Airwolf Full Episode
Cara Canellas
Airwolf, an action-espionage television series created by Donald P. Bellisario, premiered on January 22, 1984 on CBS in the United States and ended on August 8, 1987. The show spans four seasons and 80 episodes in total. The original pilot is two hours long (split into two episodes for syndication),[1] while the episodes that followed are approximately 45 minutes long. An enhanced version of the first episode was released as a motion picture in several countries as well as on home video. The show aired for three seasons on CBS; it was later picked up by USA Network for a final season, made on a much smaller budget.
Three seasons of Airwolf were released on DVD in United States between 2005 and 2007, respectively.[2][3][4] The fourth season was released in 2011. The original series was canceled due to declining ratings; the resurrected fourth season was not renewed due to poor viewing figures as well as being generally poorly received.[5]
The series premiered after Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984 with a two-hour pilot episode, and concluded on April 14, 1984, with 11 episodes aired. It began with Stringfellow Hawke hunting down Dr. Moffet and bringing Airwolf back into his protection, which Hawke would then use to go on flying missions of national importance for the F.I.R.M., the company that has the task of recovering Hawke's brother St. John Hawke.
The brilliant, yet sociopathic engineer Dr. Moffet (David Hemmings), builds the advanced attack helicopter Airwolf for the F.I.R.M., a covert agency of American intelligence, pronounced in informal conversation as The Firm. During the initial test flight, Moffet attacks the testing facility, Red Star Control, steals his creation and takes it to Libya having deleted the blueprints from the F.I.R.M. computers. To get it back, F.I.R.M. operative Archangel, who was injured during the attack, tries to recruit ace helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke, who now lives as a recluse in a log cabin after the disappearance of his brother St. John in Vietnam. Hawke falls for Gabrielle Ademaur (Belinda Bauer), one of Archangel's associates, who encourages him to take the mission. Hawke accepts, but only if The F.I.R.M. hands over their classified information on the whereabouts of his missing brother. Hawke and his close friend and mentor, Dominic Santini, run the mission to take back Airwolf, discovering Moffet has used it to destroy American targets for the Libyans, and they will not give up their new toy so easily. Eventually they secure the helicopter and Hawke fulfills his part of the deal, but The F.I.R.M. is not forthcoming with his brother's information. Unsatisfied, Hawke hides Airwolf in an extinct desert volcano and becomes custodian of the aircraft, vowing not to hand it over until The F.I.R.M. finds his brother.[6][7]
Hawke is given the assignment of finding a test pilot who is about to steal a fighter aircraft to fly it to Russia. Hawke discovers the pilot is an old Vietnam War buddy who would steal the plane as exchange for the return of his half-Vietnamese son (Chad Allen). After the war the boy grew up on the streets of Saigon. He was captured and was being held as a bargaining chip for the plane. James Whitmore, Jr. guest stars as Major Sam Roper.
The second season premiered on September 22, 1984, and ran for 22 episodes until April 13, 1985. In order to have the series move away from its quite dark and moody tales of international espionage into a more domestic and straight action-oriented affair, the show hired Jean Bruce Scott to play the role of a feisty Caitlin O'Shannessy. The moves by CBS ultimately proved unsuccessful, however, and while production cost over-runs remained high, creator Donald P. Bellisario left both the studio and the series after Season 2.
Stringfellow Hawke and Caitlin talk Dominic into hiring a young hotshot pilot, Kevin Hansen, but do not realize that the kid has more in mind than his employer would suspect. Kevin is after the men who killed his beloved Uncle Chester Hansen (Noble Willingham). He taught Kevin how to fly helicopters and was admired and loved by his nephew. When Chester Hansen refused to join some of his business associates in airborne drug-running, he was killed. Whilst performing aerial stunts for Santini Air he spots the dealer's unusual black helicopter and gives chase. Hawke and Santini have no idea what the boy is doing and decide to ground him since he will not tell them about the murder. Secretly, Kevin plans to hunt down the killers and bring them to justice.
The third season premiered on September 28, 1985, and concluded on March 29, 1986, with 22 episodes aired. Following the departure of series creator Donald P. Bellisario, Bernard Kowalski stepped in as executive producer for a third season, but after ratings remained low, the series was canceled by CBS.
For season four, CBS wanted to make the show into a more family-friendly, action-oriented program. Bernard L. Kowalski abandoned the project a year after series creator Bellisario had decided to leave as well. USA Network picked up distribution of the show, but with the remaining principal cast being too expensive to hire, an entirely new cast was created.
Season four aired from January to August 1987, and was produced on a comparatively shoe-string budget. Atlantis Production's contract did not provide the producers with the flying Bell 222 helicopter used for Airwolf, and recycled aerial footage and poorly produced special effects failed to match the quality of the prior seasons. The full-sized mock-up of Airwolf from prior seasons was used for static shots.
In the first episode of this new version, "Blackjack", Hawke's missing brother St. John was suddenly found, creating contradictions to the character's already-varied history. He took over as pilot of Airwolf with its new crew. "The F.I.R.M." was now suddenly referred to as "The Company", and gone were its famous white suits. Filming of the fourth season was completed in six months.
I was watching Airwolf (the syndicated version with BVD) today. St.John was
walking down a hill with a lady who asked him did he have any family. He
replied "yes, I have a brother. He's always looking out for me." or
something along those lines. All I know is his brother was referred to in
present tense. The episode was called "Flowers of the Mountain."IS HE DEAD OR ISN'T HE?Or is there some other explanation?
IMHO... while we were lead to believe that String was dead, they left
some "wiggle room" in case they ever decided to bring him back.
Personally - *IF* I ever get back to working on it - I'm writing a
fanfic novel of my own in which String is, in fact, still alive.
However, in my version - watching Dom die (and being helpless to prevent
it) was enough to finally push String over the edge of sanity - which is
in part why St John decides it's in everyone's best interest to let the
world think his brother is dead.
Deb
Another thing I was never sure of; did St. John go to live in String's
montain cabin? It was kind of not really stated, until in a few episodes
later down the season, (in, lemme think... I think 'The Key' is the most we
get to see of this), when we see St. John's home, seemingly a stone & wood
structure, with a load of old paintings in the background...
is it to be assumed St.John now lives in the cabin?
Another of the things we never really were explained sufficiently. I think
most pointers on this one indicate 'yes'.And, geez, spending so much of my thinkin' power over the terrible 4th
season. Acting straight out of ThunderBirds, continuity inconsistancies
galore, and they did'nt even have the bloody helicopter really in the sky
ONCE (totally stock footage; all they had was a model of Airwolf for ground
scenes, and a great heap of arial footage from the original 3 seasons).Only two episodes approaching anywhere NEAR decent from the whole season, in
my opinion. 'Salvage' (basically a 'Firestorm' re-hash with 'Airwolf II'
tacked on), and 'Malduke', which should have played as the last episode,
IMO; as it has St.John saying he's considering retiring, and one of the very
few decent villians / overall plot of the whole season.Anyone else like to add?JASON
There were several other cases (such as in 'Windows') where I think they
musta just got a toy model of Airwolf and hung it from the ceiling over some
model set.Hmm... new subject - 'favourite bad moments of Airwolf S4'?
And again, so much time being spent on this terrible season. Kinda funny
really. =)JASON(BTW, the episode with Jason Preistley in was 'A Piece Of Cake', one of the
weakest eps of the already weak season IMO).
"RedWolf" wrote in message
news:20001217213351...@ng-fo1.aol.com...
(Which I why I personally think 'Malduke' should have been shown last;
St.John's comments about planning to retire round things off)Not very surprising this version of Airwolf never get re-commisioned for
another season really.JASON
Then I would make all of the cast get murdered of buy an unknown person:"a healed hawke" or "half Pint". which would be the chance to bring back
hawke...with a vengence of being left alone in the cabin.. yes he lived the
life of a hermit but still.... or...Half Pint himself... grow up will and taking over the lady. and then
ending it on that note until I figured ou what the hell I was gonna do.
I'd make it more consistant with the old series at least, there were so many
things changed for no apparent reason. Example: the Firm, suddenly called
'the Company' instead. Why? Who knowsI'd stop just about everyone being able to fly Airwolf - in 'Blackjack',
Mike, Jason and Jo find Airwolf, and are suddenly able to fly it? like..
what?!If Airwolf was ever to come back... if the 4th season was akgnowledged at
all, I think it should be explained away. Maybe as a sort of 'Echoes From
The Past' thing. What actually happened was that Stringfellow was captured
by enermy agents, (maybe after being sent into a deep coma after being
caught in the explosion in 'Blackjack'), who have put him though a complex
brain-washing plot, causing him to 'dream' the entire 4th season; they're
all images which trigger off thoughts from his deep sub-concious (mixed in
with memories - which is why Airwolf in action looks so suspiciously like
footage we've seen before ;-) )!Okay, I think that would give the classic Bobby (or whoever it was) in
Dallas 'spending the season in the shower' a run for its money! =)Course, if there ever is a new Airwolf, it'll more than likely be a new cast
anyway (Ernest Borgine's probably getting on a bit too much now; Jan Michael
Vincent - film it during release days? =) Though I'd like to maybe at least
see Archangel back).JASON