Warbird Information Exchange

After a long wait I finally caught the F-15 Eagle episode. I'd been critical of previous episodes and, knowing that Max had flown the F-15, wanted to see if this one was any different.

Better. I assume Max spotted some flaws in the script and had them corrected earlier.

The long intro of what led to the F-15 and continually over-repeated footage wore me out - although I did learn the correct way to pronounce "Valkyrie". The other thing is that the show's footage barely progressed beyond 1987. You can't tell me more recent footage wasn't available - instead, grainy crap kept looping.

As much as I love warbirds I don't think I will watch another episode of Great Planes - it is just too painful. It's like watching Tiger Woods on a putt-putt course ... you know the skills are there and that better equipment is available ... you just can't figure out why they aren't using it.

_________________
"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Yes, and that was the tipping point for me. I won't spend time watching this show again.

Far too many inaccuracies and glossing over of details. And HORRIBLE editing and writing.

_________________
"They done it, they done it, damned if they ain't flew." December 17, 1903

The original "Wings" series on the Discovery Channel in the late 80s, early 90s, was a far superior show in just about every way possible. Hard to believe that in the nearly 20 years that the episodes first aired, progress has gone backwards. Great Planes can't even hold a candle to even the worst Wings episodes, and the best ones are completely out of Great Planes' league.

I am, however, immensely enjoying the "Battle 360" series about the Enterprise.

The B-25 episode just re-aired and I snagged it on the DVR ... I guess I forgot my pledge not to watch any more episodes. I cringed so much that now I need a back brace.

It could be done so much better! Argh!

Ken

_________________
"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

I was at the Military Aviation Museum when they were filming "Great Planes", and I thought (while he seemed like a nice guy, and was very pleasant to all the staff) that Max Moga was about as interesting as watching paint dry. I also HATE the "zoom in & zoom out" to each scene thing they do. Totally drives me crazy. As you also correctly point out, there are a series of factual errors that bother me as well. All that said, I don't think we'll have to worry about any more episodes, since the production company that developed and produced the show (M2 Productions) has gone out of business. On the up side, the museum has had MANY guests say that they came to see us after seeing "Great Planes", so it ain't all bad!!

_________________
"Thou shalt maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground reach up and smite thee."

The reason is cost. Splicing together a bunch of archived footage has a very low cost. Sending a camera guy, a few lights, a camera, and a host to play Q&A at a museum for a few hours is very inexpensive too. Given that several of these were filmed at this same facility, I'd guess they set up shop there for a week or two and filmed the interviews almost back to back, again reducing their investment.

The other place you can reduce your investment is in writers and/or fact checkers. I'm sure there are a hundred WIXers who could point out the inaccuracies in most of the shows. The question is whether they had an expert who let 'em down, or if the expert said "fix this, fix that, etc.", and the producers didn't want to invest the time to fix the oopses. Either way, it smacks of a cheap production.

That said, it is/was still better than 98% of the junk on TV. At least *someone* stood a chance of learning useful information from the show. I can't say the same for American Idol or Dancing with the Stars, which are two high profile examples of pure brain rot...

I will admit, the A-26 episode is probably the best one of the bunch. Other than that, not impressive. I also wonder about some of the "Great Plane" definitions. For instance, they did an episode on the P-39. While I would categorize the P-39 as a "Good Plane", it wouldn't make my list as a "Great Plane". (My apologies to any P-39 afficionados out there!)

While some of the "Wings" derivatives have made it into circulation on Military History and the Military Channel, such as Wings of the Luftwaffe and Desert Storm Wings episodes, I wonder why the "regular" Wings hasn't made it into circulation. Again, for a show that was produced 20 years ago, it still remains one of the more accurate aircraft shows out there.

I will commend the Military Channel for re-airing the World At War series. Even though the series is now pushing 40 years old, it remains one of the best documentaries out there. Some of the footage is jumbled around, especially with the Pacific episode, but Lawrence Olivier's narration and the music score make you forget some of the inaccuracies. For that matter, Victory at Sea, now almost 60 years old, is still great to watch.