Ninja Fight: Airwolf vs Blue Thunder
Okay, to keep everyone entertained until we post the pre-show discussion thread for Show #3, I’m throwing out our very first “Ninja Fight” cage match. Not quite the same as Jack Mangan’s Duel of the Fates, but in the same spirit.
So, Joe, Dave Moldawer and I were discussing older shows and movies, when the subject of Airwolf vs Blue Thunder came up, and Dave said he’d never even heard of Blue Thunder. The tale of the spiritually tortured pilot of a “black helicopter” and he’s never heard of it? Yes, he has a homework assignment to go rent this movie and watch it.
Anyway, Airwolf vs Blue Thunder. Let’s hear your opinions on the show vs the movie, creatively speaking, and copter abilities, technically speaking. You can also argue for or against on whether these qualify as scifi… I always thought they were, simply because of the technology put into the vehicles at the time (and yes, I consider Knight Rider scifi, too, and Automan).
Feel free to post your comments here, or over at the forums.
Blue Thunder had more love prowess.
a) Blue Thunder is at the top of my Netflix queue, so I’m on it
b) In discussing Airwolf, we have to distinguish clearly between Ernest Borgnine Airwolf and Barry Van Dyke Airwolf. Which is not to say I prefer one to the other. I think they both have their merits, they’re just very different shows.
Also, check out this thread on Airwolf vs. Blue Thunder on imdb:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0086662/board/nest/16140890
My personal thoughts, Blue Thunder ruled over Airwolfe. Like so many movies that are made into TV Series they watered down the impact the movie had and made it into something trite by comparison. The movie had impact, characterization, a plot. The TV show was weak and barely better, imo, than the A-team with weakly weekly missions to save someone.
Now Knight Rider, that was a show. It actually developed as it went along rather than become more watered down. I’ve heard rumblings they’re going to make it into a movie and that would be cool. Of course it MUST contain Hasslehoff as Michael Knight!
This is the way it SHOULD work. Small screen first,then the big screen. For me, I’ve never liked a TV show based off of a movie (sorry Buffy fans).
Blue Thunder wins, but Roy Scheider has to pilot. Can I ask a question? Why do male leads in TV show’s like Airwolf have to have such purposfully “cool” names (Stringfellow Hawke, St. John Hawke, Michael Knight, Thomas Magnum…)?
Oooh, Mr. Murdock, there is an interesting gauntlet to throw down.
I thought M*A*S*H was a far better TV show than the movie it was based on. So was Buffy. I had another one right off the top of my head, but I lost it. This could be a show topic, methinks.
Definitely agree on the M*A*S*H and Buffy series being better than the original movies, and I’ll throw another one out there: Highlander: The Series.
The Highlander TV show (especially the first 2-3 seasons) was just as much fun as the original movie, and far far better than all the movie sequels, if you also want to count all movies in a series vs a tv series.
I’m so not going to comment on Knight Rider.
Was Airwolf based on Blue Thunder? Not so sure about that…
No, neither show has anything in common with the other save that an technologically advanced helicopter was the focal point.
I guess I didn’t carefully read the first part of JR’s comment when I went to focus on the second part.
JR… Airwolf and Blue Thunder are not spinoffs of each other
Though not a direct relationship from one to the other, the TV series was an obvious ripoff of the movie.
And I feel that M*A*S*H was a a great movie and the first season of the TV show left a lot to be desired. It took time to grow into something was really great and to escape their campy begining. I think I really started to enjoy the show with Col. Potter (could he be Harry Potter’s grandfather?).
For Highlander, I didn’t care for the main actor they picked up. So for me this was also a bad series. I guess I was really picky with shows, but then I also didn’t like Xena, Hercules, Sinbad, and other shows that were out at the same time and in my mind I lumped all these together, even though most were not based on movies.
As for Buffy, I just couldn’t stand the TV series. But then again, I disliked the movie as well so that may have something to do with it.
M*A*S*H was at its best with Col. Potter, but was still a better TV show than movie. The Odd Couple was a good movie, but a better TV series.
And how many episodes of Automan ever aired? Egads, I remember that show!
As for the actual topic here — Didn’t Blue Thunder come out first? Would that then make Airwolf a cheesy ripoff?
Blue Thunder the movie came out in 1983, Airwolf came out in 1984.
However, there was a very short-lived Blue Thunder TV series, which also aired in 1984. I don’t think I ever saw it, but I vaguely recall that my brother didn’t like it as much as he liked Airwolf.
As for Automan, I think it lasted half a season as well. Scary what our brains remember, ain’t it?
For JR: Xena is an incredible series, outside of a handful of episodes in the final two seasons. Hercules takes some getting used to, and it’s definitely an acquired taste. Sinbad and Beastmaster, oh for Pete’s sake why were those even made! Buffy rocked, Angel rocked harder, Firefly could have changed the world. Babylon 5 still ranks top 3 in my book, and seeing how well it holds up even after 10 years blows my mind.
I could never get into Xena, not sure why. Kevin Sorbo was far better in Andromeda (maybe I’m more into sci-fi?) and Firefly WILL change the world. I’m still not sure why Babylon 5 hasn’t done any movies. It was an awesome show and deserving of one.
I’ve heard rumors of a Knight Rider movie. I’ll have to surf the web and see what’s out there.
Airwolf would win, hands down. It has missles.
Blue thunder only had an eyesighted aimed nose gun which jammed in critial attacks.
Airworlf could also hide its landing gear, that was cool.
Talks were in the works earlier this year for a feature B5 movie, tentatively titled “The Memory of Shadows”, but things fell through.
As for Andromeda, I could only stomach the first two seasons… halfway through the second season tSorbo kicked Robert Hewitt Wolfe out because the storylines were “too dark”, and by the third season the show became “The Adventures of Hercules In Space”, and they neutered Tyr’s character, so I quit watching.