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.

Airwolf beats Knight Rider any day of the year, even though I think KITT is awesome. The ship's heroic action is great to watch. But stick with the first three seasons. The fourth season doesn't even have any new footage of the ship. It's a shame that anyone ever bothered to continue the show under that detriment. How can you have a show about a super-secret helicopter that doesn't actually have a helicopter in it? Avoid the fourth season if you really love Airwolf. Although there were some plot problems with the first three seasons, especially when Caitlyn was brought on board and kept dating murderous evil men and falling into danger wherever she went, it's nothing compared to the fourth season. For some unexplained reason, the entire original crew is done away with (literally), except for Caitlyn, who vanishes (poof) without a trace. (Maybe her dating taste finally caught up with her?) At any rate, the fourth season is so obviously a cheap imitation of the real thing, it should have never been called Airwolf. It's not.

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.

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!!!