Season 3: 1985-1986
The third season premiered on September 28, 1985, and concluded on March 29, 1986, with 22 episodes aired. Following the departure of series creator Donald P. Bellisario, Bernard Kowalski stepped in as executive producer for a third season, but after ratings remained low, the series was canceled by CBS.
| No. | Ep. | Title | Director | Writer(s) | Original air date | Prod. code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34 | 1 | "The Horn of Plenty" | Sutton Roley | Sutton Roley | September 28, 1985 (1985-09-28) | 61108 |
| Hawke flies a woman named Angelica (Catherine Hickland) to an Arizona resort where she carries a suitcase full of priceless gems for a buyer named John Bradford Horn (Richard Lynch). A sudden change in plans sends Hawke and Angelica to Horn's private compound in Texas, but upon landing, they are surrounded by armed men and taken prisoner. A videotape is sent to Santini where Hawke explains he is being held captive and tells Santini to deliver Airwolf to Horn's compound by a certain time or he'll be executed. Santini informs Archangel of the situation, who devises a plan. He tells Santini to deliver Airwolf as requested, but he will provide a platoon of soldiers who will storm the compound once Hawke is safe. The plan backfires when Hawke shoots Santini with a tranquilizer gun as soon as he sets Airwolf down. | ||||||
| 35 | 2 | "Airwolf II" | Don Medford | Louie Elias, Al Martinez |
October 5, 1985 (1985-10-05) | 61113 |
| Hawke is interrupted during a friend's ceremony when Archangel arrives to inform him that Hawke is suspected in a train robbery where the thieves used a Santini Air helicopter and a weapon similar to one Airwolf carries, to stop the train. Hawke, Santini and Caitlin are baffled when the FBI finds the getaway chopper, complete with several bullet holes, parked at Santini's hangar as further evidence. Archangel uses his perks to help Hawke as much as he can but then he is dismissed from the F.I.R.M. under suspicions that he may have also been involved in the robbery. Investigating further, Archangel discovers the F.I.R.M. has built a second Airwolf, dubbed Redwolf, and the designer, Harlen Jenkins (Wings Hauser), who is still loyal to the notorious Dr. Moffet, has a personal vendetta against Hawke and set up the robbery to get him out of the way. Once Hawke is let out of jail, a deadly showdown begins against Jenkins to see which wolf can outmatch the other. | ||||||
| 36 | 3 | "And a Child Shall Lead" | Allen Reisner | Stephen A. Miller | October 12, 1985 (1985-10-12) | 61110 |
| A leading aircraft designer, Robert Phelps, is abducted by foreign agents to the horror of his mentally challenged son, Bobby. Hawke takes the assignment to find Phelps, obtaining leads form Bobby, whose autism gives him the ability to draw detailed clues from memory. While in the agent's custody, Phelps has a sudden heart-attack and is rendered useless to them. Learning that his latest design plans could be accurately reproduced by Billy, the agents attempt to kidnap him, but Hawke and Airwolf get in their way. | ||||||
| 37 | 4 | "Fortune Teller" | Sutton Roley | Rick Kelbaugh, James L. Novack |
October 19, 1985 (1985-10-19) | 61105 |
| Archangel fails to meet Hawke and Santini at a secret rendezvous point, and the F.I.R.M. learns he has been kidnapped and being tortured by a criminal military hardware dealer named Stoner. They give Hawke 48 hours to find him, or the F.I.R.M. will send in a group of assassins known as "Zebra Squad" to take him out themselves. Stoner wants information about a device called "The Fortune Teller" which allows a pilot to fly his aircraft through mental commands. Hawke and his companions now race to save Archangel before the Zebra Squad can be activated. | ||||||
| 38 | 5 | "Crossover" | Don Medford | Elliot West | October 26, 1985 (1985-10-26) | 61106 |
| Hawke is working covertly for the F.I.R.M. in Baja, Mexico to meet a defecting Russian laser-scientist named Victor Janek, and his young daughter Inge. Hawke soon learns that a Soviet bounty-hunter is hot on the duo's trail with orders to eliminate them. The hunter manages to kill Victor, but Hawke and Inge get away and make a run into the desert. Santini and Caitlin become dismayed when Archangel refuses to help them since Hawke has crossed over from the F.I.R.M.'s strict mission stipulations, and has already been written off. Santini and Caitlin go out in Airwolf to rescue them on their own. | ||||||
| 39 | 6 | "Kingdom Come" | Harvey S. Laidman | Michael Halperin, Richard Kelbaugh |
November 2, 1985 (1985-11-02) | 61107 |
| A stockpile of nuclear detonators, (which can detonate any large amount of radioactive material and turn into a deadly bomb), are stolen from a government facility. The mastermind behind the robbery is a former associate of Caitlin who she gave piloting lessons to. The robber decides to smuggle the detonators out of the country by kidnapping Caitlin and forcing her to fly them out in Airwolf, whose stealth technology will provide perfect cover. | ||||||
| 40 | 7 | "Eagles" | Virgil Vogel | Edward J. Lakso | November 9, 1985 (1985-11-09) | 61109 |
| An advanced airplane built by Stappleford Industries, the "X-400", is to be handed over to the U.S. Air Force who are interested in the craft's performance. The X-400's main test pilot, Roane Carver, knows the plane has potentially deadly flaws and interferes with the final sale knowing her company is selling a dangerous lemon and steals the schematics. Hawke gets involved in helping Roane fight her greedy employer, who goes as far as attempted murder to shut her up and get the plans back. | ||||||
| 41 | 8 | "Annie Oakley" | Daniel Haller | Carleton Eastlake, Harold Stone, Rick Kelbaugh |
November 16, 1985 (1985-11-16) | 61102 |
| An advanced laser device called "The Mongoose", is stolen from a F.I.R.M. transport while it was on its way to a testing ground. The thief, Karl Stern, is expected to sell the laser on the black market to an East German buyer, but when his partner, Slade, realizes he is being shafted on his cut of the sale money, he threatens to go to the F.I.R.M. for a reward. Stern refuses to give in so Slade carries out his threat and makes the call. Hawke and Santini are ordered to pick up Slade at a wild west rodeo, but Slade is killed in a mysterious accident. It is now up to them to find and secure the weapon before Stern can smuggle it to Cuba. Tia Carrere makes a brief guest appearance as Kiki Tanabi. | ||||||
| 42 | 9 | "Jennie" | Bernard L. Kowalski | Katharyn Michaelian Powers | November 23, 1985 (1985-11-23) | 61115 |
| Hawke and Caitlin go to a war-torn South American country, meeting up with a legendary soldier named "El Gato", and work to find an imprisoned scientist. Hawke learns that in the year the scientist was held, he developed a robotic tank called the "ALV" (Automated Land Vehicle) which can be piloted remotely and it is now in the possession of the rebel forces. The group springs the scientist, during which El Gato is killed. Outnumbered, the group hides out in remote village where they meet an American woman who is teaching deaf children. The rebel army sends the ALV into the village to wipe it out and the only hope lies in Airwolf to destroy the tank first. | ||||||
| 43 | 10 | "The Deadly Circle" | Harvey Laidman | Robert Specht | November 30, 1985 (1985-11-30) | 61111 |
| The families of three of Hawke's Vietnamese friends have been kidnapped and taken to an isolated compound in the California desert. He discovers the kidnappers are survivors of "Village #108" which was a target destroyed in an air strike led by Hawke and his three friends after intelligence said it was a Viet Cong hide out. Archangel reveals the original intelligence was wrong and Hawke's men had destroyed an innocent village by mistake. Now the two survivors from that village seek revenge and plan to execute the families in a similar airstrike of the compound where they are being held. | ||||||
| 44 | 11 | "Where Have All the Children Gone?" | Daniel Hiller | Alan Godfrey, Al Martinez |
December 14, 1985 (1985-12-14) | 61114 |
| A Vietnam War buddy of Hawke's named John Fargo has died and been laid to rest. Hawke takes Fargo's coffin flag and war medals to a small town to give them to Fargo's only relative, his estranged brother Billy, who did not show at the funeral. Billy however, is nowhere to be found, and a young girl at his residence informs Hawke he does not live there anymore. Hawke tries to locate the local Sheriff but finds Billy running the town which is populated by hippy youths who look upon Billy as their "father figure". Hawke's snooping lands him in jail until Santini comes looking for him. Santini springs him out and the two discover the militia trained youths have stolen a nuclear missile called "Spaceguard" from a nearby aerospace facility and plan to target Washington D.C. in the ultimate "anti-war" message. Hawke and Santini must press Airwolf to her limits and stop the missile before it hits its target. This is the episode wherein Airwolf pushed its altitude limit from 85,000 to 100,000 feet (upper limit of the atmosphere). | ||||||
| 45 | 12 | "Half-Pint" | Bernard McEveety | Robert Janes | December 21, 1985 (1985-12-21) | 61117 |
| Hawke discovers that his brother St. John has a half-Vietnamese son named Le Van, nick-named "Half-Pint", who is living with an adopted family. The adopted father Darren McBride tells Hawke that he was part of St. John's strike team where he personally saw his brother go down during a raid on a Viet Cong chemical weapons facility and believes he was killed. Hawke does not believe the story and checks on McBride's war record which is a clean slate. Hawke then takes his nephew for a weekend trip to his cabin and spends time getting to know his new nephew. Hawke gets emotional when he has to return Le Van to the McBride family but later gets involved when he learns Le Van has run away from home. Hawke, McBride and his friend Glen Carson search for him, finding the boy being harassed by street thugs. Hawke gets suspicious when he learns Carson is somehow involved with the thugs and finds out he and McBride are running a mercy operation to retrieve dead American soldiers still being found in Vietnam. The coffin operation turns out to be a cover for Carson's cocaine smuggling business. | ||||||
| 46 | 13 | "Wildfire" | Vincent McEveety | David Westheimer | January 11, 1986 (1986-01-11) | 61116 |
| Santini gets to spend time with an old oil-drilling friend named "Big Cec" (Ken Curtis) and his son "Lil' Cec" (Ken Olandt). Santini is shocked to learn the son was thrown out of college for marijuana possession and their "father-son relationship" has been falling apart since Cec's wife died. Big Cec hopes things will go better for his son now that he was given a promising job at the oil company, but trouble really begins when it is revealed that Lil' Cec job has been smuggling drugs out of Mexico for the company's shady owners. Lance LeGault makes his third and final appearance on Airwolf as Noble Flowers. Gregory Sierra, who played Julio Fuentes on Sanford and Son guest stars as Ochoa. | ||||||
| 47 | 14 | "Discovery" | Alan Cooke | Del Reisman, Stephen A. Miller |
January 18, 1986 (1986-01-18) | 61118 |
| The criminal mastermind, John Bradford Horn (John Vernon) (credited as John R. Vernon) returns, and has sent his henchmen to execute a woman, Grace Harrison, and her boyfriend out in the desert. Grace is shot but manages to get away, crawling into a cave which happens to be the hiding spot of Airwolf. Hawke and Santini rush out in response to a security alarm and find Grace unconscious and near death. The two take her to a hospital run by the F.I.R.M. She is treated, and Archangel decides to let her go, but puts a tail on her. Grace is captured again by Horn but she reveals the location of Airwolf is exchange for her life. | ||||||
| 48 | 15 | "Day of Jeopardy" | Georg Fenady | Everett Chambers, Rick Kelbaugh |
January 25, 1986 (1986-01-25) | 61119 |
| Tess Dixon, the wife of the infamous crimelord Cullen Dixon, and an old flame of Hawke's, escapes her husband's bodyguards and Archangel contacts Hawke to deliver her to a safehouse. She plans to testify against her husband's involvement in a plot to assassinate several top-ranking Washington officials, but Hawke's previous involvement with Tess makes it difficult for him. He must set his feelings aside once Tess comes under attack by Cullen's thugs who want to make sure Tess does not live to testify. | ||||||
| 49 | 16 | "Little Wolf" | Bernard McEveety | Robert Specht | February 1, 1986 (1986-02-01) | 61122 |
| Hawke is visiting a former Vietnam War pal named Greg Stewart and finds him in the midst of a child custody battle between him and his ex-wife, Rainey. The battle becomes more complicated when Greg's rich mother Martha, gets involved and refuses to release the child from her custody at her ranch. Rainey hides the child in Santini's car, and he and Hawke quickly find themselves accused of kidnapping. The baby was played by twins Max and John Kenworthy. | ||||||
| 50 | 17 | "Desperate Monday" | Gregory Prange | Robert Janes, Rick Kelbaugh, J.L. D'Angeles |
February 8, 1986 (1986-02-08) | 61120 |
| Caitlin is attending a Kappa Lambda Chi fraternity homecoming on the Queen Mary luxury liner. Unbeknown to her, one of her friends, Barbara Scarelli, the daughter of a rich businessman, is about to be kidnapped in an extortion attempt set up by her shady boyfriend Robert (Bryan Cranston). The kidnap attempt backfires when one of the kidnappers kills one of Barbara's bodyguards and sets off alarms. In a panic, the three thugs take the whole gathering hostage and make demands for a helicopter to the SWAT team that stands by. The F.I.R.M. sends in Airwolf to trap and take the criminals out. | ||||||
| 51 | 18 | "Hawke's Run" | Richard Irving | B.W. Sandefur | February 15, 1986 (1986-02-15) | 61127 |
| An old Vietnam War buddy invites Hawke to join his mercenary squad, but Hawke turns down the offer. The friend then invites Hawke to an art showing, but upon getting there, he finds himself betrayed and set up for assassination as gunmen storm in and shoot up the place. Hawke is shot, but manages to escape. He is helped by a passerby who gets him to the hospital under an assumed name. Hawke tries to contact Archangel for help, but Zeus intervenes and believes Hawke has been compromised and calls in the Zebra Squad to finish him off. Hawke now finds himself running from assassins on both fronts. | ||||||
| 52 | 19 | "Break-In at Santa Paula" | Dennis Donnelly | Edward J. Lakso | February 22, 1986 (1986-02-22) | 61131 |
| Hawke helps a friend get her wrongly convicted son Terry, out of a brutal Mexican prison. Hawke goes to get a layout of the prison and poses as Terry's uncle to get close to him. The rescue attempt fails when Terry refuses to leave a fellow inmate behind and Hawke's cover is blown. He finds himself thrown into the same prison until Santini and Caitlin mount a rescue. | ||||||
| 53 | 20 | "The Girl Who Fell From the Sky" | Don Chaffey | B.W. Sandefur | March 15, 1986 (1986-03-15) | 61132 |
| During a night-time fishing trip, Hawke spots a helicopter fly down and dump a body into the lake. He fishes the body out the river finding it to be a young girl who is barely alive and takes her to a hospital. The girl recovers but has lost all memory of who she is or what happened to her. Uncovering her identity, Hawke learns that she is a drug addicted prostitute but has no idea why someone wants her dead. When the thugs learn she is still alive, they come to finish the job and to kill the only witness, Hawke. | ||||||
| 54 | 21 | "Tracks" | Ron Stein | Rick Kelbaugh | March 22, 1986 (1986-03-22) | 61124 |
| Hawke takes a group of wheelchair-bound vets on an outdoor trip into the mountains, but the group runs across a deranged woodsman known as "The Cat" who has been terrorizing and murdering anyone who trespasses on "his mountain". Santini and Caitlin learn Hawke and the men are in trouble and mount a rescue attempt, racing against time to find the team first before the killer does. | ||||||
| 55 | 22 | "Birds of Paradise" | Bernard L. Kowalski | Robert Janes | March 29, 1986 (1986-03-29) | 61129 |
| Hawke's nephew "Half-Pint" shows up at Santini Air begging for help to find his stepmother, Minh Van McBride, who has been missing for weeks. With Archangel's help, Hawke and Santini track Minh Van's last whereabouts to a swanky nightclub. They learn she has been abducted by Nick Kincaid, a "white slaver" who kidnaps foreign women and sells them as sex-slaves. Hawke also learns that Kincaid is a drug trafficker, currently looking for a reputable pilot to smuggle shipments for him. Hawke poses as an interested pilot to get inside Kincaid's operation and locate Minh Van. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Airwolf Episodes
Famous quotes containing the word season:
“When I read a story, I relive the moment from which it sprang. A scene burned itself into me, a building magnetized me, a mood or season of Nature’s penetrated me, history suddenly appeared to me in some tiny act, or a face had begun to haunt me before I glanced at it.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)