That is a mistake, probably based on a passage in the wikipedia article, about The Sweeney.  The Sweeney began life as Regan, a 90 minute tele-movie, in Armchair Cinema, for Thames Television.  It was written with John Thaw in mind, after he had worked with creator Ian Kennedy Martin on the series Redcap, about the military police.  That was successful and led to the series.

Martin envisioned the series being more studio bound, in the police rooms, but other producers, inspired by Get Carter and The French Connection, wanted filming outdoors and car chases and such.  It also embraced the idea that the police don't always win, and the reality of violence on the streets.  It also made reference to other productions and, in the second series episode, "The Golden Fleece," Regan pulls out a lollipop, as a reference to Kojak, which featured a similar hard-edged style.  There was also an episode where he whistles the theme of Dixon of Dock Green.

The Sweeney was not directly influenced by Kojak, but, they had similar takes on crime fiction and they made references to cultural things.  Your poster didn't read the whole passage and took the reference to Kojak to mean Kojak inspired the series.

Kojak started as a made-for-tv movie, about a murder of two women, inspired by a real case of two female roommates, who were brutally murdered and one was sexually assaulted.  The case gathered a lot of attention and police were pressured to catch the criminal and ended up arresting and ultimately convicting the wrong man, an African American, who spent the next two years clearing his name.  the case was instrumental in the Supreme Courts Miranda ruling, requiring the police to make a suspect aware of their Constitutional rights to have an attorney present during questioning and that they were not obligated to answer police questions, as it might incriminate them.  That film, The Marcus-Nelson Murders, was successful and lead to the Kojak tv series, though they changed the spelling of Telly Savalas' character name.  The series began after the ban on cigarette ads and to cut down on cigarettes being lit up, they started to have Kojak pull out a Tootsie Pop and pop it in hi mouth and use it to emphasize points, when speaking.  This became a trademark, along with the catchphrase, "Who loves you, baby?"  Similarly, The Sweeney was noted for its rhyming slang and phrases like "Your nicked!"  Those elements were copied in other police shows of the era and after and became part of pop culture and parody, similar to Kojak.

Once again, context is everything, a point often missed on social media.

Well, that example is direct influence.  Success breeds imitation, in Hollywood (and publishing) and you get everyone rushing to put out the same thing, to capture the same audience.  If you are lucky, you get creative people who do something different with the idea.  The basic core concept is the same in all three:  a young hero uses a high tech vehicle to help out people in trouble.  The fact that they are outside the main system makes them sort of rebels, which is always good, as it generates conflict for stories.  From there, you get different approaches, though, I have to say, what I saw of Street Hawk, it was pretty obvious, at the start, that it was trying to be Knight Rider.  Same with Viper.  Airwolf, on the other hand, was going in a much different route, right from the pilot movie.  First, Dr Moffet, the creator of the Airwolf attack helicopter, steals it and offers his services to Libya, in exchange for money and luxury (and power), after feeling his work wasn't sufficiently appreciated, by The Firm.  So, Archangel goes to the one pilot he knows that could go into a dangerous area, get aboard the helicopter and fly it back out:  Stringfellow Hawk.  He uses his aid and pilot, Gabrielle, to help entice Stringfellow.  Money means nothing to him, as he seems to have enough to live on; and, the paintings on his walls suggest he came from money.  He wants the Firm to use its resources to locate his brother, St John, who was declared MIA, in Vietnam.  That is their bargain.  He pulls it off, but Gabrielle is murdered, by Moffet, when she goes in under cover.  String recruits friend and mentor Dominic Santini to help, as a flight engineer and co-pilot.  They get the aircraft out, but String doesn't trust The Firm and keeps Airwolf to force them to live up to their bargain.  Archangel makes a counter-bargain of String being a freelance agent.

On the surface, you have the hero using high tech machine to aid people in trouble, though there is an espionage aspect to it.  Knight Rider occasionally dabbled in that, but not as much.  Also, Michael Knight wasn't the rebel that Stringfellow Hawk was, nor as serious.  It was a lighter show, aimed at a younger audience.  Airwolf, at least at the start, was a little bit edgier, a little more serious, a bit more mature.  Also, the AI voice of Kitt played for comedy and gave Michael someone to talk to, in the car.  Dominic allowed for more character moments and there was humor, but in far smaller proportions.

Like I say, I didn't really watch Street Hawk, after its debut.  I didn't think much of Rex Smith, as an actor (still don't) and it seemed to be cherry picking from the other projects.  Airwolf had more in common with Blue Thunder; but, it was more logical that a machine like that would be a government/military project and not a law enforcement vehicle.

All three shows were built around stunts, but Airwolf didn't need convenient ramps all the time.  The enemy did seem to buy all of their helicopters from Hughes Aircraft, though, and be destroyed in the exact same manner.

I was in high school, when Knight Rider and Airwolf started; and, college when Street Hawk debuted.  Knight Rider was okay, but a little too jokey, for my tastes, and it came across more as a kid show.  Airwolf was more serious and it appealed more.  Street Hawk just looked like a knockoff, that died a quick death.  From what I have read, it sounds like it was way more popular in overseas markets than it was here.

All three did make use of synth scores, though that was a reflection of the time.  Street Hawk had Christopher Franke, of Tangerine Dream, who later did the Babylon 5 score.  Knight Rider had Stu Phillips, who had worked with producer Glen Larson, on Battlestar Galactica.  Airwolf had Sylvester Levay, who had created pop hits and film music, including Scarface and worked with Giorgio Moroder, on Flashdance.

If you look at the openings though, you can see Strrek Hawk is really trying to be like Knight Rider, while Airwolf is more its own thing.  Donald Bellisario, the producer, had worked as a writer and producer on Larson's show, before going out on his own.  His shows tended to put more into writing and character than Larson.

Compare the openings of Knight Rider and Street Hawk, where both use narration to explain the premise of the show....





It doesn't help that they used Ernie Anderson, for the narration.  Anderson was a network announcer, famous for his intros to The Love Boat, as well as his work for CBS and The Carol Burnett Show.  He sounded too much like a pitch man.  Knight Rider had Richard Basehart, who sounded more like someone involved in a project, briefing you.  It helped that he played Wilton Knight, the man behind KITT, in the pilot.

Now, compare that to Airwolf.....



No selling of the premise, just the screen graphics and clips from the pilot and series, with a lot of awesome looking shots.  It said spies, intrigue, and blowing s@#$ out of the sky!

So, yeah, different shows, but Knight Rider and Airwolf have little in common, while Street Hawk can't help but look like a copy.  It also wasn't helped by low rent casting.  Joe Regalbuto was a character actor who appeared in a ton of tv, in supporting role, but mostly low budget films, like Sword and the Sorcerer and Lassiter.  Murphy Brown was probably his biggest claim to fame.  Rex Smith was a pretty boy singer, who had been on Broadway, but as an actor, he made a fine singer.  If Street Hawk was going to feature him in musical numbers, on the motorcycle, then I might have cast him; but, not for an action-adventure show.  His Daredevil was pretty bad, too.  Not Thor bad, but not good.  Hoff was at least cheesy fun, as Nick Fury.  That's the thing, he is a terrible actor; but he has a charisma and you just can't help liking the guy, in dumb things.  Jan Michael Vincent was a serious actor, who had a ton of potential, right from the start; but, blew it on drugs and alcohol.

I think you nailed part of it; that technology caught up with the show.  Another factor is the expansion of cable and satellite watering down network offerings, as there became so many alternatives.  Also a factor was the cost of such shows.  You have to have multiple vehicles, for stunt scenes and beauty shots, which costs money.  I also think the string of bad knockoffs helped kick the chair out from under, as people got tired of shows and producers saw that as a sign that the fad was over and to copy the next "latest thing."

Glen Larson was notorious for using stock footage, to save money on effects and stunt sequences.  On Battlestar Galactica, they kept recycling the same battle footage from the pilot film, with the same Cylon pinwheel attack, the same viper attacks (like one where they attack from 90 degrees above, blast the raider then fly through the cloud), etc.  Buck Rogers did the same, with Draconian Marauders, from the pilot, blowing up or the ships from "Planet of the Slave Girls".  Same model sequences, same explosions, etc.  With Airwolf, it was always a Hughes OH-6A Cayuse (the Army designation, as an observation helo), decked out as a gunship, with a mini-gun on one side and a rocket pod on the other, then they either fly into the nearby mountain, damaged, or plummet, with the tail boom heavily damaged and bent, or just exploded in a cloud of debris.  Once in a while they threw in a Bell Jet Ranger, like the one Dominic flew, and also a Huey.  The helicopter they used as Airwolf is the Bell 222, which was an updating of their successful Jet Ranger.

Speaking of technology catching up,  Delta and DEVGRU use modified Blackhawk helicopters, which dampen the rotor noise, as well as have stealth features, to hide them from radar, such as was employed on the raid that killed Bin Laden.  Going back to the 80s, they have been working on something like the jet assist you see in the show.  I recall reading some articles in Popular Science and Popular Mechanics, back in the early 90s, while I was in the military.  The best we had was on the Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, where they carried the Seahawk version of the Blackhawk, for anti-submarine patrol, which were moved in and out of their hangars, on a "shuttle," from which they lifted off and recovered.  In rough seas, they could winch themselves down to the shuttle for a landing, then be pulled inside the hangar.  My ship was an older Perry-class frigate, and we carried a SH-2 Sea Sprite helo, but had nothing like that for recovery, nor was the aircraft as multi-role.  It was a sub hunter and search & rescue and that was about it.

You had earlier vehicle shows, too.  The Rat Patrol, in the 60s, heavily revolved around shots of the jeeps flying over sand dunes to attack the Germans, while the German contingent, with Eric Braden (under his birth name of Hans Gudegast), were actually using old American half tracks and tanks, painted beige, with Wehrmacht crosses.  Of course, the series was inspired by the exploits of the SAS and LRDG, but was made a mostly American squad, in the series (except for British actor Gary Raymond) and originally shot in Spain, doubling for North Africa (and led to both sides using Spanish Star submachine guns, for a bit, before they got some Thompsons, for the Americans).  Starsky & Hutch was all about the Grand Torino car and the 80s show Hardcastle and McCormick was all about that Grand Prix racer that they used....plus the Batmobile and the Green Hornet's Black Beauty.

It was a fun series, until their bickering got out of control, in Season 3.  They tried to laugh it off, with the episode with Rona Barrett; but, it affects everything, from the writing to placate the pair, to the chemistry, to the characters.

I was only catching it sporadically, at that point, since I was in college.

Overall, I tended to prefer Remington Steele and the dynamic there.

Watched a couple of episodes of Mission: Impossible (Season One) over the last few nights. The pilot saw the IMF head to a small nation to retrieve nuclear warheads being stored in a safe. The other saw the IMF on a personal mission after a mobster kidnaps the daughter of one of Dan Briggs’ friends, so as to threaten a key witness prior to a grand jury. Both were fun.

I do wish Dan Briggs got a bit more column space. I had books on cult TV, and have read articles, and while I understand them focusing on Jim Phelps, let’s not forget the guy who was there first.

I must admit, suspension of disbelief is fun, I know, but I do smile whenever Rollin Hand has to impersonate someone - most of the time, the person he has to impersonate is conveniently the same height as Rollin, with a similar facial structure. It’s a good job the people he has to impersonate aren’t 5 foot 2 or something, he might have trouble pulling that off.