Black Sheep Squadron

1948-present

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
MagnumILWU
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 629
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2012 5:44 pm
Location: Portland Oregon

Black Sheep Squadron

#1 Post by MagnumILWU »

Or is it Baa Baa Black Sheep? Anyway, this weekend-April 9-10, Decades TV is showing episodes all day Sat and Sun. They call it their, Binge Weekend! Decades TV, is an over the air, free antenna channel. Here in Portland Or, it's channel 6.3. I've seen The Fugitive, Wiseguy, Star Trek Voyager, among others! It's a strange programming schedule, but you see some good old shows!
"pickled egg please"

User avatar
KingKC
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 571
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:16 pm
Location: Third World Country of Arkansas

Re: Black Sheep Squadron

#2 Post by KingKC »

I just saw my first episode of Black Sheep Squadron and was surprised to see so many familiar faces. Not just Robert Conrad and Larry Manetti but John Laroquette, Jeff McKay, Dana Elcar (MacGyver), W K Stratton (JAG-Cmdr. Lindsey) James Whitmore, Jr (Billy Joe Bob) and probably a few others I did not immediately recognize since some of them were so young. It also seemed like a pretty good show but it only ran for a couple of years. Too bad. I will make a point of recording it.

User avatar
MagnumsLeftShoulder
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 456
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:52 am
Location: Hot Springs National Park

Re: Black Sheep Squadron

#3 Post by MagnumsLeftShoulder »

surprised to see so many familiar faces
That's because Bellasario was one of the producers and writers of Black Sheep Squadron. Most of those guys you named were his stock players.

User avatar
KingKC
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 571
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:16 pm
Location: Third World Country of Arkansas

Re: Black Sheep Squadron

#4 Post by KingKC »

MagnumsLeftShoulder wrote:
surprised to see so many familiar faces
That's because Bellasario was one of the producers and writers of Black Sheep Squadron. Most of those guys you named were his stock players.
That makes sense especially with the fact that in the late Seventies and early Eighties there were only three network stations and not nearly as many producers, directors and writers as there are now. It was, no doubt, a very, very small world back then.

User avatar
Steve-O
Commander
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2017 3:58 am
Location: CYOW

Re: Black Sheep Squadron

#5 Post by Steve-O »

Right. So I have finally finished watching the short 2-year run of Black Sheep. I enjoyed the series. Most of the stories seem easily believable, even though the real-life Pappy (who was also a technical advisor) was quoted as saying the show was Hollywood hookum. I suppose the short run for the series prevented it from getting tired and repetitive. Some of the regulars would go to work in several of Bellisario's projects. Personally, having grown up on naval air stations til the age of 12, the sound of piston driven a/c engines reminds me of that time. My dad was a naval-air armourer and had a big interest (of course) in military a/c, meaning I grew up with the books and pictures of these types of planes all over the house, and from a young age was taken to the theatre to see all those movies that feature them (you know the ones; Midway, Tora-Tora-Tora, etc.). Here are a few very random notes and observations I made about the show:
.
Ep. 02 - Was that an uncredited Kam Fong I saw playing a Japanese cook?
Ep. 04 - The first big band piece heard during the coed social is Woody Herman's The Woodchopper's Ball. It seems to be the go-to selection used during the series in several scenes set in the Sheep Pen.
Ep. 06 - Deck footage: CV61 is the USS Ranger, launched in 1956, making this context anachronistic.
Ep. 07 - Directed by Ivan Dixon. Hogan's Heroes' Kinch would go on to direct 13 episodes of Magnum.
Ep. 08 - Numerous carrier approach shots from F4U showing carriers with angled decks, not produced until the early 1950s. Another anachronism.
Ep. 13 - French and Pappy try using a Swiss Army Knife to open a wine bottle. Corkscrews first appeared on an SAKs in 1897.
Also, Pappy said he was with the Flying Tigers in 1941.
Ep. 19 - Nice to see Sorrell Booke in a pre-Dukes, post-MASH tv role; and Soon Teck-Oh in a new-to-me pre-Magnum tv role.
Ep. 21 - Nice to see the Maytag Man Gordon Jump in a new-to-me pre-WKRP tv role.
Ep. 22 - In a one-on-one aerial combat scene, Pappy's Corsair switches frequently between "white arrow" and another Corsair.
Ep. 26 - It's a known fact that many archival clips are re-used in the series, as well as fresh flying clips; but glaringly, the same piece of fresh footage used in "Last One For Hutch" in which Hutch is killed, is used again in this episode when the ES Rear Area comes under air attack, complete with the diving man.
Ep. 31 - Forbidden Fruit: The main guest star in this episode, "Jeb" has hair that is so out of regulation-- I would have been embarrassed to be an actor in that role with hair that long. Reminds me of Lt. Dan Cook's hair in the Magnum, P.I. episode, Don't Eat the Snow in Hawai'i-- way too long for uniformed personnel in most western militaries.
Ep. 33 - The Iceman: When Lt. Bragg buzzes the new CO's jeep, he approaches with gear down-- on the opposing shot as he peels away, the gear are retracted. And when Pappy rounds his Corsair to climb in before departing on the War Bonds tour, the prop has 3 blades-- when the "clear" is given to start the engine, there are four blades.
Ep. 37 - A Little Bit of England: Seems curious that Japanese AA would be used to defend against 50-foot strafing runs (perhaps someone can enlighten me). Fun to see Peter Frampton getting a role in this episode-- he was at the height of his popularity at the time, and even carried off a decent job. This series finale was directed by Donald Bellisario.

Generally:
.
- In gunfire shots spliced in during air combat sequences, gun-barrel ports are flush to leading edges. On ground, many clips show protruding barrels. Difference seems to be 3 x .50 cal mg pieces per wing for earlier F4U Corsairs vs. the quad 20mm cannon on later variants. It seems BSS deployed only one of these F4U-7s, the others were earlier variants with the 6 x .50 cal.
.
- In many/most episodes, smoke generators are visible. Smoke generators were most clearly visible in several of the formation flying and dogfight scenes in episode 30: "Ten'll Get You Five".
.
- Non-reg hair: Wow. Many of the pilots in the series featured hair that was rather close to non-regulation for males. I'm surprised that there were no reprimands for this written into at least one script. That hair on "Jeb" would not have been tolerated even in my air cadet corps when I was a teenager! (Wow again. Several episodes after I write the preceding comment, Pappy mentions to Jeb in the episode Fighting Angels, "Didn't I tell you to get a haircut?" He is warned again 2 episodes later by Pappy to get a haircut.)
.
- Strangely enough, the above-mentioned Jeb character is portrayed as the one of the youngest fighter pilots in the US, much in the same way as the recently-departed George HW Bush was in real life.

Five episodes had a bit of a M*A*S*H feel to them:
> "New Georgia on My Mind" : The guys have a football game against another unit. Rules can be said to be optional.
> "W*A*S*P*S" : The guys get into competitive hijinx with another group of pilots, who happen to be women.
> "The Hawk Flies on Sunday" : Opens with the guys having another Five O'clock Charlie type of scenario.
> "The Show Must Go On... Sometimes" : Opens with a short scene with 2 of the fellas (Magnum's Jeff McKay and Larry Manetti) attempting shenanigans at the ladies shower facility. The nurses were central, so it also had a bit of a China Beach vibe as well.
> "A Little Bit of England" : Again, Jeff and Larry with another performance over at the nurses' showers!

I found a very good article and historical account of the actual Corsair airframes used in the tv show:
http://warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/p ... sheep.html
.
A few of these airframes ended up across the river from me in Gatineau at Vintage Wings of Canada, where one still remains:
http://www.vintagewings.ca/Aircraft/tab ... rsair.aspx
.
Here is another non-Wikipedia précis on the Vought F4U at Plane-Encyclopedia.com:
https://www.plane-encyclopedia.com/ww2/ ... u-corsair/

If you have ever enjoyed an airshow, you would enjoy Black Sheep Squadron.

Post Reply