Airwolf

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Genre	Action / Espionage
Creator(s)	Donald P. Bellisario
Starring	Jan-Michael Vincent Ernest Borgnine Alex Cord
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	79 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	45 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS, USA
Original run	1984-01-22 – 1987-08-07
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Airwolf is a 1980s American television series about a supersonic military helicopter, the Airwolf of the title. The series ran for 55 episodes on CBS in the United States in 1984–1986, and an additional 24 episodes, with a new cast and production company, on the USA Network, in 1987, for a total of 79 episodes. The first episode was a two-hour TV movie that was also released as a standalone direct-to-video film. The show was broadcast in several international markets.

The show was devised by Donald Bellisario, who had also created Magnum, P.I., and would go on to produce Quantum Leap, JAG, and NCIS. The first three seasons starred Jan-Michael Vincent, Ernest Borgnine, Alex Cord, and Jean Bruce Scott. The final season, for the USA Network, had a completely different cast. The show had a driving, synthesizer-based musical score penned and performed by Sylvester Levay.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Production changes 3 Syndication 4 The Airwolf helicopter 5 Regular cast 6 Trivia 7 Merchandise 7.1 Video games 7.2 Models 8 DVD releases 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Creator Donald P. Bellisario first toyed with the idea of the adventures of an ace combat pilot in a third season episode of Magnum P.I., "Two Birds of a Feather" (1983), starring William Lucking (best known as antagonist Colonel Lynch in The A-Team's first season), which itself was inspired^{[citation needed]} by several episodes of Bellisario's Tales of the Gold Monkey - "Legends Are Forever" and "Honor Thy Brother" (1982), in which Lucking had played a similar character. The Magnum episode acted as the pilot for the would-be series, but the series wasn't commissioned. Bellisario heavily reworked the idea, and the final result was Airwolf.

The series's protagonist is Stringfellow Hawke (played by Jan-Michael Vincent), a loner who lives in a cabin in the mountains, only accompanied by his dog Tet, and the surrounding wildlife. Hawke is a recluse, spending most of his time alone with his priceless painting collection, and playing his cello. His only real friend is the older, eternally cheerful Dominic Santini (Ernest Borgnine), who acts as his mentor. Hawke was one of Airwolf's original test pilots. He is called upon by Michael Coldsmith Briggs III (cryptonym: Archangel) of the mysterious 'Firm', a covert branch of the Central Intelligence Agency that built Airwolf, to steal it back from its twisted creator, Dr. Charles Henry Moffet, who has taken Airwolf to Libya. Hawke, with Santini, finds the aircraft, but does not return it. Instead, he hides it and occasionally flies it to carry out undercover missions for Uncle Sam, in exchange for assistance from The FIRM in locating his lost brother, St. John (pronounced "Sin-jin") Hawke, missing in action since the Vietnam War.

The series also stars Jean Bruce Scott as Caitlin O'Shannessy (introduced in the second season), a feisty Texas Highway Patrol helicopter pilot who joins Santini Air, and eventually comes to serve as a backup pilot for Airwolf should anything happen to Hawke or Dominic. In the first two seasons, Archangel is often assisted by Marella (Deborah Pratt).

The series was dark, arc-driven, and quite reflective of the contemporary Cold War, with The FIRM personnel distinctly dressed in white and boasting that "wearing white hats" distinguished them as good instead of evil to the unconvinced Hawke and Santini. Early episodes detail the efforts of United States government to secure Airwolf from Hawke.

The FIRM, during the first and second seasons, served as both ally and enemy for Hawke and Santini; when an opportunity to seize Airwolf presented itself, Firm operatives often took it.

[edit] Production changes

Frustrated by studio preferences, producer Bellisario left the series after season two. The studio wanted to add a female character—which eventually happened, in the form of Jean Bruce Scott—and for the series to be more action-oriented and more "family friendly". Airwolf became more streamlined and self-contained. The CBS series was canceled after ratings bombed; but the cable network USA created new episodes.

The original cast was completely written out of the fourth season (1987); only Jan-Michael Vincent appears, and even then only for a few minutes in the first episode. (Dominic, only seen from the back, and in the form of a double, was killed off in an explosion; Archangel was said to have suddenly been assigned overseas; and no mention was made of Caitlin). Saint John Hawke, now played by Barry Van Dyke, was suddenly revealed to be alive and well (there were already contradicting facts about his fate in the original three seasons, and this new version confused things even more). St. John was rescued and subsequently replaced Stringfellow Hawke as the central character. Production moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with a smaller budget. The crew no longer had access to the original Airwolf helicopter, and all in-flight shots were recycled from earlier seasons; a full-size mockup was used for static shots. This new version of the series is held in very low opinion by many fans.

[edit] Syndication

Airwolf is rarely shown on TV channels today, although a syndication package does exist. In the United Kingdom, it received a re-run in various ITV regions in the mid-late 1990s, and a complete run was aired on Digital TV channel Bravo a few years ago, along with Street Hawk and Knight Rider. Airwolf has recently surfaced on the Sci-Fi Channel in December 2006.

[edit] The Airwolf helicopter

Main article: Airwolf (helicopter)

The flying Airwolf helicopter was actually a Bell 222 (serial number 47085, making it the fifth to last built before the 222B was released), registration number N3176S.

The concept behind Airwolf was a super fast and armed helicopter that could blend in by appearing to be civilian and non-military in origin- A "wolf in sheep's clothing." Airwolf's insignia patch (also designed by Probert) as worn by the flight-crew was a snarling wolf's head with gossamer wings that appears to be wearing a sheepskin complete with the head of lamb over the wolf's forehead; a play off "a wolf in sheep's clothing".

After the show was cancelled the modifications were removed from the actual helicopter. It was repainted and eventually sold to the German helicopter charter company, Hubschrauber-Sonder-Dienst (aka HSD Luftrettung and Blue Helicopter Alliance), and given the registration number D-HHSD[1]. Airwolf, as a plain Bell 222 air ambulance, crashed in a thunderstorm on June 9, 1991, killing its three passengers.

[edit] Regular cast

Season 1 (CBS, Spring 1984) — two-hour pilot and ten additional episodes.

• Jan-Michael Vincent — Stringfellow Hawke (Captain, U.S Army) (noted as 34 years of age in the 5th episode)
• Ernest Borgnine — Dominic Santini (chief proprietor of Santini Air)
• Alex Cord — Michael Coldsmith Briggs III (Deputy Director of government agency called "The Firm"; Code Name: Archangel)

Seasons 2–3 (CBS, 1984–1986) — two seasons of 22 episodes each.

• Vincent, Borgnine, Cord, and
• Jean Bruce Scott — Caitlin O’Shaunessy (former Deputy Sheriff & helicopter pilot of Texas Highway Patrol)

Season 4 (USA Network, Spring–Summer 1987) — 24 episodes, bringing the total hours to 80.

• Barry Van Dyke — Saint John Hawke (reserve Major, U.S Army)
• Michele Scarabelli — Jo Santini (inherited Santini Air from her uncle Dominic Santini after his death)
• Geraint Wyn Davies — Mike Rivers (Major, U.S Air Force)
• Anthony Sherwood — Jason Locke (a core agent in the government agency called "The Company")

[edit] Trivia

• Dale Wayne Eaton signed a short letter "Stringfellow Hawke" and left it on the grave of the young woman he had murdered in the notorious Lil Miss case.^{[citation needed]}

• The CD soundtrack for the show, Airwolf Themes: 2CD Special Limited Edition, is a collectors’ item selling for up to $981—a world record—on eBay, making it the “World's Most Expensive Television Soundtrack”. Only 1,000 copies were made.

• In 1987, a Japanese CD was made, featuring both "Airwolf" and "Knight Rider" themes (エアウルフ/ナイトライダー) with full orchestration arranged by Kenji Kawai. This CD is also very rare and hard to find (K30X-7096).

• Though Airwolf is often cited as having been inspired by Blue Thunder, the similarities are superficial at best. The Blue Thunder helicopter was armored and had thermal imaging and an onboard computer, but its only firepower was a M61 Vulcan 20 mm cannon. Blue Thunder also lacked the supersonic capabilities that Airwolf had and was no more maneuverable than any other military helicopter.

• A pair of fan-made “teasers” for a fictional “Airwolf vs. Blue Thunder” episode were made by splicing together scenes from the “Airwolf II” episode and the movie Blue Thunder. One teaser suggests that Blue Thunder is victorious, while the other suggests that Airwolf is the winner. Fans of the series and movie still debate the outcome of such a situation.

• During filming of the series, a helicopter crashed during a maneuver in Pico Canyon, in California. Reid Rondell, Jan Michael Vincent's stunt double, was killed, and a special credit appeared at the end of that episode (Natural Born), dedicating the installment to him.

• In the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, an Airwolf comic strip appeared for several years as part of the children's television magazine and comic Look-In, to tie in with the British run of the series.

• Creator Donald P. Bellisario first toyed with the idea of the adventures of an ace combat pilot in a third season episode of Magnum P.I., "Two Birds of a Feather" (1983), starring William Lucking (best known as antagonist Colonel Lynch in The A-Team’s first season), which itself was inspired by an episode of Bellisario's Tales of the Gold Monkey (1982). The Magnum episode acted as the pilot for the would-be series, but the series wasn't commissioned. Bellisario heavily reworked the idea, and the final result was Airwolf.

• In the pilot, the name of Airwolf’s twisted creator is Dr. Moffet. In the second season episode "Moffett's Ghost", the name mysteriously gained an extra t. The episode also gave Moffett's full name as Dr. Charles Henry Moffett. A novel of the pilot episode published by Star Books had previously suggested that his full name was Dr. George Moffet. But Moffet was referred to as Charles in the pilot episode. Several character names are different in the novel; Moffet's co-pilots (Mark Gordon and Charles 'Chuck' St Clair are named Matt Basson and Lucius Cinilbar, respectively. The actor Blaze's surname is given as Ithern, and Major Kamal (whose first name is revealed to be Mustafa in 'Echoes From the Past') is referred to as Mufta-Ben Kamal. In fact, there is a separate character in the Pilot called Captain Ben-Mufta. The Airwolf novelization contains many differences to the televised episode and is well worth tracking down.

• Airwolf’s creator, Dr. Moffet, was played by David Hemmings, who also went on to direct the first season episode "Mad over Miami" (as well as episodes of other 1980s hits, including The A-Team and Bellisario's Magnum P.I.). He worked with Bellisario again on the 1987 TV movie 'Three on a Match', the Pilot to a series that didn't sell, which also featured Airwolf regular / writer Deborah Pratt, and regular guest star Lance LeGault.

• The sound effect of Airwolf's turbos igniting is made up of several sound elements, including a pane of glass shattering. This shattering effect is a stock sound effect, and can be heard in various Universal-produced series, including several episodes of Magnum P.I. and Airwolf itself.

• The push-button turbos effect was Donald P. Bellisario's homage to the Colonial Vipers in Battlestar Galactica, of which he also worked on.

• In the NBC series Seaquest DSV, episode "Hide and Seek", stock footage of Airwolf was used in the opening sequence where the helicopter attacks an estate. William Shatner guest starred as the villain who sent this helicopter.

• In the NBC series Miami Vice, episode "Cuba Libre" (Season 3, Episode 14,), the Airwolf helicopter appears in one of the final scenes with a Miami Dade law enforcement logo attached.

• The opening scene of the film McHale's Navy starring Tom Arnold and Tim Curry features a helicopter insertion of enemy forces on the paradise island. A Bell 222 helicopter is used. A further Airwolf coincidence/connection is that the admiral Cdr McHale (Arnold) works for, revealed at the end of the movie, is none other than Ernest Borgnine.

• In the first two seasons, The Firm was spelt as a regular word. In the third season, it was written in capitals, indicating that it stood for something. No clue as to what it actually stood for (if anything) was ever given, but many fans have come up with their own various suggestions. During the fourth season, the Firm was renamed altogether as "the Company" (a nickname that the CIA is known by). Also with the change of name to the Company, the famous all-white suits were gone.

• Some viewers mistakenly thought that Airwolf appeared on the fifth season opening credits of The A-Team, with Murdock from that series apparently piloting it. There is a brief shot of what looks like Airwolf, but it is, in fact, an unmodified black Bell 222 (taken from the feature-length fourth season opener 'Judgement Day'). It is followed by a shot of Murdock piloting what is actually a different helicopter, from a fantasy sequence taken from the fifth season episode 'Trial By Fire'.

• The Canadian Rodeo Hall of Fame inducted a bucking horse by the name of Airwolf on November 12th, 2006. Airwolf was born in 1984 in Bonnyville, AB at the Franklin Ranch. He was named after the fictional helicopter, because of his athletic ability to perform maneuvers that reminded the owners of the fictional helicopter.

• Creator Donald P. Bellisario and Deborah Pratt (Archangel's assistant Marella) met and fell in love through working on the series, and eventually got married. When Bellisario left the series at the start of the third season, unhappy with (what he saw as) the unwanted direction he was being forced to take the series, he took Pratt with him. (To fill her place, in the third season Archangel had a number of "white lady" assistants.) As well as making a number of guest star appearances, Deborah Pratt went on to write episodes for some of Bellisario's other hits, including Magnum, p.i. and Quantum Leap. Many of her penned episodes are considered as fan favourites of the particular shows. Bellisario and Pratt divorced in the 1990s.

[edit] Merchandise

• Airwolf Themes: 2CD Special Limited Edition (Official CD soundtrack)
• Airwolf: The Wonderweapon (German CD soundtrack)
• Airwolf Collector's Edition (VHS)
• Airwolf DVD Box Set - 1st Season (DVD)
• Airwolf DVD Box Set - 2nd Season (DVD)
• Airwolf Replica Helmet (fully-functioning) Video of Helmet working
• Airwolf Replica Flight Suit & Boots

[edit] Video games

• Airwolf (Commodore 64), written and designed by Neil A. Bate and Chris Harvey, with graphics by Chris Harvey and Rory Green, and music by Mark Cooksey.[2] There were unrealized plans to rename the European-produced Airwolf C64 game as Fort Apocalypse 2.
• Airwolf (Amstrad CPC), popular in Europe.[3]
• Airwolf (ZX Spectrum), popular in Europe.[4] Followed up with Airwolf II[5]

• Airwolf (BBC Micro and Atari 8-bit family^[1]) by Elite, adapted from an unreleased game called Blue Thunder! by Richard Wilcox Software. The helicopter is blue in the game. Seemingly, the only thing changed from the unreleased version was the title. (Note: another BBC game, Superior Software's 'Codename: Droid', used Airwolf's rotor-like base-line on its opening screen. Whether royalties were paid is unknown! This is the only Airwolf connection with the game.)
• Airwolf (Arcade), by Kyugo Boueki.
• Airwolf (Nintendo Famicom), by Kyugo Boueki, released in Japan only.
• Airwolf (Nintendo Entertainment System), by Acclaim.
• Super Airwolf (Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis), by Kyugo Boueki, released in the U.S. as CrossFire.

Although not related to the series, the video games Thunder Blade and Super Thunder Blade by SEGA are heavily influenced by Airwolf in concept.

[edit] Models

• ERTL 5" (~1:100 scale) die-cast toy model (1984) — available carded (alone) and boxed (with a Santini Air helicopter and jeep)
• ERTL 14" (~1:36 scale) die-cast toy model (1984) — available boxed
• amt/ERTL 1:48 scale plastic model kit (1984) — many Asian knock-offs are also available
• Airwolf 1:19 scale Fuselage kit (unknown) — designed to fit the T-Rex RC helicopter
• Charawheels 1:120 scale die-cast toy model (2004) — Charawheels is “Hot Wheels” in Japan
• Aoshima 1:48 scale die-cast collector’s model (2005, 2006) — available in cobalt blue, black (limited), and weathered (2006)

[edit] DVD releases

Universal Home Video is releasing Airwolf on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. They have released the first 2 seasons, with Season 3 set to be released on May 22, 2007. Season 4 should be released at soon.

Name	Cover Art	Region 1	Region 2	Ep #
Season One		May 24, 2005	April 3, 2006	11
Season Two		December 26, 2006	March 12, 2007	22
Season Three		May 22, 2007	TBA	22
Season Four		TBA	TBA	24

[edit] See also

• List of Airwolf episodes
• Blue Thunder

[edit] External links

• Airwolf Supercopter -French Site about Airwolf
• Ernest Cline - A spoken-word artist with a new set of adjectives based on the series
• Airwolf at the Internet Movie Database — television movie pilot (1984)
  • “Airwolf” at the Internet Movie Database — seasons 1–3 (1984–86)
  • “Airwolf” at the Internet Movie Database — seasons 4 (1987)
• Airwolf.org — a long-running, large, and detailed site with crew interviews.
• The Wolf’s Lair — a semi-annual colour magazine detailing behind-the-scenes information.
• Airwolf Themes — official CD soundtrack plus high-quality replicas based on the show, including working helmets, flight suits, and a full-size Airwolf replica helicopter.
• Airwolf Season 4 Homepage — a detailed site about the fourth season.
• Airwolf computer game information at MobyGames