This show started my life long interest in aviation history and my love for the Corsair. My dad would allow me to stay up to watch it and I was obsessed with it. I completed two Revell kits and had just about every book on the aircraft. It doesn't hold water today, but back in the day, a 9 year old thought the world of it.
@Roger Enright Yeah, Rog, they prob. had to work within their budget..figured no one would notice the inaccuracies/discrepancies. Most people just dont know or care. It was great for what it was..I dug it!! But I do hear ya!!
Same here. I loved the show, watched every episode with my dad, built the models, paid special attention to the corsairs at every airshow I ever found one at. I actually would like to watch them again if I knew where to find the show.
Thats the same story for me, in Mexico the show was called "Los tigres voladores" (The flying tigers) and my love for aviation borned there and of course the fascination for the Corsair... man I LOVE THAT PLANE!... I havent watch a complete show since those times... but tha sound of the alarm at the start of the show moves me to thos times when I was 4 or 5 years old.
I was a military pilot for 4 years to include Vietnam and then a Commercial Pilot worldwide for another 38 years, retiring in 2012. I watched this show overseas and enjoyed the fact takeoffs, landings and airstrip scenes were filmed at Indian Dunes near Valencia CA, near where I grew up. And the island scenes were over Santa Cruz Islands, off our coast. What a hoot!
I love it, watched the whole series over the summer. Not a huge fan after they revamped it with the Lambs but it was still alright. If you are wanting historical accuracy or the flashiness of modern TV, don’t bother. But if you want a charming, fun, cheese filled show to keep you entertained it is awesome. In that way it is somewhat similar to Star Trek: TOS. And I say that as someone born a decade after it aired.
Memories of me and my dad watching these shows and hearing his war stories (I was 12 in '78). Dad's been gone for 24 years now. Thanks for posting this. 🙏
Sorry about your dad. We watched it together. He was a Navy pilot and of course he wanted me to be a pilot too. He was thrilled I showed some interest in pilot stuff.
Lol... I was 12 too. Thus was my favorite show hands down. I simply couldn't wait every week for this show to come around each week. I too fell in love with the F4U Corsair.
Hey we'rethe same age..😊 i'm an Oct bby myself. I used to love this & other programs like this. Ahhh those great memories of great innocent times .. how i wish i could go back.. just like mom always said would be the case & happen. Seems like a lifetime ago. :) 😊
I'm here because I. just heard Bob Conrad passed away. He was good on this show and greater on Wild Wild West. One of the last of the real, men's men. R.I.P James West :(
I remember being at a CAF Airshow in the late 80s and Pappy was there signing his book and talking to all of us; and about 200' down was a former Japanese Pilot who had battled Pappy back in the war... have a picture somewhere of these standing together...
This series, for those who lives in that era, is kinda like a Desert Storm movie-series for us who lives today. When this series was filmed, WWII ended 31 years before, while for us, the first Iraq War ended 30 years before. We now closer to 2050 than to 1990.
What an indellible impression this show made with me. I was 7 in '78, but had a father who served in WWII, and we'd watch it together. And I absolutely loved the Corsair. Still do.
Absolutely loved this show and looked forward to it every week. Robert Conrad was great in this role and the chemistry among the cast members made it something special. Red West (aka MSgt Andy Micklin Maintenance Superintendent VMF214) also passed recently - may both of these stellar actors RIP.
There's no telling how many "Baa Baa Black Sheep" Corsair models Revell sold after that show hit the air. I always appreciated the fact that the show didn't make the Japanese into caricatures, but as deadly opponents.
The episode when Boyington and Hirachi both shot each other down and ended up on the island showed how much they respected each other. It was a good episode.
This show put the Corsair in my sights as my fav plane... Until I started flying rc warbirds and the P51 became my favorite. Loved this show and "NEVER" missed one single episode
My all time favorite show as a kid. I still have an photo autographed by Robert Conrad with a f4u and the shows cast hanging on my wall. They don't make shows like that anymore.
And they'll never make anything like that these days. That's why it has to be on over the air stations. (It's on Saturday evening at 7 PM on H&I over the air.)
Awesome show! really brings back memories. Also loved the fact that if there was a Japanese fighter pilot who 'Pappy' could get really annoyed with, it was Hirachi!
Just a Great series in the late 70’s watched every show… and just love the way the Corsair looks and find it to be the best looking aircraft of WW2 and beyond.
My plane was getting worked on at Meadow Lake airport in Colorado last spring. Sitting right next to mine was an orange Vans RV-3 with the word "Pappy" hand-written on the cowl. The mechanic said it once belonged to Pappy Boyington. Small world.
I remember watching this show with my grandfather when I was 4 or 5 y/o. In my country the series was called "The Flying Tigers". Those were the good times!
I was in high-school when this show was on TV. I still love it. The National Museum of WW2 Aviation is in Colorado Springs. They have a flying Brewster F3-A Corsair.
Loved this series..First year, baa baa black sheep, second year, black sheep squadron. Then canceled. Conrad went onto wild wild west, laroquette went onto night court. Dirk Blocker was Dan Blocker's brother, dan of Bonanza fame.
Wild Wild West was more than ten years *before* the Black Sheep Squadron. It was a couple years before Laroquette did Night Court. Larry Menetti went on to do Magnum PI, Jeff McKay appeared on that as well. Dirk Blocker was Dan Blocker's son.
You’re in a Corsair facing a Zero? Throttle to the wall, you’ve got about 100mph over him level and even more in a dive. At speed, the Corsair outperforms the Zero in every aspect of dogfighting. Stay fast, stay alive.
Yeah, they obviously needed to make it more evenly matched for dramatic purposes. By the time the Corsair was widely deployed the Zekes were showing their age. The carrier Hellcats were more than a match for them too.
Not every aspect. The A6M series was far more maneuverable in a dogfight because it lacked armor. A corsair couldn't out turn a zero, so the preferred method was as you described: full power and dive to gain airspeed.
@@jeffburnham6611 - I believe the Zero’s controls would typically lock-up in a dive, or at the least they became too difficult to be any use (and no hydraulic assistance, remember?). The A6M could out-turn a Corsair in level or ascending fights, but not in a dive.
For the series, they used North American T-6 Texans modified to look like A6M Zeros. As I recall, they had been originally modified for the movie Tora, Tora, Tora, and also used in Midway. I’m guessing that they really had to throttle back the Corsairs when filming.
This was the best show growing up! It really got me hooked on this journey of military aviation ,model building and game playing. Thank you so much for having on RU-vid so I can revisit it for inspiration.
12:00 High series is on H&I over the air Saturday night (I think it's midnight). The evening starts with "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and goes on from there with other series about WWII.
I'd forgotten Jon Larroqette, Larry Manetti and Jeff MacKay were in the series. Loved it as a kid but I'm thinking I'll go be going through them again shortly. R.I.P Robert Conrad.
My friend, Jake, and I would play the video game, "Tail Gunner" at the arcade. When the enemy was on our tail, one of us would always do the Hirachi impression.
When I was a kid there was a company in St Louis called Couples Products that built commercial windows and they had a Corsair that they used as a wind generator for testing purposes. It had the outer wings and tail section taken off but when I would see it I would think of this show. I knew what kind of plane it was.
Great show and I loved it when it was on. I still love it to this day. HOWEVER ... Japanese and American aircraft radios operated on completely different frequencies and could not communicate with each other.
I briefly met the real Pappy Boyington at an air show. I was there with my father whot was only 10 years old when Boyington was fighting in the Pacific. I bought Boyington's book, waited in line for him to sign it. Pappy Boyinbton was an old man then, sitting at a folding table, cigarette dangling from his lips as he scratched his name in book after book. I was so happy to have a signed autograph book from a legend. As I returned giddily to my father, himself a former Marine, saw he had been watching from a short distance away. With eyes still on Pappy my father said, "Good Lord, he must hate this." I turned around and saw the whole scene in a completely different light.
Probably not personal though . . . Old man dealing with public was probably wanting to be somewhere else, and could have possibly been suffering from chronic pain of some form of another.
@@wynfrithnichtwo8423 Who knows. That said I think to make the real life experiences of war into a light hearted comedy probably wasn’t the best way to handle it. I think some things Hollywood could’ve done better. But I guess that’s why I’m a college student pursuing a degree in history and not a filmmaker.
They wonder why gen X doesn't take any sh-crap...We had this AWESOME show to watch every week. I would've definitely knocked that battery off of Robert's shoulder...lol
Oh my, this brought back long forgotten memories, watching them on black & white tv (towards the end of 70s), without understanding a single bit of whats being said yet glued to watch the dogfight scenes shooting the enemy's (whoever they r, 😁) planes!
Know a drummer friend of Mine in SoCal, worked @ TWA as a mechanic, met /worked with Red West's son..said his dad was really a pisser!! Quite a character. He was scripted in the 2nd Season..
The greatest actor that ever played in the Black sheep squadron with Robert Conrad and all the actors that was in that I grew up watching them sitting in my dad's lap telling Robert Conrad get those meatballs I can't eat spaghetti and meatballs without getting the meatballs first and that is my favorite food of all time spaghetti and meatballs because when Robert Conrad told his squadron all right there's the meatballs let's go get them I didn't want any of my family members to get any of those meatballs because I wanted them first and I was a little pappy Greg Bloomington on the dinner table
used to LOVE this show as a little kid!...but i was too young to understand how scheduling worked, so only was able to randomly watch little bits like 5x over its whole run. lol, in the 80s and 90s i was convinced it was a phantom memory because none of my friends ever saw the show and no one knew what i was talking about (no wikipedia or youtube around back then to look up cultural artifacts). xD
Yeah, loved this show. Watching the opening scene became a 'Wait, WHO was in this? John Larroquette?' And that Chief Mechanic was in a shit load of MASH episodes.
What crazy smack talking when trying to kill each other, the Japanese got the best of Boyington and sent him into the sea to get plucked up by the Japanese Navy and spent two years in POW camp, they thought he died in the dog fight but his unit was so relieved after the war when saw that salty dog 40lbs lighter, frail but still had that commanding voice. What a story one for the ages. To believe in 1977, the two pilots met and embraced each other, it was tearful. The Japanese pilot also got shot down and spent the last year of the war in a POW camp.
My dad and i watched this show also. In 3rd grade, I would draw pictures of airplanes attaching attacking Japanese planes and would pretend I was a taking off in a corsair at the top of the slide with complete preflight checks.
I loved this show as a kid and still love it. I DO have to laugh at the Hollywood BS they put into it for dramatic effect, like the stick shaking from the “recoil” of the guns. 😂
O was shocked to see John Laraquet aka Dan Fielding on this show. One thing is true for men and young boys this was must watch TV at the time I watched with my grandfather
