This is a persistent meme in US TV – first, a series would not be complete without an iconic car serving as the hero's steed (think ‘Starsky & Hutch’ and that red Ford Gran Torino, or Nick Mancuso in the titular 'Stingray') and then, later on, that vehicle became the pivot around which the series itself revolved.
Glen Larson was the chief culprit with this genre, bringing us the likes of ‘Knight Rider’, though this was swiftly copied by other producers, giving us ‘Streethawk’, among others. It remained a popular theme throughout the Eighties, though seems to have died a death now.
Top of them all was, of course, Donald Bellisario’s ‘Airwolf’, with its memorable theme music by Sylvester Levay.
Amazingly, this conceptproved so popular that it ran for a lengthy (at the time) four series, which is longer than my memory suggested. It’s still available on DVD, and pretty much any moddable flight sim game soon has an option to take the controls of ‘The Lady’.
Lengthy? Four seasons doesn't sound that long even for the 80s (surely The A Team went on much longer) and I can think of some modern ones that haven't lasted as long - Firefly and Caprica both got cancelled, and even the BSG remake only did four seasons, or five if you count the last one being shown in two bits.
And thinking of BSG and who was in it, want to bet that the new Hawaii Five-0 won't last as long as the original? I'm sure it'll get plenty of viewers having had Grace Park appear in a bikini and in her underwear in the pilot, and that'll probably draw in people with fond memories of her waking up naked in a tub of goo next to the tall blonde and Xena Warrior Princess, but will it last as long as the 70s one?
Never mind, Grace. You'll always be Number Eight to us even if you do remakes your whole career.
To be fair Hawaii Five-0 got better as it went on but the first ten minutes it was definitely trying too hard. Second episode was better though at the end something did explode for no apparent reason beyond the writers needed a way to kill several bad guys at once. Looking at what's coming up I think it might start to turn a bit more investagation-y and a bit less Steven Seagal movie in an aloha shirt. Will it do anything like 12 seasons? Probably not, though JAG went on for ages and NCIS is still going.
And if you want to slag off cop shows for trying too hard I recommend trying to find a download for a show called Rush. It's an Aussie show set here in Melbourne, and for my money it jumped the shark on about the second or third ever episode. I can't recall what it was that made me get up and go and get a book but it was certainly TV credibility suicide because I haven't watched it since. If you want good Melbourne based TV City Homicide is worth a go. It's not up there with the top US stuff - early NYPD Blue or Life On The Streets, The Shield etc - but it's still a pretty good effort and about eleventy bazillion times better than Neighbours. But then again so is a having a dump. Sadly CH is being cancelled after 4 seasons plus a mini-series to wrap it all up sometime this year. Fuck it. Best thing being made here at the mo.
Is it possible that Greenism put pay to the iconic vehicle?
I mean Stringfellow Hawk* must have ran up quite a lot of emissions in Airwolf. Certainly more than could be offset by playing a cello by a lake and looking mournful.
If so can we expect a duo of (carbon) crime-fighters to ride onto our screens astride a tandem?
If my thesis is correct then it is arguable that the turning point was MacGyver who went from generalised action man and supreme improviser to eco-warrior. Steven Seagal did similar in the movies.
*a reasonably good contender as TV's stupidest name.
"If you want good Melbourne based TV City Homicide is worth a go. "
I was wondering if Aussie tv made its own cop shows - all we ever seem to get over here are soaps. Or that thing about the patrol boat that one of the satellite channels bought.
"*a reasonably good contender as TV's stupidest name."
Movie name award must go to Tom Cruise's character in 'Days of Thunder'...
Other than the two I've mentioned there was a show called Blackjack about a Sydney cop doing cold cases, which was more like a Morse/Sherlock format of 3-4 feature length episodes, and Blue Heelers, Australia's answer to The Bill. Apparently they even blew up Sun Hill, sorry, I mean Mount Thomas police station once. And then they axed the show, so exactly like The Bill really :-D
Nearly everything else is a British or American import apart from Inspector Rex about a Danish police dog (not making this up). If it's Aussie and has cops in it it'll be one of those fly-on-the-wall reality shows like Highway Patrol, which is filmed here in Mellie and I think you've said you watch. I'll carry around a 'Hello Julia - the bastards got me' sign from now on, just in case I'm ever stopped by a police car with a film crew.
As an afterthought: the Bell 222 is a strong contender for the title of most beautiful helicopter ever made. Sad coda: the real Airwolf chopper became an air ambulance and crashed in Germany, killing the crew.
As a young'un in short trousers I built a fully working Airwolf in lego, with retractable wheels and the sliding missile door in the belly. It wasnt capable of flight, but the rotors went round in time with the tail blades.
As I remember the rotors were very delicate and would snap off if you looked at them a bit hard.
12 comments:
I have all the Airwolf episodes, but I can't find Streethawk.
My life is not yet complete.
Also, Blue Thunder. And let's not forget the black van the A-Team used to ride round in.
Let's also not forget Jed Clampett's old jalopy in "The Beverley Hillbillies" ..
Nor the jam-jar which used to get Daisy's shorts a'stretchin' in the "Dukes of Hazard" ..
Lengthy? Four seasons doesn't sound that long even for the 80s (surely The A Team went on much longer) and I can think of some modern ones that haven't lasted as long - Firefly and Caprica both got cancelled, and even the BSG remake only did four seasons, or five if you count the last one being shown in two bits.
And thinking of BSG and who was in it, want to bet that the new Hawaii Five-0 won't last as long as the original? I'm sure it'll get plenty of viewers having had Grace Park appear in a bikini and in her underwear in the pilot, and that'll probably draw in people with fond memories of her waking up naked in a tub of goo next to the tall blonde and Xena Warrior Princess, but will it last as long as the 70s one?
Never mind, Grace. You'll always be Number Eight to us even if you do remakes your whole career.
There are many copies.
;-)
Happily I remain almost entirely unfamiliar with the examples stated except for the Captains "Beverley Hillbillies".
"...but I can't find Streethawk."
Sadly, even BitTorrent can't seem to solve that one, outside of a few German dubbed episodes.
I guess it was never released on DVD, like at least two of my upcoming monthly features.
"And let's not forget the black van the A-Team used to ride round in."
Oh yes!
"Four seasons doesn't sound that long even for the 80s (surely The A Team went on much longer).."
Not much - they only managed five seasons.
"And thinking of BSG and who was in it, want to bet that the new Hawaii Five-0 won't last as long as the original?"
I caught the first ten minutes of the pilot. 'Nuff said.
"Happily I remain almost entirely unfamiliar with the examples stated except for the Captains "Beverley Hillbillies"."
I'm a bit too young for that one... ;)
To be fair Hawaii Five-0 got better as it went on but the first ten minutes it was definitely trying too hard. Second episode was better though at the end something did explode for no apparent reason beyond the writers needed a way to kill several bad guys at once. Looking at what's coming up I think it might start to turn a bit more investagation-y and a bit less Steven Seagal movie in an aloha shirt. Will it do anything like 12 seasons? Probably not, though JAG went on for ages and NCIS is still going.
And if you want to slag off cop shows for trying too hard I recommend trying to find a download for a show called Rush. It's an Aussie show set here in Melbourne, and for my money it jumped the shark on about the second or third ever episode. I can't recall what it was that made me get up and go and get a book but it was certainly TV credibility suicide because I haven't watched it since. If you want good Melbourne based TV City Homicide is worth a go. It's not up there with the top US stuff - early NYPD Blue or Life On The Streets, The Shield etc - but it's still a pretty good effort and about eleventy bazillion times better than Neighbours. But then again so is a having a dump. Sadly CH is being cancelled after 4 seasons plus a mini-series to wrap it all up sometime this year. Fuck it. Best thing being made here at the mo.
Miami Vice - Ferrari
Is it possible that Greenism put pay to the iconic vehicle?
I mean Stringfellow Hawk* must have ran up quite a lot of emissions in Airwolf. Certainly more than could be offset by playing a cello by a lake and looking mournful.
If so can we expect a duo of (carbon) crime-fighters to ride onto our screens astride a tandem?
If my thesis is correct then it is arguable that the turning point was MacGyver who went from generalised action man and supreme improviser to eco-warrior. Steven Seagal did similar in the movies.
*a reasonably good contender as TV's stupidest name.
"If you want good Melbourne based TV City Homicide is worth a go. "
I was wondering if Aussie tv made its own cop shows - all we ever seem to get over here are soaps. Or that thing about the patrol boat that one of the satellite channels bought.
"*a reasonably good contender as TV's stupidest name."
Movie name award must go to Tom Cruise's character in 'Days of Thunder'...
Other than the two I've mentioned there was a show called Blackjack about a Sydney cop doing cold cases, which was more like a Morse/Sherlock format of 3-4 feature length episodes, and Blue Heelers, Australia's answer to The Bill. Apparently they even blew up Sun Hill, sorry, I mean Mount Thomas police station once. And then they axed the show, so exactly like The Bill really :-D
Nearly everything else is a British or American import apart from Inspector Rex about a Danish police dog (not making this up). If it's Aussie and has cops in it it'll be one of those fly-on-the-wall reality shows like Highway Patrol, which is filmed here in Mellie and I think you've said you watch. I'll carry around a 'Hello Julia - the bastards got me' sign from now on, just in case I'm ever stopped by a police car with a film crew.
As an afterthought: the Bell 222 is a strong contender for the title of most beautiful helicopter ever made. Sad coda: the real Airwolf chopper became an air ambulance and crashed in Germany, killing the crew.
Aaaahh, now this takes me back.
As a young'un in short trousers I built a fully working Airwolf in lego, with retractable wheels and the sliding missile door in the belly. It wasnt capable of flight, but the rotors went round in time with the tail blades.
As I remember the rotors were very delicate and would snap off if you looked at them a bit hard.
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