I'd love to see a proper revival/reboot for this show. So much potential, shame that it was killed by studio interference and the personal problems of the lead.
Airwolf
- Thread starter Plecostomus
- Start date
Damn all this has gotten me to want to watch "The Lady" yet again and doing so I found some new XMAS presents this year...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVagmBvFLig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6SzpPsGIFI
you broke your first link with 2 HTTP:// bits
Damn all this has gotten me to want to watch "The Lady" yet again and doing so I found some new XMAS presents this year...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVagmBvFLig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6SzpPsGIFI
you broke your first link with 2 HTTP:// bits
Thank you Captain,...knew I should have went to bed before posting that one.
R
Rocketman
Guest
Airwolf always swerved the line between being fairly dark, mature drama and being a cheesy children's tv show that took itself way too seriously.
I think the concept would need some major restructuring to push it more firmly into the former category.
Also, it was very much a product of the 1980s. It's hard to imagine today's US government obsessing quite as much about a secret attack helicopter falling into Russian hands.
The first season of the show was fairly dark, But with CBS's instistance that it be made into a more "family" show and adding a "female" factor it was retooled before the second season. But I wouldn't go as far as saying it was a "cheesy" kids show.
Plecostomus
Commodore
Well if they retooled it they could cut out the Russians and put in a generic "terrorist" enemy. I mean... the last thing you want is Sayid The Martyr getting his hands on an invisible helicopter with this level of firepower.
Replace the Vietnam burnout case with a Gulf War vet.
I'd also retool the weapons to make them more believable. A 222 isn't going to carry no Maverick missile and fire it out of a blowpipe. Same with the guns. Folding gun-barrels look cool but make the engineer in me cringe.
Pulse-lasers and some sort of laser-guided kinetic-kill smart-rock weapon.
*shrug* With a bit of imagination it could be done.
Replace the Vietnam burnout case with a Gulf War vet.
I'd also retool the weapons to make them more believable. A 222 isn't going to carry no Maverick missile and fire it out of a blowpipe. Same with the guns. Folding gun-barrels look cool but make the engineer in me cringe.
Pulse-lasers and some sort of laser-guided kinetic-kill smart-rock weapon.
*shrug* With a bit of imagination it could be done.
R
Rocketman
Guest
I don't know. Airwolf made sense as a vital chess piece between two technologically equally matched opponents. In the series, the Firm didn't want the craft to fall into enemy hands--but they didn't want to destroy it either, lest they give up their technological lead. In an asymmetric conflict? Not so much. Sayid the Martyr is already pretty terrifying when he uses box cutters and fertilizer bombs.
Don't get me wrong, I think that many of the political themes of the show--particularly the ruthlessness deployed by the Firm--would resonate today. I just don't think that an advanced attack helicopter would make as much sense as a centerpiece of the show.
Plecostomus
Commodore
Well how about China? North Korea? Frankly you wouldn't want ANYONE to get their hands on something like this. Sayid The Box-Cutter Martyr is now a force unto himself, able to rally tribes behind him... leverage support from other hostile powers in exchange for a peek at the prints...
Heck tracking down the chopper and getting it back could take most if not all of a season if done well.
Heck tracking down the chopper and getting it back could take most if not all of a season if done well.
But as I recall It was not specifically about the "russians" and the "cold war"...In the episode AIRWOLF II, wasn't the foriegn power trying to get it's hand on Airwolf a southern latin government???
I think that the entire background of airwolf had more to do with CIA brush fire wars with other intel agencies, something also known as Proxy Warfare.
Such a starting point would still exist, the US, EU, UN, China, Russia, Drug Cartels, Organized Crime, Private Security Agencies, Multi-national Corporations, ect. All of these elements would be a part of a massive, behind the camera chess game of small proxy wars and conflicts, Data attacks, accidents, ect that the public has no concept of.
The Firm, a semi independent segment and corporate front company, of the CIA is the US's front line agency in this conflict, the third world war, which started between the US and Soviet Union during the cold war as a pressure release, a way for the two to fight without risking the involvement of total war with the inevitable nuclear escalation.
Over time more players, both government and private, became involved. Airwolf was designed as the end game piece. It would give the Firm the advantage to knock out all players and put an end to a shadow conflict which is growing out of control (insert a 9/11 conspiracy connection here).
At least until it's creator decides to go rouge and sell it's services to the highest bidder...
See, it could work. And it could include conspiracy elements, combat, CIA, international intrigue, good and evil corporations, organized crime and drug cartels, hacking and intelligence stuff...
You expand the back story and the team a little, and it would kick ass.
Such a starting point would still exist, the US, EU, UN, China, Russia, Drug Cartels, Organized Crime, Private Security Agencies, Multi-national Corporations, ect. All of these elements would be a part of a massive, behind the camera chess game of small proxy wars and conflicts, Data attacks, accidents, ect that the public has no concept of.
The Firm, a semi independent segment and corporate front company, of the CIA is the US's front line agency in this conflict, the third world war, which started between the US and Soviet Union during the cold war as a pressure release, a way for the two to fight without risking the involvement of total war with the inevitable nuclear escalation.
Over time more players, both government and private, became involved. Airwolf was designed as the end game piece. It would give the Firm the advantage to knock out all players and put an end to a shadow conflict which is growing out of control (insert a 9/11 conspiracy connection here).
At least until it's creator decides to go rouge and sell it's services to the highest bidder...
See, it could work. And it could include conspiracy elements, combat, CIA, international intrigue, good and evil corporations, organized crime and drug cartels, hacking and intelligence stuff...
You expand the back story and the team a little, and it would kick ass.
Yes, I think it could work out that way. What's to say It wasn't developed in the Bush Era of the "WAR on Terrorism"? And such is that one of the highest bidders isn't coming from Osama's blood money itself? Still has to have a tie in with the "3" seasons that I have watched though...
I think that's probably just a little far fetched. I'm not sure how you make an advanced attack helicopter such an endgame piece - for your scenario you'd want something a big larger.
Bigger doesn't neccassarily mean better...You have to remember that The Lady was supposed to be manned by at least 3 crewpeople. And just what is it nowadays that BIGGER is better?..
Bigger doesn't neccassarily mean better...You have to remember that The Lady was supposed to be manned by at least 3 crewpeople. And just what is it nowadays that BIGGER is better?..
Did she really need 3 people though. Three people would amount to pilot, co-pilot and WSO.
I don't mean a bigger helicopter would be better - just a single helicopter wouldn't quite make it as an end game piece in the scenario as described by Data Holmes.
Bigger doesn't neccassarily mean better...You have to remember that The Lady was supposed to be manned by at least 3 crewpeople. And just what is it nowadays that BIGGER is better?..
Did she really need 3 people though. Three people would amount to pilot, co-pilot and WSO.
I don't mean a bigger helicopter would be better - just a single helicopter wouldn't quite make it as an end game piece in the scenario as described by Data Holmes.
It was the prototype... The Firm had envisioned a fleet of 50 or so of them, to use around the globe, in it's efforts to end the global shadow war which had set into place. Remember, moffett stored all the plans within airwolf itself. Classified and Compartmentalized. It's the most secure option, but also the most insecure.
In the end Air Wolf was nothing more then a Stealth fighter which could pick up a passenger if the co-pilot was left home nothing more nothing lessBigger doesn't neccassarily mean better...You have to remember that The Lady was supposed to be manned by at least 3 crewpeople. And just what is it nowadays that BIGGER is better?..
Did she really need 3 people though. Three people would amount to pilot, co-pilot and WSO.
I don't mean a bigger helicopter would be better - just a single helicopter wouldn't quite make it as an end game piece in the scenario as described by Data Holmes.
As I recall, the Firm was prepared to turn over the details of Airwolf to the US military. All they wanted in return was the first fifty for themselves, plus the one billion or so dollars they'd spent in development.
An Airwolf revival would probably work better as a movie than a new TV series. Possibly several movies. The first follows-roughly-the lines of the original pilot episode, setting up the situation and introducing the characters. That way any following movies can focus on relevant and exciting stories.
That way you can avoid one of the major problems of the TV series. Occasionally, due to writers lack of ideas or perhaps a shortage of money, there were some awful episodes.
As someone on another forum once pointed out, Airwolf episodes fell into two broad categories. Some would start off with shots of an airbase and the caption 'Somewhere behind the Iron Curtain'. Others what start with a man hassling his ex-wife. The former would end with an exciting high speed dog fight, the latter with the billion dollar attack helicopter taking on some bloke who'd stuck a minigun on his Winnebago.
Plecostomus
Commodore
The entire premise of Airwolf is a wolf in sheeps clothing. It's supposed to remain hidden, under cover, then WHAM. Designed to blend in.
Many fan designed Airwolf reboots do away with that and create a huge ass flying fortress. That takes away the very essence of the concept!
I could do with fewer "domestic disputes" and with more "shadow war" stuff. that's just my opinion... Frankly if they could tie the two together somehow it'd be great... but really the low point is when Airwolf rescues a country-western singer from her abusive manager. I mean... really. My tax money paid for that?!
Many fan designed Airwolf reboots do away with that and create a huge ass flying fortress. That takes away the very essence of the concept!
I could do with fewer "domestic disputes" and with more "shadow war" stuff. that's just my opinion... Frankly if they could tie the two together somehow it'd be great... but really the low point is when Airwolf rescues a country-western singer from her abusive manager. I mean... really. My tax money paid for that?!
Or the classic 1970s/80s "corrupt small-town sheriff in league with evil businessman" plot. As featured (repeatedly) in Knight Rider, The Fall Guy, The A-Team... in fact, probably every adventure show of the period. I imagine even Galactica 1980 used it.
Plecostomus
Commodore
*loads shotgun*
THERE
IS
NO
GALACTICA 1980!!
THERE
IS
NO
GALACTICA 1980!!