Airwolf was an American TV show that originally ran from 1984 until 1987, but was also broadcast in the UK. It
featured a high-tech military helicopter (a Bell 222) which was code-named
Airwolf.
The title music was actually orchestral in series one and for
the first part of the second series, before becoming synthesizer-based
as in the video above - this has to be one of the best synth tunes of the 80s! It was composed by Sylvester Levay.
The
series one main characters were Stringfellow Hawke who was played by
Jan-Michael Vincent, Dominic Santini the proprietor of Santini Air
(played by Ernest Borginine) and Michael Coldsmith Briggs III (played by
Alex Cord) who was the Deputy Director of CIA Division named "The Firm"
and code-named Archangel. And we musn't forget Marcella (played by
Deborah Pratt) who was Archangels right-hand woman.
In
series Two and Three we saw the addition of Caitlin O'Shannessy who was
played by Jean Bruce Scott as the producers wanted another female
character, and some of the original cast became semi-regular. The final
Series Four saw a dramatic change with a whole array of new characters
and most of the original cast were completely written out!
An
Airwolf Video Game was also published by Elite for the Commodore 64,
Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Atari 8-bit. If I remember
rightly, the game for the Atari and BBC caused a bit of controversy as
it was originally Blue Thunder (it featured a blue helicopter) and was
adapted so it could be released as Airwolf. Anyway, it was a very
challenging game on all versions and I got very frustrated with it on my
Atari 800XL!
Title Screen from season 4
This is a very fine video review of the ZX Spectrum version of Airwolf which was published by Elite.
Screenshot from the Commodore 64 version
Airwolf cassette inlay card - Elite version
This game was also published by Elite for the Amstrad CPC, C64, Commodore 16, BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum, although I don't believe it was made available for the Atari range. However, if you know differently then don't hesitate to let everyone know in the comments box below. The video features the original soundtrack music being played on an Amstrad CPC464.
