rwendler939-1 I loved this series. When I was in the Marines I was fortunate to be stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay with Marine Air Group 13 (MAG 13). The the three flying squadrons included, you guessed it, VMA 214, The Black Sheep Squadron. They were obviously not the original pilots but they carried on the tradition. At the present I am reading "Baa Baa Black Sheep" written by Black Sheep One himself, Gregory "Pappy" Boyington. He pulls no punches. In the book he details all his personal problems, his being shot down and captured by the Japanese, and his time spent in a Japanese camp. He also goes into details about his time with the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers). A great book written by a famous marine.

pcarey002 If I had written this review when I was 14 (the year the show first aired) as opposed to now, with hindsight, research, and more than a little experience, I might be as exuberant as an earlier reviewer.Do yourself a favor - read "Baa Baa Black Sheep" by LTC Boyington. Then... if you want the non-biased true story of LTC Boyington and some of the Black Sheep (warts and all), find a copy of "Black Sheep One" by Bruce Gamble. Look (online on You Tube) for the History Channel's "True Story of the Black Sheep".I began reading at the age of four years old, and began reading High School level books at the age of eight. I was enamored of WWII aircraft and war stories, and read hundreds of books on the subject. My interest was helped along by a brother who was in the USAF and father who served in the US Army Air Corps. I was already very familiar with aviation and WWII when this series premiered to my absolute delight."Baa Baa Black Sheep" (later re-named "Black Sheep Squadron" for syndication reasons)is loosely based on LTC Gregory "Pappy" Boyington's memoir of the same name. That book, as well as most of what is portrayed in this, is, as Pappy once put it "Fiction based on reality".Some aspects of the television series are very accurate. For instance, there is an area of the planet Earth referred to as "The South Pacific" and there was an event called World War II. Gregory Boyington was a real person, VMF-214 (Now VMA-214) was a real Marine Corps Fighter squadron, during part of the afore-mentioned WWII they flew the F4U "Corsair" series of aircraft, and the Corsairs were mostly painted blue. Other than that... certain "liberties" are taken with historical fact and the quest for accuracy. This series is a prime example of "fantasy-based history" or "history- based fantasy" however you prefer. It was NEVER meant to be historically accurate. It is, in the words of the series creator Stephen Cannell "entertainment".The stories are, for the most part, fairly simple and some are actually plausible. But anyone who watches this series and expects to gain an accurate knowledge of USMC air, land, and sea operations in WWII needs to do some basic research at their local library.It is the finest example of mid-1970's "campy" television with the worst results. By "campy" I mean.. well, ...corny.It is the typical "fighter-pilot-gets-drunk-and-laid-as-often-as-possible" story, with the usual obligatory bouts of fisticuffs at every opportunity. Add in the usual defiance of the incompetent higher echelon ("Colonel Lard") who is eventually won over by the protagonist's charm and results, and finally the "let's win the war for White America" mindset, and you have the series in a nutshell.But, unfortunately, this was the age of disco, "Charlie's Angels" and long-haired teeny-boys with feathered hair. "Special Guest Stars" like Peter Frampton (bushy fro hairdo and all), George Takei, and others showed that people wanted and needed their "stars" or so the writers thought.It was the addition of the previously mentioned feather-haired teenager "Lt. Jeb Pruitt" (as a teenage flying prodigy who was 15 and sneaked his way through USMC Fighter Pilot training, boot camp, aeronautical school,etc. looking like an effeminate member of the "Our Gang"comedies) and then (gulp!) ..."Pappy's Lambs"- USMC nurses in 1970's Farrah Fawcett-Majors hair, halter-tops and Daisy-duke-style shorts,and loose morals.Why do we try to sneak contemporary aspects of current life and culture into period and historical pieces like "BBBS"? It was simply doomed from the start and the fact that it lasted as long as it did was a miracle.Now - It is being resurrected again on "METV" and I won't miss an episode. What? After all my opinionated drivel regarding what made it so bad? Simple: It has the following very appealing elements:1. It shows the greatest fighter plane ever built (F4U-1 Corsair) flying - both in series-filmed elements and stock footage. Other aircraft are shown often and a lot of gun camera footage.2. It has Robert Conrad, who is the greatest television star/actor of all time.3. It is loosely - very loosely based on the exploits of a great pilot and someone (I too) met as a teenager - LTC Gregory "Pappy" Boyington. His motto - taken from F. Scott Fitzgerald: "Just name a hero, and I'll prove he's a bum" has become my motto and a part of my life.4. Red West - the example of what every Enlisted mechanic in the US Military should strive for.5. It reminds me that television was once fun - very much full of crap when "Crap was King!".. but fun.

rwalk09 Black Sheep Squadron is a series that is fascinating to watch, over and over. I first started watching it on the History Channel and have numerous tapes that are wearing out from use. These are quite interesting since they contain the comments of the original Black Sheep members, as well as some by Conrad.The stories, for the most part, are quite interesting and the acting is top-notch. Conrad is a seasoned actor going back many years and does very well in all sorts of roles, including this one. Clyde Kusatsu in his role as a captured Zero pilot was believable and has been in many other movies since. The regulars...Dana Elcar, Robert Ginty, W. K. Stratton, Simon Oakland, James Whitmore, Jr. were well-placed in their roles.

Hessian499 Set in the South Pacific during World War Two, the series dealt with a squadron of US pilots known as the Black Sheep (called such due to the fact most were misfits and disciplinary cases before joining the outfit). The best part of the series were the aerial combat sequences; using a mix of archived material from the war, newly filmed sequences, and superbly edited tapings of radio transmissions, the producers made it seem like you were up there in the sky with the squadron in the encounters with the Japanese. On the ground, the dramatic scenes were often done just as well; you got to realize that even though the squadron was made up of screwballs they behaved as a unit and worked as a team to make it through whatever came up.Later episodes in the series tend to be rather lacking in entertainment value. The addition of "Pappy's Lambs" - a group of nurses assigned to the island - was probably meant to help ratings, but at the same time the focus started to swing towards them and away from the war against the Japanese, which had been the backbone of the more successful earlier episodes. The overall writing of the series seems to have deteriorated as the show got towards the end of its run as well.While mixed in quality through its run, the show is definitely worth watching, if nothing else for the Corsairs that were restored to be used on the show - great aircraft!