Customer Reviews

Airwolf: Season Two

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First off, I want to assure everyone out there that this is not going to be a review so much, more like an "Airwolf Editorial". I think that I can speak for many people when I say that this show was one of, if not, THE show that us late 20s / early 30s types miss the most from the 1980s. It was THE show that used the "Super Vehicle" concept (calm down, all you Knight Rider fanboys out there, I know that this show was two years after K.R., but Jan-Michael Vincent vs. "The Hoff"? Airwolf vs. K.I.T.T.? Please...) This show, unlike most of the other 1980s swill that appealed to me when I was in grade school, STILL appeals to me. Granted, there are continuity errors, military aircraft and vehicles are sometimes named incorrectly, the sometimes cheesy acting and plots, and the dated Cold War mentality. If you strip all the bad stuff away, you are still left with a show that was casted more or less very well (Ernest Borgnine RULES!!! He was the ultimate buddy / father figure that has yet to be topped in ANY show), GREAT flying footage, and a KILLER soundtrack. Hey, I'm 30 years old, but when I hear the synth-driven title score, I still grin like I did back in '84. Watching the show now evokes an odd mix on nostalgia and the grim knowledge of what happened to two of the main stars. J.M. Vincent faded into obscurity fueled by alcoholism, and the chopper later crashed and killed her entire crew in the early 1990's. I could go on and on, but I'm sure that between my thoughts and the thoughts and reviews of others here on Amazon, those who know nothing on Airwolf will have a very clear picture of what this show was all about. BTW, Donald Dube, Battlestar Galactica was produced by Glen A. Larson in the 1970s. Also, if any suits from Universal are reading this, DO NOT wait almost two years before releasing Season 3!!!

"Dom, give me turbos!" - Stringfellow Hawke
"(Fill in the blank), String!" - Dominic Santini
"RRROOOAAARRR!" - Airwolf (when turbos are engaged)

Yeah, I'm a geek :)

Airwolf may have seemed like a show about a miltary helicopter who could do anything. Piloted by Stringfellow Hawke (Jan Micheal Vincent-in his finest acting hours) and Dominic Santini (Ernest Borgnine), this helicopter saga had a human touch.

This second season Airwolf came into its own. The first season defined the character and the copter. The second season had great character storylines, which was less on hardware and more of emotional software

These 22 episodes were intelligent well done TV..I can wait for season three which comes out soon

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

After months and years of waiting, it is finally coming! Ever since the release of Season 1, Airwolf fans such as myself have only grown more hungry for the next couple seasons. Myself and many others, I'm sure, actually signed an online petition begging Universal to release Season 2 on DVD. I'll be the first to sign for Season 3 when the time comes.

Airwolf was the most brilliant show of all time - and it was truly ahead of its time. Even today, a slick, black, Mach 1+ attack helicopter with retractable chain guns, rocket pods, turbo thrusters, infra-red imaging, etc. would be an incredible addition to our military. This show stands apart from others because instead of a man being the hero, it is a machine. It is a show that when you watch it, you think to yourself, I've got to get one of those - and you sit in awe, salivating, as you watch it in action.

Even now, I'm salivating at the thought of purchasing Season 2. I recommend this show for anyone looking for a great 80s action series. I would give it 4 thumbs up if I could. Instead I'll give it 5 stars.

And it's not quite as good as season one. But that's okay, it's still a worthwhile addition to an Airwolf fan's collection. The overall quality has its moments but isn't up to the level of the first set of episodes. Marella was taken out, only recurring in the rare guest appearance, which was too bad, since she was a great character and knew as much about Airwolf as anyone involved. Caitlin O'Shaughnessy was a fine addition, nice and spunky, well-played by Jean Bruce Scott. Archangel's character suffered, acting less like a suavely pleasant yet potentially dangerous spy with ambiguous loyalties and more like an ineffectual whiner. Worst was the change in String's character from wounded loner with a fear of romantic entanglements to a man-about-town with plenty of female action.

One positive note was there was a fair amount of emphasis on the story arc involving St. John Hawke when there wasn't undue focus on human interest plots. (Blame the network for interfering with Bellisario's vision for his show.) And though there were groaners like Out Of The Sky(a country singer's hubby is out to get her---who cares?), there were also great episodes, such as Moffett's Ghost, where the evil inventor of Airwolf returns as a computer virus trying to destroy his creation so nobody else gets to use it.

Overall, though not as good as the first season, this DVD is a must for those interested in having the entire series done by CBS. It does include the introduction of Caitlin's character and there's more St. John stories than the first go-round. We recommend this as a slightly flawed but still essential part of the phenomenon that was Airwolf, and a great trip back to the best part of 80's TV.

The episodes are Sweet Britches, Firestorm, Moffet's Ghost, The Truth About Holly, The Hunted, Sins of the Past, Fallen Angel, HX-1, Flight #093 Is Missing, Once A Hero, Random Target, Condemned, The American Dream, Inn at the End of the Road, Santini's Millions, Prisoner of Yesterday, Natural Born, Out of the Sky, Dambreakers, Severance Pay, Eruption, and Short Walk to Freedom. (There are a good deal more than the first season, since this is a full as opposed to a half-season.)

Airwolf was a great series even though it stretched our technology back in those days. I always enjoyed the action scenes and the capabilities of the Airwolf especially now as you compare them to today's rotating wing aircraft. If you like action and Special Ops Think-tank ideas, you will enjoy this series.

Airwolf roars back for its second season with 22 episodes. They did a little better this time around on the DVDs, adding the title theme to the main DVD title page. Still, it would have been nice to have had some commentaries by the writers/directors/actors. Or at least to have had the episodes digitally remastered as so many programs are having done now days.

Airwolf was one of the great programs I enjoyed growing up and ended tragically short because of Jan-Michael Vincent's drinking problem. I wish they had picked another actor, or been more stringent on getting him help. At any rate, Ernest Borgnine's portrayl of Dom Santini is first rate, and still makes me laugh to this day.

Ok, I know everyone is entitled to their opinion but to say that there probably won't be a huge fan following? Well, let me correct you, there is a GIANORMOUS fan following, just look online at all the fan sites & forums, all the obsessed fans out there! I'm glad that they put this on video but the downside is that some footage was cut compared to the original airing. This sometimes takes away from the show, especially if I KNOW there used to be a scene that's no longer there! The ppl who put these together REALLY should've kept ALL 3 season's episodes intact! Example: I keep seeing scenes on the intro preview or closing credits that wasn't in the video iteself as well as I know, pretty much, each episode by heart from way back when so I know if/when something goes missing. The only thing about these episodes is the editing. I keep finding editing mistakes & 'bloopers' for lack of a better word which makes it seem kinda rediculous because the editors SHOULD've caught that; but other than that, IMO, the series w/Jan COULD'VE & probably WOULD've lasted longer than 3 seasons if he had put his person issues aside & just done his job but he didn't & I'm just glad that they FINALLY released all three seasons now. I DID notice, however, on the season 1 case, there are scenes on the backside which include the season 4 cast which is a REALLY really stupid thing to have done, in fact, I find it QUITE insulting. In conclusion, GET the dvds. If you love Airwolf, GET the dvds! I watch the episodes over & over, drooling over Jan & the Lady! I never get tired of this show!

The second season is better than the first airwolf fans.The show goes into more repair work on airwolf.Satini is more comfortable with inflight systems.Kati<jean scott> is a good third party member.Worth the money for fans.

This 1984-85 Season of AIRWOLF DVD is awesome along with the fact that this Superchopper series 2nd Season is even better than the 1st Season, since the 1984-1985 Season of this show is more upgraded, more sophisticated and has more action than the First Season does along with the fact that AIRWOLF's 1st Season was only an abbreviated season, since this show didn't premiere on CBS until Sunday January 22, 1984.

In addition to that, the Second Season is when Jean Bruce-Scott joins the case & crew as Hawke(Jan-Michael Vincent) and Dom's(Ernest Borgnine)spunky fellow pilot(Caitlyn O'Shaunessy), which made the episodes of Airwolf more interesting and enjoyable than the First Season along with AIRWOLF showing off more features too.

Therefore, I think this is the second best season of AIRWOLF that made its debut in January of 1984, but the Third Season is even better than the first 2 seasons throughout AIRWOLFs whole 2 1/2-year run on CBS, despite the fact that this show didn't last very long.

It was also interesting seeing guest stars like
-James Whitmore, Jr. in the "Sweet Britches" episode before his co-starring days as Hunter & McCall's clutzy fellow officer (Sgt. Bernie Terwilliger)on the police drama HUNTER
-Jared Martin in the "Santinis Millions" episode during his co-starring days on DALLAS
-Mills Watson in the "Eruption" episode after his co-starring days as the doofus Deputy Perkins on SHERIFF LOBO
-Lance LeGault playing a crooked Sheriff in the "Sweet Britches" episode during his co-starring days as the overzealous Army nemesis(Col. Decker) on THE A-TEAM & his co-starring days as Magnum's cynical Navy nemesis(Col.Green)on MAGNUM, P.I.
-Jennifer Aniston's father(John Aniston) in the "Short Walk To Freedom" episode before his co-starring days on DAYS OF OUR LIVES
-Anne Lockhart in the "Random Target" episode after her co-starring days as Sheba BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
-Nick Campbell in the episodes "Prisoners Of Yesterday" and "The Inn At The End Of The Road" after his earlier co-starring days as THE HITCHHIKER, which was of course before Nick Campbell was replaced by Page Fletcher.
-Jeffrey McKay during his co-starring days as Magnum's doofus Navy buddy(Mac Reynolds)
-Noble Willingham in the "Natural Born" episode before his co-starring days on the police drama WALKER TEXAS RANGER

I also couldn't help finding it intriguing how Jared Martin and Joseph Ruskin not only both guest starred in the "Santini's Millions" episode of AIRWOLF, but they coincidentally also happened to both guest star in the "Knight Of The Drones" episode of KNIGHT RIDER that same season.

Therefore, we used to be able to watch Super-Autos every weekend back in the Winter of '85 since ABC had STREET HAWK on Friday nights at 9PM, CBS had AIRWOLF on Saturday nights at 9PM, and NBC had KNIGHT RIDER on Sunday nights at 8PM which all coincidentally just happened to be Universal owned TV shows that were all filmed at Universal Studios in Hollywood on top of that even though the supercar series KNIGHT RIDER, this superchopper series AIRWOLF, & the short-lived supercycle series STREET HAWK were all in competition with one another & despite the fact that STREET HAWK had stole a lot of viewers away from AIRWOLF & KNIGHT RIDER, but then STREET HAWK hit a speed-bump after its 9th week since it didn't get the ratings ABC wanted which was probably due to the fact that STREET HAWK was too closely related to KNIGHT RIDER & AIRWOLF since it gave viewers too much of the same thing every week, giving us too much competition, & redundancy since they all premiered too soon after one another on top of that since KNIGHT RIDER debuted on NBC in the Fall of 1982, AIRWOLF debuted on CBS in the Winter of 1984, and then lastly STREET HAWK debuted on ABC in the Winter of 1985, but had only lasted 2 months.

This season also reminds me of the days when CBS's motto was "CBS:We've Got The Touch", since that was their slogan on CBS from September of 1983 thru August of 1986.

The only problem I have with this AIRWOLF-SEASON 2 DVD is for some reason it freezes and skips on the "Santinis Millions" episode and the episodes didn't come with a brief summary of each episode displaying their original air-dates unlike the AIRWOLF-SEASON 1 DVD.

By the way, I just got word that the Shout Factory will be releasing short-lived STREET HAWK out on DVD on Tuesday July 13th, 2010 which should give all you high-tech TV program viewers something else to look forward to.

At the start of this season I was really getting into this show. The stories seemed to really start the season off with a bang, and kept you going for at least 5-10 episodes, and then something happened. In my opinion they dropped the ball. The season started off well, and then took a dip, and kind of went back to the boring style of episodes like in season 1. I find it really hard to sit through some of these episodes. (The American Dream is a good example of a really boring episode.)

The only episode I remember being decent from around the middle of the season is Santini's Millions, and then it takes another kind of nosedive. I heard the reason they changed mid season like this is because they wanted to present the show in a more hip fashion, kind of like Knight Rider, so they changed the direction of the show. I always preferred the episodes that focus on things that happen in the U.S., rather than the boring episodes that take place in other countries. I realize it's a military type show, and all that, but I think the stories are more relatable on american soil. Like the first episode of season 2. It is nothing short of amazing.

Since the first half of the season was so great, I give it a 3 out of 5 because it is better than season 1, but not quite a solid season by any means. Too much of a roller coaster ride in terms of episode quality, and the writing.