Chopper One
A police helicopter team's adventures in 1970s California.
Chopper One, an ABC action-crime series, premiered in early 1974 and followed a fictional California police helicopter team. Produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, the half-hour show aired Thursdays at 8 p.m. Eastern, serving as a lead-in to Firehouse, an action-drama about a Los Angeles fire station that premiered the same day. Chopper One was canceled after six months, and Firehouse ended the following month.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Police procedural, action
- Runtime
- 25 minutes
- Creator
- Ronald Austin; James David Buchanan
- Producer
- Ronald Austin; J. D. Buchanan
- Executive producers
- Aaron Spelling; Leonard Goldberg
- Starring
- Jim McMullan
- Dirk Benedict
- Ted Hartley
- Lou Frizzell
- Theme music
- Dominic Frontiere
- Country
- United States
Facts from the source article.
Story and characters
The series was directed by E.W. Swackhamer and followed two flight police officers, a pilot and an observer, in their Bell 206 JetRanger helicopter. Jim McMullan portrayed Officer Don Burdick, and Dirk Benedict played Officer Gil Foley; Benedict later gained fame as Lt. Starbuck in the 1978 Battlestar Galactica and as Lt. Templeton 'Faceman' Peck in The A-Team. Ted Hartley played their boss Capt. McKeegan, and Lou Frizzell portrayed Mitch, the crusty mechanic. Add-ons included an extended-range fuel tank and an external 100-gallon water tank. Later episodes featured a fictional "muffler" switch that reduced the helicopter's sound, a precursor to a feature in Blue Thunder. N209D, a 1968 Bell 206A, was destroyed in a forced landing in Bolivia on February 20, 1975; N40MC, a 1970 Bell 206B, remained registered to a Minnesota operator as of 2026.
Home media and streaming services
Since its 1974 cancellation, Chopper One was rarely seen in rerun syndication. On July 12, 2016, Sony Pictures released Chopper One: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 as a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, part of the Sony Pictures Choice Collection in partnership with Amazon.com and CreateSpace. As of 2023, all 13 episodes were available on the free streaming service Crackle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who created Chopper One?
Chopper One was created by Ronald Austin and James David Buchanan.
When did Chopper One first air?
Chopper One first aired on 17 January 1974.
When did Chopper One end?
Chopper One last aired on 11 April 1974.
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