Airwolf

Name: Airwolf
Genre: Drama

Rate it

A helicopter emerging from a desert mesa to a synth fanfare, at a level of self-seriousness the decade rewarded.

Airwolf opens with a main title sequence of 59 seconds.

It arrived on CBS in 1984, when Candid Camera, Guiding Light and As the World Turns were also on the network.

The opening titles

59s

The opening.

1985–BBC OneDrama

An aerial pull-back over the Thames and the drum that answers it — thirty-two seconds that have barely changed in forty years.

1989–2001NBC / SyndicationDrama

Los Angeles County lifeguards, and at its peak the most-watched television programme on Earth.

1989CBSDrama

Basil Poledouris scoring a cattle drive from Texas to Montana — the miniseries that proved the western was not finished after all.

1985–2025Seven / Ten (Australia)Drama

Ramsay Street across forty years, and a theme song that survived every cast, network and cancellation.

1987–CBSDrama

Los Angeles fashion houses, and the most widely watched daytime serial in the world.

1982–1986NBCDrama

A narrated premise, a scanning red light and a synth arpeggio — the most efficient piece of eighties television branding after the A-Team's.