In an episode of Airwolf, a man pulls a gun on Stringfellow. Hawk responds by throwing his hot coffee in the thugs face...always remembered that. Laast year when my roommate went mental and attacked me in the kitchen with a knife, I used the same coffee defence. it worked a charm. The show saved my life hahaha
The personal tragedy of JMV and that of the deadly helicopter crash while serving as an ambulance put a bitter twist on this series which i loved as a kid. Great video, thank you.
I effing LOVED AirWolf. EVERY episode was 'bad guy gets in helicopter. AirWolf chases bad guy into canyon. One loop-de-loop. AirWolf disappears. Bad guy confused.. AirWolf pops up behind him and blows him up. Ernest Bergnine laughs when AirWolf lands
@PJPF as an 80s younger brother, i used to think my brother was like crazy skilled at knowing what was going to happen. My brother: check it out, AirWolf is going to vanish and then come up right behind him. Me: no way *AirWolf does the thing* Me: *jaw drops* OMG that's amazing how did you know??!! Every. Effing. Episode. 🤣😂 like Dan says in the video "kids are stupid"
I could've sworn the whole final fight in Airwolf feels like the ending of every episode of certain Japanese giant robot shows in the late 70's & early 80s.
Airwolf!! Oh man, what a show, it had everything! Helicopters, Ernest Borgnine... That's about it, but as a kid it was enough. The theme song is iconic!
I built one with Lego, Redwolf too. That's one of the reasons Lego was and is the greatest toy ever. Airwolf was easily my favourite of the 80's super vehicle shows. Although it's theme is tied with Street Hawk for me. They're both so great I can't pick a winner.
Fifteen years ago I wrote a short treatment for a show starring country and western supersensation Alan Jackson as Alan “Chopper Jackson” Jackson because helicopter-based entertainment needs to come back. I also wrote something called Bakker’s Dozen, a baking reality show hosted by disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker, years before Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood were A Thing, though I was aiming for more of a Nailed It! kinda groove.
Don't forget, that Magnum PI featured a helicopter prominently, as did Miami Vice on multiple episodes (can't be a Miami cocaine lord without a boat and a Jet Ranger), the A-Team had Murdoch the mad helicopter pilot, and Riptide had the Screaming Mimi! (The Mimi today is in service as a firefighting aircraft, but still has her name painted under the cockpit window)
My father's hangar was used for exterior shots of Santini Air. He said they would show up, put up the sign, film for an afternoon, take it down and leave. Surreal considering it was out favorite show in the 80's.
Exterior shots were at Jetcopters.inc in Van Nuys, Calif. Jetcopters Inc flew and owned the bell 222. Pete McKernan Sr owned the business and the hangar. You definitely don't look like his son, Pete McKernon Jr., lol
@@mulhall72 I did not know that was where they shot the exteriors. Years ago, when I watched the T.V. show with my Vietnam veteran father I had no idea, none, about how Hollywood worked. Dad had flown in hueys in '68, but just as an enlisted photographer in the Army. When I started in the film industry in the early 2000s I was blown away by the gimbals and other camera mounts used for aerial filming, especially thinking of my Dad's stories of just pointing his Nikkormat FTN out of the open door of a huey.
Trivia for diehard fans: In the opening credits is a scene of Archangel playing polo, which never shows up in any episode. Alex Cord is a serious equestrian and played polo competitively at the time. While the series producers were making the opening montage, he suggested they come film him playing polo as a way to cheaply pad out the title sequence with a cool action shot.
I think your wrong about the polo scene. If I remember correctly, it's the episode where the firm builds airwolf 2 and Hawk and Dom go see archangel and he's riding a horse playing polo. I am a die hard fan to the max of airwolf seasons 1-3 not season 4
@@jasonduke3608 Sadly no, there is no episode in which the polo game is featured. Alex Cord talked about the origin of that scene on an interview for a podcast. If necessary I can pull it up and get you the link for it.
@@shankthebat8654 The airwolf 2 episode alex is riding a horse it's been awhile since I seen it. I know no other episode showing him with a horse so I thought that was it.
I wonder what kind of mindset the parents had? I mean they had two sons. They named one Stringfellow Hawke and the other Saint John. You gotta wonder what they were smoking at that time.
There was a game called "Red Baron 2" back in 1997, where you flew around in an ally bi-plane and eventually had to dog fight the Red Baron. once you had beat the game, you could unlock a "turbo mode" which you could press the spacebar and your plane would tear off like a rocket while the theme song to Airwolf would play. it was EPIC.
I'm 71 years old and I would love to see a new Airwolf series on t.v. I grew up in the same town that he grew up in. I knew him and his family and he never forgot his roots. God bless him.
Stringfellow Hawk often played the cello on the dock of his lake house. This is where I gained an appreciation for the cello before I had ever heard of Yo Yo Ma.
I loved this show. My father was a former Colonel of the Air Force and he taught me flying and obtained my pilot's license when I was 15 years old. We both had a kick out of watching this show. My nephew had the game when his father gave him his first NES back in the day.
The start-up sequence is iconic! My favorite part of the series is when Dom tells him that The Lady's systems are ready to go. Then String flys the copter out of the cave and when he fired the turbo boost. Boom!
I'm from Germany, born 1980 and when i was a Kid, i loved that Show. The Theme is still playing in my Head. My favorite Episode was always the Airwolf vs. Redwolf. Wonderful Memories. 😊
I was a fan of the show as a kid and even convinced my dad to buy the Cox gas powered Airwolf model from our local toy store. It was incredibly dangerous to get the main propeller started. I remember that the set came with a rugged plastic finger guard, so you wouldn't chop your finger off while winding up the starter.
Ha, imagina that conversation. "You tv show about a helicopter has to cut costs." "Alright, how do we do that?" "You can't use the helicopter anymore." "Wait, what?"
It was partly the move to Canada and partly the original production company selling the helicopter when the show was canceled. The fourth season was produced by a different company, The Arthur Company. We did get the full-sized non-flying set, the VFX models, all the flying footage (including a lot of outtakes) and the costumes. To be fair, the Bell 222 the original show used was a pig to fly with the greeblies strapped on (they could be removed and the chopper flown normally.) We had a budget of about $3.23 an episode.
@@wyldemusick I seem to remember there was an Airwolf making a brief appearance in the pilot episode, when they're driving out to the lair and it appears overhead. Seriously though...that so-called CGI effects were hard on the eyeballs.
@@Shanbo26 The computer graphics in Space Mutiny were a hundred times better than the special effects in Season 4. From what I remember the missiles were blocky yellow computer sprites scaled in a way that suggested they were hastily rendered on a Commodore Amiga. It looked really awful.
I watched Airwolf every time I knew it was on as a kid. I LOVED Airworlf. But until today, I couldn't have told you what it was about other than "You know, that 80s show with the rad helicopter". Kids are dumb, indeed.
@@MinekEzQM that would have been a tough pitch. Hard to go up against a corrupt sheriff or bring down a mob run corporation in a submarine. That said they could have ditched the vigilante justice angle and gone for straight up cold war shenanigans. Shows like Das Boot and Journey to the Bottom of the sea demonstrate you can set a drama on a submarine.
Still to this day the most beautiful helicopter ever made. The pilot even said it flew better with the fiberglass body panels on it. New design at the time, the shows premise of it being an aerodynamic lifting body was believable with the rear stabilizers on it. Hawke and Santini where a great pair for this series!
I'm surprised that clones of it were never built - even without the weaponry - considering two things - the shockingly true stories of how well the original flew, and the even more shocking true true story of the crash involving the original Airwolf.
@@maximillianwylde5163 Much as I love "The Lady", in reality the Bell 222 quickly became known as a 'hanger queen", the electronics were really unreliable and the elastometric bearings wore out WAY earlier than expected. Nice when it worked, far too expensive to maintain.
My aunt was the original TV Sheena of the Jungle in the 50s, and we had an autographed picture of her in our hallway when i was a kid, so not so crazy.
Pretty sure we did. You see we were in the heyday of the Cold War - and could see for ourselves the piles of bodies that a sick and demented communist regime left in its wake of its attempt at world domination. To think that "we had no idea what evil was, yet" shows an astronomically astounding level of historical ignorance. Of course, if you were reading Walter Duranty's New York Times, you'd never know of such atrocities.
@@nothingtoseaheardammit Tad, Before answering willy-nilly, it's always a good idea to re-read what somebody wrote. Chris was referring to how Americans viewed CORPORATIONS as being big, bad and EVIL. What he is saying is that the most evil of corporations in the 1980s was a piker compared to our modern-day Amazons, Facebooks, Twitters, and on and on and on. I agree with you, however, that Communism is an evil and if you agree with Dennis Prager, as I do, then Communism's body count was WAY bigger than Hitler's and what's worse, Communism is still alive and well today in the form of the Left, Big Environmentalism, etc. etc.
@@s.marcus3669 I think the cyberpunk movie/show Max Headroom did a pretty good job of predicting media companies as future bad guys. In the Max Headroom universe they are all television network companies, because in the 80s social media was not even thought of yet, but it's kind of close in the sense that they are both types of mass communication. Main difference is that in Max Headroom the networks were all in fierce competition to the point of having armed mercenary forces where today's tech companies all seem to be in collusion with each other to reach the common goal of absolute power.
Major kudos from the UK here for saying "zed ex Spectrum" rather than zee, as soon as you mentioned the computer game I winced in anticipation. Nice work sir.
YASSSS!! Truck, Helicopter, motorcycle action all rolled into one. It was almost equivalent of M.A.S.K. cartoon. Used to love to draw the truck and also Airwolf.
That show used to scare the hell out of me. In the intro an alien sits up on a stretcher. Had nightmares from that as a kid. Fell in love later with Babylon 5, and discovered that Claudia Christian also was a part of The Highwayman. But yeah the truck with the helicopter hidden within it was totally awesome :) Real shame that only 10 episodes were filmed, and that includes the Pilot.
Thank you so much for this video. This was by far my favorite show growing up! I never missed a episode. When it started third season on USA my heart was broken. Even as a kid I knew I was being ripped off. Great video!
The UK Airwolf video game also had a sequel released, the imaginitively titled "Airwolf 2", where you fly around in space this time... for some reason.
I remember an Airwolf videogame on my Commodore 64. My favorite helicopter fighting games on the C64 were Fort Apocalpyse and Raid on Bungeling Bay. I also liked AH-64 Apache on the IBM PC.
There was an 80's arcade game that used the Airwolf music theme. The game had 4 fire buttons (up/down/forward/backward) it was a shoot 'em up scroller. I can't for the life of me remember what it was called and/or find any info about it but it defo used the Airwolf theme (probable not legally)
Seems like there was also a ridiculous show about a guy who drove a stealthy, futuristic semi. Sort of like “BJ and the Bear” crashed into “Airwolf” and “Knight Rider”.
My dad and I caught two episodes of Airwolf on MeTv a few years ago and we both enjoyed it so much! He and Mom watched it off and on when it was new in the 80s and it was great to rewatch it with him. I love its theme song even more than Knight Rider lol! Used to have it as my wake up alarm and my husband would joke "Airwolf yourself up"! Airwolf forever!!
My dad has the dvd set of this along with other 80s shows you mentioned. I love the flight sequences knowing they aren't cgi and are really cool camera shots. Great video
"Magnum" also had an episode intended as a "back-door" pilot for a detective drama starring Erin Gray. A later episode (in season 2 or 3) featuring a helicopter pliot served as inspiration for this initially awe-inspiring show - or maybe not 📺
This channel is amazing. You never disappoint bringing to life awesome blasts from the past and your production quality has gotten to the point it looks better than a special on Airwolf I’d expect to see on TV. Cheers!
Great video! As an 80s kid, Airwolf was, by far, my favorite live action TV show. Oh and that diecast toy set shown in the video that came with Airwolf and the Santini Air helicopter/ Jeep......... I had that! :) Thanks for stirring up lots of great memories!
@@dogwalker666 possibly, it's said that Knightboat the crime solving boat could be a parody of Knight Rider and Thunder in Paradise, but Knightboat does sport the red roving eye light and a pilot named Michael too
@@malikot63 your actually saying there was a knight boat? Here we never even got to see airwolf series 4 and I am relieved as I loved Airwolf and would hate to be disappointed.
@@dogwalker666 they only mention it in "And Maggie Makes Three" (S6 Ep13) for a minute on The Simpsons with a little clip, I don't think it ever comes up again. Still worth looking up for a chuckle.
Ahhhh the glory of the eighties, as a young teen this was a mandatory watch on a Saturday afternoon...MANDATORY. It's theme tune ranks amongst the all time high and the 1st & 2nd series were so action packed (often with same explosion scene being used over and over haha) that you just gagged for the week to pass quickly for the next episode. Without a doubt, a true gem of the eighties, I thank all involved for bringing this into our living rooms and lives, especially in a cold war era...platinum award from me. (I still have my original C64 Airwolf game :P) best wishes always from, Co Durham, NE England.
Loved Airwolf back in the day, and the original seasons still hold up as a guilty pleasure. The last season, produced in Canada... The "without the helicopter" episodes, are absolutely unwatchable! I've tried, but I JUST CAN'T!!!
The BEST 80s tv show ever made & the theme music I still listen to to this day. This show played a huge part in my childhood & I'm glad they haven't tried to reboot it, nothing they could even dream of could match the original & the original soundtrack could never be improved on!
A technologically advanced sleek black helicopter vs a show *about some sketches of a family? *This honestly is all I remember of the show and I found out later it had Michael J Fox from Back to the Future.
Saturdays ruled when I were a lad. First was Street Hawk, then you had Air wolf followed by Knight rider with a topping of A-team. After that is was off to the video shop to hire 3 new releases. You always knew the ish was gonna hit the fan when the theme music kicked in... Loved it!
One of my top most favorite TV shows. To this day I can still hear every bit of her moans and screams as she flies around and hitting Mach 1. Jan Michael Vincent as string fellow hawk and Ernest Borgnine as Dominique Santini was a great pairing. Both were great actors and had great charisma. It was sad that Vincent spiraled out of control. I find it funny and ironic at the same time that the commercial placed in this video was about a Pontiac Lemans. I actually owned the two-door hatchback in that same black and gray coloring. It was my first car and I loved it. It was a cheaper version of the Honda CRX. I had that car for 10 years
I was a keen motorcyclist when Airwolf was first shown; any time I was out on winding country roads, going way too fast and, as often as not, having my eyes closed at the prospect of an imminent fiery death, that theme tune would pop into my head. What can I say: cool and sad are often hard to separate, especially in nostalgia.
As soon as I heard that I wanted to post it as a comment. I'm so glad it's already the top comment. (side note... I'm posting this while my dumb kids fight in the background about something dumb)
"Águia de Fogo" means "FIre Eagle", "Airwolf" translated is "Lobo do Ar" wich sounds strange, but could be called something similar like "Lobo Alado", that means "Winged Wolf". If you find this information unnecessary, I don't blame you, but I don't care... And the way portuguese speaking people say águia is "ah-ghee-uh"
This brings back memories of endless schoolyard discussions of who would win in a fight, Airwolf or Blue Thunder. And no, Switchblade doesn't count becaus that one's not a real helicopter.
Blue Thunder has a single machine gun. Airwolf has twin machine guns and missiles. It also excedes mach 1. It would beat the shit out of Blue Thunder. That's what I always said in the schoolyard and I'm standing by it. :)
It's good someone is looking back into this one of my favorite series, which has been long overdue: There was meant to be a documentary on Airwolf a few years ago, but nobody seems to know what happened to it's development, not even Mark J Cairns who spurned it (along with releasing a reproduced soundtracks CD set), as he 'wasn't in charge of the project'. Does anyone else know what happened to it?
That's a very good question. The last I heard about it was a post on Facebook stating that it wouldn't happen. Though I'm not entirely sure why. As far as I understood it, a lot of the filming was already done and it was mainly a question of editing it all together.
Came for the Jan Michael Vincents, stayed for the "Ernest Borgnine was(not) my uncle" story. The Asian Lemans commercial stitched together with Airwolf B-roll was just gravy. Thanks for the yuks Dan!
I loved Airwolf, but getting a good/cool Airwolf toy as a kid was impossible. I never liked the toys available and the one helicopter toy I liked that I imagined was Airwolf and colored it black had both of the top propellers snap off when I dropped it. Hard times as a kid who loved Airwolf! (Best theme ever, shame you guys can't play part of it) If I were on the team, I would be the flight engineer... always pictured myself as Goose from Top Gun as well... just don't want to die... T_T
Damn that sucks. But I feel you. You couldn’t find an actual Airwolf toy helicopter, so you found a toy that looked like it and painted it. Then the fucking thing promptly broke. At least you had a toy. I used to see the toys in Lionel Playworld (remember that toy store?) but my cheap assed dad wouldn’t spend the dough. I was reduced to making paper airplanes and writing Airwolf on them. I’d draw the turbo boosters, missile launchers, and machine guns on with magic markers. Yeah. I got laughed at quite a bit and got into a lot of fights because everybody knew we were fucking broke! My dad could have spent the money too. He bought weed and got high instead of toys for his kids. My mom and dad constantly got into fights about it.
Thanks so much for covering this show guys. I loved this one growing up. And I'm sad the original cast is gone. I would like to see a next gen show like how they did with Ghostbusters. You know what I mean, right? I'm glad I subscribed cuz this episode hit my nostalgia hard, great job! Happy new year everyone.
I heard Dom was running powder through Santini air to finance Archangels eye patch collection? KITT gave us the Hoff, Blue Thunder gave us JAFO. Airwolf gave us the best music, and the shots from the valley of the kings were always killer. Thanks for the vid, these were the golden ages of tv for sure
I have to wonder: The guys of TOP GALAXY were all born between 1978 and 1982, I take it....? Grew up watching all this stuff. Only episode I could wish for would be "Misfits of Science", but there was hardly any toys to go along with that. :)
In an episode of Airwolf, a man pulls a gun on Stringfellow. Hawk responds by throwing his hot coffee in the thugs face...always remembered that. Laast year when my roommate went mental and attacked me in the kitchen with a knife, I used the same coffee defence. it worked a charm. The show saved my life hahaha
He must have had a good reason I guess.
@@ThePancakeJedi is that you, tom? Hahaha did I put enough sugar in the coffee?
And they said too much TV would rot our brains.😐
@@ThePancakeJedi he must have had a good reason for going mental or pulling a knife?
Ha ha I hope the coffee was sizzling 🔥
The show didn't fail, it perfectly birthed the worlds most awesome theme song that will live on forever!
@Modok.Saint424 ESAD
@Modok.Saint424 Nah, he simply told you to ESAD. Go be a troll somewhere else.
Airwolf was one of my favorite shows ever as a kid. One of the best intro themes ever as well.
It's an epic theme for sure.
fuck yes
Hell yeah!!!
Agreed. I’m rewatching all seasons this winter. Nice comfort tv.
@@InvisibleLightRec I own 1 through 3 can't find the 4th season
The personal tragedy of JMV and that of the deadly helicopter crash while serving as an ambulance put a bitter twist on this series which i loved as a kid. Great video, thank you.
I effing LOVED AirWolf.
EVERY episode was 'bad guy gets in helicopter. AirWolf chases bad guy into canyon. One loop-de-loop. AirWolf disappears. Bad guy confused.. AirWolf pops up behind him and blows him up. Ernest Bergnine laughs when AirWolf lands
I can't say you're wrong.....lol
@PJPF as an 80s younger brother, i used to think my brother was like crazy skilled at knowing what was going to happen.
My brother: check it out, AirWolf is going to vanish and then come up right behind him.
Me: no way
*AirWolf does the thing*
Me: *jaw drops* OMG that's amazing how did you know??!!
Every. Effing. Episode. 🤣😂 like Dan says in the video "kids are stupid"
I could've sworn the whole final fight in Airwolf feels like the ending of every episode of certain Japanese giant robot shows in the late 70's & early 80s.
Don't forget the crapy little bubble helicopters the baddies flew. Always seemed somewhat foolish going up against Airwolf in those.
@@Germania9 well, i can't say you're wrong either!
I love Airwolf❤ I have the whole DVD set and I will treasure it for a lifetime
Airwolf!! Oh man, what a show, it had everything! Helicopters, Ernest Borgnine... That's about it, but as a kid it was enough. The theme song is iconic!
Ernest Borgnine was in the Simpson's show, that episode is one of my favorites.
That's all you need
Uh… Jan Michael Vincent? Hellllooooo!
I built an Airwolf model when I was a kid in the 80's and "flew" it around the living room. Great memories. Loved that show so much.
I built one with Lego, Redwolf too. That's one of the reasons Lego was and is the greatest toy ever.
Airwolf was easily my favourite of the 80's super vehicle shows. Although it's theme is tied with Street Hawk for me. They're both so great I can't pick a winner.
Jan Michael Vincent was the highest-paid star on TV? And Blue Thunder won an Oscar!? The power of helicopter-based entertainment is remarkable.
Lololol
Also! Super Thunder Blade was one of the first Sega Genesis games I owned.
I just wanted to bring up Super Thunder Blade...
It makes you think...the real reason the Matrix sequels were disappointing was the lack of helicopter scenes!
Fifteen years ago I wrote a short treatment for a show starring country and western supersensation Alan Jackson as Alan “Chopper Jackson” Jackson because helicopter-based entertainment needs to come back.
I also wrote something called Bakker’s Dozen, a baking reality show hosted by disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker, years before Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood were A Thing, though I was aiming for more of a Nailed It! kinda groove.
Don't forget, that Magnum PI featured a helicopter prominently, as did Miami Vice on multiple episodes (can't be a Miami cocaine lord without a boat and a Jet Ranger), the A-Team had Murdoch the mad helicopter pilot, and Riptide had the Screaming Mimi! (The Mimi today is in service as a firefighting aircraft, but still has her name painted under the cockpit window)
My father's hangar was used for exterior shots of Santini Air. He said they would show up, put up the sign, film for an afternoon, take it down and leave. Surreal considering it was out favorite show in the 80's.
Exterior shots were at Jetcopters.inc in Van Nuys, Calif. Jetcopters Inc flew and owned the bell 222. Pete McKernan Sr owned the business and the hangar. You definitely don't look like his son, Pete McKernon Jr., lol
@@mulhall72 I did not know that was where they shot the exteriors. Years ago, when I watched the T.V. show with my Vietnam veteran father I had no idea, none, about how Hollywood worked. Dad had flown in hueys in '68, but just as an enlisted photographer in the Army. When I started in the film industry in the early 2000s I was blown away by the gimbals and other camera mounts used for aerial filming, especially thinking of my Dad's stories of just pointing his Nikkormat FTN out of the open door of a huey.
@@mulhall72 for which season? In think 4th season was filmed elsewhere than first three.
@@mulhall72 Barry you are 100% correct. The Jetcopters Inc hangar was used for the "Santini Air" shots.
@@MichaJagiencarz Season 4 was shot in Vancouver, B.C. with an entirely different cast.
Still one of my favorite theme songs.
Got it on my phone (extended version) There's also custom versions knocking around on RUclips and elsewhere, worth checking out
The Best
I like the c64 version from the games but LOOOVE the one from the show. I'll be checking the chello version (thanks for the comment)
@Cat Fox absofuckinglutely, Samara’s version is marvelous!
I loved Airwolf, I was about 5 years old and still remember watching it on a black and white TV in the kitchen.
Trivia for diehard fans: In the opening credits is a scene of Archangel playing polo, which never shows up in any episode. Alex Cord is a serious equestrian and played polo competitively at the time. While the series producers were making the opening montage, he suggested they come film him playing polo as a way to cheaply pad out the title sequence with a cool action shot.
I think your wrong about the polo scene. If I remember correctly, it's the episode where the firm builds airwolf 2 and Hawk and Dom go see archangel and he's riding a horse playing polo.
I am a die hard fan to the max of airwolf seasons 1-3 not season 4
@@jasonduke3608 Sadly no, there is no episode in which the polo game is featured. Alex Cord talked about the origin of that scene on an interview for a podcast. If necessary I can pull it up and get you the link for it.
@@shankthebat8654
The airwolf 2 episode alex is riding a horse it's been awhile since I seen it. I know no other episode showing him with a horse so I thought that was it.
Defo from Airwolf II episode
@@jasonduke3608 There is no season 4
When you name your kid Stringfellow Hawk, you're going all in betting he's going to fly a heavily armed and armored stealth copter when he grows up.
I wonder what kind of mindset the parents had? I mean they had two sons. They named one Stringfellow Hawke and the other Saint John. You gotta wonder what they were smoking at that time.
@@johnlloyddy7016 They were going to name their daughter Devinity Falconstorm I bet...
I got into a fight in grade school with a kid named Gunther. I was more afraid of his name than him.
There was a more famous one from another movie in 80s.
“Maverick? Did your mother not like you or something?”
There was a game called "Red Baron 2" back in 1997, where you flew around in an ally bi-plane and eventually had to dog fight the Red Baron. once you had beat the game, you could unlock a "turbo mode" which you could press the spacebar and your plane would tear off like a rocket while the theme song to Airwolf would play. it was EPIC.
I'm 71 years old and I would love to see a new Airwolf series on t.v. I grew up in the same town that he grew up in. I knew him and his family and he never forgot his roots. God bless him.
Stringfellow Hawk often played the cello on the dock of his lake house. This is where I gained an appreciation for the cello before I had ever heard of Yo Yo Ma.
that house was sweet
Yeah serenading the Eagles that hunted in the lake. :)
Yo mama?!
And before Apocalyptica!!!!
@@gregorlandini4328 no kidding. Hawk in that white sweater in front of the fireplace....Lawd. 🔥
I loved this show. My father was a former Colonel of the Air Force and he taught me flying and obtained my pilot's license when I was 15 years old. We both had a kick out of watching this show. My nephew had the game when his father gave him his first NES back in the day.
"I thought he was my uncle because of a signed picture on our wall" - this totally sounds like something I would have done.
Airwolf was one of the few shows that both my dad and I loved. He loved the military-esque action, and I loved the sci-fi helicopter with turbo boost.
The start-up sequence is iconic! My favorite part of the series is when Dom tells him that The Lady's systems are ready to go. Then String flys the copter out of the cave and when he fired the turbo boost. Boom!
I'm from Germany, born 1980 and when i was a Kid, i loved that Show. The Theme is still playing in my Head. My favorite Episode was always the Airwolf vs. Redwolf. Wonderful Memories. 😊
I was a fan of the show as a kid and even convinced my dad to buy the Cox gas powered Airwolf model from our local toy store. It was incredibly dangerous to get the main propeller started. I remember that the set came with a rugged plastic finger guard, so you wouldn't chop your finger off while winding up the starter.
I LOVE that you are taking your format beyond cartoons and comics and attacking the 80's pop icons!
True story: My wife could never remember "Stringfellow Hawke" so she just called him "Skyhawk Flabberjacket."
Mr. Flabberjacket is friends with the Underhills, ask Fletch, he knows .
Is your wife and my dad related? He gets names from shows and movies wrong a lot
that is a way better name
😂😂😂😂😂😂
LOL! Sounds like something my dad would say.
Now that is what I call a television show when I was a kid great show to watch man I mass that television show
Ha, imagina that conversation. "You tv show about a helicopter has to cut costs." "Alright, how do we do that?" "You can't use the helicopter anymore." "Wait, what?"
It was partly the move to Canada and partly the original production company selling the helicopter when the show was canceled. The fourth season was produced by a different company, The Arthur Company. We did get the full-sized non-flying set, the VFX models, all the flying footage (including a lot of outtakes) and the costumes. To be fair, the Bell 222 the original show used was a pig to fly with the greeblies strapped on (they could be removed and the chopper flown normally.)
We had a budget of about $3.23 an episode.
80's tv exec: No Problem! Now get me another hooker, this one is almost out of coke!"
@@wyldemusick I seem to remember there was an Airwolf making a brief appearance in the pilot episode, when they're driving out to the lair and it appears overhead.
Seriously though...that so-called CGI effects were hard on the eyeballs.
@@Shanbo26 The computer graphics in Space Mutiny were a hundred times better than the special effects in Season 4. From what I remember the missiles were blocky yellow computer sprites scaled in a way that suggested they were hastily rendered on a Commodore Amiga. It looked really awful.
In 1985 I was hired as a Santa Claus for a big mall in Southern California. The best part was getting flown to the mall in the Air Wolf Copter.
I watched Airwolf every time I knew it was on as a kid. I LOVED Airworlf. But until today, I couldn't have told you what it was about other than "You know, that 80s show with the rad helicopter". Kids are dumb, indeed.
i still got the whole series and still watching it even if they are gone they were the best
I loved Airwolf back in the day
I have Airwolf theme as my ringtone. Many phones have come and gone but the ringtone stays the same for years!
“How many car/motorcycle/helicopter/antihero series do you want?”
80s: All of them.
There was no show with a submarine. :)
nor with a pogo stick
@@JeanLouisBourdon nor a tricycle.
I always wondered who would win with air wolf vs blue thunder though air wolf may have an advantage.....
@@MinekEzQM that would have been a tough pitch. Hard to go up against a corrupt sheriff or bring down a mob run corporation in a submarine. That said they could have ditched the vigilante justice angle and gone for straight up cold war shenanigans. Shows like Das Boot and Journey to the Bottom of the sea demonstrate you can set a drama on a submarine.
Still to this day the most beautiful helicopter ever made. The pilot even said it flew better with the fiberglass body panels on it. New design at the time, the shows premise of it being an aerodynamic lifting body was believable with the rear stabilizers on it. Hawke and Santini where a great pair for this series!
I'm surprised that clones of it were never built - even without the weaponry - considering two things - the shockingly true stories of how well the original flew, and the even more shocking true true story of the crash involving the original Airwolf.
Never knew Airwolf was used in Japanese ads.
@@maximillianwylde5163 Much as I love "The Lady", in reality the Bell 222 quickly became known as a 'hanger queen", the electronics were really unreliable and the elastometric bearings wore out WAY earlier than expected. Nice when it worked, far too expensive to maintain.
My aunt was the original TV Sheena of the Jungle in the 50s, and we had an autographed picture of her in our hallway when i was a kid, so not so crazy.
That's nothing. My grandpa was E.T.
Yes! Thank you! You continue to explore the non-animated 80’s TV history that I enjoyed so much as a child.
Love this channel. Always the best.
The Airwolf helicopter was sexy AF.
@@DavidLLambertmobile Although that statement is 100% true, you just ruined it for a ton of fans........Airwolf lives on!
whaddaya mean WAS?
I used to “sing” the Airwolf theme when I would do dumb stuff on my bike.
Dude, the Airwolf theme is my ringtone! i loved this show!!
Same here, its been on my phone for the last 10 years at least.
It's funny how "corrupt and evil" we thought corporations were in the 80s. We had no idea what evil was, yet.
It's the government.
Boy, Chris, you SAID it!!
Pretty sure we did. You see we were in the heyday of the Cold War - and could see for ourselves the piles of bodies that a sick and demented communist regime left in its wake of its attempt at world domination. To think that "we had no idea what evil was, yet" shows an astronomically astounding level of historical ignorance. Of course, if you were reading Walter Duranty's New York Times, you'd never know of such atrocities.
@@nothingtoseaheardammit Tad, Before answering willy-nilly, it's always a good idea to re-read what somebody wrote. Chris was referring to how Americans viewed CORPORATIONS as being big, bad and EVIL. What he is saying is that the most evil of corporations in the 1980s was a piker compared to our modern-day Amazons, Facebooks, Twitters, and on and on and on. I agree with you, however, that Communism is an evil and if you agree with Dennis Prager, as I do, then Communism's body count was WAY bigger than Hitler's and what's worse, Communism is still alive and well today in the form of the Left, Big Environmentalism, etc. etc.
@@s.marcus3669 I think the cyberpunk movie/show Max Headroom did a pretty good job of predicting media companies as future bad guys. In the Max Headroom universe they are all television network companies, because in the 80s social media was not even thought of yet, but it's kind of close in the sense that they are both types of mass communication. Main difference is that in Max Headroom the networks were all in fierce competition to the point of having armed mercenary forces where today's tech companies all seem to be in collusion with each other to reach the common goal of absolute power.
Next to Miami Vice, Airwolf was one of my favorite shows
Major kudos from the UK here for saying "zed ex Spectrum" rather than zee, as soon as you mentioned the computer game I winced in anticipation. Nice work sir.
So when do we get the story of "The Highwayman"?
Yes Please! I keep trying to tell people about this show and they all look at me like I'm crazy.
@@ProphetChill77 I thought I was the only one who remembers The Highwayman. That's where Sam Jones went after Flash Gordon. ;-)
YASSSS!! Truck, Helicopter, motorcycle action all rolled into one. It was almost equivalent of M.A.S.K. cartoon. Used to love to draw the truck and also Airwolf.
@@Duomaxwell02M Nobody ever forgets any show featuring Jane Badler.
That show used to scare the hell out of me. In the intro an alien sits up on a stretcher. Had nightmares from that as a kid. Fell in love later with Babylon 5, and discovered that Claudia Christian also was a part of The Highwayman.
But yeah the truck with the helicopter hidden within it was totally awesome :) Real shame that only 10 episodes were filmed, and that includes the Pilot.
Thank you so much for this video. This was by far my favorite show growing up! I never missed a episode. When it started third season on USA my heart was broken. Even as a kid I knew I was being ripped off. Great video!
I’m fond of the Highwayman helo/tractor trailer. That was a criminally underrated show.
Yeah it broke the laws of mechanical engineering
@@chadfalardeau5396 but those fuckin TRUCKS ...!
Yeah, hope Dan could make a video on that.
Wasn't the Highwayman helo the same type as was used to make Blue Thunder?
@@chadfalardeau5396 And Airwolf didn't? Never could understand how they managed to stuff all those missiles into that chopper.
The UK Airwolf video game also had a sequel released, the imaginitively titled "Airwolf 2", where you fly around in space this time... for some reason.
Hello you!
They should've called it "Vacuumwolf"
@@malfattio2894 Or Spacewolf, maybe?
I remember an Airwolf videogame on my Commodore 64. My favorite helicopter fighting games on the C64 were Fort Apocalpyse and Raid on Bungeling Bay.
I also liked AH-64 Apache on the IBM PC.
There was an 80's arcade game that used the Airwolf music theme. The game had 4 fire buttons (up/down/forward/backward) it was a shoot 'em up scroller.
I can't for the life of me remember what it was called and/or find any info about it but it defo used the Airwolf theme (probable not legally)
Knight Rider and Airwolf were the shit in the day and I have the theme music for both! When their music comes on... It's go time!
Once again a great bit of nostalgia. Love these deep cuts into our 80's and 90's childhoods. Thanks, Dan!
Knight Rider,street hawk,airwolf
The 80s was the era of the black vehicle
As a Kid I have the NES game
Is it a good game? I don't remember AVGN covering it so...
How dare you mention Street Hawk in the same sentence as AirWolf!
Seems like there was also a ridiculous show about a guy who drove a stealthy, futuristic semi. Sort of like “BJ and the Bear” crashed into “Airwolf” and “Knight Rider”.
@@andrewdeboer7435 you mean The HighwayMan ?
that one to
thunder in paradise just missed the era by a few years
and who can forget the movie Firefox
My dad and I caught two episodes of Airwolf on MeTv a few years ago and we both enjoyed it so much! He and Mom watched it off and on when it was new in the 80s and it was great to rewatch it with him. I love its theme song even more than Knight Rider lol! Used to have it as my wake up alarm and my husband would joke "Airwolf yourself up"! Airwolf forever!!
I would've liked to see HAIRWOLF about a salon owner who gets bitten by a werewolf and has to cope with lycanthropy and split ends.
Not split ends, a Mullet.
I'm holding out for Belair Wolf. Will Smith gets bitten by a werewolf and has to move back in with his uncle. Hijinks ensue.
That's so dumb... I love it. XD
:: Rimshot ::
@@rogermorris9696 Not a mullet, Aquanet.
Airwolf was my favorite show. Outstanding music too!
My dad has the dvd set of this along with other 80s shows you mentioned. I love the flight sequences knowing they aren't cgi and are really cool camera shots. Great video
No cgi, but they did speed up most action scenes 1.5x to make it look like it was flying faster.
Airwolf is one of all-time favorite tv series!!! 👍😎🎬
"Magnum" also had an episode intended as a "back-door" pilot for a detective drama starring Erin Gray. A later episode (in season 2 or 3) featuring a helicopter pliot served as inspiration for this initially awe-inspiring show - or maybe not 📺
This channel is amazing. You never disappoint bringing to life awesome blasts from the past and your production quality has gotten to the point it looks better than a special on Airwolf I’d expect to see on TV. Cheers!
AirWolf is on constant repeat here in the UK and it's so good I've watched it all 3 times in a row now! Yes, even the awful last series!
Love the work yall do. Been waiting for you to make an episode about Airwolf...Thank you!
Not gonna lie...I nearly had to pay a fine during my first helicopter lesson as I started humming the Airwolf theme 🙈😂
If I ever get a helicopter lesson I am certain I am going to do the same.
worth it
Why would that get you a fine?
Great video!
As an 80s kid, Airwolf was, by far, my favorite live action TV show. Oh and that diecast toy set shown in the video that came with Airwolf and the Santini Air helicopter/ Jeep.........
I had that! :)
Thanks for stirring up lots of great memories!
And on The Simpsons they watched "Knight Boat." The 80's we're awesome.
"Oh, every week there's a canal." "Or an inlet." "Or a fjord."
Was that not thunder in paradise.
@@dogwalker666 possibly, it's said that Knightboat the crime solving boat could be a parody of Knight Rider and Thunder in Paradise, but Knightboat does sport the red roving eye light and a pilot named Michael too
@@malikot63 your actually saying there was a knight boat? Here we never even got to see airwolf series 4 and I am relieved as I loved Airwolf and would hate to be disappointed.
@@dogwalker666 they only mention it in "And Maggie Makes Three" (S6 Ep13) for a minute on The Simpsons with a little clip, I don't think it ever comes up again. Still worth looking up for a chuckle.
I absolutely love this channel. Thanks guys for all the hard work.
Dan Larson is the Frank Welker of RUclips intros
🤣
I've been waiting for a History of Airwolf video for a while now and the day has finally come!
Airwolf was the COOLEST show on television when I was a kid. I even got a model kit of Airwolf.
Ahhhh the glory of the eighties, as a young teen this was a mandatory watch on
a Saturday afternoon...MANDATORY. It's theme tune ranks amongst the all time
high and the 1st & 2nd series were so action packed (often with same explosion
scene being used over and over haha) that you just gagged for the week to pass
quickly for the next episode. Without a doubt, a true gem of the eighties, I thank
all involved for bringing this into our living rooms and lives, especially in a cold
war era...platinum award from me. (I still have my original C64 Airwolf game :P)
best wishes always from,
Co Durham, NE England.
Toy Galaxy and Airwolf? That’s an instant like!!
Great video. Airwolf was one of my favorite shows and I learned quite a bit about the show.
Loved Airwolf back in the day, and the original seasons still hold up as a guilty pleasure. The last season, produced in Canada... The "without the helicopter" episodes, are absolutely unwatchable! I've tried, but I JUST CAN'T!!!
The BEST 80s tv show ever made & the theme music I still listen to to this day.
This show played a huge part in my childhood & I'm glad they haven't tried to reboot it, nothing they could even dream of could match the original & the original soundtrack could never be improved on!
You guys are laser focused on my nostalgia lol
Loved that show. My sister and I would fight over watching this or family ties
A technologically advanced sleek black helicopter vs a show *about some sketches of a family?
*This honestly is all I remember of the show and I found out later it had Michael J Fox from Back to the Future.
Saturdays ruled when I were a lad. First was Street Hawk, then you had Air wolf followed by Knight rider with a topping of A-team. After that is was off to the video shop to hire 3 new releases.
You always knew the ish was gonna hit the fan when the theme music kicked in... Loved it!
Dan, don't be hating on Ernest, we all know you're just jealous he has more action figures of himself than you do.
Also one of my favorite shows as a kid! This show made me fall in love with helicopters.
One of my top most favorite TV shows. To this day I can still hear every bit of her moans and screams as she flies around and hitting Mach 1. Jan Michael Vincent as string fellow hawk and Ernest Borgnine as Dominique Santini was a great pairing. Both were great actors and had great charisma. It was sad that Vincent spiraled out of control.
I find it funny and ironic at the same time that the commercial placed in this video was about a Pontiac Lemans. I actually owned the two-door hatchback in that same black and gray coloring. It was my first car and I loved it. It was a cheaper version of the Honda CRX. I had that car for 10 years
I was a keen motorcyclist when Airwolf was first shown; any time I was out on winding country roads, going way too fast and, as often as not, having my eyes closed at the prospect of an imminent fiery death, that theme tune would pop into my head. What can I say: cool and sad are often hard to separate, especially in nostalgia.
😄
In Italy the show was renamed “Supercopter”. Just like “Knight Rider” became “Super Car”
In Chile Knight Rider became "Fantasic Car" Airwolf and Blue Thunder stayed the same.
Same name-change (Supercopter) happened in France and Quebec, but Knight Rider was named K2000 instead.
Was Thunder in Paradise called "Superboat"?
@@tartrazine5 ahaha, nope. It kept its name.
@@zerocool5395 Blue Thunder was literally translated as “Tuono Blu”
Thank you for this episode both the series and toys
"But this is a good time to remind everyone that kids are DUMB." LMAO
I literally laughed out loud in my office.
As soon as I heard that I wanted to post it as a comment. I'm so glad it's already the top comment. (side note... I'm posting this while my dumb kids fight in the background about something dumb)
I would have loved telling everyone Ernest Borgnine was my uncle if my mom had his autographed picture. XD lol
This was literally my father's motto. He ... wasn't wrong!
Laughed out loud. Best line in this video, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
This brought back a shed load of cool memories of watching it when I was a lot younger.
"Águia de Fogo" means "FIre Eagle", "Airwolf" translated is "Lobo do Ar" wich sounds strange, but could be called something similar like "Lobo Alado", that means "Winged Wolf". If you find this information unnecessary, I don't blame you, but I don't care...
And the way portuguese speaking people say águia is "ah-ghee-uh"
Lobo Alado, sounds good.
“If you find this information unnecessary, I don’t blame you, but I don’t care.” Ok, this is in the public domain, and I’m stealing it.
@@earlygail go ahead
I waited all evening to watch this, and was not disappointed! As an angst ridden teen, Stringfellow Hawk was my idol.
This brings back memories of endless schoolyard discussions of who would win in a fight, Airwolf or Blue Thunder. And no, Switchblade doesn't count becaus that one's not a real helicopter.
Blue Thunder has a single machine gun. Airwolf has twin machine guns and missiles. It also excedes mach 1. It would beat the shit out of Blue Thunder. That's what I always said in the schoolyard and I'm standing by it. :)
What about Cop-tur? Haha
Boy do I remember the toys, had so much fun playing. Thank you for this video. 🙂
It's good someone is looking back into this one of my favorite series, which has been long overdue: There was meant to be a documentary on Airwolf a few years ago, but nobody seems to know what happened to it's development, not even Mark J Cairns who spurned it (along with releasing a reproduced soundtracks CD set), as he 'wasn't in charge of the project'. Does anyone else know what happened to it?
That's a very good question.
The last I heard about it was a post on Facebook stating that it wouldn't happen. Though I'm not entirely sure why. As far as I understood it, a lot of the filming was already done and it was mainly a question of editing it all together.
This was the first TV show theme song to get permanently logged in my brain. Heard it when I was around 6 years old and it has been there ever since.
You're watching this with the sound of the chopper in your head.
Nope, with the kickass theme playing.
....and the theme. Never forget the theme👍👍👍🤣
Same. Theme is blasting. . .in stereo! Weirdly, I stumbled across a random video yesterday that was an extended version of the theme song.
Loved that howl.
False. I'm humming the theme song 🎶 Duh duddunt da da, dunnunt da da dunnunt da da...
Came for the Jan Michael Vincents, stayed for the "Ernest Borgnine was(not) my uncle" story. The Asian Lemans commercial stitched together with Airwolf B-roll was just gravy. Thanks for the yuks Dan!
I loved Airwolf, but getting a good/cool Airwolf toy as a kid was impossible. I never liked the toys available and the one helicopter toy I liked that I imagined was Airwolf and colored it black had both of the top propellers snap off when I dropped it.
Hard times as a kid who loved Airwolf! (Best theme ever, shame you guys can't play part of it)
If I were on the team, I would be the flight engineer... always pictured myself as Goose from Top Gun as well... just don't want to die... T_T
THIS. I didn't even KNOW Airwolf toys existed back then. And believe me, I LOOKED.
I have an air wolf toy.
I should go in the shed and find it.
It was pretty cool
yea!! could never find a airwolf toy that you could really play with....it was cheap plastic models that i had no patientce to build...
Couldnt agree more. I was desperate for a decent Airwolf model as a kid but the only ones available were pretty crap.
Damn that sucks. But I feel you. You couldn’t find an actual Airwolf toy helicopter, so you found a toy that looked like it and painted it. Then the fucking thing promptly broke. At least you had a toy. I used to see the toys in Lionel Playworld (remember that toy store?) but my cheap assed dad wouldn’t spend the dough. I was reduced to making paper airplanes and writing Airwolf on them. I’d draw the turbo boosters, missile launchers, and machine guns on with magic markers. Yeah. I got laughed at quite a bit and got into a lot of fights because everybody knew we were fucking broke! My dad could have spent the money too. He bought weed and got high instead of toys for his kids. My mom and dad constantly got into fights about it.
Great video. Airwolf was and is a good show. I liked Riptide too. Born in 1970,I had fun watching it.
Ernest Borgnine was my Uncle too! He’s in my top 5 wingmen list!
Loved loved LOVED Airwolf! Kinda wishing they'd do a reboot, called 'Hawk & Santini' ❤️
10:08 Aw man, if i had that as a kid, every single letter, card, note, or whatever i wrote would have been adorned with the face of Ernest Borgnine 😆
LOVED this show....so awesome how it was hidden in the desert...the pilot movie was awesome for a tv movie..
The Theme song is a staple of my childhood....
Thanks so much for covering this show guys. I loved this one growing up. And I'm sad the original cast is gone. I would like to see a next gen show like how they did with Ghostbusters. You know what I mean, right? I'm glad I subscribed cuz this episode hit my nostalgia hard, great job! Happy new year everyone.
The 1980s has all the best TV themes.
CHANGE MY MIND
I actually made a mixtape of all the TV themes that I liked back then. Those were the days of awesome TV theme music.
I heard Dom was running powder through Santini air to finance Archangels eye patch collection? KITT gave us the Hoff, Blue Thunder gave us JAFO. Airwolf gave us the best music, and the shots from the valley of the kings were always killer. Thanks for the vid, these were the golden ages of tv for sure
I have to wonder: The guys of TOP GALAXY were all born between 1978 and 1982, I take it....? Grew up watching all this stuff. Only episode I could wish for would be "Misfits of Science", but there was hardly any toys to go along with that. :)
There's only 2 of us. We were both born in 1975 and we already did an episode on Misfits of Science
@@SecretGalaxyTV Gonna watch that in a minute!!!!!! :)
i loved it! still have it on dvd:) Nice to see how much we improved tech these days.