Scene Pick: ‘Airwolf’ – Stringfellow Meets St. John

Scene Pick: ‘Airwolf’ – Stringfellow Meets St. John

Jan Michael Vincent rocked and ruled the TV screen as Stringfellow Hawke in the popular CBS show Airwolf (1984 – 87). String, or Hawke, flew the super copter Airwolf on combat missions for the US government on the condition that they will look for his brother St. John who went MIA in Vietnam.

While Jan ran the show for 3 seasons as the lead, a fourth season finally replaced the entire cast and took mainly Canadian talent to add episodes to the Airwolf saga. Many were disappointed as the new arrivals appeared lackluster before the more established team: Jan Michael Vincent, Ernest Borgnine, Jean Bruce Scott, and Alex Cord. Yet, the show went on and many acclimated to the new show that had some good stories and probably more variety in plots than Jan’s Airwolf seasons.

This clip is a memorable moment from the show’s pilot episode, Blackjack, of the 4th season. The story shows a bomb blast in a Santini Air chopper that kills Dom (Ernest Borgnine) and leaves String wounded. In the hospital, he meets his long last brother St. John (Barry Vyn Dyke) who will take over as the pilot lead of Airwolf, assisted by Mike Rivers (Geraint Wyn Davies) and Dom’s niece Jo Santini (Michele Scarabelli).

This clip shows the moment the viewers of the show had waited for 3 seasons – seeing the Hawkes’ reunion. The background music by the way is touching – and it plays in many episodes of the fourth season, which kept Airwolf alive on- and off-screen.

Related: Scene Pick: Airwolf – The Horn of Plenty

9 thoughts on “Scene Pick: ‘Airwolf’ – Stringfellow Meets St. John

  1. I have seen all of the Season 4 episodes. In the first episode, it seems the producers clearly wanted viewers to believe Stringfellow Hawke had died. It was never shown that the character did die–There is no classic scene where a sheet is pulled over Stringfellow and a doctor pronounces him dead and there is also no graveside scene or service for Stringfellow. Only Dominic Santini died for sure. His gravestone is shown in this first episode.

    1. In a episode of season 4 a woman was asking sinjin if he had any family. Sinjin replied “I have a brother” ‘he watches out for me…. In his own way”.(I don’t remember what episode it was).

      1. It is true I remember that in a chapter where Mike rivers falls from a high place and almost died. When I was in the hospital and with each character I saw, I remembered a particular situation. when it was Saint John’s turn. He scoffed at the name and ST John explained about his name. Then he mentioned the name of his brother, String Fellow, and it was when Rivers asked him if String is his brother. he said it in the present sense so that string never died he simply left and cares for his brother in his own way as he said in the other chapter. great series shame not having an epic

  2. Just as you said Buddy. The most mysterious treatment was Cat’s character. She just disappeared with no mention of what happened to her. I assume she chose to go back to Texas instead of working with Canadians 😉

  3. i think string and others played better action than his brother and others.
    i watch all of it except the last two dvds. it got borring. . miss it all and hope he comes back.

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