In the early 1980's John Badham made a gritty, ambiguous movie about surveillance and the militarization of the police called Blue Thunder. As a result of the success of Knight Rider, ABC took that movie , stripped out the message and made a TV show about a kick ass helicopter called Blue Thunder that made it to air BEFORE Airwolf. History shows that out of BLUE THUNDER and AIRWOLF, one was way more successful than the other.