Why Was it cancelled?

Because frankly, it wasn't very good. Why do I say that?

1. The history was atrocious
2. The other members of VMF-214 were livid at their portrayal as bums
3. The plots were far-fetched and repetitious (Black Sheep shot down on an island)

Don't get me wrong, when I was a kid, this show was the shyt. Especially since all I did was read books about World War II. But now as I watch it again, it's almost painful. (I still watch it whenever it's on of course...and will probably grab the DVD for Season One...and Two when it comes out.)

I was a huge fan of this show. I recall the main reason given when the cancellation was announced had to do with the difficulty the producers had with the airplane collectors who provided the actual corsairs for the show. Plus the fact that the writing went downhill and Robert Conrad acted like it was the last thing he wanted to be doing. It always reminded me of an updated version of McHale's Navy where some people were actually killed or at least threatened. How can you fault a group of dedicated fighters in search of scotch and nurses?

I haven't read the other replies to this question, but I know one reason. Robert Conrad (in a mini interview on The History Channel) said that one reason was that the producers were using archive footage of actual aerial combat from WWII and evidently there was a time limit for using it.

I'm sure low ratings and the real Black Sheep pilots hating the show had something to do with the cancellation as well.

[deleted]

Pure and simple; ratings. As stated before, the quality of the scripts dropped dramatically in the second season and they had tougher competition. I loved the first season; it was the only show my brother, father (who rarely watched much tv) and I all watched together. My father had been an Air Force mechanic (and later, a science teacher) and loved planes his entire life, while my brother and I loved adventure shows and were fans of Conrad from the Wild Wild West (re-runs). However, it got pretty boring in the second season. They had pretty much played out the best ideas in the first season and you did keep seeing the same stock footage. We used to joke about the same plane being shot down (much like the same Cylons being killed every week in Battlestar Galactica). The show really had nowhere to go, since they weren't willing to take it through the war, which probably would have been too costly.

I laughed my keester off at the peacenik post. Vietnam was over and there was little noise being made about such things at the time, nor the following year, when Star Wars had people blown up left and right.

"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"

Shows at the top or bottom of the bell curve get tossed. If it's good it takes away from the advertising message; if bad, no one watches it.

In this interview, Robert Conrad says that both Wild Wild West and Black Sheep were cancelled because of the violence content.
http://emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/robert-conrad#

I think they ran out of stories for more episodes and didn't want to produce poor material. So they all went out as winners.

That's my version of the story.

Also, networks during that time period didn't stick with shows for very long.

Fear over ratings, even though ratings weren't that accurate.