La squadriglia delle pecore nere

With the passing of Robert Conrad and H&I showing the show again I wanted to comment on it. This is one of the first shows I remember watching because my Grandfather served with the actual Boyington during WW2 and we watched several eps shortly before he died.

I read Boyington's autobiography when I was a young teen. Needless to say the show isn't accurate, and was said by former members of the unit in the 80s at a reunion and the former members expressed great displeasure at Boyington. My Grandfather's overlap of service was limited as he was in the Army Air Corps and knew him from base overlap and because he was a mechanic which was as important as pilots because of limited replacement parts.

So while the show was inaccurate, it was generally inspiring (I believe one of the reasons I enlisted when I was 17) and entertaining. Today if I want history, I've got the History and Military Channels, so all one needs to do is expect it to entertain which it does. I'd make it akin to MASH which certainly wasn't real either, but was entertaining.

What a lot of people won't remember is the time period when this was on being post-Vietnam and there was a negative attitude towards the service that post 9/11 isn't remembered by many (I served in the late 80s and Desert Storm and the military was viewed positively in my opinion by most then, but not as high as after 9/11).

so watch it for what it's meant to be, entertainment.

The tales of Boyington's Black Sheep may not have been the most historically accurate, best written, or even best acted WW II series on television.

What it WAS, however, was an entertaining hour in front of the tube, with a likable cast & easy to like/care about characters.

The Bellisaro hand in the casting in easy to see, with a number of familiar faces that returned to become regulars or recurring characters on Magnum P.I.

In short, a usually enjoyable show that never failed to deliver exactly what you expected from it.

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.

I remember i was just a kid when i came home from some where and the first episode came on and i watched it with my grand dad i was hooked from then on. my grand dad remembered the black sheep from his days on Guadalcanal and told me about the real Boyington and the black sheep. we knew the TV show was pretty much hokam but we enjoyed the spirit of the show and how good it made us feel. i later was given a copy of the book pappy wrote by my grand mother and i would build corsairs from kits and hang them in my room. i never got to meet pappy before he died but if i ever get back to Arlington national cemetery i will go to his grave as i do grand dads and say a word of thanks. i was also lucky to grow up not far from the little town where Audie Murphy was born in Kingston Texas. and my other favorite military person was general George s Patton Ole blood and guts himself. it is too bad we do not have those type of men around any more but to them all a heartfelt thanks. they were in deed the greatest generation.

Baa Baa Black Sheep or Black Sheep Squadron is an exciting TV series about Pappy Boyington's VMF 214, a USMC fighter squadron of WWII vintage. The characters are likeable and Robert Conrad really fills the bill as Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, Medal of Honor winner and multiple ace in the Pacific. The aerial sequences are outstanding and the use of combat footage is skillful. I watch the show every opportunity I can get and enjoy the episodes that feature combat and not the ones where a black sheep is caught behind enemy lines