Buccaneer

I remember this show, it was broadcast on Sunday nights early evening starting in the spring of 1980. I just recently saw a couple of episodes on YouTube and immediately remembered it. Many of the cast were household names such as the attractive and easy on the eye Shirley Ann Field plus the very impressive and smart looking Pamela Salem with her wonderful voice to boot. Also recognizable was Bryan Marshall who l remembered from "Warship" playing the mostly likable Captain Blair and Clifford Rose from "The Secret Army" whose character was the main protagonist.

It's important to note that at that in 1980 "Dallas" was the biggest show on tv and the writers of "Buccaneer" obviously formulated the story line around a ruthless businessman embarking on a hostile takeover of a struggling airline and riding roughshod over the employees and stakeholders.

Apparently "Buccaneer" was cancelled after the aircraft shown on the opening and closing credits crashed in real life and resulted in a number of fatalities. Whether that was the real reason l don't know??

Maybe the shenanigans of a small air haulage business weren't compelling enough compared to a multimillion-dollar oil company because the genre of this type of show was the way tv was going. ATVs "Crossroads" was given a makeover the following year and the series "Triangle" which also came out in 1981 moved in the direction of backstabbing and boardroom struggles. Yet it was "Howard's Way" which was also broadcast on Sunday nights that seemed to hit the sweet spot albeit a 5-6 years after "Buccaneer" was broadcast.

Not a bad early evening program and a nostalgic trip down memory lane watching a number of British actors in their prime who are sadly are not with us any more.