AIRWOLF Episode Guide - Canadian Airwolf II (aka "Airwolf Season 4") series
After 55 episodes on the CBS network, they decided that to "strip" the show in syndication back then, any series needed a minimum order of 80 episodes, so the new "USA Network" picked up production for the extra so-called Season 4 and produced another 24 episodes during the 1987-1988 season on one-third of the budget of before. None of the original cast or production crew (minus a single, drunken appearance by Jan-Michael Vincent as Hawke in the first episode "BLACKJACK") decided to continue with the show a new Canadian cast were hired to become the new Airwolf "crew", led by ex-GALACTICA 1980 (funnily enough, a much-maligned spin-off season of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA actor Barry Van Dyke as Hawke's long-lost (now younger) brother St.John Hawke (pronounced "Sin-Jin").
The spin-off series (aka "Season 4") is hated by the majority of the Airwolf ('Wolf-Pack') fans, although there is a small, vocal minority that will defend it to the hilt stating the Canadian production crew and cast tried hard with only one-third of the budget of the CBS seasons and hampered by the dull, grey, rainy coldness of Vancouver, Canada. But the stories, considering the shoestring budget could have been worse, and were on occasion, probably better than the worst Season 3 episodes, plus re-introduced some espionage and intrigue back into the writing mix again, but overall the Airwolf series was a shadow of its former self from January 1984.
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