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I HAVE ALWAYS LIKED JAN MICHAEL VINCET. I ALSO LIKE ACTION TV AND MOVIES.
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I am a big Airwolf fan. It's been well over a year since the release of Season - One. Doesn't Universal Studios have any idea how many other fans would love to have Seasons 2 - 4 come out?? Come on...they released all the seasons of Knight Rider, a another great 80s show. How long do we have to wait?
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To own this series on DVD has been a longtime dream of ours, ever since we belatedly discovered Airwolf running in syndication on USA Network. The original Airwolf, not to be confused with the horrid clone USA tried to make to cash in on the first show, was one of the gems to emerge from the 80's and the mind of Donald P. Bellisario, who also gave us Magnum, PI and Murder, She Wrote. Unlike those two more pleasant shows, Airwolf began as a dark and brooding mid-season replacement and shot skyward in the ratings. It parlayed on the high-tech popularity of movies like Blue Thunder and Firefox, and featured good writing, a sound premise, passable special effects, a menacingly sleek and dangerous helicopter, and possibly the coolest theme music to come out of a television series. To top it off, there was the cast comprised of three former movie stars: Jan-Michael Vincent as brooding anti-hero and Viet Nam veteran Stringfellow Hawke, haunted by his past; the durable Ernest Borgnine as his old friend and mentor, Dominic Santini; and Alex Cord as the debonair and ambigiously loyal FIRM deputy director, Michael Coldsmith Briggs III, codenamed Archangel. The final regular was lovely and intellectual Marella, Michael's assistant, played perfectly by Deborah Pratt. Toss in the Cold War, espionage, high-tech suspense(with just a small dash of human interest elements), and the show started out of the gate an almost assured ratings winner. The continuing thread for the series was that Hawke had stolen Airwolf back from its demented creator for Archangel but then refused to return it to the spy, instead using it as leverage to force Michael to use his resources to track down String's older MIA brother, St. John. Archangel in turn has Hawke and Airwolf to run secret missions for him, sometimes without his agency's knowledge or consent.
For the first half-season, Airwolf was fine, some episodes better than others, but none was disappointing; the pilot was awesomely done. However, CBS interfered with Bellisario's dark vision for the show, changing out Marella for spunky Caitlin O'Shaugnessy(Jean Bruce Scott) and shifting the emphasis from espionage to so much human interest it was almost nauseating. Fortunately, the third season turned the trend back around to some degree, but by then Bellisario was more or less gone, listed merely as "Executive Producer" in the credits.
This DVD, then, is the best of the show. All of the brooding darkness, the ambiguity especially regarding Archangel's loyalties, the crossfire between Santini and Archangel that was almost reminiscent of McCoy and Spock from classic Star Trek, the misery and sweetness of Hawke's character, everything that made this program so unique is at its best in this set of episodes. Of this set, the pilot episode "Shadow of the Hawke" remains at the top in terms of quality: five stars.
In descending order are the others(at least in our opinion)
Bite of the Jackal****1/2
One Way Express****1/2
Fight Like a Dove****
And They Are Us****
Echoes From the Past****
Proof Through the Night****
Mad Over Miami***1/2
Mind of the Machine***1/2
Daddy's Gone A-Hunting***
Even the worst of this set is still pretty solid---better than the later seasons and vastly superior to the drek that USA tried to produce with a second-rate cast, mediocre writing and awful effects. As die-hard fans of the original series, we will purchase more of these DVDs as they become available, but this first one is a great way for someone unfamiliar with Airwolf to see why it was such a great show. Too bad Jan-Michael Vincent's personal problems escalated and they had to cancel it way too soon. . . .
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Before the shows JAG, NCIS, Magnum PI and Quantum Leap, There was Airwolf. Created by Donald P. Bellisario, this action adventure story involving a Blue Thunder like miltary helcopter. The show had a good cast involved. Such show performers as Jan-Micheal Vincent(as Stringfellow Hawke), Alex Cord (as Archangel), and Ernest Borgnine (as Dominic) make this show watchable.
The adventure show is not just about the helcopter-its the people who handle the choper. The agency (the government shadow agency) headed by Archangel sends Hawke on mission and Dominic helps. It never said what kind of agent is he, nor do we need to know
There was only 11 episodes in the first season. This box set included the two hour pilot. The bad news is there NO EXTRAS, however the episodes are rewards in themselves. These shows barely ages itself from when they came out in 1984
FYI--The CD soundtrack for the show, Airwolf Themes: 2CD Special Limited Edition is a collectors' item selling for up to $981 - a World Record - on eBay making it the "World's Most Expensive Television Soundtrack." (Wikipedia)
So Universal, when is Season 2-4 coming?
Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD
Rating: -
Excelente re edicion de Universal Studios, con muy buena imagen y sonido (creo que mejores que la serie original) y facil manejo de menu.
Es emocionante volver a revivir las series de TV (COMPLETAS!)que causaron un impaco en nosotros hace unos años, realmente se siente la misma sensacion que en el pasado.
El envio a mi pais fue mas rapido que lo anunciado, esperaremos por la 2da etapa.
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