Airwolf (1984): 20 Things You Never Knew!
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- Опубликовано: 1 фев 2025
- Get ready to dive deep into the skies with "Airwolf"! In this video, we're revealing 20 things you never knew about the classic '80s action-packed TV show. From behind-the-scenes drama to surprising facts about the cast and crew, there's a lot more to this high-flying series than meets the eye. Whether you're a longtime fan or discovering it for the first time, these fun facts will give you a whole new perspective on "Airwolf." Buckle up for a thrilling ride through nostalgia and trivia!
#Airwolf #80s #Helicopter #Trivia #nostalgia #movietrivia #tvshow
Airwolf had two standouts imho: it was an incredibly good looking helicopter, with the air intakes and cannons added and its gunmetal/white paint scheme. Second; the sound effects and signature tune are just epic. 40yrs on and I still get goosebumps when I hear it. To be a kid again... :o)
yeah, there was NOTHING that made the tearing screams our beloved helicopter made, it was and still is such a hallmark sound of Airwolf...
Even now, I cannot remember any series or movie that uses even a sound that comes closes. Maybe some Alien horror movie that has a screaming creature, but still, the sound of Airwolf is unique afaik.
Its a theme song like Ducktales. Musical heroin. You can not stop hearing either. Complex simplicity. And yes... that Bell is sexy as hell.
One of the coolest TV theme show songs and intros ever. With the chopper slowly rising with the sound it's making going right into the song. Loved it!
Yup. In fact, I've been using it as my ringtone for many years now...
@@jjfromthebigland781 😎👍❤️
Still the most beautiful looking helicopter to ever grace the screens.
Man you ain’t kidding! That is the very best heli to ever go. I used to have an RC version and it broke my heart when an updraft caught it one day and sent it god knows where. Never found it.
You ant Never Lie it's beautiful and l wish it was Real 💯😁
The Bell model 222 was a beaut.
no
@@gungriffonbr Name a better one.
Airwolf was my favorite show when I was growing up..
Me too.
Knight rider
@@arfanmedni7294 Knight Rider, Airwolf and Battelstar Galactica. And for some comedic relief: The A-team
Airwolf, Knight Rider, the A-Team, Magnum PI, MacGuyver, ... wow we were so blessed in the '80s ... No stupid reality tv, or fake reality tv, no 58 thousand tv channels to chose from, just a few national channels and we got everything we wanted. And when there was nothing on those channels, we went OUTSIDE, and played airwolf, the a-team, mcguyver, ...
Yes, we re-enacted them with our own stories... instead of looking at a stupid telephone, locking yourself up in your own small asocial bubble the whole day...
Children nowadays seem to have forgotten what it is to go outside and play, interact, learn social skills, be kids altogether! :(
I agree with you 100%, we had such a good childhood. I feel sorry for kids today, they aren't creating memories that will last a lifetime.
From the UK... we only had 4 channels in the 80s all the way to 1997 when we got a fith channel although we got satellite TV from 19 89 ish for those lucky enough to have it ...but I agree with you that we were blessed to have such great shows ... I loved the dukes of hazard. Starsky and hutch and one of my favourites was street hawk .. no Google of fact checking which left so much to the imagination for example as a kid I had no way of knowing if airwolf or any car or bike could go so fast and do crazy shxt lol .. I often have dreams of waking up and being alive again in the 80s lol ... here in the UK things have gone down hill .. if someone got shot it be all over the national news because gun crime was so rare .. as kids wed run around the streets or woods with toy guns playing army and nobody battered an eye lid but these days i hear parents saying they would never allow their kids to play with toy guns for all P.C reasons .. in the 80s growing up on a poor estate us kids would knock for each other and whilst mums went shopping other mums kept an eye on us .. at food time you'd here a mum call out a kids name saying tea time and thats how we all knew we'd all better head home as everyone had their tea at the same time about 5pm .. in the summer we'd get to go back out for an hour or so then back home Bath bed with an hour of TV in our room watching great TV shows ... blessed to have experienced that growing up ❤
@@spandangle334what a lovely (and sad) post …..so true man, you hit the nail on the head there. 😢 Paul 52 south east London
We were blessed 🙌
And Miami Vice!
I agree, the 80s were the golden decade of tv shows.
loved this show when i was a kid....still holds up today
Back when it originally aired in UK in the mid-80's I LOVED Airwolf. I recently re-watched seasons 1 and 2 on Amazon Prime, and wow: Airwolf holds up really well for a 40 year old show! Also, it was a real departure from the A-Team's no injuries policy! Hawke was a stone-cold killer with a serious body count!
Jan Michael Vincent ( Hawke) sadly passed away in 2019...Time took its toll.. And was sad tosee what abuse of Alcohol and other can do to a person... 😎😔😎Rip
Ernest Borgnine uttered one of the most memorable lines describing the USA. With bullets flying loading a kid onto Airwolf: "Comon kid! We're off! To the land of hamburgers and heartburn!"
Thank you. I’m one of the biggest Airwolf fans of all times. I built a 1.8 m large scale RC model 20 years ago and still enjoy flying it from time to time. Airwolf will always be one of my favorites of all times.
That’s amazing man! Nice one ! Paul uk
Thank you Rocky for making this ! Loved Airwolf as a kid
"Things you never knew. 9: Airwolf was essentially a conventional helicopter underneath all the props... " Wow, we never would have guessed.
Moffit's Ghost was the best episode!
Airwolf was the GOAT!
Next to Street Hawk and Automan.
the 2 hour pilot movie was awesome....guy who played moffett was great ...
You trying be cool using the word goat
I was a serious Airwolf fan in the 80’s. I lived in the Valley (L.A.) when the show was on, and in jr high I’d often see an LAPD helicopter followed by Airwolf and two Hughes 500 (which were the typical bad guys’ helos in the show) flying in one direction in the morning (presumably to where they were going to film) and then in the opposite direction in the afternoon back to the airport (Van Nuys or Burbank?) where they were parked and maintained.
Later I got to see Airwolf up close when it was on static display at the Van Nuys ANG base airshow. You could clearly see the paint on the ends of the gun barrels, missile/rocket launchers below, and jet exhausts to make them looked used (fired). Inside, the area behind the pilot seats, where Dominic (Ernest Borgnine) sat, was actually completely empty; you could see (if memory serves) the fiberglass walls of the cabin, so no paneling, insulation, or anything. It was very interesting to see in person.
Airwolf was my favourite all action adventure show in its day.
I always made sure to set the video recorder to tape it on Saturday afternoon just in case I was out working on Saturday afternoons.
I bought all of the 3 series on DVD when I saw them in a store years ago.
It still great to watch all the old episodes again some 40 years on from when Airwolf first hit our television screens, proving Airwolf is truly a timeless classic show.
“All of the 3”. No. They were 4. Wake up.
Well I bought one box set from each of the 3 different Airwolf series DVD box sets that were available on the store shelves the day that I was in that store several years ago.
Unless of course you're counting a series that I've only heard of from other people but never seen in which St John Hawke supposedly returns after being long term M.I.A. in the Vietnam war and takes over flying Airwolf from Stringfellow and pilots Airwolf from what I've been told as series 4 ?
As I didn't see a series 4 box set available in the store the day I was there and I took it to be I had all the available Airwolf series box sets. But obviously not I guess. 😮😮
The Airwolf theme is still amazing! Love listening to it every so often, and getting a nostalgia rush.
Loved this show as a kid, quite nice pang of nostalgia.
Automan and Knight Rider was the other two that still are my favourites. Airwolfs theme music is something I hear when reading the word Airwolf. I didn’t even think about how old or young Borgnine was when I watched it, or anyone else for that matter.
Automan? Never heard of it! As for Street Hawk, it was shown on tv here last year and it has really aged badly!
Automan. I am showing my age because it was a great but short lived show. Glad that you also aware of it. Young man.
I have the Airwolf theme song as my ringtone.
Me too.
lol me too
Guilty too
Can I touch you?
So do I, now. 😂
I'm a long time AirWolf fan. Although Ernest Borgnine played a massive role in the show he will always be remembered more for his loveable character Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale of McHale's Navy fame 😊
lol for me il always remember him more as Cabbie in Escape from NY
I grew up watching Airwolf
One of the best theme soundtracks.
One of the quirkiest props glued to that archaic Bell 222, was that 1969 Camaro SS style _'Induction Air Intake Cowl'_ on the choppers nose doing absolutely nothing at all other than for eye-candy! 🤪
"archaic"?
What a stupid comment
In fairness, plenty of cars over the last few decades have had scoops that are just as “functional”
@@Johnny_Guitar you’re a very silly little guy
The avionics must run really hot on Airwolf 😅
Great helicopter, great actors, great stories, great memories!
Airwolf, with all the props attached is still one of the most beautiful man made machines ever made. In the 80's me and my friends pretended to be the helicopter and we would run around at school chasing eachother.
Loved this series back in the day (even so much as missing the intro and it bummed me out) and objectively I think it's aged very well but I can't help but recall Jan's terrible spiral downwards in life everytime I watch so this will probably always be gem left to the past.
What a show, what a helicopter - Great vid! Thanks
One of my favorite tv shows, along with Knight Rider, Blue Thunder, A-Team
I'll give ya a hell yeah on everything but blue thunder
How about a nod for "Street Hawk" as well? 😁
I met the guy who flew the r/c helicopters for the show, his wife was in the Navy in Hawaii in 1984. He was the first person to rig a r/c helicopter to be able to fly inverted (upside down). My friend who introduced me to him and I were both 67n10's, Utility Helicopter mechanics. Huey's all the way.
Airwolf never used R/C copters for tv show.
Larry Jolly? yeah he built a fanatstic RC replica. He got the paint spot on (a sort of metallic pearlescent gunmetal, not black) I had the original magazine with an article about it.
@@dallasparty316 yes they did.
Both myself and my sister, (deceased), watched and loved this show back in it's day. Fond memories. Sorry to hear the sad story of the lead actor JMV.
I was literally watching @KOSmusic cover of the theme right before this one! Awesome to see shots from his video in this!
I just turned 11 when it came on, never saw Blue Thunder but loved both Riptide and Airwolf, Riptide was kind of like a Simon and Simon on the water and air. There are some great RC's of Airwolf and are still being made.
Blue Thunder didn't last long about 10-12 episodes..
The RC Airwolf can be really great looking scale works of art!
Still love that helicopter.
The model its a classic and still hold today the looks .
My late father was a medical assistant when I was a kid. He always went on trips with the flying doctors programme that sent medical services into remote villages in the jungles of Borneo. I remember one old photo where he's standing in front of a white Bell 206. I had a chance to ride with him some time in the 1990s but it was not a Bell 206. I thought it was one of the newer sleek European helicopters with retractable wheels that started replacing the Bell 206s in Hollywood action movies around that time.
Watching this video I am surprised to discover that Airwolf was actually a Bell helicopter and the possibility that I might've ridden, so to speak, an "Airwolf." Now, I wonder if I have ridden a Delorean that somehow made it's way to Borneo in the 1980s but forgot about it.
Things that was not mentioned was
The Knight rider trailer was used in the 2nd episode of S1 in where they rescued thar boy from KGB
and some actors was in battlestare galactica Lance LeGault was one
the trailer was used a couple times, and the tractor a couple other times, 1 with the sleeper, 1 without
Another great video!
Great show Great memories thanks
I wish they had done a remake in the 2000s where Stringfellow is a RAH-66 Comanche test pilot and steals it when he finds out it was being cancelled. They wouldn't even have needed to make up stuff about its capabilities!
Btw, did you know that in the first ever episode of MacGuyver Mac arrives at his first authorised mission in a black version of the Blue Thunder helicopter?
Airwolf was the best .
I definitely preferred Airwolf over Blue Thunder- its far easier to believe that an intelligence agency can develop an advanced, supersonic attack helicopter than a police force can afford a gunship.
Airwolf was at its best in Season 1. Making it 'family friendly' was a mistake IMHO.
For the series, when Airwolf used its missile launcher, the missiles had the look of a photon torpedo from Star Trek.
My fave characters were Alex Cord's Michael Coldsmith Brigg III/Archangel & Jean Bruce Scott's Caitlin O'Shanessy.
I agree, everything about this show was better than Blue Thunder. My favourite character was always Hawke, I think because I wanted to be him, flying that helicopter. I was only very young when the show was on though. 😁
At least Blue Thunder never broke the laws of aerodynamics!
Blue Thunder was built in secret by higher-ups in the federal government. In the series, it was under the command of “Apex”, a division within.
CBS really made some quality shows back then ❤. Jean actually starred in the soap opera 'Days of Our Lives' - that's when I first saw her.
I knew all that except for the novel and the video games. I thought this was going to be about the capabilities of the helicopter.
I loved the airwolf water bottle or fuel jerry can. Remind of the bat ladder sign on the 60s batman, well, bat ladder
I'm in multiple airwolf groups on Facebook 😂❤
I personally owned the Airwolf game on the NES. Could only ever get to Area 4 before the difficulty finally did me in. It was primarily caused by the number of missile towers and aircraft.
Never did own the Commodore game. Didn't know there was one.
I have the airwolf theme song as a midi file, though I forget if it was downloaded off of one of the numerous wav file sites back in 1998 ( SoundAmerica, Dailywav, etc.) or if it was acquired through a file transfer on the MSN Chat network.
I would LOVE to own a Roban/Vario radio-controlled "Airwolf"! I've heard people say that the big "800-size" versions of the radio-controlled "Lady" are very difficult to fly but.....I would absolutely LOVE to try it!!! That is probably the only thing I want before I leave this world (that, and a certain '68 paisley Telecaster that a cousin owns but was promised by a deceased aunt of mine to let me have the guitar.
10:00 The Cox AirWolf I had, it was epic! lol
Another thing you didn't know . They took a Bell 222 and hung a bunch of fiberglass on the fuselage to make it look cool. When they did that in order to approve the mods the FAA put a speed restriction on the aircraft.
the modifications actually made the helicopter fly better according to the head pilot
never wouldve guessed earnest was that old back then. never was much of an airwolf fan personally.
Still my favorite helicopter. For anyone that says you cannot hear sounds out of a picture, that is a lie. Those that know we always here her screams and howls when she is in flight.
I did not know that IDW made a graphic novel for the series. I’m definitely gonna have to check that out.
IDW...
Somehow, I both want this,and I'm not shocked it is IDW. They seem to just do the most random bunch of comics and graphic novels out there, and yet they usually put out really, really well made stuff
I remembered building a scale model kit of airwolf when i was young.
Ernest was already known best for McHale's Navy. It lasted twice as long as Air Wolf.
And?
I had the replica airwolf helicopter as a kid.. i Wathed the show religiously 😊
I was
It was the most expensive tv show to make in its day , and JMV was the highest paid tv actor during its run.
And he blew it.
He wasn’t. That was bullshit from the press. The show wasn’t even in the Top 30 ratings. You really think he would be that compensated? He wasn’t earning a quarter of what they claimed. The producers still have the budget documents.
My boss used to have the same helo Bell 222B....minus the weapons unfortunately.
If I had one I would definitely add some props to make it look like Airwolf. Still waiting for that lottery win to realise my dream 🤣
Ernest Borgnine, The bear in the air!!!
They tried with Knight Rider. They tried with The A-team. Reboots. They didn't have success. I want a Airwolf Reboot.
The failure with Knight Rider was not understanding how the show worked and what made it good. The first reboot they changed the format and it bombed, every reboot after tried going with the failed format of the first reboot with predictable results.
About I don’t think an air wolf reboot would probably be successful either you take the way things are done today compared to the way they done and it is it just would not have that same feel about it.
No
Been waiting since I was 5
Absolutely not. The helicopter would probably be entirely CGI now. They cannot make shows like this anymore. Be it Airwolf, Knight Rider, The A-Team, Miami Vice etc. They are all 80s time capsules. A time that is sadly long gone.. A modern version would be all wrong and I guarantee most Airwolf fans would absolutely detest it. Hell, most fans hate season 4. Not just because of the huge budget cut(and no bell 222..ugh), but even more because all of the original cast are gone. Need I say more?
I just got the series on DVD 2 weeks ago,,,,
I think the reason why the A-Team, Knight Rider, and Airwolf worked was due to having lost the Vietnam war. The public psyche wanted to feel that the U.S. was still unstoppable.
We, America, did NOT lose the Vietnam war! The corrupt cowardly democrat politicians and hippies forced a withdrawal and since the military was rarely allowed to really fight to win and like now in Iraq and Afghanistan the military leadership I use the term loosely, left thosespilling. Blood and betrayed us which they have again!! Traitors!!
Please do a Streethawk if there is anything to tell.
I remember in my teenage years in Big Bear Lake, CA. During a summer we had an airshow and they brought in the AirWolf Helicopter. They had it all painted black and white and looked just like the helicopter from the tv show. Of course, there were no guns and no cannons onboard. That was all TV Magic. The pilot did some cool maneuvers with the helicopter and we all loved it.
When they replaced the actors in season 4 the show just went downhill. When they tossed out Dom and String and Dom died in an explosion and String went into hiding. Pretty lame. They replaced the whole cast and everyone we knew in the 1st 3 seasons that I grew to love were all gone.
Sad to hear about the stunt double that died in a crash at only 22 years old. Later the helicopter was used for good but sadly went down. Would be sweet to see a remake, but I guess even today Mock 1 for a helicopter in reality was never mean to be, but the idea was always super cools. RIP Earnie!
God I loved this show as a kid growing up in 80s South Africa.
Airwolf the film, was cut to bits in the uk. Didn't realise it's classed as an 18, until recently watched an uncut version.
“Airwolf the film” was never a film. Not in the sense you’re thinking. It was made for TV. A pilot. The 18 version you’re calling “uncut” was done *after* that. Swearing was dubbed and 15 minutes are missing. You must’ve noticed this.
2-3 people run the same test. To me the error in misstepping would be less of a calculation error. 🧐
If Airwolf was to be rebooted, what helicopter would be the lady stand in?
And who should be casted?
I love all the seasons of airwolf even season 4
The theme made it epic.
Still watch still listening to the awesome soundtrack...they need to do a new airwolf...santini air...hooah!!
Great show. I miss it
Consider Jan was permanently drunk or geared up it was a miracle it even lasted that long.
There was also a C64/ZX Spectrum game called Twin Tigers which were helicopter based and had an 8 bit version of the music running through them.
My friends all called me Stringfellow Hawk in the 80's. Lol
Ernest also stared in Mchales Navy. That was a huge hit too.
The original Airwolf helicopter was sold to Germany for an emergency ambulance helicopter.
Whatever happened to Mars Industries 1/18 scale Airwolf it disappeared
To this day, I've never heard of any other main character in a movie or tv show named "Stringfellow".
Like with A-Team, I’m surprised that Airwolf hasn’t been rebooted
Erm…”A-Team” has. 🙄
@@AirwolfArchive I know a-team has, I was just saying I was surprised airwolf hadn’t been rebooted.
I believe the color of airwolf is called phantom gray.
One of my fav shows growing up
Mine too
Ever wonder how Redwolf could be the successor to Airwolf given it lacked the jet engines? Same thing in season two when they built HX1 that thing looked very bulky and not like it could out fly the lady
red wolf wasn't even the same type of helicopter if you go back and watch the episode look at the guy that's flying red wolf and the helmet he's wearing doesn't even fit his big head it's so funny looking definitely budget cuts on that one LOL
Course it was the same type of helicopter. How blind are you?! Jesus. Talk about stupid. The helmet was one of the black painted red. They were never going to make a special or modify the chopper. It was only 1 frickin’ episode.
No, because it was implied it was a cheaper duplicate, built quicker. Less than 5 years it took for Airwolf. Zeus was out to impress the Senate and Congress. If he could make a more streamlined, less tactical gunship, millions to them. And a promotion for him.
In the pilot episode which was edited as a film with the F bomb 💣 and you can see the pilot who flew the helicopter and the end of the story when it lands in the desert
Actually did you know Jan-Michael Vincent had a helicopter license and he did actually do some of the flying on the show he was even a helicopter mechanic when he served back in his early days
Hahahaha! No, he didn’t. 😂😂🤣
I was able to find it for my streaming play list for work.
I have had great fun watching a few bepisodes agian
Haven’t finished watching this yet, but St.John Hawk (stringfellow’s brother) was a main character after Jan Michael Vincent left and is played by Barry Van Dyke, Dick Van Dyke’s son!
Ernest Borgnine was a good actor but he was an outstanding person who was a World War 2 veteran and Freemason.
You obviously know very little , A Freemason is not an outstanding person , Sabes ?
Twenty things you never knew? I think we all worked out long ago that Airwolf was really just an ordinary helicopter dressed up to look menacing and could never really do all of that. We realized the same things about KITT in Knight Rider and the bike from Streethawk. I never believed Automan was real either. The A Team however was totally realistic.
A=Team realistic? All those bullets and not a single gunshot wound? Yeah, real reality.
Automan was totally real. Don’t bullshit me. 😂😂😂
It's fair to say a good portion of 20 things we probably didn't know. I didn't know most of them
You didn't mention that Vincent was a bit moody on set (probably because he was overdoing the booze), so much so, they had to write this behaviour into the character of Stringfellow Hawk. Another reason why the show was eventually dropped was due to cost. The aerial sequences were very expensive to film. You may notice many of the aerial shots are repeated each week despite the different storyline. Also stock footage was used. The late Shannen Doherty appeared in the first series in one episode.
I’m surprised it wasn’t mentioned that the pilot was originally filmed as a movie. I bought off EBay. It had cursing as was popular back in the day.
Airwolf are the best rc helicopters
Why didn't they keep Kathleen Lloyd, as Antonia "Toni" Donatelli, from the season one finale?
Deborah Pratt "Marella" was awesome and should have appeared more often.
There needs to be a LEGO Airwolf.
Dr. Katherine Riker from the episode "Moffett's Ghost" was another good candidate for a regular heroine for the series.
Jean Michael Vincent you mean string fellow hawk
Hypothetical fist fight between Archangel and Devon Miles. Who wins!!!?
Here's another many might not know the budget was so low for Season 4 that they didn't rely have the original helicopter , the cast never actually came into contact with the helicopter they used recycle dog fights and footage from S1 to S3 , that's why Airwolf for me was from season 1 to 3.
Rocky, whoever you are, you’ve got it WRONG on Season 4. Like everyone else, you haven’t done your research.
Season 4 was only ever intended as ONE season. Universal made it for business reasons. CBS had cancelled the show after 55 episodes and the arrangement was to continue until 80. But Jan wasn’t prepared to resolve his addictions. CBS didn’t want to carry on without him. They chose NOT to retain the others and bring in a new lead. They were also going to cut salaries (something which Ernie wasn’t going to agree to).
Universal had their own cable channel of sorts to air Season 4. The USA Network. It was a subsidiary of theirs and financing 1-3 to the tune of tens of MILLIONS, those hadn’t made a return or profit for them. “Airwolf” was never in the Top 20 of the ratings. The new budget, cast and producers was a result of that. The show was a failure commercially.
"CBS didn't want to carry on without him."
According to Kevin LaRosa, who was one of Airwolf's actual stunt pilots, it was the exact opposite -- they didn't want to carry on **with** JMV, but since he owned part of the show, they couldn't just get rid of him.
Watch C.W. Lemoine's full 2-hour interview with Kevin LaRosa here: ruclips.net/video/ZkyxQ2LV7CI/видео.html or a Shorts snippet here: ruclips.net/user/shortsxO7Vy0QzCac
Producing more episodes would make Airwolf more viable in the syndicated market.
Yeah, that was a rumour Kevin heard. He said it himself if you were listening. An actor doesn’t own a part of a show that wasn’t in the Top 30. And no actor who was an addict. I’ve met several of the producers and crew. Alex Cord & Deborah Pratt. They never mentioned that.
7:15 playing on a 90s yamaha CS1X synth
Love dom.anx and arch angel.
Missong you Dom
5:50 Airwolf looked like an advanced helicopter. But was actually a Bell 222. WTF! Really! I been fooled all this time. You mean it ISN'T real? damn! Nob!
It's sad that the helicopter was destroyed in a crash that killed the patient and crew while it was operating as an air ambulance after the show was cancelled.
Season 4 shouldn't count as a season. It was a low-grade, cheap imitation that re-used aerial footage from the original and used unnatural camera movements to simulate motion, while failing miserably to simulate motion.
The only problem I had with the first three seasons was the supersonic flight, since that would be impossible because as the leading edge of the rotor approaches the speed of sound, it generates unstable shockwaves that would destroy it.
Networks dumbing down content and in effect, destroying the show.