Airwolf (1984 vs 2023) Cast: Then and Now [39 Years After] by HollywoodNuts
The main characters of the American action military drama television show Airwolf are the crew of a cutting-edge military helicopter with the codename Airwolf. The program follows them as they go on numerous exotic missions, many of which have a Cold War flavor and include espionage. Donald P. Bellisario was the show’s creator, and it aired for four seasons between January 22, 1984, and August 7, 1987.
Jan-Michael Vincent, Ernest Borgnine, Alex Cord, Deborah Pratt (who left after season 2 when Bellisario left the series), and Jean Bruce Scott (who was added as a regular in seasons two and three) made up the primary cast for seasons one through three. The show was discontinued after its third season and debuted on CBS. The show was taken up by USA Network for a fourth season that had an entirely new cast, with Jan-Michael Vincent playing only a small part in the pilot. The aerial scenes of the fourth season, which was shot in Canada, made extensive use of stock footage or recycled material from the first three seasons.
Sylvester Levay was primarily responsible for writing and conducting the show’s distinctive musical score, which was initially orchestral before shifting to more synthesizer-based compositions early in the second season. Many later episodes from the second and third seasons had their music composed by Udi Harpaz.
Throughout the first three seasons, The Firm was both Hawke and Santini’s ally and adversary; whenever a chance to acquire Airwolf presented itself, Firm agents frequently seized it. The series’ first season was bleak, arc-driven, and eerily reminiscent of the Cold War of the time. The Firm employees were conspicuously clad in white, and they impliedly boasted that “wearing white hats” made them stand out as good rather than evil.
The season one episode “Daddy’s Gone a Hunt’n” showed why Hawke was still sceptical and Santini shared his skepticism. Early episodes prominently discussed the US government’s attempts to reclaim Airwolf from Hawke, who is formally accused of stealing it. During season two, the show underwent a change into a more humorous show as a result of CBS’s desire to make the series more family-friendly, with Hawke and Santini portrayed as friendly partners with the Firm. With the newly introduced “Company” and the new Airwolf team, this continued into the fourth season.