Model aircraft on television
Does it pique your interest when you see model aircraft on TV? Maybe you saw the recent "The Lives of Others" episode of Castle, where the star, Nathan Fillion, is flying an RC helicopter while at home recovering from an injury.
TV show examples
- Castle — In "The Lives of Others," Nathan Fillion's character is shown flying an RC helicopter at home while recovering from an injury.
- Castle — In "The Human Factor" the plot involves a supposed car bombing that turns out to be caused by a missile from a military drone. Plot summary from IMDb: "When Homeland Security inexplicably seals the crime scene of a car bombing, Castle and Beckett find themselves with two mysteries on their hands: who murdered the victim, a government whistleblower, and why are federal agents trying to take over the case? The plot thickens when they discover that the victim wasn't killed by a car bomb but by a missile from a military drone." I didn't watch the entire episode, but I did see the clip where authorities visit one of the suspects, who happens to be a modeler with several recognizable RC aircraft in his workshop.
- Modern Family — In "Come Fly with Me," Ed O'Neill's character is seen with an RC Corsair and convinces Ty Burrell's character to go to the flying field with him. Ed's character buzzes Ty while trying to fly through a hula hoop and ends up crashing into Ty's face. Immediately after the accident, Ed seems more concerned about the damage to his aircraft than Ty's injury.
Commercials and print ads
- Velveeta — An entertaining commercial focused on a helicopter pilot in a mall.
- JetBlue and GE — A commercial and print ad that included RC airplanes.
- Saturn — Used an RC airplane to illustrate the resilience of its dent-resistant side panels by crashing the model into one of its cars.
Although these examples often portray the hobby in a favorable light, other portrayals use RC aircraft to add humor or drama. I've only scratched the surface of model aircraft's presence on television with these few examples, both good and bad. I'd like to hear your thoughts about their portrayal on TV and what effect, if any, you believe it has on our hobby.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
