After HBO’s Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg-produced 2001 miniseries “Band of Brothers” and its 2010 follow-up, “The Pacific,” the premium cable network put a third WWII limited series into development in 2013 that would track the air war over Europe, “Masters of the Air.”

But on the way to screens, the streaming revolution happened. HBO dropped “Masters of the Air” and deeper-pocketed Apple TV+ picked it up, good news for anyone who was a fan of the first two programs.

But 14 years between installments is a long time to wait and “Masters of the Air,” streaming its first two episodes Friday, arrives with red flags in tow.

Peter Biskind’s recent book, “Pandora’s Box: How Guts, Guile and Greed Upended TV,” revealed that the nine-episode, $200-$350 million production suffered from too many cooks in the kitchen.

Apple TV+’s top execs were eager to get into business with Hanks and Spielberg but then, through Hollywood bigfooting, another Apple exec installed problematic director Cary Joji Fukunaga (“True Detective”) over writers John Orloff, who developed “Masters” after writing two episodes of “Band of Brothers,” and Graham Yost (“Justified”). All three men believed they were the showrunner. Biskind reports Hanks “washed his hands of the whole thing” and Yost admits he quit when Fukunaga re-wrote a Yost-penned script. (In Apple’s press notes, only Orloff and Yost are credited as “Masters” writers.)

And yet … “Masters of the Air” turns out to be a pretty good if old-fashioned, epic miniseries full of location shooting on multiple continents, amazing dog fight aerial effects and a compelling story that ultimately, but not initially, focuses on four main characters.

Based on the Donald L. Miller book of the same name, “Masters” follows (mostly) the men of the 100th Bomb Group as they take off from their British airfield to conduct bombing runs over Nazi Germany.

While the series is narrated by navigator Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle), the heart(throb) of the show is soulful mouth-breather Maj. Gale “Buck” Cleven (Austin Butler with a proto-“Elvis” voice going on).

As with a lot of WWII dramas, telling the predominantly white, young characters apart will be a challenge, made even more difficult here by the need for historical accuracy that requires the fliers to wear oxygen masks that cover most of their faces.

If that wasn’t enough, the characters include not only Buck but his best friend, Maj. John “Bucky” Egan (Callum Turner).

Other primary characters are Lt. Curtis Biddick (Barry Keoghan, turning heads in “Saltburn”) and Maj. Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal (Nate Mann).

Other than the first few episodes when the focus is on Crosby, a navigator who’s prone to vomiting when airborne and misguides a fighter over the wrong country, “Masters” doesn’t put a lot of meat on the characters’ bones. Motivations and character backstories — that explain why Buck is the leader or Bucky is antsy — go unexplored.

Then there are all the largely anonymous airmen whose narrative purpose is to die horrible, gruesome deaths amidst well-staged, magnificent aerial battles. Their deaths would have more impact if viewers got to know them first.

The visual effects, surely mostly CGI, are stunning. Fukunaga, who directed the first four episodes, keeps viewers on the edge of their seats with the battles’ intensity and tension regarding which characters will live or die. Credit composer Blake Neely with appropriate underscore and a moving main title score.

But look closely and it’s possible to see seams showing, evidence that supports Biskind’s too-many-cooks reporting.

A character who parachutes from a doomed B-17 and lands behind enemy lines — a storyline that’s prominent for a few episodes — suddenly disappears from the series with his fate explained in a single sentence of voiceover narration.

Another character cheats on his wife, seemingly without a second thought, guilt or remorse, an opportunity to introduce a female character but one who’s never developed beyond “she has a secretive job in the war effort.”

Tuskegee Airmen characters arrive from out of nowhere in the penultimate episode. Couldn’t they have been incorporated sooner?

These missed opportunities and mid-stream course corrections suggest a better, more coherent version of “Masters of the Air” could have been constructed. But fans of WWII, brothers-in-arms action-adventure tales will likely be satisfied regardless thanks to the aerial derring-do amidst time spent with the four lead characters.

‘Kingstown’ casting

Now filming its third season in Pittsburgh, Paramount+’s “Mayor of Kingstown” will see the return of past recurring guest star Michael Beach playing police Capt. Kareem Moore, who has been upped to a series regular. Actors Nichole Galicia as Rebecca and Necar Zadegan as Evelyn Foley will return as recurring guest stars as well.

New recurring guest stars will include Paula Malcomson (“Deadwood”) as Anna Fletcher, a Kingstown woman with a request for Mike (Jeremy Renner). Richard Brake will play Merle Callahan, an Aryan prisoner. Denny Love will play Kevin Jackson, a rookie prison guard.

Channel surfing

Jon Stewart will return to host Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” on Monday nights only beginning Feb. 12 and continuing through the 2024 election cycle with correspondents hosting Tuesday through Thursday nights. … WWE’s “Raw” will relocate from USA Network’s Monday night time slot to an unannounced night of the week on Netflix in January 2025. … Hallmark Channel’s “When Calls the Heart” returns for its 12-episode 11th season at 9 p.m. April 7. … Netflix, which has grown to 260 million subscribers worldwide, says season two of hit “Squid Game” will premiere sometime this year. … KDKA-TV’s 70th annual “Free Care Fund” telethon late last year raised $1.95 million.

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