Season 2: 1984-1985
The second season premiered on September 22, 1984, and ran for 22 episodes until April 13, 1985. In order to have the series move away from its quite dark and moody tales of international espionage into a more domestic and straight action-oriented affair, the show hired Jean Bruce Scott to play the role of a feisty Caitlin O'Shannessy. The moves by CBS ultimately proved unsuccessful, however, and while production cost over-runs remained high, creator Donald P. Bellisario left both the studio and the series after Season 2. Sylvester Levay who composed and performed the music for season 1, composed 14 episodes of season 2. The remaining episodes were composed by Udi Harpaz (credited as UDI) (6), and Ian Freebairn-Smith (2).
| No. | Ep. | Title | Director | Writer(s) | Original air date | Prod. code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 1 | "Sweet Britches" | Alan J. Levi | Donald P. Bellisario | September 22, 1984 (1984-09-22) | 58801 |
| Hawke learns a Vietnam war buddy of his has been gunned down in the Texas desert by a corrupt Sheriff (Lance LeGault) after the man supposedly escaped from jail. Hawke and Santini fly Airwolf there to investigate the incident and find the conditions of the killing are suspicious. There, Hawke meets and takes interest in a female highway patrol deputy named Caitlin O'Shannessy, who is quite aware of the Sheriff's strange dealings and corruption. After being caught snooping around, the Sheriff has Hawke arrested and taken to a game reserve where ruthless sportsmen pay big money to hunt down people and Hawke is being used as prey. Other notable guest stars include Jeff MacKay as Buddy, David Graf as Billie, and James Whitmore, Jr. as Sam Houston. | ||||||
| 13 | 2 | "Firestorm" | Ray Austin | Calvin Clements, Jr. | September 29, 1984 (1984-09-29) | 58803 |
| An old pilot friend of Santini (Eugene Roche), who lost his nerve to fly after a crash had killed his passengers, has become a drunken recluse living in a trailer in the middle of the desert. The man suddenly comes to Santini with a wild story of seeing strange lights in the sky at night. Everyone dismisses the drunken rant until Santini witnesses the lights himself. He and his friend investigate but disappear. Hawke arrives in Airwolf to search for them and uncovers a secret missile base run by fanatical militants who plan to launch their own nuclear missile against Russia. | ||||||
| 14 | 3 | "Moffett's Ghost" | Donald A. Baer | T.S. Cook | October 6, 1984 (1984-10-06) | 58805 |
| Airwolf's systems begin to act erratically when a strange virus infects the on-board computer which periodically seizes auto pilot control and turns the helicopter into a flying terror of destruction. Hawke and Santini discover the virus is a trap originally planted by Airwolf's designer, Dr. Moffet, and programmed to unleash itself at a specific time unless the proper override code is entered. Hawke and Santini must make the decision to allow the F.I.R.M.'s engineers access to fix the helicopter and risk them trying to seize the aircraft, or deal with the virus themselves. This is the second episode wherein Airwolf, with Moffet jamming its controls, climbs to an altitude of at least 80,000 feet (the first time this was accomplished was in the season one episode "Fight Like a Dove" during a test flight by Hawke and Santini). | ||||||
| 15 | 4 | "The Truth About Holly" | Alan J. Levi | Phil Combest | October 13, 1984 (1984-10-13) | 58802 |
| Hawke and Santini rescue Santini's niece Holly from a compound ran by a Mexican crimelord. Once she is safe, Santini keeps an eye on her at his airport, but strange things begin to occur around Santini Air. Hawke and Santini believe the gangsters may be trying to scare Holly, but the sabotage incidents become worse after Hawke turns down Holly's passionate advances and when former Texas Highway Patrol Deputy, Caitlin O'Shannessy, arrives to work for Santini. Caitlin's relationship with Hawke sparks a jealous rage in the troubled Holly leading to suspicions she is behind the sabotage. | ||||||
| 16 | 5 | "The Hunted" | Sutton Roley | Chester Krumholz | October 20, 1984 (1984-10-20) | 58810 |
| An industrial millionaire, Carter Anderson III offers a big paying contract to Hawke and Santini, requesting they use Airwolf to protect and transport him around whenever the need arises. Santini is excited by the offer, but Hawke is skeptical, wondering why the man requires such protection. Unbeknown to them is the fact that Caitlin's new boyfriend is really an assassin who has been hired to kill the millionaire. Matters become worse when Airwolf experiences sudden erratic turbine malfunctions. | ||||||
| 17 | 6 | "Sins of the Past" | Donald A. Baer | Westbrook Claridge | October 27, 1984 (1984-10-27) | 58811 |
| Santini is stunned at the news that his daughter Sally Ann has been found dead on a beach on the Caribbean Island of San Remo, apparently from a drug overdose. Hawke is stunned as well because Santini never told him he had a daughter. Both men divert from a F.I.R.M. mission and fly to San Remo to attend the funeral which ends in a bitter argument between Santini and his ex-wife Lila. Upon returning, Santini learns that Lila has been murdered, and he is promptly arrested by police as the prime suspect. Santini is taken back to San Remo and Hawke follows to conduct his own investigation despite objections from Archangel to finish the F.I.R.M. mission. Hawke discovers that Lila and Sally have a connection to a ruthless casino owner who has been trying to take over the island and he is determined to expose the man as the real killer. | ||||||
| 18 | 7 | "Fallen Angel" | Sutton Roley | Deborah Pratt | November 3, 1984 (1984-11-03) | 58804 |
| Both Hawke and Santini are injured after a botched stunt in a biplane. Hawke injures his arm but Santini fairs worse, injuring his back and is bed-ridden. At the hospital, Hawke is informed that Archangel has been taken prisoner by the criminal ex-Nazi Karl Kruger and is being held in an East-German compound. Mounting a rescue operation, Hawke must add Caitlin to the Airwolf crew to temporarily replace Santini. In a rush to train her, Caitlin does not perform well and nearly blows up Airwolf. Hawke realizes he cannot perform the rescue without Santini's experience, so he and Caitlin spring him against authority, from the hospital, and head to East Germany to save Archangel. | ||||||
| 19 | 8 | "HX 1" | Gerald Mayer | Steve Hayes | November 10, 1984 (1984-11-10) | 58807 |
| The advanced helicopter, "HX1", is stolen by a group of mercenaries and Hawke learns that the tactics used in the theft are similar to those used by the special forces unit his brother St. John worked with. Believing the mercenaries may have connections with his missing brother, Hawke takes Airwolf out to track down the stolen helicopter. Hawke's suspicions are confirmed when one of the men turns out to be a war buddy of St. John's who Hawke thought was dead. The incident causes him to have flashbacks and he thinks he sees his brother momentarily. The rogue mercenaries have no intention of returning the HX1 and decide to try out their new toy against Airwolf. During the combat, Hawke's feelings get in his way, and he must fight his emotions if he wants to survive. PJ Soles guest stars as Ellie. | ||||||
| 20 | 9 | "Flight #093 is Missing" | Bernard L. Kowalski | Chester Krumholz, Calvin Clements, Jr. |
November 17, 1984 (1984-11-17) | 58816 |
| Flight #093 has been hijacked and crash landed into the ocean. The terrorists claim the hostages are still alive and threaten to finish them off unless paid $50 million dollars. The incident becomes personal once Hawke and Santini learn that Caitlin was on the flight and mount a search and rescue operation to find the downed plane. Upon finding it, they discover the terrorists are using a fishing ship armed with rockets to thwart any rescue attempt. Time is running out for the passengers as the plane is filling with water and running out of air. | ||||||
| 21 | 10 | "Once a Hero" | Leslie H. Martinson | Alfonse M. Ruggiero, Jr. | November 24, 1984 (1984-11-24) | 58819 |
| Hawke is presented with an outdated surveillance photo of a P.O.W. camp located deep inside the jungles of Laos where the F.I.R.M. believe his brother St. John is being held prisoner. Hawke mounts a rescue attempt, rounding up members of his old Vietnam War strike team to go in and find him. His strike team is wary of the mission but reconsider once they learn Airwolf will be supplying air support. The team meets up in Bangkok and begins their trek behind enemy lines to locate the camp. Upon arrival, Hawke and his team find the camp abandoned and his brother has been moved elsewhere. | ||||||
| 22 | 11 | "Random Target" | Virgil Vogel | Herman Groves, Paul Savage, Chester Krumholz, Westbrook Claridge |
December 8, 1984 (1984-12-08) | 58813 |
| Hawke and Santini go on a job to film some desert terrain footage for Santini's fellow airport business partner Sam Kowal. After completing the job the film is given to Kowal, who later turns up dead after being killed by thugs in a mob hit. The police cannot find any connections Kowal may have had to the mob and determine the hit to be random, but Hawke is not satisfied and begins his own investigation which begins to conflict with the police detective's investigation. Hawke and the detective (Anne Lockhart) soon find that Hawke and Santini may have filmed something in the desert that the mob boss did not want to be seen. | ||||||
| 23 | 12 | "Condemned" | Tom Blank | Douglas Steinberg | January 5, 1985 (1985-01-05) | 58818 |
| The F.I.R.M. assigns Hawke to investigate a remote facility in Alaska where scientists have been working on an experimental vaccine to counteract the deadly effects of Russian bio-weapon virus set loose in Afghanistan. The F.I.R.M. had already sent a four-man commando team in but they failed to report back. With Santini on vacation, Hawke and Caitlin take the assignment and fly Airwolf to the facility. Upon arrival, they find everyone dead and it looks as if they have all killed each other. Suspicions arise however once Hawke detects a Russian submarine is lurking in nearby waters. | ||||||
| 24 | 13 | "The American Dream" | Virgil Vogel | Dennis R. Foley | January 12, 1985 (1985-01-12) | 58817 |
| Hawke helps out a troubled Vietnamese man he fought alongside with in Vietnam whose crops are being sabotaged by a rival Vietnamese landowner known as "The Spider". When the sabotage turns to murder, Hawke takes matters into his own hands and is determined to bring the Spider to justice. | ||||||
| 25 | 14 | "Inn at the End of the Road" | Ray Austin | Westbrook Claridge, Alfonse M. Ruggiero, Jr. |
January 26, 1985 (1985-01-26) | 58823 |
| When a prototype weapon guidance computer called "LOKI" is stolen by terrorists, Archangel assigns Hawke and Santini to recover the device before it falls into enemy hands. They track the terrorists to a remote mountain lake where the criminals become lost and cannot find their contact. They find a cabin and take the owners hostage, discovering one of them is a pilot, and force him to fly them out. Airwolf gives chase, but when a critical system in the midst of repairs fails, Airwolf is forced down and crashes in a wooded mountainside. Hawke finds his communications are also out and he cannot call for help. Time is running out for the hostages who are holed up in a frozen meat locker, and the terrorists have installed the LOKI device in a helicopter gunship and plan to wreak havoc. | ||||||
| 26 | 15 | "Santini's Millions" | Sutton Roley | Michael Halperin | February 2, 1985 (1985-02-02) | 58824 |
| Santini is piloting Airwolf on a mercy mission to deliver a transplant heart to a dying boy in a Los Angeles. Along the way he comes upon a downed aircraft piloted by a millionaire named Carl Barron and renders aid. The millionaire is desperate to make a business meeting in L.A. and offers Santini $50,000 dollars to divert from the heart delivery and take him straight there, but Santini refuses and continues on to Chicago. With the heart delivered, Santini takes Barron to L.A. in record time for a helicopter, but very late for the meeting. Later that evening, for no apparent reason, Barron commits suicide but leaves behind a will that gives all his riches to Santini, "the most honest man he ever met". Both Santini and Barron's selfish business partner are stunned by the act, but the partner denies the will and refuses to hand any money over to Santini. Santini clearly does not want to be involved in the first place but quickly finds himself in over his head and his life possibly in danger. | ||||||
| 27 | 16 | "Prisoner of Yesterday" | Georg Fenady | Chester Krumholz, T.S. Cook |
February 9, 1985 (1985-02-09) | 58825 |
| Hawke is on a relaxing fishing trip with a doctor friend named Jason Gifford, but the tranquil setting is disturbed when two South American rebels show up and kidnap Dr. Gifford at gun-point and disable Hawke's Jeep so he cannot follow. Determined to get his friend back, Hawke learns that Gifford had been treating a South American President with antibiotics but the man is suffering from radiation poisoning which had been traced back to Gifford's drugs. The plot thickens when upon arrival in the country, Hawke learns a rebel leader is plotting an attack on the American Embassy and to overthrow the President covertly by slowly killing him off, and win political support by framing Gifford (and American involvement) for the death. | ||||||
| 28 | 17 | "Natural Born" | Virgil Vogel | Alfonse M. Ruggiero, Jr., Westbrook Claridge |
February 23, 1985 (1985-02-23) | 58830 |
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Stringfellow Hawke and Caitlin talk Dominic into hiring a young hotshot pilot, Kevin Hansen, but do not realize that the kid has more in mind than his employer would suspect. Kevin is after the men who killed his beloved Uncle Chester Hansen (Noble Willingham). He taught Kevin how to fly helicopters and was admired and loved by his nephew. When Chester Hansen refused to join some of his business associates in airborne drug-running, he was killed. Whilst performing aerial stunts for Santini Air he spots the dealer's unusual black helicopter and gives chase. Hawke and Santini have no idea what the boy is doing and decide to ground him since he will not tell them about the murder. Secretly, Kevin plans to hunt down the killers and bring them to justice. Production note: Stuntman Reid Rondell was killed during the filming of this episode in the crash of a Bell 205 used in the production. |
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| 29 | 18 | "Out of the Sky" | Bruce Seth Green | Gregory Harris, Charles Winston |
March 2, 1985 (1985-03-02) | 58827 |
| Hawke and Santini film aerial footage for a music video by country star Roxanne Marvel. Unbeknown to everyone, Roxanne's corrupt manager is plotting her murder to boost record sales, and replaces her with a body double. Unfortunately for him, the double is not on par to the singing talent of the original and the dupe is revealed, however it is too late since the real Roxanne has already been kidnapped by the manager's thugs. Hawke and Santini mount a rescue in Airwolf and have to recover the star before her big concert appearance. | ||||||
| 30 | 19 | "Dambreakers" | Virgil Vogel | Westbrook Claridge, Alfonse M. Ruggiero, Jr., Douglas Steinberg |
March 9, 1985 (1985-03-09) | 58832 |
| Hawke is hired to fly a news reporter to interview a group of religious puritans who have an isolated commune near a hydro-electrical dam. Hawke and the reporter discover the villagers have been abducted by a group of terrorists who disable Hawke's helicopter and prevent them from leaving. They are then held as hostages where the leader gives the reporter the news story of her career; his plan is to blow up the Tidewater Dam if fellow extremist members are not released from American prisons. Hawke manages to escape and gets a message through to Santini. He and Caitlin come looking for him with Airwolf, but they are attacked by the terrorist's B-25 bomber which will be used to destroy the dam. | ||||||
| 31 | 20 | "Severance Pay" | Sidney Hayers | Chester Krumholz | March 16, 1985 (1985-03-16) | 58806 |
| Hawke is assigned to find Larry Mason (Arte Johnson), a disgruntled former F.I.R.M. agent, who has been shafted on his retirement benefits. As a result, Mason begins to reveal classified information to the press about his previous employer and it begins to jeopardize foreign relations and national security. One of the secrets threatening to be leaked is the existence of Airwolf and the whole story behind it. When specific information is leaked about a mission that Mason was never involved with, Hawke becomes suspicious and believes there has to be another mole lurking inside the F.I.R.M. Martin Milner guest stars as Arthur Barnes. | ||||||
| 32 | 21 | "Eruption" | Tom Blank | Kevin Hartigan, T.S. Cook |
April 6, 1985 (1985-04-06) | 58829 |
| Hawke and Santini are on a job to take atmospheric samples around Mt. Catherine, a dormant volcano that is showing signs of "waking up". They collect their data just in time to witness Catherine "blow her top" and escape the blast. The eruption shock destroys a town in a nearby valley and Hawke and Santini set down to render aid. They find some of the survivors holed up in an abandoned mine where another quake from Catherine nearly kills Hawke as he tries to guide them out. Hawke soon discovers the real danger is not the volcano, but a rival community leader with murderous plans to eliminate the town mayor and make it look like an accident. | ||||||
| 33 | 22 | "Short Walk to Freedom" | Virgil Vogel | Robert Blee, Dorothy Robinson |
April 13, 1985 (1985-04-13) | 58831 |
| Caitlin is hired to fly a group of archeology students and their teacher to Mayan ruins in South America. In reality, the teacher is really a mastermind thief and is using the trip as cover to steal whatever priceless artifacts he can find. The trip goes astray however, when a group of guerilla fighters block the road and hijack the bus. The F.I.R.M. learns of the hostage crisis through their South American contacts and Archangel informs Hawke of the situation. He and Santini quickly mount a rescue in Airwolf to find Caitlin and the students. Once the guerilla fighters see Airwolf arrive they plan to capture the high-tech chopper for themselves and fire a missile to bring her down. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Airwolf Episodes
Famous quotes containing the word season:
“Let us have a good many maples and hickories and scarlet oaks, then, I say. Blaze away! Shall that dirty roll of bunting in the gun-house be all the colors a village can display? A village is not complete, unless it have these trees to mark the season in it. They are important, like the town clock. A village that has them not will not be found to work well. It has a screw loose, an essential part is wanting.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)