EMAIL FROM BOB WOLTERSTORFF (Creator and Producer)

[Josh]

I just received an email from Bob Wolterstorff, creator and executive producer of SH. He sent me a few cool pics from the show. Below is the email and pictures. He also mentioned that he had other pics, and if he found them he would send them my way.
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I was digging through my old files and came upon these old photos. I
was the creator and executive producer of Street Hawk with my partner
Paul Belous. You have listed Burt Armus as the producer. Just to set
the record straight Burt was on staff but never really produced
anything. He did get into a fight on the set with a teamster once.
Anyway, I enjoyed looking through your website, hope you can use
these photos.

Bob Wolterstorff

[Street Hawk]

WOW!
That is bloody cool.
Did he just send the 2 or are there anymore?

[Josh]

There are a few others. I just replied to his email and asked if he would mind sharing his thought on the show and answering a few questions.

[Street Hawk]

josh said:

There are a few others. I just replied to his email and asked if he would mind sharing his thought on the show and answering a few questions.

Deadly

[Josh]

He has agreed to answer some questions. Suggestions?

[Street Hawk]

That is brilliant! ;D Id advise that we take a week to come up with as many questions as we can and then you can email them to him this time next week. Sound good?

[Josh]

I really want to fire off a few initial questions while he is replying to the emails and then follow up with others.

[Street Hawk]

Looks like its just you and me tonight then. Why do I get the feeling Im in some bad late night movie?

Well, Ive always wanted to know what the title "Falconer" was.
What were the Highlights of filming, was it a happy set etc
Also, Ask some questions related to Rex's interview, he may have been telling a few porky pies there
Did he feel satisfied with the end product?
Were there ever any accidents on set?
What happened to the bikes/body parts and Command Centre?

[Josh]

Here is what I have asked so far....

1) Why do you think the show only managed to run for 13 episodes? Were more episodes planned or filmed? Was the cast surprised when the show was cancelled?

2) Was the building used for command center located on set or was it an actual location in LA? Any other interesting locations where Street Hawk was filmed?

3) What was the general "feeling" on set? Fun? Tense? Were you aware the show would not last long?

4) Was the series originally to be called Falconer? I have seen that name on many of the original blueprints of the bike.

5) Do you know what happened to all of the sets/props?

6) Any chance of a remake?!?

7) Any other comments, thoughts, regrets … ?

I also pointed him to the recent Rex Smith interview, so hopefully he will comment on that to.

[Josh]

ANSWERS!!

1) Why do you think the show only managed to run for 13 episodes?
Were more episodes planned or filmed? Was the cast surprised when the show was cancelled?

ABC put us up against Dallas I believe on a Friday night. Considering
the competition we did pretty well with around a 30 share but at the
time it wasn't good enough. We were a bit surprised because of the
international popularity of the show. It syndicated in 42 countries
and was stolen by a few others. The merchandise was also a big hit,
Universal fought for it but ABC let it go.

2) Was the building used for command center located on set or was
it an actual location in LA? Any other interesting locations where
Street Hawk was filmed?

The Command Center was built on a Universal sound stage. We shot downtown LA a lot and spent time in the LA river.

3) What was the general "feeling" on set? Fun? Tense? Were you
aware the show would not last long?

The set was for the most part fun to be on. It was a difficult show
to produce and we were constantly fighting cost over-runs. I think we had around 30 extra motorcycles because they keep getting destroyed.

4) Was the series originally to be called Falconer? I have seen
that name on many of the original blueprints of the bike.

Yes. Everyone liked Falconer but the name was taken by another
Universal pilot that never got on the air. I liked Street Hawk which
was our second choice.

5) Do you know what happened to all of the sets/props?

Probably destroyed.

6) Any chance of a remake?!?

Not that I've heard. But I see Knight Rider got one so who knows.

7) Any other comments, thoughts, regrets … ?

No regrets -- except if I had cast George Clooney in the lead I'd
probably have a feature career right now. It was my first series and
I under-estimated how difficult it was to produce what was then
referred to as a hardware show. A couple of interesting asides. The
pilot chase scene in the sewer was inspired by the Star Wars scooter chase. Honda sued us and Universal for two hundred and fifty million dollars for violation of their copyright on their Night-Hawk motorcycle. They dropped the suit when the show was canceled but they couldn't have won it anyway. I also believe other bike manufactures based their designs on the SH prototype. I see bikes all the time now that look just like SH. Kerry Mcluggage was the Universal executive that got the show on ABC. He fought for it and made it happen.

8) Do you know what happened to all of the music that was created for the show? I have heard that over 40 hours were recorded by Tangerine Dream for the show but most was never used or released.

My partner actually went to Germany to supervise the score recording
with Tangerine Dream. I don't know what happened to the music but it
was memorable.

[spyhunter2k]

Dude!!! This is top-notch!

As much as I would love him to answer a couple more questions, I'd probably be even more excited to see more behind-the-scenes pics.

If he was up for answering a few more questions, here would be mine:

1) What can you tell us about the change from the pilot-style bike to the one used in the series? Who's decision was it and what did you think of each design?

2) Why did the Canadian version of the pilot get the superimposed/blue-screen vertical lift effects and blue particle beam while the American version got scenes of actual jumps and a red particle beam?

3) The pilot is listed as being 90 minutes long in pre-airing advertisements, but the final product was only 60 minutes long. Do you remember what scenes were cut to so significantly reduce the length?

But again, if he could just scrounge up more pics, it would be worth a gift basket and a 6-pack from me! Already I've gotton useful info about what some of the buttons/lights are supposed to do. Like the "Fuel level" gauge originally intended to be a fuel pressure gauge. The only problem is that I can't quite read all of the fine print attached to some of the buttons and lights, but I'm squinting and doing my best!!!

[Josh]

I told him I would send another batch of questions in a few days. I will add your questions to the list. I also invited him to stop by the board and pay a visit. Hopefully he will.

I can actually answer the third question as I have seen the full pilot. Ther isn't much missing, If I remember correctly they cut a scene in a resturant with the PR lady and a press conference. There are a few other small bits taken out, but nothing significant.

I also have larger versions of the pics that are easier for to read. PM me your email and I will send them to you.

[Josh]

I just noticed in the first pic that half of the bike's "decorations" are missing!

[spyhunter2k]

Thanks! PM sent.

I just thought of another couple of questions...

1) What direction did you provide Andrew Probert between his initial futuristic designs of the bike to get him where he was with his final sketch?

2) It appears as though the bike was painted an extremely dark shade of blue. Was the bike supposed to be black in "Street Hawk world" and the slightly bluish hue was only used to help in photographing the bike, or was the midnight blue the official color in the fictional universe as well?

3) How long could the bike run without refueling? One fuel cell of approximately one quart size only lasts me about 8-10 miles, so did the bike have to be refueled constantly throughout the day of shooting?

Of course, if others submit more popular questions, I'll completely understand if you choose to ask some of those instead, as the above questions are very focused on the bike itself--it's just that that is my main interest.

Now I'm off to run through the pilot to look for that raised area in between the front seat extensions that is marked as being the fake refueling cap, as I do think I remember seeing that raised area and not knowing what it was...

[Dan]

Nice find Josh! Well done.

Keep plugging away there. Like I always said, with the MySpace/FaceBook pheneomena especially, most everyone has a website or is findable these days. You never know who is out there. Or who is looking in.

Did he approach you or did you approach him?

I've only had time to briefly scan the interview, but it's first class and really amazing to have one of the Ex.Producers/Creators of our show. Off the back of the surprising Rex interview, this is a bonus and totally unexepected. Almost fills me with new hope and vigor for Street Hawk again!
Perhaps, this is the year for Street Hawk again?

I don't know how much longer he will be taking q's, but hopefully I'm not too late. I'll try and put a few things down later today. If they don't get asked, no sweat.

This certainly puts a new comlpexion onto things and gives us more of a positive spin. I still don't know whether to be cross with Burt Armus for sort of beating the life out of the show for many of us. I understand this is how he is and he is approaching it purely from a practical, cold, hard reality because of the job he was paid to do. I know he wasn't the best person to get along with either, and I sure couldn't be that bleak about something. Fair play to him though, he did answer all my questions and gave us our first little taster of things to come.

The pics btw are superb, I think they should be on the front page or something.

BTW, kudos on working so hard on SHOnline recently. It's looking much better, especially without the politics!

Keep the flame alive...

Dan