Airwolf

Airwolf
Genre	Action Military drama
Created by	Donald P. Bellisario
Starring	Jan-Michael Vincent Ernest Borgnine Alex Cord Jean Bruce Scott
Theme music composer	Sylvester Levay
Composers	Sylvester Levay (S1–3) Udi Harpaz (S2–3)
Country of origin	United States Canada (S4)
Original language	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	79 (first-run) 80 (syndication) (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	48 minutes (CBS episodes) 45 minutes (USA Network episodes)
Production companies	Belisarius Productions Universal Television Atlantis Communications (1987) MCA TV (1987)
Original release
Network	CBS (1984–1986) USA (1987)
Release	January 22, 1984 (1984-01-22) – August 7, 1987 (1987-08-07)

Airwolf is an American

The main cast for seasons one through three consist of Jan-Michael Vincent, Ernest Borgnine, Alex Cord, Deborah Pratt (who left after season two when Bellisario left the series), and Jean Bruce Scott (who was added as a regular in seasons two and three). The program originally aired on CBS and was cancelled after the third season. USA Network picked up the show for a fourth season that was completely recast, with Jan-Michael Vincent having only a minor role in the first episode. The fourth season was filmed in Canada, with the aerial scenes relying heavily on stock footage or repeated footage from the first three seasons.

The distinctive musical score was originally orchestral, shifted to more synthesizer-based arrangements early in the second season, and was composed and conducted mainly by Sylvester Levay. Udi Harpaz conducted the scores for many later second- and third-season episodes.

Plot

The fictional Airwolf is described as an advanced prototype

Archangel recruits the reclusive Stringfellow Hawke (Vincent), a former test pilot during the development of Airwolf, to recover the gunship. Archangel leaves his assistant Gabrielle Ademaur (Belinda Bauer)—who becomes Hawke's love interest—at Hawke's cabin to brief him for his mission. One week later, after an undercover operative in Libya is killed in the line of duty, Gabrielle is sent in undercover and Hawke is sent in sooner than originally planned. With the assistance of pilot and father figure Dominic Santini (Borgnine), Hawke finds and recovers Airwolf, but Gabrielle is tortured and killed by Moffet. Hawke obliterates Moffet with a hail of missiles from Airwolf before returning to the United States. Instead of returning the gunship, Hawke and Santini booby-trap Airwolf and hide it in "the Lair", a large natural cave in the remote "Valley of the Gods" (actually filmed in visually similar Monument Valley). Hawke refuses to return Airwolf until the Firm can find and recover his brother, St. John (Christopher Connelly), who has been missing in action since the Vietnam War. To obtain access to Airwolf, Archangel offers Hawke protection from other government agencies who might try to recover Airwolf; in return, Hawke and Santini must fly missions of national importance for the Firm.^[1]

The Firm, during the first three seasons, serve as both ally and enemy for Hawke and Santini; when an opportunity to seize Airwolf arises, Firm operatives often took it. The first season of the series is dark, arc driven, and quite reflective of the contemporary Cold War, with the Firm personnel distinctly dressed in white, implicitly boasting that "wearing white hats" distinguished them as good instead of evil. Hawke remains unconvinced, and Santini is skeptical. Early episodes detail the efforts of the United States government to recover Airwolf from Hawke, who is officially charged with having stolen it. Because CBS wanted to make the series more family oriented, the program was transformed during season two into a more light-hearted show, with Hawke and Santini portrayed as cooperative partners with the Firm. This persisted into the fourth season with the newly introduced "Company" and the new crew of Airwolf.

Production

This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (April 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The series ran for 55 episodes on CBS in the United States in 1984 through 1986, and an additional 24 episodes, with a new cast and production company, aired on the USA Network in 1987, for a total of 79 episodes. A reedited version (produced in Germany) of the first episode was also released on home video in the UK and several other countries; it received a theatrical release in Indonesia.^[2] The show was broadcast in several international markets. Parts of the series were filmed in Monument Valley, Utah.^[3]

Magnum, P.I. connection

Creator Donald P. Bellisario first toyed with the idea of the adventures of an ace combat pilot in a third-season episode of Magnum, P.I. titled "Two Birds of a Feather" (1983), starring William Lucking, which, in turn, was inspired by several episodes of Bellisario's Tales of the Gold Monkey — "Legends Are Forever" and "Honor Thy Brother" (1982) — in which Lucking had played a similar character. The Magnum episode was intended as a backdoor pilot, but a series was not commissioned. Bellisario heavily reworked the idea, and the final result was Airwolf.^[4]

Seasons 2 and 3

To improve

The flight-capable Airwolf helicopter was a cosmetically modified

The concept behind Airwolf is a supersonic armed helicopter that can be disguised as a civilian vehicle—"a wolf in sheep's clothing". Andrew Probert designed the Airwolf uniform insignia patch worn by the flight crew members, a snarling bat-winged wolf's head wearing a sheepskin.

Cast

Season 1 (CBS, 1984) – two-hour pilot and ten additional episodes.

• Jan-Michael Vincent – Stringfellow Hawke (Captain, U.S. Army) (noted as 34 years of age in the 5th episode)
• Ernest Borgnine – Dominic Santini (the owner of Santini Air)
• Alex Cord – Michael Coldsmith Briggs III (deputy director of CIA division named "The Firm;" code name: Archangel)
• Deborah Pratt – Marella, Archangel's assistant

Seasons 2–3 (CBS, 1984–1986) – two seasons of 22 episodes each.

• Vincent, Borgnine, Cord, Pratt (semi-regular, not season three), and
• Jean Bruce Scott – Caitlin O'Shannessy (former helicopter pilot of the Texas Highway Patrol)

Season 4 (USA Network, mid-1987) – 24 episodes, bringing the total hours to 80.

• Barry Van Dyke – St. John Hawke (reserve Major, U.S. Army)
• Michele Scarabelli – Jo Santini (inherited Santini Air from her uncle Dominic Santini after his death)
• Geraint Wyn Davies – Mike Rivers (Major, U.S. Air Force)
• Anthony Sherwood – Jason Locke (a core agent in the government agency called "The Company")
• William B. Davis – Newman (Locke's supervisor in the company; Newman was played by Ernie Prentice just in the first episode, "Blackjack")

Music

Airwolf Themes is a two-CD soundtrack album for the television series released in February, 1999. The 73-minute soundtrack was created over a five-year period by a fan, Northern Ireland-based graphic designer Mark J. Cairns, in collaboration with original composer Levay, with a foreword by the series' creator, Bellisario.

After the original CBS series was cancelled in 1986, Cairns headed the International Airwolf Appreciation Association for nearly 10 years (1988–1998). He decided in early 1994 to produce his own high-quality soundtrack for the series using the episodic scores from the three seasons of the series to create the first 22 synthesizer-based tracks on the soundtrack, including various medleys and character themes. Only one thousand copies were made.

The first digital download-only EP release, titled Airwolf Main Themes was made available in September 2009. It contains four tracks based on variations of the series' Main Theme and was a preview of the future Extended Themes release.

A further 42-track, 146-minute, enhanced two-CD, limited-edition soundtrack album release called Airwolf Extended Themes (containing both a CD of the series' main theme variants, and a second CD of the episodic themes) was released on March 26, 2014. Bulgarian-Polish musician, Jan Michal Szulew, was the main arranger and orchestrator on the first CD, and Mark J. Cairns the arranger and overall producer of the second CD on this soundtrack. Two thousand copies were made.

Books

During the original series run, two books were published.^[4] Both were written by Ron Renauld and are titled Airwolf and Trouble From Within, respectively.^[9] A graphic novel was published in August 2015, titled Airwolf Airstrikes, which recasts Archangel as a woman, and Dominic Santini's son, who is black.^[4][10]

Merchandise

• Airwolf Themes: 2CD Special Limited Edition (arrangement closely based on the original TV soundtrack)
• Airwolf: The Wonderweapon (German CD soundtrack)
• Airwolf Replica Helmet (fully functioning)^[11]
• Models of the Airwolf helicopter

A series of tie-in novels was printed by Star, adapted from the scripts of various episodes, and coloring books for children (printed in the UK by World Publishing), and a UK annual, which, though produced in 1985 (to cover 1986), was based around the first season. For several years, the children's TV comic magazine

Video games

• Airwolf (Commodore 64, Commodore 16), published by Elite.^[12] There were unrealized plans to rename the European-produced Airwolf C64 game as Fort Apocalypse 2.
• Airwolf (Amstrad CPC), published by Elite, popular in Europe.^[13]
• Airwolf (ZX Spectrum), published by Elite, popular in the UK and Europe.^[14]
• Atari 8-bit family)^[15][16]
  by Elite, adapted from Blue Thunder by Richard Wilcox Software
• Airwolf (Arcade), by Kyugo Boueki.
• Airwolf (Family Computer), by Kyugo Boueki,^[17] released in Japan only
• Airwolf (Nintendo Entertainment System), by Acclaim.^[18]
• Airwolf II (ZX Spectrum,^[19] Commodore 64, Commodore 16, Amstrad CPC and BBC Micro), published by Elite.
• Super Airwolf (Mega Drive/Genesis), by Kyugo Boueki, released in the U.S. as CrossFire