Airwolf. The absolutely iconic 80's action/adventure series created by the legendary Donald P. Bellisario. Starred Jan-Michael Vincent and Ernest Borgnine, but the show's crown jewel was a Bell 222 helicopter heavily modified to the militaristic hilt, with an underside tube trio of air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, a pair of Gatling guns which extended from the rear gear housing, and a super-advanced electronics warfare system. Oh, and a turbo boost feature that allowed the chopper to go supersonic.
The first season was a genuine banger, with The Firm, fronted by Eric Cord's enigmatic Archangel and supported by Deborah Pratt's Marella (who would later provide the opening narration for Quantum Leap), often sending Vincent's Stringfellow Hawke and Borgnine's Dominic Santini on highly dangerous covert missions around the planet. In exchange for Hawke's "partnership" with The Firm, which often got contentious, Archangel would promise to investigate the whereabouts of String's Vietnam MIA brother, Saint John.
A stunning calvacade of character actors appeared during the show's run, including David Carradine, James Whitmore, Jr., Soon-Tek Oh, David Hemmings, Shannen Doherty, Wings Hauser, Doug McClure, John Ireland, Ray Wise, Richard Lynch, Bryan Cranston, Anne Lockhart, and even G. Gordon Liddy. If you were someone in television during the mid-80s, odds are you'd find yourself on an Airwolf set at some point.
The aerial photography capturing Airwolf in flight was truly spectacular, but tragically led to the awful immolation death of Vincent's stunt double in a helicopter crash that WASN'T the Bell. The Bell itself would later be sold to a German company as an air ambulance, but crashed on a mountainside while returning from a life-flight in 1992, killing all three crew members.
Producers wanted the dark tone of the first season to be tempered in order to grow the audience, much to Bellisario's displeasure, causing him to leave the series. By the time season 3 started pre-production, the producers wanted a permanent feminine presence, so Jean Bruce Scott was cast as Airwolf's 3rd crewmember, Caitlin O'Shannessy, and occasional damsel-in-distress. Scott's character was previously featured as a capable helicopter pilot to lend credence to her being able to fly Airwolf when needed.
While season 3 couldn't match the heights of the first two, all the necessary talent was still there, so it still felt like Airwolf thru-and-thru, even if the episodes got a little far afield. However, episode 22 of season 3, Birds of Paradise, would prove to be the show's swan song.
KINDA-SORTA.
Enter Atlantis Skyflight Productions, Inc. a Canadian production firm which head-hunted Airwolf for a quasi-fourth season, (which, in the end, would turn out to be a reboot). Gone was Archangel and The Firm, replaced with The Company and fronted by Anthony Sherwood's Jason Locke. Viewers immediately knew something was waaaaay off, as the beautiful film stock used for seasons 1-3 was replaced by something brazenly cheap, looking more like videotape than film. However, this new production team was given access to the previous season's aerial footage, so season 4 became this Frankenstein stew of new material, which looked horrific, with the aforementioned previously shot beautiful aerials edited-in at key times.
But it gets worse. Much, much worse.
Borgnine refused to return to a nerfed production and Scott wasn't even asked, so her character was simply forgotten, as she was considered a Jean-come-lately to the season 4 party. Borgnine's absence, though, would prove to be a prob...oh, nevermind, Ernest's stand-in was blown-up in his beloved stars & stripes Santini helicopter.
The only character left was Hawke. Amazingly, Vincent agreed to appear in the first episode in order to pass the torch to the new Airwolf stewards. He was nearby when Dominic's chopper went kablam, so he remained hospitalized for the majority of the episode. His character was treated terribly, like a cockroach that The Company simply wanted to squash. Vincent's Hawke went from a seasoned veteran able to complete impossible missions in some of the most hellish places imaginable to someone who couldn't even get past Locke's secretary. To say that character assassination was employed would be severely downplaying things.
One partial saving grace was the return of Saint John as played by Barry Van Dyke, finally rescued from a Southeast Asian prison camp. S-J tracks down String and helps him escape from hospital confinement, never to be seen again.
So, let's review for a bit. Dominic was blown-up in his own company helicopter , Caitlin was simply given an offscreen boot, and String fucked-off to parts unknown. Archangel was moved to an Alaskan post, The Firm was renamed to The Company, and String's assigned liaison, Jason Locke, proved to be a genuine grade-A asshole and took a certain amount of glee in humiliating String whenever the opportunity arose.
What a wonderful starting point for a new season!
Season 4 has to be seen to be experienced, as it's a stark example that a great show can be brought down low with just a few changes. None of the episodes rose to the occasion and the order of the day seemed to be "mid or everything". TBF, >some< of the episodes were watchable (barely), but the rest were trash, trading on the nostalgia of the previous stratospheric seasons to remain afloat for a full 22-episode order. And you can forget about any relief one might get from a series finale episode, as there wasn't one.
I could go on, but it's beating a dying horse. Certainly a season-long trainwreck which did its level best to ruin the reputation of the entire show. Fortunately, Airwolf faithfuls consider season 4 to be non-canon, so the show still enjoys a huge cult following to this very day.
AND RIGHTFULLY SO.
