a5c7b9f00b The dramatized World War II adventures of U.S. Major Gregory &quot;Pappy&quot; Boyington and his U.S. Marine Attack Squadron 214, (The Black Sheep Squadron). Major Gregory &quot;Pappy&quot; Boyington is the squadron leader of a group of fighter pilots stationed on an island in the Pacific during World War II. &quot;Pappy&quot; often needs to intercede in altercations at the base, but everyone seems to pull together when they are assigned missions in the air. They were young, good looking, their lives move around flying those wonderful blue planes, they lived in tropical paradises, and between each flight they used to hang out with really hot girls, mock authority and play sports. What else an anxious pre-teen could ask from a TV Screen? (Actually I saw the reruns in the 80&#39;s once and again). Only occasionally they mourned the loss of a fella, and that their business was about killing and hurting other people was of minor importance. A pretty sweetened version of war, indeed. And about historical accuracy, it faired only slightly better than, say, &quot;Operation Petticoat&quot; (another 70&#39;s series about WW2) or MASH. In the plus side, it gives good messages about camaraderie, friendship, loyalty, and even tolerance (it wasn&#39;t openly anti-jap), and, at least speaking of myself, you fell compelled to learn more about actual history. As a present-day WWII buff, I wouldn&#39;t buy a DVD, but I&#39;d gladly spend one hour of my lifetime watching a rerun of some episode. I would recommend it for parents with teens and preteens, but I&#39;m sure they would find it slow and boring. Set in the South Pacific during World War Two, the series dealt with a squadron of US pilots knownthe 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 justwell; you got to realize that even though the squadron was made up of screwballs they behaveda unit and workeda team to make it through whatever came up.<br/><br/>Later episodes in the series tend to be rather lacking in entertainment value. The addition of &quot;Pappy&#39;s Lambs&quot; - 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 deterioratedthe show got towards the end of its runwell.<br/><br/>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!
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