User reviews

As a young teenager at the time, Airwolf was compulsory viewing for a generation who wanted their "Cowboys and Indians" to have amazing gadgets and whizz-bang explosions.

In many ways, the show was essentially Knight Rider in the skies: similar comic-book technology, a central character who was essentially a loner, and echoing the concept of one man making a difference.

But in other, important ways, it was thematically very different from Knight Rider, Street Hawk, The A-Team and other action shows of the time. For one thing, the premise of the series is built not on a desire to help those in need, but by Stringfellow Hawke's possession of Airwolf for essentially selfish reasons (as leverage to try to find his MIA brother, St John). And then there is the dark edge provided by basing the series firmly in an 80s Cold War context, complete with Soviet espionage and Central American dictators, not to mention the enemy within. Sure, The A-Team constantly referred back to Vietnam and the team's status as fugitives, but it was generally done with a light touch and was rarely central to the plot itself. With Airwolf, the intrigue was key to the tone and direction of the show - although this was (ill-advisedly) diluted as the series went on.

With hindsight, the Cold War setting clearly dates the series, many of the stories are creaky and contrived, and much of what Airwolf does is clearly implausible even with today's technology. But that's really not the point. Airwolf was rip-roaring fun, it tried to tell interesting stories without relying solely on the big action sequences, and it didn't sugar-coat everything by miraculously ensuring nobody died. Sometimes it failed, but often it succeeded admirably - and on a TV budget to boot.

For UK readers, DMAX (Sky channel 155) have just started (Jan 2008) daily re-runs of Airwolf. Set your Sky+ box for this blast from the past - we may even get the re-tooled, re-cast (and sadly vastly inferior) fourth season, which to my knowledge has never previously been shown in the UK.

Airwolf is a good example of dramatic action television that came out of the 1980s. What makes this different is that most, if not all, of its episodes involves aircraft at some stage in the story.

The four seasons of Airwolf feature the main characters getting mixed up in all kinds of drama that eventually needs the Airwolf helicopter to help. Airwolf is an advanced prototype combat helicopter capable of supersonic speed that is deployed on missions of personal and national interest, flown by two of the main characters described below.

Jan Michael Vincent plays Stringfellow Hawke, an ex-Vietnam helicopter pilot and Ernest Borgnine who plays Domenic Santini, an old pilot from way back. Together as buddles, they secretly fly Airwolf with funding provided by an FBI-like firm that agrees to support them until they can locate String's brother, believed to be missing and still in Vietnam.

After an ambitious pilot two-part episode (later re-trimmed into a telemovie) which sets up the ongoing series, Airwolf settles into a typical action TV show formula, however the overuse of repeated aerial footage of the Airwolf helicopter (often sped up to make it more exciting) will spoil it for late comers to the series.

For helicopter enthusiasts it will reward them with countless sequences involving Airwolf (a modified Bell 222) and many other types, often seeing Hughes 500s deployed as the enemy gunships.

For trainspotters, it's always "fun" to see the footage from the pilot or early episodes being used in later episodes, or being surprised to see they have shot new footage. It's easy to assume that the running costs of the helicopters had a major impact on the production. The "dramatic" original landing sequences were often a highlight.

Some episodes were grounded in personal drama, some were just ridiculous by today's science and some were standout stories and made you wish for more. Many episodes end with a montage of Airwolf flying around with the wonderful Slyvestor Levay electronic theme music as the credits roll.

Season 4 was a low-budget cable-funded continuation of the series featuring new characters mixed with old helicopter footage. It is almost dis-owned by fans of the earlier 3 seasons in much the same way Galactica 1980 was by Battlestar Galactica fans.

so yes it is quite nostalgic watching the 1st episode because this is the one episode i definitely remembered. i enjoy watching the first season and yes compared to the action packed shows we have now this show seems lame. but frankly i like the "less violent" part of the show and the story line has more substance than the new ones now. I thought it interesting that Belisario's Airwolf and JAG have similar theme - the lead actor (Hawke and Harm) both are looking for an MIA relative (brother, father). wonder if Robert Belisario's personal life mimics these 2 shows' theme.

Question - does anyone have pictures of Hawke's cabin. I love that cabin (kinda like a dream cabin of mine) and that is one of the scenes i remember about Airwolf.

Airwolf is a highly sophisticated supersonic secret military helicopter built by the Firm. Its psychopathic creator Dr. Moffet steals the prototype killing a senator. Deputy director Michael Coldsmith Briggs III (Alex Cord) recruits Stringfellow Hawke (Jan-Michael Vincent) to steal Airwolf from Moffet who is using the weapon for Gaddafi. In return, Stringfellow wants the Firm to find his brother Sinjin who is MIA in Vietnam. He asks his mentor Dominic Santini (Ernest Borgnine) to join him in the secret mission. Caitlin O'Shannessy (Jean Bruce Scott) joins the crew in the second season after running into Airwolf as a Texas Highway Patrol helicopter pilot.

As a cold war military action adventure, I really like the darker faux spy militarism stuff. The helicopter is loads of fun but I like the show less and less as it goes on. The second season tries to add air to the show and make it a procedural more in line with other shows like the A-team. It becomes a hybrid that doesn't quite work. I've never seen the fourth season and I probably never will. This is a show that burnt itself out after a great opening.

I remembered much of the pilot quite well, including them stealing String's art, the original theft of the helicopter. Airwolf itself looked cool at the time and still does.

Of course I knew nothing of (the now late) Jan-Michael Vincent at the time, but I've known about his drinking problems for a while, so it was a bit hair raising to see in his second shot (and first with other actors) he was opening a bottle of wine!

I don't think this holds up well at all though it got old pretty quick in the 80s as well. The techno-gadget show format tends to severely limit possible plots, especially when the gadget is a helicopter!

It was quite startling to hear them talking about Libya and even name dropping Qaddafi! Obviously shows like this tend to have Cold War/USSR stories, but Libya was a significant American enemy only for a short time, so that PRECISELY dates it.

...if i had to pick one show that defined my youth, it would have to be AIRWOLF.

It defined the very essence of awesome, from the memorable score to the tremendously cool performance by Jan-Michael Vincent as Stringfellow Hawke. He was the ultimate hero, for me, and Ernest Borgnine's Dominic has always been my definition of what a true friend should be.

When my son gets old enough, I plan on showing him the DVDs. He'll probably find it incredibly lame at the time, but dammit I need to share this with him! That's how important it was to my development growing up.

The super vehicle genre was in full swing when Airwolf flew into the air on CBS in early 1984. Inspired by the 1983 movie, "Blue Thunder," Airwolf was a faster helo and more heavily armed made to fight the Cold War while the former was built to fight urban crime. Action movie star Jan-Michael Vincent (Stringfellow Hawke) led a great cast with Ernest Borgnine (Dominic Santini) and Alex Cord (Archangel Briggs). Deborah Pratt did an excellent recurring role as Marella throughout seasons one and two.

Season one of Airwolf portrayed well how this super helicopter fought its foreign enemies whether in Libya or Russia (among others). There were attempts by foreign baddies to steal the "Lady" (as she was affectionately known by her crew), plus domestic government types who wanted her back.

Season two introduced a new character: Caitlin O'Shanessy wonderfully played by Jean Bruce Scott. However years later, I read an unconfirmed account that Deborah Pratt was originally going to be the female lead in season two making her character Marella a regular role. CBS network interference is said to have prevented Pratt from having her shot at a regular role on the show. Not cool.

Anyways, season two continued the Lady's battles. While she still fought foreign enemies whether overseas or in the USA, many stories were evident where the direction of the show was going: less foreign enemy conflicts and more domestic problem stories. Apparently, network executives stepped in thinking they knew what was best for the show. While some of these domestic problem stories were not bad, you had to watch and wonder why a helicopter built for war was dispatched to problems better suited for Blue Thunder.

When season three came along, original series creator and producer Donald Bellesario was no longer on board. The quality of the stories were evident that DB was no longer there. All the stories do not have Airwolf fighting any foreign enemies; they all take place on U.S. soil. While there were stories that had to do with National Defense and Security, they did not involve foreign enemies with their air forces.

Network interference of how the show "should" go was ultimately what shot down Airwolf. Jan Michael Vincent had problems with drugs, alcohol, showing up late for a shoot, or showing up drunk, high or hungover. That was ammo for CBS to ground Airwolf permanently.

(Airwolf was revived for another season on the USA network. The budget was shoestring as was the quality. The original characters were not on-board for that iteration, but even if they were, they would still have the poor writing to contend with.)

Fans of Airwolf like to bash season 4 on how terrible it was and rightly so. But what they don't realize is how the final season of the original broadcast was nothing to write home about either. Sure, JMV's problems were the nail in coffin of the original, but even without his problems, the show would still have been canceled because of the poor stories that resulted in poor ratings.

Airwolf was one of the few series that was inspired by a movie that was able to get renewed for a second season; most shows inspired by or based on movies never go past the first season (like the the Blue Thunder TV series inspired by its movie!). The writers dazzled both the network and the viewers. At the end of season one, we were ready for more and got our wish.

Unfortunately, network involvement in what they thought the show should be and who should/should-not be in it led to its demise. If CBS let Don Bellesario and the writers do their jobs instead of them trying to put their noses where it didn't need to be, then they would have gotten more out of Airwolf in money, ratings and seasons.

I would like to state first that once again I enjoyed the Airwolf TV series of the fictional action entertainment it provided. As well as one of the best writing of an action series of its type of the 80s.

But I do remember Blue Thunder as well as being the more realistic of the two but had some the most awful writing that I have ever seen (which is the primary reason that it failed horribly).

How ever to compare the two's combat abilities and prowess is like comparing an urban gorilla fighter to the classic field army solider. If anyone paid any good detail to the Blue Thunder Movie. It wasn't about supersonic speed or multiple types of weapons. But about reaction time relative to speed and knowledge of the city. BT took out an F-16 Falcon armed with heat seeking missiles and Mach 2 speed by first avoiding it missiles by decoying it to other heat sources within the city. Then it hid in between buildings and used its 20mm cannon to saw off its wing. Jets fighting a helicopter in a city is like a car trying to out maneuver a motorcycle in an alleyway, and down park steps and sidewalks. Airwolf likes its pray more out in the open where its speed and long range weapons are at an advantage. If Airwolf stepped into BT type of battle ground it would be at a disadvantage sense its main weapons (missiles) would be at a disadvantage (even the radar guided ones because of the greater radio interference and tall buildings). Also Airwolf's guns lack the turret option of BT.

If BT tried to meet Airwolf in open ground it would be in Airwolf advantage.

One of my favorite shows in the 80's. After the first season, it started going downhill when they decided to add Jean Bruce Scott to the cast. Deborah Pratt was wonderful and it was fun watching her and Ernest Borgnine's character go at it with each other. The last episode she appeared in was one of my favorites for in the second season. Unfortunately during those days, blacks did not last long on television shows. Some of the episodes in the second season where okay but the third season it was more about the human characters than Airwolf and it was not shown until almost at the end of the show. When it went to USA, it was disgusting!!!

I use to love this show back in the 80s when I was a kid. Knight rider was a must watch back then as well.

The helicopter was very cool looking and armed with various weapons but the sound it made was also very cool. It sounded like a low whisper in the wind. It gave you chills when you would hear it coming from a distance.

The problem with this show was that it was running out of ideas. It seemed to repeat itself a lot. They reused a lot of footage from previous shows and at time reused footage from earlier in the show but from a different angle. Got to save money where you can I guess.

The forth season was a disaster. Jan Michael Vincent got in trouble with the law and they replaced the entire cast. It's funny because at the start of this series they said there were only 2 or 3 people that could pilot airwolf, but as the show continued everyone could fly it. The new cast sucked and the show basically died that season. Too bad.

Anyways, I'm not sure it's worth watching these days. I tried watching it again and it looks dated. The helicopter still looks cool and I still love the sound it makes, and the theme music is cool still. However, I would love to see a remake of this show. The things they could do these days with CGI would make for an amazing show it think.

I remember loving this show when I was a kid. I thought the helicopter was the coolest thing I've seen. It was ultra high-tech for it's time. It could repel enemy fire, do all sorts of acrobatics in the air, and take down nearly anything in it's way. Now I go back and watch it today and am surprised how lousy this show really is. The casts members are hardly compelling, there are a lot of cheesy moments, and the fight scenes are incredibly fake looking. And nearly every ending has the same helicopter fighting crap with the obvious reuse of grainy low quality stock footage. Lot of the footages appear to date from the Vietnam War era.

Airwolf has basically the same theme as Knight Rider, except the crime-fighting vehicle of choice is a helicopter instead of a car. After watching a few episodes, I found myself utterly bored. I do, however, love the theme music.

This show was very well written in the first three seasons, we will not talk of the fourth season,(Airwolf II -a disgrace to the original series). The scenes were spectacular and the plots where well knitted in most of the episodes. I liked the attention to detail and the ability for it to be fairly believable, despite the fictional capability of Airwolf. The characters complimented each other and made the show very dynamic. Even the music created by S. Levay was really good. It is very unfortunate that the series ended the way it did. Jan M. Vincent had problems with alcohol and the politics with universal infringed on Bellisario's ideas. The "lady" did not go down with a blaze of glory but rather an un-answered and open ended destruction with the final series. I think that is why so many enthusiast still hang on to Airwolf, it was a killer show that just suddenly ended, even though the ratings were so high. It would be cool to have a new movie produced to give Airwolf a final resting place in T.V. history. But that is unlikely. However, there are all kinds of fan clubs and sites that celebrate this one of a kind 80's show, you will see that Airwolf is very much alive out on the internet. C.L.

After the success of Knight Rider (1982) the series and the flick Blue Thunder (1983), which spawned it's own series but flopped, Hollywood decided to make a series about a superhero, a helicopter called Airwolf.

Back then I saw it as a teenager and liked it but seeing it back nowadays it sadly didn't stand the time. And it's just due the story that it is outdated because Airwolf has to fight a lot against the USSR or other communist countries or people. It made sense back then but is laughable now.

Another thing is that they used a lot of the same shots throughout the episodes. For example the explosions of plane sin the air but also the driving to the secret place where Airwolf is based or the way it flies through canyons.

On the other hand the use of stock footage made it look real. The acting is mediocre, only for people who want to see another eighties series but to say it's a must, no it isn't.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Airwolf The Movie, A variation on the original 2 part pilot, Yet the movie although shorter, does contain extra footage Unseen in the 2 hour pilot The pilot is much more of a pilot than the movie Where as a pilot movie is normally the same (2 parter combined) But the movie is actually a different edit with extras here and cuts there.

Worth a look, even if you have the season 1 DVD set, I'd still pick up a copy of the "movie" It's still in some shops like virgin, Woolworths and the likes of mixed media stores, although it generally needs ordering, But it saves needing to buy online (as many of us still don't do or trust online shopping) but if you look around airwolfs in stores

Airwolf was truly 1 of the 80's most under rated shows.

A full size Airwolf is currently being re-built for a Helicopter Museum :) Info and work in progress pictures are over at http://Airwolf.org Also with Airwolf Mods for Flashpoint and Flight Sim Games It seams she's finally here to stay :)

Stringfellow Hawke is an expert helicopter pilot and gets to fly an ultra-advanced military helicopter, Airwolf. His employers are "The Firm", a division of the CIA, and his missions tend to be a of an intelligence-gathering nature. His burning desire, however, is to locate his brother St. John, missing in action in Vietnam.

A show that even as a teenager was okay but never brilliant. The action scenes were great but became rather predictable and formulaic quite quickly. Jan Michael Vincent's performance as Stringfellow Hawke left a lot to be desired.

As an adult it seems even more cheesy. Still, was reasonably entertaining when I was young.

I used to watch this show when I was a little girl. Although I don't remember much about it, I must say that it was a pretty good show. Also, I don't think I've seen every episode. However, if you ask me, it was still a good show. I vaguely remember the theme song. Everyone was ideally cast, the costume design was great. The performances were top-grade, too. I just hope some network brings this series back one day so that I'll be able to see every episode. Before I wrap this up, I'd like to say that I'll always remember this show in my memory forever, even though I don't think I've seen every episode. Now, in conclusion, when and if this show is ever brought back on the air, I hope that you catch it one day before it goes off the air for good.

This show was one of my favourites as a child. Everyone I knew wanted to be stringfellow hawke, if only for the chance to fly Airwolf. The characters were good and interacted well (hawke being the moody one, Dom the comic relief). The only bad thing was towards the end of Airwolfs run they changed all the characters (actually killing off "Dom" (or a lookalike)) and making String disappear giving the helicopter to the now magically rescued St John Hawke! IF you want to enjoy this show then under no circumstances should you watch the pathetic end season (aka Airwolf II) and stick with the original characters!

I remember watching it when I was little, it was Knight Rider only with a helicopter that had a lot less personality than Kurt did. And it was like Riptide and MacGyver with less personality.

However it was still a lot of fun for a little boy.

This TV series was the best in my view in the 1980s. I 1st start watching it in 1985 when it was aired on our TV network than in 1987 and again in 1989 when its cast and crew was changed. i have got some of its episodes on DVD. in 1980s there a very few good TV shows including knight rider , the a-team, Miami vice , and many more which i even cant remember at this time but this was the best. The one episode which i liked the most was air wolf 2nd, the other was muffet ghost, mad over Miami, and the very 1st one. Jan Michael Vincent was the excellent choice as string fellow hawk. He was handsome and brilliant. I think there should be remake of this series and also a movie to be made. So the people may not forget it.