Aviation Related Television Shows and Movies

Alert us to any upcoming shows or movies on the tube or silver screen here.

Here are a few I’ve been watching:

Air Emergency on National Geographic Channel Tuesday 7:00 PM (Eastern - check local listing) and rebroadcast again 7 hours later at 2:00 AM.
Air Emergency examines some of the world’s most horrific air disasters. Each episode looks at the critical moments before impact, plus archive video, cockpit recordings, re-enactments and survivor’s stories.

When Weather Changed History on the Weather Channel Saturday night at 9:00 and again at 11:00 Eastern. Similar to Air Emergency above, often examines aviation accidents where weather was a factor (Air Florida 90, Delta 191, etc.), but some episodes may not be aviation related.

DOGFIGHTS on the History Channel Sunday nights at 8:00 p.m., and is aired again 4 hours later at midnight

Wings Over Canada

http://yakimaherald.com/stories/8608

by Adriana Janovich
Yakima Herald-Republic

Airplane owner not flying too high over movie honor
Eisenhower grad feels privileged that his plane is being used in upcoming big-budget action film

David Giussi isn’t starstruck.

Sure, he thinks it’s cool John Cusack walked by, acknowledging him and a friend with a casual, “Hi guys.” But he thinks it’s even cooler he got a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of a major forthcoming movie starring Cusack, Danny Glover and Amanda Peet.

And he thinks it’s even cooler still that his airplane is being used in the film, set to be released next summer. He’s even getting paid for it, although he won’t say how much.

Audiences will be able to tell the plane is his by the tail number, a kind of license plate for airplanes. While movie people had the aircraft painted for the film, they didn’t cover its identification number: N340SB.

“They kept it for the movie, which is unusual – but good for me, because now I can actually prove it was my plane in the movie,” says the 44-year-old Giussi, owner and president of the Yakima-based Graffunder Safe and Vault Inc.

Earlier this month – as well as once this summer – he traveled to British Columbia to visit the set and check on his airplane, a 1979 six-passenger, twin-engine Cessna 340A.

He spent 10 days – five at Cache Creek, about 50 miles west of Kamloops, and five in Vancouver – hanging out on location. He and his friend Gary Oliver, owner of G.O.'s Collision Center in Yakima, got to watch Cusack and Peet film scenes with his plane at the Cache Creek airstrip.

“We were just like part of the crew,” says the 53-year-old Oliver. “We got first-class treatment while we were there because of Dave having his airplane there.”

Giussi, a 1982 Eisenhower High School graduate, describes the film as “an end-of-the-world type thing.” The budget of the film, identified as both “2012” and “Farewell Atlantis,” is reported to be more than $200 million, landing it among the most expensive films ever made. It’s directed by Ronald Emmerich, of “Independence Day” and “Godzilla,” who also co-wrote the script.

“I’ve always been amazed at special effects in movies,” Oliver says. It was pretty incredible. I’m anxious to see the end results."

Giussi says watching the filming was interesting, but there was a lot of standing and waiting around. He also says he was surprised to learn how much filming outdoors depends on the weather.

“They have a schedule, but they don’t stick to it,” Giussi says. “You don’t know what’s going to happen day to day.”

He got involved when he was approached by a local man who leases aircraft to movie production companies.

He says he was impressed by the movie sets and props – “It’s amazing how much time and effort goes in to make this stuff realistic” – and surprised at the large number of people working behind-the-scenes.

“I met some really good people I’m still in contact with,” Giussi says. “It was fun to listen to their stories of other movies they have worked on.”

While on the set, Giussi and Oliver didn’t pose in any photos with starring actors or ask for autographs.

“I was just there as a spectator,” Giussi says. “I got to go because my aircraft was there.”

Giussi, who has a degree in chemical engineering from Washington State University, got his pilot’s license in 2001. And he has owned the airplane that’s being used in the film for about five years.

Similar models are for sale online from $149,000 to upwards of $300,000. Giussi says he was comfortable leasing his plane for the movie because an experienced pilot and mechanic were on-site during filming.

Normally, his plane is white with red, gold and green stripes. But it was painted for the film, and – as a movie prop – that paint job is top secret.

Folks connected to the film were adamant that no photos be released prior to the official media release and the film’s opening.

Giussi estimates he flies his plane about 120 hours a year, mostly for business purposes, meeting clients around the West. His company manufactures high-end, high-security, plate-metal safes and vaults.

Filming with Giussi’s airplane is now finished – unless certain scenes need to be reshot. Meantime, he’s looking forward to seeing the film – and his airplane in it.

Maybe he’ll even get to go to the premiere. Now, that would be cool.

I like this thread…

Post old classics as well, such as movies 16 Right or Top Gun. Can’t think of any TV shows off the top of my head aviation related.

Be kinda neat what I need to look for… :slight_smile:

Showdown: Air Combat

Jay Jay The Jet Plane-We all probably love this show :mrgreen:

How about this one imdb.com/title/tt0098948/ was on many years, and good too.

I wasn’t born for these two, but definitely have seen the reruns…
Blacksheep Squadron (early 60’s TV show about USMC F4U squadron)

SkyKing (50’s era TV show I don’t remember much about the show, but it featured a Cessna Bamboo Bomber)

also “newer” shows I loved as a kid included

Wings (one of the first Discovery Channel series…each episode featured an aircraft , usually a military aircraft, but also included legendary aircraft like DC-3, 747, Concorde etc).

Wings (the NBC comedy , reminded me a little of working regionals at my local aerodrome)

Airwolf (a little far fetched, but that was one bad Bell)

To add to your movies there was…
Iron Eagle
Strategic Air Command
Flying Tigers
Final Countdown (sci fi about a carrier going back in time, had F-14’s dogfighting zeros :laughing: )

I know there were more, will try to think

Strategic Air Command (B-36)

Airwolf.

warning this contains foul language

this ruined Top Gun for me. From the movie- Sleep with me, Quentin tarantino Monologue. there is a youtube link at the end of it.

What's a film about, what's it really about? What genre does it take?

[Duane: What, like the spine? Like one sentence?]

No, I don't, fucking boy meets girl, I don't give a shit about that. Fuck boy meets girl, fuck motorcycle movie. No, what is really being said? What's really being said, that's what you're talking about. 'Cause the whole idea, man, is subversion. You want subversion on a massive level. You know what one of the greatest fucking scripts ever written in the history of Hollywood is? Top Gun.

[Duane: Oh, come on.]

Top Gun is fucking great. What is Top Gun? You think it's a story about a bunch of fighter pilots. [Duane: It's about a bunch of guys waving their dicks around.] It is a story about a man's struggle with his own homosexuality. It is! That is what Top Gun is about, man.

You've got Maverick, all right? He's on the edge, man. He's right on the fucking line, all right? And you've got Iceman, and all his crew. They're gay, they represent the gay man, all right? And they're saying, go, go the gay way, go the gay way. He could go both ways.

[Duane: What about Kelly McGillis?]

Kelly McGillis, she's heterosexuality. She's saying: no, no, no, no, no, no, go the normal way, play by the rules, go the normal way. They're saying no, go the gay way, be the gay way, go for the gay way, all right? That is what's going on throughout that whole movie...

He goes to her house, all right? It looks like they're going to have sex, you know, they're just kind of sitting back, he's takin' a shower and everything. They don't have sex. He gets on the motorcycle, drives away. She's like, "What the fuck, what the fuck is going on here?" Next scene, next scene you see her, she's in the elevator, she is dressed like a guy. She's got the cap on, she's got the aviator glasses, she's wearing the same jacket that the Iceman wears. She is, okay, this is how I gotta get this guy, this guy's going towards the gay way, I gotta bring him back, I gotta bring him back from the gay way, so I'm do that through subterfuge, I'm gonna dress like a man. All right? That is how she approaches it.

Okay, now let me just ask you--I'm gonna digress for two seconds here. I met this girl Amy here, she's like floating around here and everything. Now, she just got divorced, right?...

All right, but the REAL ending of the movie is when they fight the MIGs at the end, all right? Because he has passed over into the gay way. They are this gay fighting fucking force, all right? And they're beating the Russians, the gays are beating the Russians. And it's over, and they fucking land, and Iceman's been trying to get Maverick the entire time, and finally, he's got him, all right? And what is the last fucking line that they have together? They're all hugging and kissing and happy with each other, and Ice comes up to Maverick, and he says, "Man, you can ride my tail, anytime!" And what does Maverick say? "You can ride mine!" Swordfight! Swordfight! Fuckin' A, man!

And on a similar note, from the June 1995 Details profile of Val Kilmer:

He got all buffed out for the role of Iceman, Tom Cruise's adversary, and while he didn't like the script ("I turned it down at first, but Paramount had an option they exercised, so I had to do it"), Top Gun remains a key film of the '80s--the most representative of not only what was wrong with movies but what was wrong with this country's values. It's also the most unintentionally gay movie ever made by a big studio, so homoerotic it's like some kind of camp joke. It's impossible to watch it without thinking of Quentin Tarantino's hilarious monologue about the movie's gay subtext in the we're-hip-screenwriters-in-Hollywood flick Sleep With Me, which Kilmer hasn't seen. All he'll say about the above, while smiling, is "Oh yeah?"

C'mon, Val. When were we all fucking born? Yesterday? The day before that? We know you sit around at 4a.m. with your VCR and a copy of Sleep With Me, holding your head in your hands, moaning, "What have I done? Dear God, what have I DONE?!" C'mon, Batguy, 'fess up.[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OJSm6OdPhs&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OJSm6OdPhs&feature=related)

Here’s a list of 410 aviation themed movies to get you all started!

Thanks for the list JHEM!

Does anyone recall seeing a Battle of Britain themed movie produced in Spain?? I only saw it once many years ago. It is a “B” movie and I saw it in dubbed English. The most notable part of the movie was that the ME-109’s had the roundels and the few Spits they had had German markings. The Director / Producer had things reversed, no kidding?

Any ideas?

As an aside, even though it has some great computer animations, Pearl Harbour" is the worst movie ever!

Episodes of Sky King are online.

Movie / tv show Blue Thunder. Who can forget the train wreck “LAX”. :laughing:

It’s been for ever since I’ve seen it, but one of my most memorable lines was, I beleive, in the Battle of Brittain, when the little Brittish kid sees the bombers flying over and says…(spelled to emulate how it was said)
“It’s a Heinkooool” i.e. Heinkel 111.

I thought of another recent one,
The Aviator, Im not a fan of the kid thats portrays Hughes, but for a big name full length feature film, and being the TWA fan I am, I liked this movie. Quite a bit of flying.
Another lower budget movie from the early 90s,** Flight of The Intruder**.
Of course there’s Airplane, The Right Stuff’,
Oh, and this one just came to mind…does anyone remember in the late 80s, there was a short lived series, probably inspired by Top Gun, called “Supercarrier”? IT was half Top Gun half Days of our Lives if I remember correctly, but it had F-14’s and A-4’s, in fact I think they used aerial footage from Top Gun in some flying scenes.
I also remember a made for TV movie about UA 232 (Sioux City IA).

Danger Bay! Harbour Air flew a Bell 206 and a De Havilland Beaver.

check out the shows intro in the link. Canada’s McGyver.

talkingmoviezzz.blogspot.com/200 … -1990.html

Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Time: 8PM (2000 Hours) Eastern and Pacific
Channel: The Military Channel
Show: The Season Premiere of “Great Planes”

Hopefully this year’s episodes will continue the excellence exhibited by their prior offerings and not just be repeats of previous episodes.

http://thumbnail.search.aolcdn.com/truveo/images/thumbnails/F2/7D/F27DC28B18D8128E48819D.jpg

Good afternoon ladies and gentleman, this is your captain Glenn Quagmire, uhhhhhhh we’re lookin’ bout a four and a half hour flight time today, uhhhhhhh got clear skies, good visibility. The temperature in Atlanta is sixty-four degrees, uhhhhhhhhhh the flight is gonna be a little longer than we’ve expected, uh we’ve got some very strong head winds, gigity. Uh, flight attendants, please prepare for takeoff.

While browsing this topic I conjured up an old TV series I enjoyed as a youngster that I hadn’t thought of in ages … Whirlybirds. How’s that for a blast from the past?

Before my time. When I was a kid I had a helicopter toy that was called a whirlybird. It flew around a base and could go up/down, fwd/back, take off and land. It had real blades that could take out both your eyes in an instant.

That was called a “Vertibird” made by Mattel. I had one when I was a kid too. Got it for Christmas when I was about 6 or 7, and it broke a few weeks later. My parents wouldn’t buy me another one :cry:

Then they stopped selling them! Too dangerous I guess. I did some searching on the Net a few years ago and I found someone selling them on eBay or Amazon or somewhere and I got two of 'em. The new ones have circular rims around the blades that the old ones didn’t have. Wouldn’t be hard to cut 'em off. 8) It just ain’t the same when it lacks that certain element of danger.