POOR LITTLE LAMBS

[phil65]

Forty years ago to the day, on September 23rd, 1976, the famed TV-series Baa Baa Black Sheep first aired on television in the United States.

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-ne ... sheep.html

[JohnB]

Pretty much the last TV series based on WWII.

It wasn't always great, and took more than a few liberties with history, and a lot of the time you could tell it was a late-70s production , but it was harmless...and introduced a new generation to warbird and the men that flew them.
By that standard, even Pearl Harbor and Red Tails have value.

Last edited by JohnB on Fri Sep 23, 2016 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Mark Allen M]

POOR Robert Conrad

[menards]

After watching the show...how much of the flying sequences were recycled across more than one episode? A cool part was the usage of color wartime footage, but a bulk of the corsair scenes seems like the went and filmed some formation flying over the Channel Islands and then just re-used it...

[JohnB]

The Navy shot most...if not all...of its combat film in color, so it was easy to use old USN shots in later color productions (like Midway).

And nearly all TV productions (From Sky King to Airwolf) use stock shots of flying sequences...if the script calls for 3 Corsairs flying, why shoot new footage every week? The Corsairs look the same and have the same color scheme.
They only shot a lot of new stuff when action took place near the aircraft on the ground, when the script needed shots carrying bombs or the radar Corsair, or when they were showing doing something unique to the episode, like flying with P-38s.

[wendovertom]

I have to admit, now that I look at it today I see a lot of the flaws, same sequences used over and over, a lot of liberties taken with history etc etc etc. . .
BUT I can remember being a 7-8 year old kid being totally enthralled with it. It totally turned me on to begging my parents to take me to air shows LOVE IT!

Tom P.

[Chris Brame]

...if the script calls for 3 Corsairs flying, why shoot new footage every week? The Corsairs look the same and have the same color scheme.

That led to a memorable blooper that was left in the show - the script had Pappy saying twice - and gesturing - that they needed a flight of five planes; after the scene was shot they changed it to four planes to match the footage they had, and had Robert loop the word "four" over the soundtrack. Not only did the sound not match, the film still showed him holding up five fingers!

[bdk]

Great article! I was already into WW2 aircraft (at the age of 14) and this show was great eye candy. Even at 14 I knew most of it was B.S. Still fun though!

[Scooby]

Still my favourite show, even if it was awful acting.

I was 11 when it came out. I knew what this topic was going to be when I read the title.

[JohnB]

I recently saw the series, it was about as I recalled it, not bad at times, but the later episodes with the nurses and the high school pretty boy were pretty bad and historically insulting.

I've mentioned here in the past that during the production period, my brother-in-law flew a 182 out of a FBO at Van Nuys. We went to it once, and a large motorhome was parked against a hangar. We were told that Conrad was learning to fly there and since he was in the middle of a divorce, was living in the RV. Certainly, he did taxi and shut down the corsair in some scenes.

[Warbird Kid]

Not sure if anyone has noticed this but, theirs been an increase in Hollywood of unoriginal rehashed ideas of old shows / movies, attempting to cash in on the "nostalgia dollar". With that said, I submit to you, that we will see a remake of Baa Baa Black Sheep within the next 10 to 15 years. I just hope that if / when it does happen, historical accuracy will hold a bit more importance.

[JohnB]

I just hope that if / when it does happen, historical accuracy will hold a bit more importance.

Don't hold your breath...in any TV/film production...drama (or ease/cost of production) ALWAYS comes first.
Heck, the play "War Horse" didn't even have real horses...

[ignomini]

Love those stills. Thanks for posting. I remember flying around over the set with my father in his Cub. I so wanted to land and look at the Corsairs. First time I had ever seen more than one. The joy of being young, it didn't matter if the was accurate or not, they were flying CORSAIRS!!

[Full Throttle]

In that 2nd and 3rd picture, look at the dirt, oil, and chipped paint - very cool and how a warbird should look! I'll bet it smelled good too! I remember seeing -7 "Blue Max" at Osh in either 85 or 86, it was oily and had a lot of fabric patches. Liked it alot.

[sandiego89]

I too loved the show as a 10-13 year old, and got to meet the real Pappy at Chino in 1979. My mom got him to sign a lithograph of his first shoot down which I still hang in my office. I also lived about 30 minutes from the airfield near Indian Dunes where they filmed and my dad an I stopped a few times when all the Corsairs were lined up and we could get maybe a 100 yards away. I later rode dirt bikes around the area when Indian Dunes was an active dirt bike park. Lots of movies were filmed around the area, including the tragic Twilight Zone Huey crash and the Zeppelin scene in the Rocketeer. The Black Sheep quonset hut and the strip (it was a crop duster strip) survived for years afterwards, and was used for several movies/TV shows but it slowly went back to all agriculture. A few minutes west of Magic Mountain amusement park.

I think they ran out of plot lines- guess there are only so many times you can run up the Slot and take out a bunch of zeros....