Flying Misfits

The Flying Misfits is the feature length opener to the Baa Baa Black Sheep/ Black Sheep Squadron television series which aired on NBC in the late 70's and currently can be seen (with limited commentary from star Robert Conrad and surviving members of the real squad) on the History Channel.

The movie covers the story (with a little Hollywood magic) of how Major Boyington left the Flying Tigers in China and arrived in the South Pacific. The scene where he bypasses red tape by getting Admiral Nimitz to clear the way for his rightful rank is both interesting and an excellent way to foreshadow the lengths Conrad's Boyington is willing to go to get what he wants. Simon Oakland and veteran actor Dana Elcar demonstrate with their characters the two sides of military brass that Boyington had to deal with.

A good "companion" piece to the series is co-star Larry Manetti's book on his time in Hollywood. He and Conrad became good friends on the show and Larry gives some great insights on his time with the series. Also. for those who thought John Larroquette started with "Night Court", this movie/series is a good chance to see some of his early work.

When the History Channel started airing the series around 1999, they aired the movie a few times. Since the movie made only extremely rare appearances on The Encore movie networks prior to this, this was a good chance for me to see what I missed, since I used to watch it when WOR-9 aired the syndicated repeats about ten years ago. The aerial scenes are great, as are some of the landing scenes, especially when you consider the island landing area was actually an airfield in Southern California.

The pilot for the following television series "The Black Sheep Squadron" is loosely based on Greg "Pappy" Boyington's WW2 leadership of the air fighters.

This pilot tells the story of how the squadron was formed including how each pilot was selected. It was no easy task for Pappy to lie, cheat and steal to get the team in the air, but persistence eventually overcomes.

I found the acting superb, especially Robert Conrad's performance as Pappy. You will not find a better story of a rag tag team who quickly forms into the best team of ace's. Mostly thanks to Pappy these strong willed bad boys overcome the red tape into a national treasure. This is certainly the finest comrade movie that i have seen, whether it was the actors or their characters that made it work it's difficult to tell.

Baa Baa Black Sheep is a great Movie loosely based on the novel by Gregory "Pappy" Boyington. The airplane scenes are outstanding and the historical facts that are introduced by original newsreel broadcasts make the historical facts clear. I was fascinated by the book as well as the movie and the TV series.

One of the few man I this world that I would have the honor to meet, would have been "Gramps" Boyington. In a time of need, pain and horror...he took the ways that he knew and fought a war which we all didn't want to be in. In the time to come after his rise to fame and down fall...his life teaches us this...sometimes the rules must be bent to do the right thing. I wish that I could have met the man before his death...I'm glad the History channel has the history still going on the Black Sheep and I love the comments from his fellow flyers and from Mr. Conrad himself about the man. May the Black Sheep always fly in our minds, hearts, and prays. Question: Mr. Conrad...did you ever fly the big blue bird???