The A-Team is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actionAction film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
adventureAn adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as
soldiers of fortuneA mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "
crime they didn't commitA miscarriage of justice primarily is the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. The term can also apply to errors in the other direction—"errors of impunity", and to civil cases. Most criminal justice systems have some means to overturn, or "quash", a wrongful...
".
The A-Team was created by writers and producers
Frank LupoFrank Lupo is an American television writer and producer. In collaboration with Stephen J. Cannell, Lupo created such shows as The A-Team, Riptide, Wiseguy and Hunter....
and
Stephen J. CannellStephen Joseph Cannell was an American television producer, writer, novelist and occasional actor, and the founder of Stephen J. Cannell Productions.-Early life:...
(who also collaborated on
WiseguyWiseguy is an American crime drama series that aired on CBS from September 16, 1987 to December 8, 1990 for a total of four seasons. Starring Ken Wahl, the series was produced by Stephen J...
,
RiptideRiptide is a TV detective series that ran on NBC from 1983 to 1986, starring Perry King, Joe Penny, and Thom Bray. Riptide was created by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell, and produced by Stephen J. Cannell Productions. The main theme was composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter...
, and
Hunter) at the behest of
Brandon TartikoffBrandon Tartikoff was a television executive who was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, ALF, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, Miami Vice, The Golden Girls, Knight Rider, The A-Team, St...
, NBC's Entertainment president. Despite being thought of as mercenaries by the other characters in the show, the A-Team always acted on the side of good and helped the oppressed. The show ran for five seasons on the
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television network, from January 23, 1983 to December 30, 1986 (with one additional, previously unbroadcast episode shown on March 8, 1987), for a total of 98 episodes.
The show remains prominent in
popular culturePopular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
for its
cartoonA cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
ish, over-the-top violence (in which people were seldom seriously hurt), formulaic episodes, its characters' ability to form weaponry and vehicles out of old parts, and its distinctive theme tune. The show boosted the career of
Mr. TMr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry,...
, who portrayed the character of
B. A. BaracusSergeant Bosco Albert "B. A." Baracus is a fictional character in the 1980s action/adventure television series The A-Team, played by Mr. T. B. A. Baracus appeared on The A-Team from the series beginning in 1983 until its cancellation in 1987. He is arguably the breakout character of the series...
, around whom the show was initially conceived. Some of the show's catchphrases, such as "I love it when a plan comes together," "Hannibal's on the jazz," and "I ain't gettin' on no plane!" have also made their way onto T-shirts and other merchandise.
The show's name comes from the "A-Teams," the nickname coined for
U.S. Special ForcesA green beret was the headgear of the British Commandos of World War II. Certain military organisations still wear green berets because they have regimental or unit histories that form a connection with the British Commandos of World War II....
' Operational Detachments Alpha (ODA) during the Vietnam War , although this connection was never referenced on-screen.
A feature filmThe A-Team is an American action film based on the television series of the same name. It was released in cinemas in the United States on June 11, 2010, by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Joe Carnahan and produced by Stephen J. Cannell and the Scott brothers Ridley and Tony...
based on the series was released by
20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
on June 11, 2010. A comic book series,
A-Team: Shotgun Wedding, began March 9, 2010.
Development
NBC Entertainment President
Brandon TartikoffBrandon Tartikoff was a television executive who was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, ALF, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, Miami Vice, The Golden Girls, Knight Rider, The A-Team, St...
pitched the series to Cannell as a combination of
The Dirty DozenThe Dirty Dozen is a 1967 film directed by Robert Aldrich and released by MGM. It was filmed in England and features an ensemble cast, including Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, and Robert Webber. The film is based on E. M...
,
Mission Impossible,
The Magnificent SevenThe Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
,
Mad MaxMad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller and revised by Miller and Byron Kennedy over the original script by James McCausland. The film stars Mel Gibson, who was unknown at the time. Its narrative based around the traditional western genre, Mad Max tells a story...
and
Hill Street BluesHill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
, with "
Mr. TMr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry,...
driving the car."
The A-Team was not generally expected to become a hit, although Stephen J. Cannell has said that
George PeppardGeorge Peppard, Jr. was an American film and television actor.Peppard secured a major role when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's , portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes in The Carpetbaggers , and played the title role of the millionaire sleuth Thomas Banacek in...
suggested it would be a huge hit "before we ever turned on a camera." The show became very popular; the first regular episode, which aired after
Super Bowl XVIISuper Bowl XVII was an American football game played on January 30, 1983 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to decide the National Football League champion following the strike-shortened 1982 regular season...
on January 30, 1983, reached 26.4% of the television audience, placing fourth in the top 10
Nielsen-ratedNielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
shows.
Characters
The A-Team revolves around the four members of a former commando outfit, now mercenaries. Their leader is Lieutenant-Colonel/Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith (
George PeppardGeorge Peppard, Jr. was an American film and television actor.Peppard secured a major role when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's , portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes in The Carpetbaggers , and played the title role of the millionaire sleuth Thomas Banacek in...
), whose plans tend to be unorthodox but effective. Lieutenant Templeton "Face" Peck (
Dirk BenedictDirk Benedict is an American movie, television and stage actor, perhaps best known for playing the characters Lieutenant Templeton "Faceman" Peck in The A-Team television series and Lieutenant Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica film and television series.-Early life:Benedict was born...
;
Tim DuniganTimothy "Tim" Dunigan is an American actor who is best known for having played the lead role of Captain Jonathan Power in Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. He also played con-man 1st Lt. Templeton "The Face-Man" Peck in the pilot for the 1980s hit The A-Team, but was replaced by Dirk...
appeared as Templeton Peck in the pilot), usually called "Face," is a smooth-talking con-man who serves as the team's appropriator of vehicles and other useful items. The team's pilot is Captain
H.M. "Howling Mad" MurdockCaptain H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock is a fictional character in the 1980s action/adventure television series, The A-Team. He was played by Dwight Schultz. The character of Murdock was almost written out of the series before it aired, as the producers found the character too "over the top"...
(
Dwight SchultzWilliam Dwight Schultz is an American stage, television, film actor, and voice artist. He is best known for his roles as Captain "Howling Mad" Murdock on the 1980s action show The A-Team, and as Reginald Barclay in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, and the film Star Trek: First...
), who has been declared insane and lives in a
Veterans AdministrationThe United States Department of Veterans Affairs is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is the United States government’s second largest department, after the United States Department of Defense...
mental institution for the show's first four seasons. Finally, there is the team's strong man and mechanic, Sergeant First Class
Bosco Albert "B.A.," or "Bad Attitude," BaracusSergeant Bosco Albert "B. A." Baracus is a fictional character in the 1980s action/adventure television series The A-Team, played by Mr. T. B. A. Baracus appeared on The A-Team from the series beginning in 1983 until its cancellation in 1987. He is arguably the breakout character of the series...
(
Mr. TMr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry,...
).
It is unclear to which U.S. Army unit the four belonged. A patch on Hannibal's uniform in the Season 1 episode "A Nice Place To Visit" indicates they belonged to the 101st Airborne division in Vietnam, but the patch was replaced by the 1st Air Cavalry Division patch in the Season 5 episode "Trial by Fire." In the Season 1 episode "West Coast Turnaround," Hannibal stated they were with the "5th Special Forces Group."
For its first season and the first half of the second season, the team was assisted by reporter Amy Amanda Allen (
Melinda CuleaMelinda Culea is an American film and television actress, who moved into acting after working as a model.-The A-Team:...
). In the second half of the second season, Allen was replaced by fellow reporter Tawnia Baker (
Marla HeasleyMarla Heasley is an American film and TV actress.-The A-Team:Heasley is best known for her role as Tawnia Baker in the 1980s hit TV series The A-Team...
). The character of Tia (
Tia CarrereTia Carrere is an American actress, model, voice artist, and singer, perhaps most widely known for her role as Cassandra Wong in the feature films Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2, Queen Tyr'ahnee in Duck Dodgers, and as Sydney Fox in the TV series Relic Hunter.-Early life:Carrere was born in...
), a Vietnam war orphan now living in the United States, was meant to join the Team in the fifth season, but she was replaced by Frankie Santana (
Eddie VelezEdwin "Eddie" Velez is a Hispanic-American actor who stars in films and on television.-Early life:Velez began acting while in the United States Air Force, when he was stationed in Sunnyvale, California at the Sunnyvale Air Force base.-Acting career:In 1981, he was honorably discharged from the...
), who served as the team's special effects expert. Velez was added to the opening credits of the fifth season after its second episode.
During their adventures, the A-Team was constantly met by opposition from the
military policeMilitary police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...
. In the show's first season, the MPs were led by Colonel Francis Lynch (
William LuckingWilliam Lucking is an American film, television, and stage actor perhaps best known for his role as Piney Winston in the drama series Sons of Anarchy.-Film and television:...
), but he was replaced for the second, third, and earlier fourth season by Colonel Roderick Decker (
Lance LeGaultLance LeGault , sometimes credited as W. L. LeGault, is an American film and television actor, best known as Colonel Roderick Decker in the 1980s American television series The A-Team.-Personal life:...
) and his aide Captain Crane (
Carl FranklinCarl Franklin is an American actor, screenwriter and film and television director. Franklin is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley and continued his education at the AFI Conservatory, where he graduated with an M.F.A. degree in directing in 1986...
). Lynch returned for one episode in the show's third season ("Showdown!") but was not seen after. Decker was also briefly replaced by a Colonel Briggs (
Charles NapierCharles L. Napier was an American actor, known for his portrayals of square-jawed tough guys and military types.-Early life:...
) in the third season for one episode ("Fire!") when LeGault was unavailable, but returned shortly after. For the latter portion of the show's fourth season, the team was hunted by General Harlan "Bull" Fullbright (
Jack GingJack Lee Ging is an American actor best known for his role as General Harlan 'Bull' Fullbright in the NBC television series The A-Team.-Early life:...
), who would later hire the A-Team to find Tia in the season four finale, during which Fullbright was killed.
The fifth season introduced General Hunt Stockwell (
Robert VaughnRobert Francis Vaughn, , is an American actor noted for stage, film and television work. His best known roles include the suave spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., wealthy detective Harry Rule in the 1970s television series The Protectors, Albert Stroller in...
) who, while serving as the team's primary antagonist, was also the team's boss and joined them on several missions. He was often assisted by Carla (Judith Ledford, sometimes credited as Judy Ledford).
Casting
In the pilot, Face was portrayed by
Tim DuniganTimothy "Tim" Dunigan is an American actor who is best known for having played the lead role of Captain Jonathan Power in Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. He also played con-man 1st Lt. Templeton "The Face-Man" Peck in the pilot for the 1980s hit The A-Team, but was replaced by Dirk...
, who was later replaced by Dirk Benedict, because Dunigan was "too tall and too young." According to Dunigan: "I look even younger on camera than I am. So it was difficult to accept me as a veteran of the Vietnam War, which ended when I was a sophomore in high school."
Carrere was intended to join the principal cast of the show in its fifth season after appearing in the season four finale, providing a tie to the team's inception during the war. Unfortunately for this plan, Carrere was under contract to
General HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
, which prevented her from joining
The A-Team. Her character was abruptly dropped as a result.
According to Mr. T's account in
Bring Back... The A-Team in 2006, the role of B.A. Baracus was written specifically for him. This is corroborated by Stephen J. Cannell's own account of the initial concept proposed by Tartikoff.
James CoburnJames Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...
, who co-starred in
The Magnificent SevenThe Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
, was considered for the role of Hannibal in
The A-Team, while
George PeppardGeorge Peppard, Jr. was an American film and television actor.Peppard secured a major role when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's , portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes in The Carpetbaggers , and played the title role of the millionaire sleuth Thomas Banacek in...
(Hannibal) was the original consideration for the role of Vin (played by Steve McQueen instead) in
The Magnificent Seven.
Notable guest appearances
Notable guest stars included:
- Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
as Police Officer Collins - SWAT in "A Small & Deadly War".
- Wendy Fulton
Wendy Fulton is a former American television actress.-Career:Fulton's television credits include guest appearances on Knight Rider, Jake and the Fatman, Diff'rent Strokes, The A-Team, V and Matlock. She was one of stars of North and South, Book 1 miniseries...
as Kelly Stevens in "Bounty". Fulton and Dwight SchultzWilliam Dwight Schultz is an American stage, television, film actor, and voice artist. He is best known for his roles as Captain "Howling Mad" Murdock on the 1980s action show The A-Team, and as Reginald Barclay in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, and the film Star Trek: First...
had married a few years before the episode, and the episode plays on the theme of Kelly and Murdock falling in love.
- Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
as himself in "Cowboy George".
- Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
as C.J. Mack in "The Heart Of Rock N' Roll".
- Hulk Hogan
Terrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
as himself in "The Trouble With Harry" and "Body Slam".
- Rick James
James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. , better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. James was a popular performer in the late 1970s and 1980s, scoring four number-one hits on the U.S. R&B charts performing in the genres of funk and R&B...
as himself in "The Heart of Rock N' Roll".
- David McCallum
David Keith McCallum, Jr. is a Scottish actor and musician. He is best known for his roles as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., as interdimensional operative Steel in Sapphire & Steel, and Dr...
as Ivan Trigorin in "The Say U.N.C.L.E. Affair". McCallum guest stars as a former associate of Robert VaughnRobert Francis Vaughn, , is an American actor noted for stage, film and television work. His best known roles include the suave spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., wealthy detective Harry Rule in the 1970s television series The Protectors, Albert Stroller in...
's character General Stockwell. Vaughn and McCallum had co-starred together as friendly American and Russian secret agents in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement...
. This The A-Team episode sent up many aspects of the classic series.
- Joe Namath
Joseph William "Joe" Namath , nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie", is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the...
as T. J. Bryant in "Quarterback Sneak," season 5, episode 4.
- William "The Refrigerator" Perry as himself in "The Trouble With Harry."
- Markie Post
Marjorie Armstrong "Markie" Post is an American actress, best known for her roles as bail bondswoman Terri Michaels in The Fall Guy on ABC from 1982 to 1985, as public defender Christine Sullivan on the NBC sitcom Night Court from 1985 to 1992, and as Georgie Anne Lahti Hartman on the CBS sitcom...
as Rina in "Hot Styles and Sister Teresa/Leslie Becktar in The Only Church in Town."
- Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak is a television personality, former weatherman, actor and talk show host, best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune.-Early life:...
as himself in "Wheel of Fortune."
- Vanna White
Vanna White is an American television personality and film actress best known as the hostess of Wheel of Fortune since 1982.-Early life:...
as herself in "Wheel of Fortune."
- Yaphet Kotto
Yaphet Frederick Kotto is an African-American actor, known for numerous film roles , and his starring role in the NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street .-Early life:Kotto was born in New York City, the son of Gladys Marie, a...
in "The Out of Towners"
The "crime they didn't commit"
During the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, the A-Team's
commanding officerThe commanding officer is the officer in command of a military unit. Typically, the commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as he sees fit, within the bounds of military law...
, Colonel Morrison, gave them orders to rob the Bank of
HanoiHanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
to help bring the war to an end. They succeeded in their mission, but on their return to their base four days after the end of the war, they discovered that Morrison had been killed by the Viet Cong, and that his headquarters had been burned to the ground. This meant that the proof that the A-Team members were
acting under ordersSuperior orders is a plea in a court of law that a soldier not be held guilty for actions which were ordered by a superior office...
had been destroyed, and they were arrested. The team was imprisoned at
Fort BraggFort Bragg is a major United States Army installation, in Cumberland and Hoke counties, North Carolina, U.S., mostly in Fayetteville but also partly in the town of Spring Lake. It was also a census-designated place in the 2010 census and had a population of 39,457. The fort is named for Confederate...
, from which they quickly escaped before standing trial.
The first four seasons
The show's early seasons did not have overarching plots, although occasionally there would be two-part episodes. The episodes are linked to a specific season by their primary antagonist, a recurring assistant character and its particular use of guest stars (the first season was relatively low on guest stars while the show's fourth season often featured well-known stars, such as
Boy GeorgeBoy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
and
Hulk HoganTerrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
).
As such, only a few significant developments are made during this time, which include the blood transfer between Murdock and B.A. in the first season episode "Black Day at Bad Rock", the replacement of recurring character Amy Allen with Tawnia Baker and the replacements of the recurring antagonists of the Military Police. The final episode of the fourth season does present two unusual occurrences; the antagonist (General Fullbright in this case) works with the Team and also features the second on-screen death (also General Fullbright). This episode, together with the first three of the fifth season, deal extensively with the team's Vietnam history.
The fifth season
As the television ratings of
The A-Team fell dramatically during the fourth season, the format was changed for the show's final season in 1986–1987 in a bid to win back viewers. After years on the run from the authorities, the A-Team are finally apprehended by the military. General Hunt Stockwell propositions them to work for him, whereupon he will arrange for their pardons upon successful completion of several suicide missions. In order to do so, the A-Team must first escape from their captivity. With the help of a new character, Frankie "Dishpan Man" Santana, the team fake their deaths before the firing squad.
The new status quo of the A-Team no longer working for themselves remained for the duration of the fifth season, and both Frankie Santana and Hunt Stockwell were added to the credits. The missions the team had to perform in season five were somewhat reminiscent of
Mission: ImpossibleMission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...
, and based more around political espionage than beating local thugs, also usually taking place in foreign countries. These changes proved unsuccessful with viewers and ratings continued to decline. Only 13 episodes aired in the fifth season.
In what was supposed to be the final episode, "The Grey Team" (although "Without Reservations" was broadcast on NBC as the last first-run episode in March 1987), Hannibal, after being misled by Stockwell one time too many, tells him that the team will no longer work for him. At the end, the team discusses what they were going to do if they got their pardon, and it is implied that they would continue doing what they were doing as the A-Team.
Themes and other characteristics
The opening theme tune was composed by
Mike PostMike Post is an American multi-Grammy and Emmy Award winning composer best known for scoring some of the most popular TV theme songs in the United States, for primetime series such as Law & Order, NYPD Blue, The Rockford Files, LA Law, Quantum Leap, Magnum, P.I., Hill Street Blues, among numerous...
and
Pete CarpenterPeter Clarence "Pete" Carpenter , was an American jazz trombonist, musical arranger, and a veteran of television theme song scoring....
.
Opening sequence
Each episode of the first four seasons began with this
voiceoverVoiceOver is a screen reader built into Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, iOS and iPod operating systems. By using VoiceOver, the user can access their Macintosh or iOS device based on spoken descriptions and, in the case of the Mac, the keyboard. The feature is designed to increase accessibility for blind...
introduction:
By the time the series began airing in January 1983, the original wording of the introduction was already out of date, as the A-Team had escaped from prison in 1972 (the series began production in Fall 1982, and the first three stories carry a 1982 copyright). For the second to fourth season the dialogue was updated to "In 1972...", confirming the correct date. Due to the first season opening dialogue, some early coverage for the series mistakenly cite the team as escaping from prison in 1973.
The intro was narrated by
John AshleyJohn Ashley was an actor who appeared in many films, most notably the American International Pictures' "Beach Party" films...
, who was also one of the show's producers. The intro was dropped for the final season, in which the A-Team's circumstances changed to instead be working for General Stockwell. The theme tune was changed to match.
Episode structure
The A-Team is a naturally episodic show, with few overarching stories, except the characters' continuing motivation to clear their names, with few references to events in past episodes and a recognizable and steady episode structure. In describing the ratings drop that occurred during the show's fourth season, reviewer Gold Burt points to this structure as being a leading cause for the decreased popularity "because the same basic plot had been used over and over again for the past four seasons with the same predictable outcome." Similarly, reporter Adrian Lee called the plots "stunningly simple" in a 2006 article for
The ExpressThe Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
(UK newspaper), citing such recurring elements "as BA's fear of flying, and outlandish finales when the team fashioned weapons from household items."
Unlike modern shows,
The A-Team episodes do not begin with a
cold openA cold open in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown...
, but instead start with the main introduction and title of the episode. Generally, the first few scenes will focus on the plight of the episode's victim, who is hoping to hire the A-Team, thereby introducing the story for that episode. These prospective clients are usually led through a series of off-beat and comedic tests, after which a member of the team, most frequently Hannibal, will reveal himself and tell the clients they've "just hired the A-Team."
Frequently, one of the clients will be a young woman who Face is immediately attracted to and who will serve as the object of his advances (though in a few episodes it's Murdock who has a romantic interlude). Occasionally, the A-Team is on the road and simply stumble across someone who needs its help. The A-Team often returns its fee to the most needy clients or find another way to pay their expenses.
By this time, Murdock will escape from the
psychiatric hospitalPsychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
, where he is interned, with the help of Face. After
scammingA confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
items necessary for the mission, often directly angering the episode's antagonist, the A-Team will confront that antagonist, insulting him/her, which will lead to a counter-attack later on.
Generally, the A-Team then assist their clients in their daily routine, while furthering Face's romance with the female guest star and initiating a conflict between B.A. and Murdock. These scenes will usually also feature clients and the team alike questioning Hannibal's sanity, leading to the proclamation that Hannibal is "on the jazz," a term to denote the adrenaline rush that accompanies their adventures.
Traditionally, the antagonist's counter-attack then follows, which succeeds and leads to the team's capture. In order to escape, the A-Team will usually construct a weapon; often in the form of a vehicle, of sorts from their available resources. This is detailed in a musical montage focusing on the team's hands and the tools used. The escape will be successful and the antagonist will be defeated with use of the new weapon. The team's opponents are rarely hurt, as bullets miss their targets and the enemies manage to evade or survive, unscathed, said gunfire, numerous explosions, or vehicles crashing (usually in the form of a
barrel rollA barrel roll is an aerial maneuver in which an airplane makes a complete rotation on its longitudinal axis while following a helical path, approximately maintaining its original direction. It is sometimes described as "a combination of a loop and a roll"...
).
The show became emblematic of this kind of "fit-for-TV warfare" due to its depiction of high-octane
combatCombat, or fighting, is a purposeful violent conflict meant to establish dominance over the opposition, or to terminate the opposition forever, or drive the opposition away from a location where it is not wanted or needed....
scenes, with lethal weapons, wherein the participants (with the notable exception of General Fullbright) are never killed and rarely seriously injured (
see also on-screen violence and Principle of Evil Marksmanship).
After the defeat of the antagonist, the episode's other storylines will be wrapped up as the team make their escape. Every few episodes, the Military Police catches up with the team, giving them an extra obstacle to overcome in that particular episode, sometimes also appearing in the final few minutes of the episode, forcing the team to make a quick exit. A recurring element that can usually be fit anywhere into the episode is B.A.'s fear of flying, which leads to the team having to knock him out (either by drugs or, less often, a blow to the back of the head using a heavy object and once even using
hypnotherapyHypnotherapy is a therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis.The word "hypnosis" is an abbreviation of James Braid's term "neuro-hypnotism", meaning "sleep of the nervous system"....
) to get him onto a helicopter or plane. In "The Beast From The Belly Of A Boeing," while B.A. is awake for the flight that occupies most of the episode, he does go catatonic twice.
Connections to the Vietnam War
The origin of the A-Team is directly linked to the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, during which the team formed. The show's introduction in the first four seasons mentions this, accompanied by images of soldiers coming out of a helicopter in an area resembling a forest/jungle. Besides this,
The A-Team would occasionally feature an episode in which the team came across an old ally or enemy from those war days. For example, the first season's ending episode "A Nice Place To Visit" revolved around the team travelling to a small town to honor and avenge a fallen comrade, and in season two's "Water, Water Everywhere," the team came to the aid of three disabled Vietnam veterans.
An article in the
New StatesmanNew Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
(UK) published shortly after the premiere of
The A-Team in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, also pointed out
The A-Team's connection to the Vietnam War, characterizing it as the representation of the idealization of the Vietnam War, and an example of the War slowly becoming accepted and assimilated into American culture.
One of the team's primary antagonists, Col. Roderick Decker (
Lance LeGaultLance LeGault , sometimes credited as W. L. LeGault, is an American film and television actor, best known as Colonel Roderick Decker in the 1980s American television series The A-Team.-Personal life:...
), had his past linked back to the Vietnam War, in which he and Hannibal had come to fisticuffs in "the DOOM Club" (
Da Nang
Open
Officers'
Mess). At other times, members of the team would refer back to a certain tactic used during the War, which would be relevant to the team's present predicament. Often, Hannibal would refer to such a tactic, after which the other members of the team would complain about its failure during the War. This was also used to refer to some of Face's past accomplishments in scamming items for the team, such as in the first season episode "Holiday In The Hills," in which Murdock fondly remembers Face being able to secure a '53 Cadillac while in the Vietnam jungle.
The team's ties to the Vietnam War were referenced again in the fourth season finale, "The Sound of Thunder," in which the team is introduced to Tia (
Tia CarrereTia Carrere is an American actress, model, voice artist, and singer, perhaps most widely known for her role as Cassandra Wong in the feature films Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2, Queen Tyr'ahnee in Duck Dodgers, and as Sydney Fox in the TV series Relic Hunter.-Early life:Carrere was born in...
), a war orphan and daughter of fourth season antagonist General Fullbright. Returning to Vietnam, Fullbright is shot in the back and gives his last words as he dies. The 2006 documentary
Bring Back The A-Team joked that the scene lasted seven and a half minutes, but his death actually took a little over a minute. His murderer, a Vietnamese colonel, is killed in retaliation. Tia then returns with the team to the United States (
see also: casting). This episode is notable for having one of the show's few truly serious dramatic moments, with each team member privately reminiscing on their war experiences, intercut with news footage from the war with
Barry McGuireBarry McGuire is an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song "Eve of Destruction", and later as a pioneering singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music.-Early life:...
's
Eve of Destruction playing in the background.
The show's ties to the Vietnam War are fully dealt with in the opening arc of the fifth season, dubbed "The Revolution"/"The Court-Martial" in which the team is finally put on trial for the robbing of the bank of
HanoiHanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
. The character of Roderick Decker makes a return on the witness stand, and various newly-introduced characters from the A-Team's past also make appearances. The team, after a string of setbacks, decides to plead guilty to the crime and they are sentenced to be executed. They escape this fate and come to work for a General Hunt Stockwell, leading into the remainder of the fifth season.
Popularity
The A-Team was one of a wide variety of successful television shows from prolific television producer
Stephen J. CannellStephen Joseph Cannell was an American television producer, writer, novelist and occasional actor, and the founder of Stephen J. Cannell Productions.-Early life:...
. Cannell was known for having a particular skill at capitalizing on momentary cultural trends, such as the
helicopterA helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
s,
machine gunA machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
s,
cartoonA cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
ish
violenceViolence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
, and joyful
militarismMilitarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
of this series, which are now recognizable as trademarks of popular entertainment in the 1980s as seen in the TV shows
Magnum, P.I.Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....
and
AirwolfAirwolf is an American television series that ran from 1984 until 1987. The program centers on a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme....
as well as the films
Rambo: First Blood Part IIRambo: First Blood Part II is a 1985 action film. A sequel to 1982's First Blood, it is the second installment in the Rambo series starring Sylvester Stallone, who reprises his role as Vietnam veteran John Rambo...
and
The Final Countdown. Cannell had been producing shows for
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
in the early 1980s, but was fired by the network for not producing a hit for them. His next project would be
The A-Team.
The show became popular internationally. In 1984, the main cast members of
The A-Team, George Peppard, Mr. T, Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz were invited to the Netherlands. George Peppard was the first to receive the invitation and thus thought the invite pertained only to him. When the other cast members were also invited, Peppard declined, leaving only Mr. T, Benedict and Schultz to visit the Netherlands. The immense turn-out for the stars was unpredicted, and they were forced to leave early as a security measure. A video was released with the present actors in which Dwight Schultz apologized and thanked everyone that had attended.
In syndication
The show has achieved cult status through heavy U.S. and international
syndicationIn broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
. It has also remained popular overseas, such as in the United Kingdom, where the show has been on-air almost continuously in some form (currently running on the satellite/cable channel Bravo) since it was first shown in July 1983.
In 2003, in research conducted by web-portal Yahoo! amongst 1,000 television viewers,
The A-Team was voted as the one "oldie" television show viewers would most like to see revived, beating out other popular televisions series from the 1980s such as
The Dukes of HazzardThe Dukes of Hazzard is an American television series that aired on the CBS television network from 1979 to 1985.The series was inspired by the 1975 film Moonrunners, which was also created by Gy Waldron and had many identical or similar character names and concepts.- Overview :The Dukes of Hazzard...
and
Knight Rider.
Merchandise
As well as having huge ratings and being especially popular amongst children, there was countless merchandise available, including:
- Action figures of the characters, as well as their van and car.
- A cola-flavored popsicle
Popsicle is the most popular brand of ice pop in the United States and Canada. The first ice pop was created by accident in 1905 when 11-year-old Frank Epperson left a cup of soda on his porch in cold weather overnight. The next morning he went to go get the soda and it was frozen, so he put two...
in the shape of Mr. T was on the market at the show's height.
- A View-Master
View-Master is a device for viewing seven 3-D images on a paper disk. Although the View-Master is now considered a children's toy, it was originally marketed as a way for viewers to enjoy stereograms of colorful and picturesque tourist attractions.-1939–66: stereoscopic sightseeing:In 1911,...
A-Team gift set, with 3-D viewer and 3 reels containing 21 3-D pictures of the A-Team episode "When You Comin' Back, Range Rider?," was produced by View-Master International.
Comics
Marvel ComicsMarvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
even produced a three-issue
A-Team comic bookA comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series, which was later reprinted as a
trade paperbackIn comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
. Mr. T has appeared in his own comic books, while a Mr. T graphic novel is set for worldwide release in summer 2008, preceded by a Limited Advance Edition launched in February 2008. Similarly, in the United Kingdom, an
A-Team comic stripA comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
appeared for several years in the 1980s as part of the children's television magazine and comic
Look-InLook-in was a long running children's magazine centred around ITV's television programmes in the United Kingdom, and subtitled "The Junior TVTimes". It ran from 9 January 1971 to 12 March 1994...
, to tie in with the British run of the series. It was preceded, though, by a short run in the final year (1984) of
TV Comic, drawn by Jim Eldridge.
Books
- Several novels were based on the series, the first six published in America by Dell
Dell Publishing, an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte, Jr.During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Dell was one of the largest publishers of magazines, including pulp magazines. Their line of humor magazines included 1000 Jokes, launched in...
and in Britain by Target BooksTarget Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
; the last four were only published in Britain. The first six are credited to Charles HeathCharles Theodosius Heath was an English engraver, currency and stamp printer, book publisher and illustrator.-Life and work:...
.
- The A-Team (adapted from the pilot written by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell)
- Small But Deadly Wars (adapted from the episodes "A Small and Deadly War" written by Frank Lupo and "Black Day at Bad Rock" written by Patrick Hasburgh)
- When You Comin' Back, Range Rider? (adapted from the episode of the same name written by Frank Lupo)
- Old Scores to Settle (adapted from the episodes "The Only Church in Town" written by Babs Greyhosky and "Recipe for Heavy Bread" written by Stephen J. Cannell).
NOTE: Unlike most novelisations of television episodes, the story of the second-billed episode is told first in the actual book.
- Ten Percent of Trouble (adapted from the episodes "Steel" written by Frank Lupo and "The Maltese Cow" written by Thomas Szollosi and Richard Christian Matheson)
- Operation Desert Sun: The Untold Story, credited on the cover to Charles Heath but on the title page to Louis Chunovic.
NOTE: This is the only book in the series not to be based on episodes of the TV show.
- Bullets, Bikinis and Bells by Ron Renauld (adapted from the episodes "Bullets and Bikinis" written by Mark Jones and "The Bells of St. Mary's" written by Stephen J. Cannell)
- Backwoods Menace by Ron Renauld (adapted from the episodes "Timber!" written by Jeff Ray and "Children of Jamestown" written by Stephen J. Cannell)
- The Bend in the River by David George Deutsch (adapted from the episode of the same name written by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo).
- Death Vows by Max Hart (adapted from the episode "Till Death Us Do Part" written by Babs Greyhosky).
NOTE: This is the only book in the series to be adapted from one standard-length episode; #1, 3 and 9 are based on two-hour episodes.
Soundtrack
The original main theme by
Mike PostMike Post is an American multi-Grammy and Emmy Award winning composer best known for scoring some of the most popular TV theme songs in the United States, for primetime series such as Law & Order, NYPD Blue, The Rockford Files, LA Law, Quantum Leap, Magnum, P.I., Hill Street Blues, among numerous...
and
Pete CarpenterPeter Clarence "Pete" Carpenter , was an American jazz trombonist, musical arranger, and a veteran of television theme song scoring....
was released on the vinyl LP Mike Post - Television Theme Songs (Elektra Records E1-60028Y, 1982) and again on the Mike Post - Mike Post LP (RCA Records AFL1-5183, 1984), both long out-of-print. The theme, as heard on seasons two through four (including the opening narration and sound effects), was also released on TVT's
Television's Greatest Hits: 70s and 80sTelevision's Greatest Hits is a series of albums containing recordings of TV theme songs through the years. The series was first introduced in 1985 as the centerpiece of the then-new TVT Records. Each of the original 8 volumes contains 65 theme songs. The format of the original eight volume series...
.
Though no original music (other than the theme) has been released as of December 2010, in 1984 Silva Screen issued an album of re-recorded material from the series conducted by
Daniel CaineDerek Wadsworth was a British jazz trombonist, session musician, composer and arranger....
(reissued on compact disc in 1999, SILVAD 3509).
- Theme From The A-Team (3:13)
- Young Hannibal (2:57)
- B.A.'s Ride (2:34)
- The A-Team In New York City (2:43)
- Bandits (2:08)
- Taxi Chase (2:13)
- The A-Team Escape (1:16)
- The A-Team Prepare For War (2:08)
- Showtime (3:22)
- Move, Sucker (1:04)
- Let's Get Busted (1:06)
- Murdock's "Face" (3:01)
- Helicopters (2:36)
- More Bandits (1:22)
- Theme From The A-Team (3:27)
Bring Back... The A-Team (2006)
On May 18, 2006,
Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in the UK attempted to reunite the surviving cast members of
The A-Team for the show
Bring Back...Bring Back... is a British television series comprising one-off shows where Justin Lee Collins tries to locate people from music, TV or film backgrounds to reunite them for a one-off performance or get-together...
in an episode titled "Bring Back...The A Team".
Justin Lee CollinsJustin Lee Collins, commonly known as JLC, is an award-winning English comedian and television presenter.A Bristolian, he's well known for his strong West Country accent, shaggy appearance and colourful shirts....
presented the challenge, securing interviews and appearances from Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz, Marla Heasley, Jack Ging, series co-creator Stephen Cannell, and Mr. T.
Collins eventually managed to bring together Benedict, Schultz, Heasley, Ging and Cannell, along with William Lucking, Lance LeGault, and George Peppard's son, Christian. Mr. T was unable to make the meeting, which took place in the Friar's Club in Beverly Hills, but he did manage to appear on the show for a brief talk with Collins.
Feature film
A feature film based on
The A-Team was released on June 11, 2010, and was produced by
20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
.
Television ratings
During the show's first season,
The A-Team managed to pull in 17% to 20% of the American households on average. The first regular episode ("Children of Jamestown"), reached 26.4% of the television watching audience, placing fourth in the top 10 rated shows, according to the
Nielsen ratingsNielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. By March,
The A-Team, now on its regular Tuesday timeslot, dropped to the eight spot, but rated a 20.5%. Although the start of April 1983 saw a small drop for the show to 18.0%, it quickly recovered the following week, to 21.6%, which accounts for approximately 18 million homes. During the sweeps week in May of that year,
The A-Team dropped again but remained steady at 18.5%, and rose to 18.8% during the second week of May sweeps. It was the highest ratings NBC had achieved in five years.
The A-Team continued to rank in the top 10 highest rated shows for the remainder of its first season and reruns.
The premiere of
The A-Team's second season reached 20.9% on the Nielsen Rating scale. It continued to soar that season, reaching third place in the twenty highest rated programs, behind
DallasDallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
and
Simon & SimonSimon & Simon is an American detective television series starring Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker.-History:The original 1978 pilot called Pirate's Key was set in Florida...
, in January (mid-season). The season finale, titled "Curtain Call," put
The A-Team in fourth place with a rating of 19.5%, whereas the episode preceding it, "Semi-Friendly Persuasion," rated 21.6%. In June, the series took the top spot with a rating of 19.3%.
The third season premiere of the series rated fifth in the top 10 with a rating of 19.0% (16.1 million homes), beaten out by four other NBC shows, including
The Cosby ShowThe Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
, which placed first and featured the return of
Bill CosbyWilliam Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
to television after eight years.
The A-Team remained in the top 10 for the remainder of the season, and for the first time since 1969, NBC won both sweeps weeks in the May of 1985.
The fourth season saw
The A-Team experience a dramatic fall, as it started to lose its position while television viewership increased. As such, the ratings, while stable, were relatively less. The season premiere ranked a 17.4% (a 26% audience share on that timeslot) on the Nielsen Rating scale, but after ratings quickly declined. In October,
The A-Team had fallen to the 19th spot to 15.3%, whereas it had held the 6th spot for most of its third season. In contrast,
The Cosby Show had more than double the amount of viewers. In the second week of January 1986,
The Cosby Show reached a 38.5% rating in its timeslot. In that same month,
The A-Team fell to the 29th spot, on Super Bowl Night, the night on which the show had originally scored its first hit three years before. For the remainder of its fourth season
The A-Team managed to hang around the 20th spot, far from original top 10 position it had enjoyed during its first three seasons.
After four years on Tuesday, NBC decided to move
The A-Team to a new timeslot on Friday for what would be its final season. Ratings continued to drop, and after seven episodes,
The A-Team fell out of the top 50 altogether with a 13.3 Nielsen Rating. In November 1986, NBC cancelled the series, declining to order the last nine episodes of what would've been a 22-episode season.
The show's seasonal rankings and audience were as follows:
- Season 1, 1982–1983: #10 – audience 16,743,300
- Season 2, 1983–1984: #4 – audience 20,112,000
- Season 3, 1984–1985: #6 – audience 18 593 100
- Season 4, 1985–1986: #30 – audience 14,517,100
- Season 5, 1986–1987: #53 – audience 9,361,000
International reception
International response to
The A-Team has been varied. Although ratings soared during its early seasons, many television critics described the show largely as cartoonish and thereby wrote the series off. Most reviews focused on acting and the formulaic nature of the episodes, most prominently the absence of actual killing in a show about Vietnam War veterans.
- "They are all Vietnam veterans. The gradual assimilation of Vietnam into acceptable popular mythology, which began solemnly with The Deer Hunter
The Deer Hunter is a 1978 drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian American steel worker friends and their infantry service in the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Savage, John Cazale, and George Dzundza...
, has reached its culmination with The A-Team: No longer a memory to be hurriedly brushed aside, but heroes of a network adventure show. Their enemy is a comic army officer, Col. Lynch, see Sgt. BilkoSgt. Bilko is a 1996 comedy film directed by Jonathan Lynn and written by Andy Breckman. It is an adaptation of the 1950s television series The Phil Silvers Show .-Plot:...
, see Beetle BaileyBeetle Bailey is an American comic strip set in a fictional United States Army military post, created by cartoonist Mort Walker. It is among the oldest comic strips still being produced by the original creator...
, see M*A*S*H*, whose pursuit of our heroes is doomed to slapstick failure. This is classic right-wing American populism; patriotic, macho, anti-authority, and is unlikely to be understood in Britain, where to be right-wing implies an obsequiousness towards officers and the status quo. But right-wing this series certainly is. The bandits, it turns out, are in league with a group of sinister guerrillas who are trying to destabilise the country. Thanks to the A-Team's hearts and minds policy, the villagers rise up and put them to rout, in a 20-minute series of comic-book battle scenes, over-turning cars and airplane stunt-tricks, in which not a single person is hurt".
- —Mary Harron, New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
(UK), July 29, 1983, volume 106, p. 133
- "Despite realising what a load of codswallop it all is, I find I can watch A-Team without feeling any pain. Perhaps it is because of the bizarre Mr. T, a baubled, bangled and beaded non-actor who plays a mechanical genius, omnipotent muscleman and rigidly moralistic puritan. Not even Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
could make him believable, but without Mr. T this show would be considerably weakened even with all the superb stunting, meticulously planned explosions and Schultz as the chronically eccentric Murdock. This is a performance to relish. If this show is remembered in the future for anything, it will be for giving Schultz a chance to show his skillful comedy style."
- —Dean P., The Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail is a daily newspaper published in Brisbane, Australia. Owned by News Limited, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Murarrie, in Brisbane's...
/The Sunday Mail (AUS), January 8, 1985
- "Proving there is truly no justice on this earth, Mr. T gets $40,000 an episode for merely standing around looking nasty, occasionally beating up a couple of crooks or letting off a machinegun. He also does a fair bit of growling at the supposedly insane member of the team, Murdock, who is portrayed by Dwight Schultz. Murdock is a convincing nutcase and adds some bright spots to the plot, which holds no surprises, in tonight's episode called 'In Plane Sight.' Perhaps Schultz really has gone insane from doing what amounts to be the same plot with only minor variations in each A-team episode. The show is made for the average 10-year-old intellect which presumably has a desire for lots of car chases, flying bullets and punch-ups."
- —Coomber J., The Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail is a daily newspaper published in Brisbane, Australia. Owned by News Limited, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Murarrie, in Brisbane's...
/The Sunday Mail (AUS), October, 1985
- "Many people complain about the TV wasteland and probably point to The A-Team as an example of mindless, violent, primitive, exploitive sausage factory fodder. Who's arguing? It's all those (and more) except mindless. Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo have created an action farce, but sometimes the scripts are more subtle than most suspect."
- —Dean P., The Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail is a daily newspaper published in Brisbane, Australia. Owned by News Limited, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Murarrie, in Brisbane's...
/The Sunday Mail (AUS), May 27, 1986
- "And the penny has finally dropped. It is a farcical comedy, aimed at kids who would know no better and ones whose parents allow them to read escapist comic books. [...] Pow, blam, zap, kerpow! You expect the words to flash across the screen as about 1000 rounds of ammunition are fired across the village. No one ducks for cover, no one hides and amazingly, no one is injured, let alone killed. Just for amusement, Mr. T goes into mufti to nail the revolutionaries while the rest of his alleged intelligence team is in jail. Some intelligence, that lot. In the slammer while their getaway boat is captured. Then when the hoedown really gets down to tin-tacks, the Beatles' song Revolution is played in its entirety while the stuntmen – and there must have been dozens of them – do their stuff. That's The A-Team for you folks. A merry jape".
- —Gibson R., The Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail is a daily newspaper published in Brisbane, Australia. Owned by News Limited, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Murarrie, in Brisbane's...
/The Sunday Mail (AUS), June 30, 1987
On-screen violence
In fact, the show has been described as cartoonish and likened to
Tom and JerryTom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
, Dean P. of the
Courier-MailThe Advertiser is a daily tabloid-format newspaper published in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. First published as a broadsheet named "The South Australian Advertiser" on 12 July 1858, it is currently printed daily from Monday to Saturday. A Sunday edition exists under the name of the Sunday...
described the violence in the show as "hypocritical" and that "the morality of giving the impression that a hail of bullets does no-one any harm is ignored. After all, Tom and Jerry survived all sorts of mayhem for years with no ill-effects."
According to certain estimates, an episode of the A-Team held up to 46 violent acts. Stephen J. Cannell, co-creator of the show responds: "They were determined to make a point, and we were too big a target to resist. Cartoon violence is a scapegoat issue." Originally,
The A-Team's status as a hit show remained strong, but it ultimately lost out to more family-oriented shows such as
The Cosby ShowThe Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
,
Who's the Boss?Who's the Boss? is an American sitcom created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, which aired on ABC from September 20, 1984 to April 25, 1992...
and
Growing PainsGrowing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, residing in Huntington, New York, with a working mother and a stay-at-home psychiatrist father raising three children together, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985 to April 25, 1992.-Synopsis:The show's premise is based...
.
According to an article in
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, titled "TV View: It's Fun And It's Not Violent" there was a clear reason for this:
- "But television, a notorious devourer of talent, is never that simple. There are other factors. One is that a substantial number of viewers, if the ratings in recent months are to be believed, are clearly fed up with mindless violence of the car-chasing, fist-slugging variety. Another, more subtle, is that younger audiences are tuning out of commercial television to watch MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
or their VCR's. Significantly, the only hit series routinely featuring violence in the past year or two has been Miami ViceMiami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
, which, in addition to being a fashion show, looks like an extended music video.
- "In any event, former celebrations of violence like The A-Team, in the Top 10 not too long ago, can now be found sinking to the bottom of the ratings lists. The younger audiences who made the show are, in their familiar fickleness, deserting it. Meanwhile, the networks are rediscovering that older audiences are still big consumers who remain attractive to advertisers."
- —John J. O'Connor, The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, February 16, 1986.
The violence presented in
The A-Team is highly sanitized. People do not bleed or bruise when hit (though they might develop a limp or require a sling), nor do the members of the A-Team kill people. The results of violence were only ever presented when it was required for the script. In almost every car crash there is a short take showing the occupants of the vehicle climbing out of the mangled/burning wreck (even in helicopter crashes), although by late in the fourth season, some of these takes were dropped. According to Stephen J. Cannell this part of the show did become a running joke for the writing staff and they would at times test the limits of realism on purpose.
Sexism
During the show's tenure, the show was occasionally criticized for being sexist. These critiques were based on the notion that most female roles on the show were either a lead-in to the episode's plot, the recipient of Face's affections, or both. The only two regular female members of the cast, Melinda Culea (season 1 and the first half of season 2) and Marla Heasley (the latter half of season 2) did not have a very long tenure with the show. Both Culea and Heasley had been brought in by the network and producers to stem these critiques, hoping that a female character would properly balance the otherwise all-male cast. Culea was fired during the second season because of creative differences between her and the show's writers; she wanted more lines and more action scenes. Heasley was brought in to replace Culea as a similar assisting reporter character, but with a more fragile and seductive quality to her.
Ultimately, she was written out of the show at the start of the third season when the network determined that a female cast member was not necessary. While the character of Amy Allen suddenly disappeared between two episodes, Tawnia left the team on-screen, choosing to marry and move out of Los Angeles. The character of Amy Allen was only briefly referred to once in the episode "In Plain Sight," and a couple of times in "The Battle of Bel Air," the same episode that introduced Tawnia Baker, in which she was cited to have taken a correspondence job overseas (in
JakartaJakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
,
IndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
).
Marla Heasley's experiences on-set
As Marla Heasley recounts in
Bring Back... The A-Team (May 18, 2006), although sexism was not prevalent on the set per se, there was a sense that a girl was not necessary on the show, and she was even approached by George Peppard about it:
The interview continues with Marla Heasley noting that on her last day of work Peppard took her aside again, saying:
In an interview with the
Sunday Mail (AUS), Peppard admitted that he thought that "whenever the studio slips an actress on to the team, she becomes a distraction. She always slows down the action. She's someone who's only there for the glamor shots. Everything stops for the sexy smiles – and I can't see why that's necessary on
The A-Team."
Response by Dirk Benedict
In
Bring Back... the A-Team,
Dirk BenedictDirk Benedict is an American movie, television and stage actor, perhaps best known for playing the characters Lieutenant Templeton "Faceman" Peck in The A-Team television series and Lieutenant Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica film and television series.-Early life:Benedict was born...
also remarked that, indeed, the show was very male driven:
In two similar interviews in 2007, on the Dutch talk shows
Jensen!Jensen! is a Dutch late night talk show on the television station RTL 5. It airs weekdays from 22:30 to 23:30 CET ....
and
RTL Boulevard (both broadcast on May 11, 2007), Benedict remarked again that
The A-Team was a guy show, and if it were remade today, it'd be a lot more feminine, and a more adequate naming would be "The Gay-Team."
Awards
During its time,
The A-Team was nominated for 3 Emmy Awards: In 1983 (Outstanding Film Sound Mixing for a Series) for the pilot episode, in 1984 (Outstanding Film Sound Mixing for a Series) for the episode "When You Comin' Back, Range Rider?" and in 1987 (Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series) for the episode "Firing Line".
Episodes
Many of the episode titles (and plots) are plays on those of famous movies. For example, the title of an early episode, "Black Day At Bad Rock", is a play on the classic 1955 movie
Bad Day at Black RockBad Day at Black Rock is a 1955 thriller film directed by John Sturges that combines elements of Westerns and film noir. It tells the story of a mysterious stranger who arrives at a tiny isolated town in a desert of the southwest United States in search of a man...
. An early
Knight Rider episode, "Good Day at White Rock", is also a similar play on the title. Both episodes also contain notable parallels, with both stories involving a biker gang terrorizing a small town.
In "Pros and Cons", Face pretends to be Dr. Dwight Pepper, the author of a book on prison reform. The photo on the back of the book (supposedly the actual Dr. Dwight Pepper) is a photo of Stephen J. Cannell, the producer of the series. The name is a gag on the
soft drink of the same nameDr Pepper is a soft drink, marketed as having a unique flavor. The drink was created in the 1880s by Charles Alderton of Waco, Texas and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904 and is now also sold in Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, Australia ...
, although some have noted that Dwight is Dwight Schultz's first name, and Pepper is similar to Peppard.
A "
lost episodeA lost episode of a television series or radio series is one which is, or was at one point, not available for rerun or release on home video or DVD. In some cases, the term is something of a misnomer, used to describe an episode that for any number of reasons was not aired in its original...
", "Without Reservations", aired for the first time during re-runs in March 1987. This episode was meant to air before the final episode, "The Grey Team", which is reflected by the fact that in "Without Reservations" Murdock's T-shirt says "Almost Fini" while in "The Grey Team" it says "Fini". Apparently, the axe fell on the series more suddenly than expected, leaving the episode too short to be broadcast. To make it long enough to air, the entire pre-opening credits sequence was made up of footage from the first season episode "Holiday In The Hills", re-edited with a new fifth season-style backing score, and a shot of Frankie added from the fifth season episode "The Crystal Skull". "The Grey Team" is also more likely to be the "proper" final episode, as Hannibal tells General Stockwell that the team will not work for him (Stockwell) any longer after being misled one time too many, and at the end of the story, the team ponders their future.
The series always featured a GMC van, owned by B. A. Baracus, as the getaway vehicle for the A-Team, and sometimes in episodes, a white
Chevrolet CorvetteThe Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car by the Chevrolet division of General Motors that has been produced in six generations. The first model, a convertible, was designed by Harley Earl and introduced at the GM Motorama in 1953 as a concept show car. Myron Scott is credited for naming the car after...
with a red stripe appeared as Face's vehicle. The last season of
The A-Team featured a safehouse provided by General Stockwell for the A-Team as a set in the episodes featuring General Stockwell instead of the earlier episodes beginning at different locations. Most of the episodes before the character of General Stockwell arrived to become part of the show featured the A-Team helping people who could not get any assistance from other sources, as per John Ashley's narration, which said, "If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...The A-Team.".
The final episode of the fourth season at one point may have been the last, as Murdock's "All Good Things Must Come To An End" T-shirt hints. But the show returned, re-vamped, for one more season.
Professional wrestlers
The show featured professional wrestlers such as
Hulk HoganTerrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
,
Professor Toru TanakaCharles "Charlie" J. Kalani, Jr. was an American professional wrestler, professional boxer, college football player, soldier, actor, and Martial Artist who, in fighting rings, was also known as Professor Toru Tanaka, or simply, Professor Tanaka.-Early life:He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the son...
,
Ricky "The Dragon" SteamboatRichard Henry Blood , better known by his ring name Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, is a retired American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE working as a road agent. He was one of the few wrestlers who stayed a babyface throughout his career...
,
The Dynamite KidThomas Wilton Billington , best known by the ring name Dynamite Kid, is a retired British professional wrestler who competed in the World Wrestling Federation, Stampede Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling in the mid- to late-1980s...
,
Bobby "The Brain" HeenanRaymond Louis "Ray" Heenan , better known as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan , is a former American professional wrestling manager and color commentator, best known for his time with the American Wrestling Association , World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation...
,
Davey Boy SmithDavey Boy Smith was a British professional wrestler, better known as "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, who was born in Golborne in North West England, United Kingdom. Smith is known for his appearances with Stampede Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling...
,
Big John StuddJohn William Minton was an American professional wrestler and actor who was born and raised in Butler, Pennsylvania, better known by his ring name, Big John Studd.-Career:...
and
Greg "The Hammer" ValentineJohn Wisniski, Jr. is an American professional wrestler, better known as Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. He is the son of wrestler Johnny Valentine.-Training:...
, in most cases playing themselves. In the episode "Body Slam", which featured Hogan, wrestling interviewer and announcer
"Mean" Gene OkerlundEugene "Mean Gene" Okerlund is a semi-retired American professional wrestling interviewer and announcer. He is best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 by Hulk Hogan...
also appeared.
The GMC van
The black and metallic grey
GMCGMC is a manufacturer of trucks, vans, military vehicles, and SUVs marketed in North America and the Middle East by General Motors Company. In January 2007, GMC was GM's second-largest-selling North American vehicle division after Chevrolet, ahead of Pontiac....
VanduraThe Chevrolet and GMC G-Series vans were made by General Motors for North America. They are in the same vehicle class as the Ford Econoline van and the Dodge Ram Van.The term "Chevrolet van" also refers to the entire series of vans sold by Chevrolet...
van used by the A-Team, with its characteristic red stripe, black and red turbine mag wheels, and rooftop spoiler, has become an enduring pop culture icon. One of the original six vans used for the show is displayed in the
Cars of the Stars Motor MuseumThe Cars of the Stars Motor Museum was in the English town of Keswick, Cumbria, and owned a collection of celebrity television and film vehicles...
in
KeswickKeswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park...
, northern
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The GMC Vandura used on
the A-Team movieThe A-Team is an American action film based on the television series of the same name. It was released in cinemas in the United States on June 11, 2010, by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Joe Carnahan and produced by Stephen J. Cannell and the Scott brothers Ridley and Tony...
was also on display at the 2010
New York International Auto ShowThe New York International Auto Show is an annual auto show held in New York City in late March or early April. It is usually held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. It usually opens on or just before Easter weekend and closes on the first Sunday after Easter...
.
Early examples of the van had a red GMC logo on the front grille, and an additional GMC logo on the rear left door. Early in the second season, these logos were blacked out, although GMC continued to supply vans and receive a credit on the closing credits of each episode.
It is a common error that the van is said to be all-black, whereas in fact the section above the red stripe is metallic gray; this error was even continued on most toy models of the van. The angle of the rear spoiler can also be seen to vary on different examples of the van within the series. Additionally, some versions of the van have a sunroof, whereas others, typically those used for stunts (and including the one displayed in the aforementioned Cars of the Stars Motor Museum) do not. This led to continuity errors in some episodes, such as in the third season's "The Bells Of St. Mary's", in a scene where (the double of) Face jumps from a building onto the roof of the van. There is clearly no sunroof. Moments later, in an interior studio shot, Face climbs in through the sunroof. Also, in many stunts where the van would surely be totaled, other makes have been used, such as a black
Ford EconolineThe Ford E-Series, formerly known as the Econoline or Club Wagon, is a line of full-size vans and truck chassis from the Ford Motor Company. The E-Series is related to the Ford F-Series line of pickup trucks. The line was introduced in 1961 as a compact van and its descendants are still produced...
with red hubcaps painted to simulate the original red turbine mag wheels.
A number of devices were seen in the back of the van in different episodes, including a mini printing press ("Pros and Cons"), an audio surveillance recording device ("A Small And Deadly War"), and Hannibal's disguise kits in various episodes.
Weapons
In early episodes the team used Colt AR-15 SP1 semi-automatic rifles (with automatic sound effects, simulating the
M16The M16 is the United States military designation for the AR-15 rifle adapted for both semi-automatic and full-automatic fire. Colt purchased the rights to the AR-15 from ArmaLite, and currently uses that designation only for semi-automatic versions of the rifle. The M16 fires the 5.56×45mm NATO...
), while in later seasons they used the
Ruger Mini-14The Mini-14, Mini Thirty, and Mini-6.8 are small, lightweight semi-automatic carbines manufactured by the U.S. firearms company Sturm, Ruger. The Mini-14 non-target versions can fire both the .223 Remington cartridge and the similar military 5.56x45mm cartridge. The target model Mini-14 rifles are...
, and on rare occasions, the
selective fireA selective fire firearm has at least one semi–automatic and one automatic mode, which is activated by means of a selector which varies depending on the weapon's design. Some selective fire weapons utilize burst fire mechanisms to limit the maximum or total number of shots fired automatically in...
AC-556K variant of the Mini-14. Hannibal is also seen using an
M60 machine gunThe M60 is a family of American general-purpose machine guns firing 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges from a disintegrating belt of M13 links...
in some episodes as well as a Micro-Uzi. Hannibal's sidearms are either a nickel plated Smith and Wesson Model 59, or a stainless steel Smith and Wesson Model 639. Unusually in the episode "Black Day At Bad Rock" he is seen carrying a
Browning Hi-PowerThe Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, 9 mm semi-automatic handgun. It is based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at Fabrique Nationale of Herstal, Belgium. Browning died in 1926, several years before the design was finalized...
. Many antagonists and members of the team are seen using 1911s as well.
DVD releases
Universal Studios Home EntertainmentUniversal Studios Home Entertainment is the home video division of Universal Pictures...
has released all five seasons of
The A-Team on DVD in Region 1, 2, and 4. In Region 2, a complete series set entitled "The A-Team--The Ultimate Collection" was released on October 8, 2007. A complete series set was released in Region 1 on June 8, 2010. The set includes 25 discs packaged in a replica of the A-Team's signature black van from the show. The complete series set was released in Region 4 on November 3, 2010.
All 5 seasons were re-released in Region 2 with new packaging on June 21, 2010.
| DVD Name |
Ep# |
Release dates |
| Region 1 |
Region 2 |
Region 4 |
| Season One |
14 |
June 8, 2004 |
September 13, 2004 |
December 3, 2004 |
| Season Two |
22 |
April 12, 2005 |
July 4, 2005 |
July 13, 2005 |
| Season Three |
25 |
January 31, 2006 |
May 22, 2006
(R2 has different cover art) |
July 20, 2006 |
| Season Four |
24 |
April 4, 2006 |
September 18, 2006 |
September 19, 2006 |
Season Five:
The Final Season |
13 |
October 10, 2006 |
February 12, 2007
(R2 has different cover art) |
February 21, 2007 |
| The Complete Series |
98 |
June 8, 2010 |
October 8, 2007 |
November 3, 2010 |
External links
of
The A-Team co-creator Stephen J. Cannell