Home > Drama TV Show > Blue Thunder

Blue Thunder

1984

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1
  • 0

EP1 Second Thunder Jan 06, 1984

In this ""Pilot"" episode of the ABC half season spin-off of the original 1983 blockbuster smash hit under the same name starring Roy Scheider, Warren Oates and Malcolm McDowell, The Blue Thunder Unit take on a ruthless pilot who has been recently aerially assassinating police helicopter units over Los Angeles. In an attempt to settle an old long-lasting score with Frank Chaney, the pilot and leader of The Blue Thunder Unit, the crazed comedian who calls himself ""P.V.C."" contacts Chaney, Braddock and the rest of the team and warns Chaney personally that he is going to blow him out of the sky for what he did a year ago when he destroyed his aircraft with a 12-gauge shotgun during an unsuccessful drug bust while he was a police officer, plus to make sure that he succeeds in transporting a scheduled shipment of drugs over the Mexican border. Still continuing to wipe out airborne police units when very cannily evacuating the entire Astro-Division Building, and with the acknowledge of how the

EP2 A Clear and Present Danger Jan 13, 1984

A paramilitary group who call themselves the ""Posse Magistratus"", have been the prime suspects for a series of bank robberies, and one particulary involving a heavily-modified World War II fighter plane. In order to track down this plane and stop the whole game, Chaney and Wonderlove attempt to track it down, based on various aerial police sightings. When accomplishing this, Chaney spots gun mounts on a plane that they performed an unauthorised thermograph upon, and results in not in the state of valid evidence to charge the Sheriff who owns it for the state-threatening operations. However that same day, the same World War II figher plane attacks them, and ends up being shot down by Chaney in Blue Thunder. To posess reliable and sufficent evidence to charge the ''Posse Magistrates'' of the crimes they have took out, Ski goes undercover as a mechanic, but it isn't long until Chaney and Wonderlove discover that the group plan to kill one of the cities' main councilmen at the Queen Mary s

EP3 Arms Race Jan 20, 1984

Aggie Mills, an former flame of Chaney's who he knew back in the Vietnam War, comes for help via the FBI to distort a much-growing drugs & gun smuggling ring, extending to more places than just Los Angeles. When the first operation is not a success, and turns out to be a smokescreen, Bubba and Ski are assigned to go undercover as truck mechanics, but they also accidentally discover that Aggie Mills is not all what she says she is, and happens to be associating with the man in-charge of the whole operation, Harold Longstreet. When Bubba and Ski are caught red-handed while placing a radar receiver on one of the trucks, in order for Chaney and Braddock to know where the drugs and the weapons are being ferried from, its a race against time for Chaney and Wonderlove to save their two crew members, and prevent Longstreet and Mills from getting away, unconvicted.

EP4 Revenge in the Sky Jan 27, 1984

An F-86 Sabre jet is stolen from an airfield by a group of KGB mercenaries, followed by an intense but unsuccessful chase by security personnel. The subsequent day, FBI agent Bruce Walsh informs Captain Braddock, Chaney and the Blue Thunder crew to participate immmediately in an in-depth search for the lost jet fighter, which with the proper treatment could be converted into a lethal weapon which could not be recovered by the government. Chaney is dis-satisifed with Walsh not providing substantial information regarding the hi-jack but Walsh covers his own with the excuse of Apex having their full acceptance with the FBI on this case. Throughtout the assignment, Chaney soon starts to develop a very romantic and cosy relationship with Walsh's assistant, Kate Cunningham, who unforuntely later on is killed just before she arrives at Chaney's house and mumbles the words ""K.G.B."". The search turns into an evenmore vengeful one, but when revealing the location of the Sabre jet, Blue Thunder i

EP5 Trojan Horse Feb 03, 1984

The witness, also his confidental secretary, who could put her employer, corrupted financier Richard J. Lassiter behind solid steel bars is rescued by the Blue Thunder unit from an estate where her kidnappers were previously holding her hostage, until Lassiter's court-trial was finished. He has been sentenced for 25 years for fraud, extortion and imtimidation, and is scheduled to be transferred to Greenlake Penitentiary, a medium-security facility, located in the Central part of the state. Complaining of a gut instinct that Lassister will have his associates prepared to rescue him from lifetime imprisonment while being transferred in a police motorcade, Braddock warns Chaney not to go anyway near the transportation, however he does so. If he hadn't, then Lassiter would have got away scot free, thanks to a truck parked in the middle of the routed road with heavy automatic weapons, which is blown away by Blue Thunder's 20mm 6-barrel Vulcan electric cannon. Now in prison, Lassiter already

EP6 Skydiver Feb 24, 1984

Madame Eva Parada, the president of Sumora, is inviting major U.S. business corporations to set-up branchs in her country, by signing lease agreements, however a small rebel group, who call themselves ""The Revolutionary Forces of Sumora"", are not tolerating this happening. When providing ground and aerial security at the Sumoran Embassy, where a guest reception is underway, Blue Thunder is decoyed by an supposedly out-of-control civilian plane, while Bubba and Ski do not notice the ""gorgeous"" woman who offered them sky-diving lessons at an airshow, Gretchen Terrell, sky-diving herself discretely onto the Embassy premises and planting explosives around the perimeter. These do cause heavy damage, but do not scare away the major corporations and Madame Eva Parada from continuing their negotiations, even though The Revolutionary Forces gave them a highly threatening warning. Although Captain Braddock is completely annoyed at how the ""most sophisticated surveillance unit in the world"" manag

EP7 Clipped Wings Mar 02, 1984

Chaney's arch rival is given control of Blue Thunder after Chaney is reassigned for breaking off a drug stake out in order to pursue kidnappers

EP8 Payload Mar 09, 1984

The Space Shuttle Argo, privately funded and arranged without any governmental interference, becomes under threat by a group of weapon dealers who don't want their sales of bacterial weapons falling down heavily because of this. This is because, the shuttle has successfully performed an gene-splicing experiment in outer space, relieving the American Space Industry after it is set for the shuttle to re-enter orbit, but there is one slight problem. The experimental canister has to be transported from the moment the shuttle touches down, to an unknown designated laboratory, where it will be configured and analysed to affect the usage of bacterial weaponry, in 20 minutes. Only Blue Thunder has the speed capabilities to achieve this, and so Apex lends the unit to them. After a accident involving the helicopter's entire electronics being short-circuited by power lines at a nearby power plant where the team managed to apprehend two men linked to the trading of German Warfare products, Profess

EP9 The Long Flight Mar 16, 1984

Chaney must convince the granddaughter of a dead mobster to turn her grandfather's business documents over to the FBI before his old business associates kill her to get them

EP10 Godchild Mar 23, 1984

A pair of professional killers, disguised as highway patrol officers, and organised crime connected, perform an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Lisa Ritchie at an exclusive restaurant, located near Farrow Beach of the Pacific Coast Highway. When tailing a man who could be linked to the shooting, Chaney and Wonderlove uncover a conspiracy between two members of the International Carrier's Union; Carl Suhonen, a suspected organised crime hitman, and the Union's President, Jake Cusak. What they want, lies in the secret being conceived by their target, Lisa Ritchie, granddaughter of the late organised crime's top man, Joseph Ritchie. Before he died, he told her where the records of all his organised crime dealings, happenings and secrets are, and until the men who are after her back off, she is being protected at her grandfather's exceedingly expensive hillside mansion, where numerous Federal Agents are body guarding her, whom have requested to assign the Blue Thunder Unit to them for

EP11 The Island Apr 16, 1984

The Blue Thunder team journeys to a small Caribbean island to prevent American mercenaries, who have been hired by the KGB, from killing the Prime Minister
6.1| 0h30m| en
Synopsis

Blue Thunder is a 1984 ABC television series based on the movie of the same title featuring the Blue Thunder helicopter. The series uses the converted Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopter and large portions of stock footage from the 1983 film. A ground unit named "Rolling Thunder" backed up the helicopter in the television series. This was a large support van with a desert camouflage off-road vehicle stored inside. The television series cast includes James Farentino, Dana Carvey, and former professional American football players Bubba Smith and Dick Butkus. The series was canceled by ABC after they felt the similar Airwolf on CBS would win the ratings battle. Also, the series aired at the same time as the CBS soap opera Dallas on Friday nights, and lost. Eleven episodes were made before the series was cancelled.

Director

Producted By

Columbia Pictures Television

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
xhearto one season?!?!?I feel like i've been searching for this show since it aired, and no amount of Gipper era propaganda guilt can keep me from enjoying it. You see, this was back when studios would pay for actual helicopters and actual airplanes to preform ridiculously dangerous stunts for the enjoyment of the viewing public. And sure, is it cheesy, you bet, in the best 80's way possible, and sure, it's not deep or complicated or profound, thats what actual life is for. It's just an a$$kicking show about a superhelicopter and the cowboys who love her.In terms of mst3k worthy 1984 pop culture... Dana Carvey(who would have thought Beatles impressions would go out of style?)!?!? Bubba Smith!?!?!? In Leather?!?!? and saying poetry like " sophistication is a state of mind."?!?! George Gaynes as the professor who created Blue Thunder!? A Twin Peaks Van Horne?!?!? Semi ancient current events plots involving revolutionary forces against Eva Peron?! Helicopter gun turret double entendres?! It's all here folks.And you might say, this guy just has an action helicopter fetish, and you'd be right, but there is something redeeming in the simplicity of this show. Seven seasons may have been to much for the story arc, but i could do with another season.
capt-video Blue Thunder was a fun TV series inspired by the 1983 movie of the same title. That movie was an edgy adult thriller with an R rating that was impossible to emulate in a kid friendly 80's made for TV action series. Instead the Blue Thunder TV series was similar to other 80's kid friendly action shows such as the Dukes of Hazzard, the A Team, Knight Rider, and Street Hawk. Each episode featured aerial dogfights, car crashes, fist fights, explosions, shootouts, lots of 80's TV FX, and nasty/hammy bad guys. The brave heroes of the series were played by James Farentino, Bubba Smith, Dick Butkus, and - Dana Carvey! Plus the true star of every episode was the cool Blue Thunder 'copter! How could I not like this show? I'm having a great time watching it on DVD. Blue Thunder the series is an entertaining 80's action show. Good fun!
Rhynn This show ran September 1983 - February 1984 on Friday nights at 9:00 on ABC. I was in 10th grade at the time. My sister hooked me into watching it, because she saw the movie in the theaters that summer and thought the copter was cool.While the copter was cool and while James Farentino tried to add some classiness to the show, it was beleaguered by melodramatic, corny writing. With other action shows like the "A-Team," "Magnum P.I.," and "Airwolf" to compete with, it didn't have a chance. It was canceled after 13 shows--with no announcements or last-minute advertising. One day you had the show, the next two weeks it was the Winter Olympics, and then it was replaced--can't even remember which show replaced it.However, it did have one good thing going for it--this is where I first discovered the comedic charms of Dana Carvey. While the writing was trite, he did the best with the material he had.
mm-39 Was in Grade 9 when this show was on. It's ok but typical tv, did not watch to much, rather watch Air wolf. The part I hate it, and I watched it at my buddies place Tony & Wilfred, and we would all laughf at this, they would shoot the gun out of the hand of bad guy every time, with this super powerfull attack chopper. Dam where thoes guys good. The only other thing I can remember one of the cast made sure they would get cassarole after Bubba and Dick ate it for a week in sum prision. It would have been a better show if they made the guy eat it than the typical ending I mention earlier. One point to be taking this show with a chopper had a bigger set budget, and include the stunt than any of todays on the cheap shows. Friend's , Sienfield what kind of budget is that, 2 room, and now with reality TV shows with no director script, or even professional actor. Boy, TV budgets sure have gone down the toilet no wonder I only watch movies.

Similar TV Show to Blue Thunder

Highlander: The Series

Highlander: The Series

1992 7.2
 Highlander: The Series
Dominion

Dominion

2014 6.7
 Dominion
La Femme Nikita

La Femme Nikita

1997 7.4
 La Femme Nikita
The Returned

The Returned

2012 8.1
 The Returned
12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys

2015 7.7
 12 Monkeys
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

2008 7.6
 Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Limitless

Limitless

2015 7.6
 Limitless
Dawn of the Croods

Dawn of the Croods

2015 7.6
 Dawn of the Croods
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan

2018 8
 Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan
Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights

2006 8.7
 Friday Night Lights