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Airwolf article from the Associate Press February 1984
Ernest Borgnine Is Back in the TV Series Business
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By Jerry Buck
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 Ernest Borgnine's route to a starring role in the new CBS series " Airwolf" was a circuitous one that took him first to Hawaii, then to Italy.
Borgnine had been cast as a wrestler in an episode of "Magnum, P.I.," and while getting his costumes he met with executive producer Don Bellisario.
"Don asked me if I wanted to do another series," he recalled. "I said, yes, but I didn't want to wreck cars, rape women or pillage, which is what television has been doing lately."
Borgnine completed his role in Hawaii and, a few months later, he was in Italy playing a Roman centurion in "The Last Days of Pompeii," a miniseries for ABC.
"Don called me in Pompeii and asked me if I'd do the series," Borgnine said. "I said, 'OK.' I never asked him what it was about. Nothing."
"Airwolf" is a high-tech, high-adventure series in which Jan-Michael Vincent as Stringfellow Hawke and Borgnine as Dominic Santini take on the bad guys with the aid of a super-advanced helicopter named Airwolf. (Since ABC has "Blue Thunder" perhaps there may be a future special called "Battle of the Network Helicopters.")
According to the story, the helicopter was developed for an organization similar to the Central Intelligence Agency, but it fell into the hands of Libya. Hawke was hired to steal it back, which he does, but now he won't give it back. Instead, he and Borgnine use it on various missions for American intelligence agencies.
CBS broadcasts the one-hour series on Saturdays against ABC's entrenched "The Love Boat." It's followed by the new "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" detective series.
"Dominic's everything I wanted him to be," said Borgnine. "He's gregarious, effervescent, effusive, he loves life, he loves to tell stories. He's the worrywart of the two. He runs a helicopter service for movie and television people and Hawke is his pilot."
Borgnine, his blue-green eyes flashing under his bushy brows, is an energetic 69. He, too, is gregarious, effervescent and one of Hollywood's best storytellers.
"This is not like 'Blue Thunder," he insists. "Ours is very high adventure and pure romance. I want to stress that the helicopter is incidental to the plot. We use the machinery for our purposes. The emphasis is on people. Bellisario told me, 'I don't like to write about appliances. I like to write about people.'"
It's the third series for Borgnine, who won an Academy Award for "Marty" in 1955. His first was the highly successful "McHale's Navy," which ran on ABC from 1962-66, and the other was "Future Cop," which ran for only 13 episodes. He also was the guest star in the pilot and final episode of "Wagon Train."
"You know why I did a series?" he asked. "I'd come home after working in Italy for a year and my agent told me about a series called 'McHale's Navy.' I told him 'No, I only do movies.'
Then a kid came to the door selling candy bars. He asked me, 'Aren't you in show business?' I said 'yeah,' but he didn't know my name. He did know everybody on television. I'd won an Oscar and made dozens of movies, but he didn't know me. I called up my agent and said I'd do the series."
Borgnine is one of the industry's busiest actors. He said, "I almost retired. I was reading scripts, but I said, 'Doggone it, I won't do this stuff' - wrecking cars and taking off my clothes. I remember when I played Fat Cat in 'The Adventurers.' They wanted me to come out in the nude. I said I'd wear my long johns but I sure wouldn't take my clothes off."
He has a prominent role as a Roman centurion in "The Last Days of Pompeii," due on ABC in May. It's his third time out as a centurion - first with Victor Mature in "Demetrius and the Gladiators" and in "Jesus of Nazareth."
"I play the head of all the centurions," he said. "It's a part I could have phoned in. I had a marvelous time doing it in Italy and England. We shot in the gladiator ring in Pompeii. It gave me goose bumps to think we were doing what they had done 2,000 years ago."
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