Baa Baa Blacksheep TV Series being released on DVD

[Ollie]

Woo-hoo!

[tom d. friedman]

that show was lame!! yeah nice flying scenes but brainless content. brought to you by the creators of the A-TEAM & KNIGHT RIDER tv series as well. ****caution**** prolonged exposure of anything by cannell productions can cause total brain damage!!!

[tom d. friedman]

baa baa b.s.!! that show was the preverbial nail in the coffin with pappy's wartime squadron mates, & many historians. boyington was great in many respects, but that show & it's sappy melodrama / embellished & exaggerated story lines really destroyed what was left of his credibility regards, tom

[Jack Cook]

Tom,
Well said neither myself or John Lane here are Pappy fans by any stretch. Anyone who slanders the memory of men who died for their country for a sake of the oh'mighty dollar is discraceful. I'm currently disagreeing with diehard Pappy worshipers on the acepilots.com forum. The show was great when I was a little kid but I'm all growed up now (well mostly). I think if you want to admire a great ace then Marion Carl or Bob Johnson are better choices.

[HarvardIV]

Hey Guys:

I still like it, even if it had some corny moments. If they redid that show, and made it a tad more realistic, then it would rock!

[Randy Haskin]

Why does liking or not liking the show have to be a comment on Pappy?

Personally, I loved the show when I was a kid and I still enjoy watching it now, although only because of being able to watch multiple Corsairs fly around on television (the stories are all crap, of course).

I also know that the guy Robert Conrad on TV bears no similarity to that little ugly guy I used to see at airshows signing books (long before I knew what a hero really was).

Pappy's accomplishments speak for themselves -- whether you love him or hate him, and with our without a cartoonish TV show that was based on part of his life.

[JohnH]

Now wait a minute....if you were 9 years old like I was and just getting into airplanes that show was the most incredible thing on earth...It's responsible for me being into warbirds and I'm thankful for it. On top of that a station in San Jose at the same time had reruns of 12 O Clock High the tv show as well. It was awesome. Of course now if I go back and watch these shows as an adult I would probably say the same thing but I have great memories of them. Maybe that's the problem, you had to be a kid to like these shows.

John

[airnutz]

Another point maybe, is that these birds were earning their keep..and
exposing another generation to the deeds and histories of those times.

I grew up watching "Buy Bonds" movies..mostly for the planes and the
heroe figures. Over time I continued to watch the aircraft footage,
but I also studied Midway, Battle of Leyte Gulf, The real AVG story etc.
Now as an adult, I am able to separate Raymond Massey from Claire
Chennault. I also understand Boyingtons addition of strafing "kills"($),
against what was considered as "kills" by the parameters his
contemporaries were bound to.

The point is..that even though the stories which caught my attention may
not have been true...they led me here!

The resurrection of Warbirds and the appreciation of the histories owe..
for better or worse..to some of the peaks in Hollywoods inept bungling
of the facts interlaced with action footage of the real aircraft telling these
stories. Aircraft that would have been added to the rotted-beyond-repair
of many of their sisters, were it not for movies like Battle of Britain, Tora-
-Tora-Tora, Catch 22, and on and on..even including Blue Max, Darling Lili,
the polite post-Victorian series, The Flambards..all had their roles in
keeping the "spirit" alive!!

So, I'll probably get the DVD's just to see the Corsairs and listen to the drone of the Pratts(the engines and the actors), but I know that I'm being
entertained but not deluded.....

[airnutz]

John H, oooo yeahhh..12 O'clock High, another warbird tickler for young imaginations, Robert Stack!! I'd actually like to have those on DVD also.
A very seminal rememberance for me. How about "Combat!"..Did any
of ya'll see the episode with the "german" P-51 B/C belonging, I believe
to Paul Mantz?

[Tim Landers]

Here is a bio. for Vince Lipovsky, who was our guest at last years WOH airshow-Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut November 28, 1919, Vince was inspired to be a pilot by Charles Lindbergh’s Atlantic crossing in 1927. He joined Civilian Military Training Camps in 1937 followed by the Navy Cadet in 1942 followed by a commission in the Marine Corps in 1943. He then joined fighter squadron 223 commanded by Marion Carl and led by Ken Frasier. After training on Midway, he transferred to Vella Lavella, north of Guadalcanal where his his 1st Corsair mission was on his 24th birthday November 28, 1943. Vince’s squadron shared an airstrip with Boyington’s Black Sheep squadron and flew missions with Boyington as flight leader. On one occasion a drunk Boyington came into Vince’s tent wanting Vince’s liquor. However after a stare down and some minor threats, Boyington left Vince’s tent without incident not realizing that he had been sitting on the 30 bottles of liquor he sought.



On another mission, his plane’s tail wheel was hit by shrapnel on take off and he had to abort takeoff to get a new plane. When he left the plane it was hit by a Japanese mortar and was totally destroyed. Vince went on to Green Island where in March 1944 Charles Lindbergh arrived. Vince together with Ed Firestone and Hank Emory, took Lindbergh on “targets of opportunity” missions

Ed Firestone (KIA), Vince Lipovsky, Charles Lindberg, Hank Emory
. Lt. Lipovsky flew a total of 66 missions in the Pacific earning a Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross. Vince was recalled for service in the Korean war where he flew jets on 33 missions as a photo recon pilot. After the Korean war, he worked on the ICBM missile program and the Apollo program for which his company built the heat shield for the re-entry vehicle and other devices. Vince currently lives in Seabrook, TX with his wife Florence.

[HarvardIV]

Hi Tracy:

Hear hear, same feeling here. Sure it was exaggerated, but nothing impossible happened. You have to watch it with the mindset that it is part fiction, part fact.

If you watch it from the standpoint that it is fact, you will be disappointed.

Anyway, it was alot better than Gilligan's Island, Brady Bunch and A-Team. I'd say Magnum P.I. was a close second.

[bdk]

Anyway, it was alot better than Gilligan's Island, Brady Bunch and A-Team.

Except Gilligan's Island had Maryann!

[corsairboss]

I believe that if it where not for the TV Series there would not be as many Corsairs around today as there are. Because of the mass fuel consumption the Radial Engine have, alot where not around being flown. There where alot sitting around, and people starting looking at them again. If you go to an airshow 9 out of 10 people will say is this the one from the TV show or just like that one. The Corsair is a "CooL" Plane.

[Roger Cain]

Another thing about the Baa Baa Black Sheep series, is for people that don't know a T-6 from a Corsair, they will always recognize the Corsair from the series, and it's bent wings. I've been to numerous air shows where I've been near the Corsair and will overhear one person talking to another and mentioning that it is the same plane that was used in the tv series.

On another old time movie (sorry, not aviaion related), I remember a show I used to only catch at my buddies house only(due to reception) that was called the "Rat Patrol". I haven't seen it since, but always remember that there was a guy standing in the back of a jeep with a mounted machine guy firing away, while the jeep was flying along, half the time in the air. After many years of my own serious off-roading from Ca through Idaho, I imagine those poor stuntmen took a horrific beating trying to stand up in the back of those jeeps. But on screen,it looked great as a kid watching it..........

[HarvardIV]

Actually,

I believe the Corsair and warbirds were made very popular with the non-aviation world after the "Blacksheep" series. I've heard that demand for former military fighters and trainers increased dramatically.

Also, when you tell folks at work that you're rebuilding a WW2 plane, the first thing they say is, "Is it a Corsair, like in Blacksheep squadron"?
Then they will say "I wish I could rebuild a Corsair". It's funny how much impact that show really has had on people.