I really wanted to start this piece “aren’t interesting anniversaries fun to talk about?” I was then going to regale you with list of interesting anniversaries I’d found. This would then culminate in the frankly obvious, based on the article title and picture above, reference to today being the 20th anniversary of the first showing of the TV series Pensacola: Wings Of Gold.
However, the list of major events going back over 1000 years yielded little in the way of fun. And sadly, many of the happenings (wars, extreme weather etc.) are still going on today.
Anyhoo. P:WOG, as we know it here, was one of Kathryn’s first major TV series roles. She had done a few guest roles including a couple pilot episodes before but this was a lead role in a complete run. Possibly inspired by Meg Ryan (there are definite similarities) in the the 1996 film Courage Under Fire, Kathryn played Lt. Annalisa “Stinger” Lindstrom, a helicopter pilot in an elite military unit.
The first half of the two-part opening episode premièred on the CBS network (that later brought Kathryn back as a lead in Cold Case) on the 15th of September 1997. Twenty years ago today. I understand that platinum is the material of the modern 20th wedding anniversary, hence the title.
P:WOG ran for three seasons of 22 episodes. Unlike most shows the cast changed significantly each year, which sort of made sense as they were sort of trainees who moved on to other assignments, despite being a task force made up some of the best in the military. Only James Brolin’s Lt. Col. Bill Kelly was constant throughout the three year run. Most agree that the first season was the best. How could it not be?
Of course it wasn’t all Baywatch-style running on beaches, sadly there was only a very small amount of that 
Each week the squad were called to help in some mission or other, using their skills to over come issues. There was time for romance too though. Annalisa’s will-they-won’t-they relationship with squad-mate A.J. (Salvator Xuereb, twin brother of Emmanuel who was in CC episode The River) featured increasingly as the season went on.
Pensacola: Wings Of Gold is available on DVD if you prepared to look for it. In these days of binge-watching series why not celebrate this milestone with a P:WOG season one marathon this weekend?
If you don’t have time to do that (who does?) then enjoy all the P:WOG related material in the KM UK Gallery HERE.
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