Airwolf is an American action drama television series created by Donald P. Bellisario which revolves around a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme.
The first three seasons aired in the USA on CBS from 1984 to 1986. The series was cancelled but was revived by the USA Network for a fourth season which featured a completely different cast. In total the series aired from 22 January, 1984 to 7 August, 1987. There are 80 hour-long episodes in four seasons.
Airwolf originally aired in South Africa on the old SABC service channel CCV (which later became SABC1) in the 1980s. It later aired on DStv's The Series Channel (the forerunner to M-Net Series), on StarSat's (formerly TopTV) FOX Retro channel (first two seasons only) and on SABC3. See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Season 2 premiered on SABC3 on Friday 25 April 2014, at 12h00. New episodes broadcast weekly. There are 22 episodes in the second season.
Synopsis
Stringfellow Hawke is asked by a covert branch of the CIA (The Firm) to help steal back a supersonic military helicopter from its' creator, who has taken it to Libya. Stringfellow was one the helicopter's original test pilots.
He finds the helicopter, but doesn't return it. Instead he hides it in a cave in the desert and flies it occasionally for undercover missions for the government.
In exchange, The Firm helps him with information pertaining to his brother Saint John, a Vietnam soldier MIA.
For the fourth season, the series has been revamped with an all new cast. The brother that Stringfellow Hawke had been looking for during the original series has finally been found and is now the new pilot of the high tech helicopter.
Dominic Santini's niece Jo is also part of the team and Jason Lock is the new contact at the agency, whilst Mike Rivers is a hotshot pilot.
After finding Hawke, they decide to continue the deal that Stringfellow Hawke had with the agency; they will keep Airwolf location a secret and they will go on missions for the agency.
Seasons
Note: these broadcast details are for the run of the show on FOX Retro and SABC3 only. Broadcast details for the original run of the show on the SABC and the later run on The Series Channel are not available. Only two seasons aired on FOX Retro before the channel became defunct in 2013.
Season 1 (12 episodes)
Channel: FOX Retro | Premiere: 6 Aug 2012 | Finale: 21 Aug 2012 | Weekdays, 15h05
Channel: SABC3 | Premiere: 17 Jan 2014 | Finale: 18 Apr 2014 | Fri, 12h00
Season 2 (22 episodes)
Channel: FOX Retro | Premiere: 22 Aug 2012 | Finale: 20 Sep 2012 | Weekdays, 15h05
Channel: SABC3 | Premiere: 25 Apr 2014 | Finale: 19 Sep 2014 | Fri, 12h00