wanted their blessing. Halpin listened to their thoughts on "Hookman," but the two writers were not involved in the rewrite.

The power of the original script was the villain, who was played by real-life double amputee and private investigator Jay J. Armes of El Paso, Texas.

"We tried to make him a supervillain, to make him stand out against all the other villains," Olson said. "He was scary, cunning, conniving and smart. We tried to make him that way, and we just felt he was very unique. There was no one like him on television at the time."

Olson still has a handwritten letter from the show’s star, Jack Lord, thanking the writers for the story.

"He said ‘Hookman’ made a tremendous impact on the show," Olson said. "He felt that it really gave it a jump-start."

IT TOOK a bit of moxie to bring "Hookman" to life.

Olson and Baker were both students at California State University, Long Beach, and had been friends since serving aboard the tender USS Bryce Canyon during the Vietnam War.

"We were starving students, and we managed to get our hands on some ‘Hawaii Five-0′ scripts," Olson said. "That was pretty coveted material but we got them. We took one of our (stories) and toned it down. We studied McGarrett and how they did the show, and we made it ‘Hawaii Five-0.’"

They got it to an agent who passed it to CBS, and the next thing they knew, they were on location in Hawaii talking to Lord.

"We were on cloud nine and beyond," said Baker, now 67 and living in Thousand Oaks, Calif. "We were fresh out of college, the young Turks. We were awestruck and happy."

The undeniable star of the original "Hookman" was Armes. Baker said he and Olson watched in awe as Armes assembled his own weapons, drove a car and turned the pages of a Bible. Television viewers in the 1970s had never seen anything like that.

Armes lost both hands in an accidental explosion when he was 13 but nonetheless became a successful private detective with an international reputation.

"He is a daring guy," Baker said. "He is a man’s man. He flies helicopters. And then when CBS ran promos for the show and you saw hooks opening doors and assembling an M1 carbine rifle and using scissors, you couldn’t resist."

Armes still works as an investigator and has fond memories of his role on "Hookman." "Five-0" creator Leonard Freeman personally called him to pitch the idea, Armes said in an email from an undisclosed foreign country where he was working.

"I remember Lenny told me, ‘I know that you are not an actor, you’re an investigator, but I’m going to teach you how to be an actor,’" Armes said.

Freeman took a chance on the real thing, and it paid off.

"In the chase scene where I am being chased in the Mustang on the docks, I was the actual driver," Armes said. "Not a stuntman. When they show me using the hammer and lettering tools, that was really me. Those were real tools. Authenticity."

One of his favorite scenes opens the episode. The scene takes place in a cemetery — which is actually in Long Beach, not Hawaii — where Armes prepares to shoot an officer leading a funeral procession.

"I shoot the officer, the hearse careens off course, and out pops the casket from the back of the hearse," Armes said. "The widow screams. That was pretty powerful stuff for a TV show back then. Like I said, great writing."

A MARRIED father of three who lives two hours from Nashville, Tenn., Koger, the man who provided the modern prosthetics in the new "Hookman," said he wanted the part in order to inspire people with his can-do attitude.

He lost his hands when the ATV he was driving ran into a downed electrical wire. Afterward he was fitted with state-of-the-art I-Limbs that resemble bionic hands. By all accounts, he lives a normal life: He drives, hunts with a shotgun and plays baseball with his son.

"Sometimes people look at little things and they get really depressed and maybe suicidal over something that is absolutely nothing," he said. "I want them to know you don’t have to give up on life. I didn’t. I do everything I want to do today."

Koger had never done any acting until he got the "Five-0" part. When a friend emailed him a casting notice for the role last fall, he thought it might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"I Skyped them one day and showed them some things I could do at home," Koger said. "They were amazed. Some of the easiest things I could do really amazed them."

But he was all nerves as he prepared for his first scene. Koger was asked to assemble a sniper’s rifle. He had never done that before, so he rehearsed a few times. It was easy, he said, until the cameras started recording and a room full of people watched intently.

"I heard Peter Weller say ‘cut,’ and he came over and said, ‘I want everyone to clap for Jason because there are not many people who can do this on the first take,’" Koger said. "It gave me a confidence boost."

Reviving "Hookman" was something that current "Five-0" executive producer Peter Lenkov wanted to do since the first season. It would bridge the old and new "Five-0" in a way never before attempted on television.

"The challenge I threw out from day one was to find exact locations," he said. "Mirror specific shots. Not just use the story, but capture the soul of ‘Hookman.’"

Monday’s episode won’t be the last chapter of "Hookman."

Current plans call for Baker and Olson to join Halpin and Lenkov in Los Angeles to film a round-table discussion for the DVD set of Season 3. Both Baker and Olson said they are looking forward to the opportunity to record commentary to go with the new version. And the set might include a way to watch both episodes side by side.

The experience will be a treat for the two writers, who went on to write or edit a variety of TV shows in the 1970s and ’80s. They also penned seven additional episodes for "Five-0," five of which were produced.

"Hookman" stands above them all. It even served as a platform for composer Morton Stevens, who won an Emmy for the music he scored for the episode.

Being involved with the new one was an unexpected thrill, Olson said.

"This came out of the wild blue yonder," Olson said. "It’s a blessing. It’s great to be honored. Every once in a while someone comes around and says, ‘You did all right.’"