In the grand tradition of taking hit movies and spinning them off into TV series, 1984’s Blue Thunder aimed to capture the excitement of the 1983 film of the same name. Unfortunately, much like many short-lived adaptations, while having the makings of a fun, action-packed police procedural—on paper, at least, it lacked the firepower to stay in the air for long.
The show follows the exploits of the Blue Thunder helicopter—a high-tech, heavily armed aerial police unit designed to take on urban crime and terrorism and is operated by a four-person LAPD Air Support Division team, but partially controlled by APEX, a fictional federal government agency. It is piloted by Frank Chaney (James Farentino), who takes over as the pilot, replacing Roy Scheider’s character from the movie, and providing comic relief and technical support as his sidekick, we have Clinton “JAFO” Wonderlove (Dana Carvey). The cast also included the team’s ground support, Lyman “Bubba” Kelsey (Bubba Smith) and Richard “Ski” Butowski (Dick Butkus), who mostly drove around in a van called “Rolling Thunder” and arrested whatever villains Blue Thunder was hovering over on a particular day or mission.
“You have the right to remain bored.”
The pilot episode pretty much set the tone for the series, with Frank continually butting heads with his boss Captain Ed Braddock (Sandy McPeak), who is a “play things by the book” kind of guy while Chaney is a maverick who plays by his own rules – you could say the clichés run deep on this show – but when an old enemy from Frank’s past, an ex-police informant and drug smuggler named P.V.C. (Richard Lynch) who had killed Frank’s old partner, starts shooting down LAPD helicopters the playbook must be thrown out the window. Turns out that P.V.C. wants a one-on-one dogfight with his old friend, and he won’t stop until he gets what he wants. Needless to say, Braddock refuses to let Frank face off against him, no matter how many cops get killed by this madman, and from that point on, things go as expected, such as Frank ignoring Braddock and P.V.C. getting all exploded.
Richard Lynch was the go-to guy for evil villains of the 1980s.
Stray Observation:
• Despite being armed with an intimidating arsenal, Blue Thunder
rarely used its weapons. Instead of explosive dogfights, most episodes
ended with criminals surrendering after a quick, dramatic hover-over.
Maybe the real crime-fighting power was the helicopter’s ability to make
bad guys give up out of boredom.
• Former NFL players Bubba Smith
and Dick Butkus play former NFL players Lyman “Bubba” Kelsey and Richard
“Ski” Butowski. Talk about typecasting.
• In the movie JAFO stood
for “Just Another Fucking Observer,” but to make television censors
happy, it was changed to “Just Another Frustrated Observer.”
• In the episode “A Clear and Present Danger,”
a paramilitary group uses a WWII fighter to provide air support for
their bank robberies, and sure, this is idiotic, but it does give Blue
Thunder a reason to get involved.
• Got a hostage situation? Send Blue Thunder. A runaway car? Deploy Blue Thunder. Someone shoplifting a candy bar? You guessed it—Blue Thunder
is on the case. The show had an amazing ability to justify using a
heavily armed military-grade helicopter for the most mundane crimes.
Blue Thunder vs The Red Baron?
The most notable change from movie to television show was how it toned down the political intrigue and moral dilemmas, replacing them with formulaic crime-of-the-week plots that rarely lived up to the potential of a high-tech copter busting criminals. The action sequences—arguably the biggest draw—were serviceable but heavily reliant on recycled footage from both the film and previous episodes, making them feel repetitive. Where the original film was a paranoid thriller about government overreach and the misuse of technology, the TV series discarded those themes in favour of standard “bad guys do crime, helicopter stops them” plots and a simple premise of “Boy, aren’t armed helicopters cool?” The show’s tone also struggled to find a balance. At times, it wanted to be a gritty cop drama, but this could have worked with sharper writing; the scripts rarely soared beyond generic TV fare. Adding to the tonal confusion is the presence of Dana Carvey as Clinton “JAFO” Wonderlove, the comic relief sidekick. Carvey would go on to become a comedy legend, but here he’s completely out of place; his attempts at humour and celebrity impressions feel awkwardly shoehorned into a show that otherwise takes itself too seriously.
“Live from Blue Thunder, it’s Saturday Night!”
However, being a tonal misfire wasn’t the only problem this show had to deal with, as Blue Thunder quickly ran into turbulence in Prime Time, as it had to compete with another 1984 helicopter-themed show: Airwolf, which offered darker, more stylish storytelling and superior production values. Compared to Airwolf, Blue Thunder felt sanitized, lacking the edgier themes that made the original movie a cult favourite. The action is formulaic, with each episode feeling more like an A-Team knockoff than a continuation of a thought-provoking movie. The limitations of early ’80s television budgets also meant that the helicopter rarely did anything as jaw-dropping as its big-screen counterpart. Instead of thrilling dogfights or tactical espionage, we got scenes of Blue Thunder hovering ominously while the bad guys surrendered.
“Stop or we’ll shoot. You are going sixty in a fifty-five-mph zone.”
In the end, Blue Thunder was shot down after only 11 episodes, unable to compete with Airwolf’s sleeker appeal. While it may hold nostalgic charm for those who caught it during its brief run, it’s mostly remembered as an interesting but ill-fated attempt to bring big-screen thrills to the small screen. If you’re looking for ‘80s helicopter action, you’re better off checking out Airwolf—or just watching the Blue Thunder movie again.