Rewatched Airwolf: The Difference between 80's TV & Movies - TV Sucked.

[Macrossmaster]

So I watched the two hour pilot of Airwolf on a sick day. It's frankly, terrible. The best part was the helicopter, and I can imagine watching it in the 80's hoping they'd show fewer actors and more copter.

It really brought home the difference between TV and movies in the 80's - movies were freaking AMAZING. You got CGI in Tron, amazing adventure in Indiana Jones and incredible adventure in space with Star Wars movies. The acting was better, special effects were incredible in movies, and almost non-existant in TV.

Even watching Airwolf, where it was clear they spent a TON of money, it was very simple - same reused shots of missiles, lots of footage in the desert, pacing slow as a turtle. Apparently in the 80's you soaked up a ton of time to offset the massive cost investment.

If you watched Airwolf and then Top Gun (made two years later), you really couldn't help but notice the difference in quality.

Does it seem to anyone else like movies seem cheaper, and TV seems better? You've got almost cinematic quality TV, and movies that seem like they're cheaping out with bad CGI.

 

[Wes R]

I still prefer the TV shows from the 80s over anything on now.

 

[Larry Young]

So I watched the two hour pilot of Airwolf on a sick day. It's frankly, terrible.

No:

At the dawn of the Paleolithic Period
when the first humans left their caves,
mastered the secrets of fire,
and started making tools with which to hack civilization out of the wilderness -
This was mankind's first, tiny step towards an unseen, singular goal that would take millennia to achieve.

The centuries that we spent devising
physics, mathematics, chemistry, engineering, metallurgy -
All of our combined knowledge and technological advancements as a species were to finally culminate in the creation of a machine of such flawless beauty that it now clearly stands out as human civilization's crowning achievement:

Airwolf.

In 1984 the world's most brilliant scientists and engineers were assembled in secret for the sole purpose of constructing the world's most advanced
Mach One Plus attack helicopter.
This would be more than just an instrument of war.
It would be a work of art.
And no expense was spared in this, mankind's boldest endeavor to date.
The original Da Vinci parchments were consulted.
Extrapolations were made.
Fifth-generation Swiss craftsmen were flown in merely to construct the dashboard.

There was painstaking attention to detail.

And upon its completion,
those present were unable to do anything
but stand and marvel
in wonder and in awe
at the sleek, black aerodynamic perfection...
that was Airwolf.

And I know there are voices of dissent shouting,
"What about Blue Thunder? What about Knight Rider?"
**** Blue Thunder.
**** Michael Knight!

Airwolf.

Airwolf is the adjective we should use to describe anything
of majesty, beauty, and intensity.
Something that is simply ****ing bad ass . . . is Airwolf.
James Brown's music is Airwolf.
Shakespeare is Airwolf.
Sex so good it makes your spine ache and your knees buckle. . .
That's Airwolf.

And nothing is more Airwolf than Airwolf.

Airwolf is the Holy Grail. The Golden Fleece.
The thing you want that you cannot have.
When you go sprinting through the Mall
desperate to fill the emptiness in your life
through the purchase of name brand clothing and electronics-
You will never achieve satisfaction.
Because the one brand name you really want
is the one you can never have.
Airwolf?
Oh, I'm sorry, we're all sold out.
That item was only available for a very limited time
and in very limited supply.
One.

And only one man stepped forward to purchase it.
Stringfellow Hawk!
And he bought it for the bargain basement price
of having the solid brass balls to steal it from the US government,
when, in their hubris, they were foolish enough to ask him to be the test pilot!

You don't ask a guy with a name like Stringfellow Hawk
to fly your top-secret black helicopter.
Why?
Because he is obviously going to steal it!
He's obviously a prototypical American anti-hero,
for ****'s sake!
He lives in the mountains.
He plays the cello.
His name is Stringfellow Hawk.
He cannot be trusted.
He's not going to use Airwolf to execute American foreign policy.
He's going to keep it for himself.

Which is exactly what you would do.

Walking out to your back yard to stare at it every night around sunset.
The sight of it filling you such peace and resonant satisfaction
that you would come to believe the perfect haiku
would have just two syllables: Airwolf.

 

[DS Operative]

Larry, you brought a tear to my eye. I sit at my desk and weep. That was beautiful.

 

[Wes R]

Something tells me Larry's an Airwolf fan lol.

 

[Treadwell]

You think that's bad, try watching the Blue Thunder TV series.

 

[Larry Young]

Larry, you brought a tear to my eye. I sit at my desk and weep. That was beautiful.

Ha! Wish I could take credit for that; it's Ernie Cline, writer of FANBOYS. Still, I agree it's brilliant.

 

[ave4uevoli]

Love it! went back to reread it... still love it! :thumbsup

 

[robstyle]

The main thing to remember about "80's tv" is its SFX technological era vs what people have grown accustomed to with present day CGI. I still remember it being a big deal with the opening title sequence for "Amazing Stories" on tv with the CGI knight swinging a sword. If memory serves, that was a crazy expensive few seconds of footage. Now a days, you have people doing amazing feats of CGI for no money on a home computer. I keep referring to the Modern Warfare Frozen Crossing series on youtube because its a perfect example. Near no money investments done independently by some guys on a "home system" (they run a home setting CGI company).
YouTube - Modern Warfare: Frozen Crossing Alpha (Frozen Battle Scene)

Without "80's tv" and pushing the envelope of what could be done on a weekly tv series basis, we would not have this technology available as we know it. I also seem to recall a conversation in regards to more CGI in use for standard street/window scenes in prime time than those "80's tv" shows had practical. CGI is now less expensive than doing the real thing, even on a street with a car sitting there or people walking.

Every 10 years or so things get turned upside down with TV in both quality and what can be done FX wise through someones pioneering. Still though, you want some real mind blowing FX, watch some Three Stooges and truly mind blowing Buster Keaton that pushed the limits of both physical and practical SFX.
Sherlock, Jr (1924) trailer/ Air music video on Vimeo

 

[Mola Rob]

The first season of Airwolf is great TV, every week was like a mini-movie. I will admit the quality went down after that but it was still entertaining. I didn't watch the show just for the copter it had good characters and not the generic sarcastic tough guys and gals that seem to inhabit every show on TV now (and every movie in theaters as well).

Given a choice between watching a new non-reality TV show or watching Airwolf I would probably choose Airwolf ninety-nine percent of the time.

 

[Betamin]

In the movie remake, Stringfellow Hawk will be renamed "Yarnguy Barnswallow."

 

[ave4uevoli]

I tried many times to name my kid "Stringfellow" only to get slapped by my wife. :lol

 

[metrosonus]

I think the adventure tv back then sucked pretty hard. I tried watching knight rider, but like after several episodes of monotonous melodrama with a few eyecandy / humor scenes with Kitt thrown in, you've seen 'em all.

Although I do find most of the cop / detective / mystery / sci fi from that era enjoyable.

I just watched ghostbusters 2 on tv a few weeks ago with my son. I totally miss that "big" 80's movie vibe. Every time the credits roll on one of 'em, I feel like a million bucks.

 

[Kerr Avon]

I went back and watched some of Airwolf. A couple of observations:

In one episode Airwolf is placed in the back of an airplane being transported by people who stole it. Hawk gets into it, somehow starts it up. They show people in the plane come to the back of the storage and you clearly hear the rotors fully spinning and then i backs out the back of the plane. Yes. It backs out of a plane somehow. Even though it's wheels generate no movement, it backs out the back of the plane. They cut to a really cheap ass model as it just backs out of the plane. Airwolf is immediately flying after that, like it doesn't take any time at all to get enough lift it won't fall out of the sky.

Then there's the episode where they blow up a plane, but had gotten so lazy that they cut to footage of what is clearly a helicopter with it's landing skids on fire.

They got REALLY bad.

 

[Galactifan]

Airwolf is awesome...'Nuff said.

 

[Solo4114]

Well, BY COMPARISON, yes, TV sucked when you compare it to movies back then. That's more a function of budgets, though. And, in spite of some low budgets, there were some REALLY good TV shows produced back then if you can get past the budgetary issues. I think, for example, that Wiseguy was an incredibly ambitious and well-written show, considering it was made in the late 80s. TV acting was also a lot less naturalistic back then. Obviously shows like that are cheesy as hell to watch now (although aspects of it still stand up pretty well), but you have to take this stuff in its historical context.

Nowadays, I actually prefer a longer-form narrative offered by TV, as long as the show doesn't get canceled midway through and ends up being well done throughout. I couldn't, for example, get the experience of The Wire or Life on Mars from a movie.

 

[Macrossmaster]

I think most people are getting distracted by the derision of Airwolf, and not comparing the main thrust of the post, which is that there is much less of a gulf between movies and TV today. In fact, which amazes me, some movies (though of higher budget) kind of suck compared to some TV shows. Back in the 80's, this wouldn't have happened, but I think technology has become sort of a great equalizer.

That said, we could do a great thread on "TV Tropes of the 80's" - there was literally a "1980's School of Production" that is written all over any NBC show of the time, and to a lesser extent on CBS and such. Examples:

• Small town corrupted by villains (A-Team, Knight Rider, probably Airwolf, others)
• Computers can do anything, but because they are so powerful, they must break at some point and only be fixed by someone in person, never remotely (Knight Rider, A-Team, Airwolf, Blue Thunder, etc)
• Computers, since they can do anything, are powerful and mysterious boxes that can be only maintained by some hot chick who is smart. Also, if asked, the computers on any 80's vehicle can do whatever you want. Only in the 90's, when people knew what computers could REALLY do did we start getting some "powered down" computer tech. I'm pretty sure SeaQuest's computer was less powerful than KITT! LOL.

 

[The Aviator]

You have a point Macross about the duality between the two back in the 80's. That was one of the reasons you didn't see actors go from film to TV. "What he is doing TV, his career obviously died." I can actually remember when that was still an issue. Now it is far less. You have to admit there is no way to bring up Airwolf on this board and not get some serious nostalgia going, good bad or indifferent. TV was pretty rigid. I mean modern TV is filled with plot twists and turns(some of it) while Airwolf was very much, "A bunch of bad guys do some bad stuff, Stringfellow gets into Airwolf shows up, blows everything sky high, and all is well." Just saying.

 

[JediG60racer]

fwiw, I saw an Airwolf replica chopper flying over San Diego last Saturday morning. Had fake guns & missile pods, but didn't have the front cowl. Nice paint job though.

 

[JediG60racer]

In the movie remake, Stringfellow Hawk will be renamed "Yarnguy Barnswallow."

You mean, he will be recast as a girl. And Bear McCreary will do the musical scoring for the reimagined series. And Airwolf itself will be redesigned to look nothing like the original, but in the second season there will be a second Airwolf introduced that looks a lot like the original. But then they'll blow that one up.