Judging by the comments I see, The A-Team certainly had its legion of fans. I have to confess to a guilty pleasure in watching it, but when I look back, I can't believe how dumb it was.
In thinking back on all the episodes you could probably count on the fingers of one hand and have a digit or two to spare of the number of people who actually met their demise. Talking about shoot to wound, it was more like shoot to wreck. Nobody ever got killed with all the weaponry the outlaw A-Team could bring to bear. They'd shoot up vehicles however at a prodigious rate and the bad guys would be too banged up in the wreck to continue the fight. Or they'd shoot a tree branch down on the head of a villain. Stuff like that, but they never killed anyone with all those automatic weapons. Of course if people actually died, it would sort of remove the playfulness that characterized the show.
The best thing The A-Team had going for it was its members, all very individual personalities even if they did function as a team. George Peppard was the leader, planner, organizer who came up with such intricate schemes to help their clients that he fell in love with his own plans. As Mr. T would say, 'he was on the jazz'.
Although Peppard was billed first it was Mr. T that people remember best from the show. Interesting in that he was the only black and an enlisted man, a sergeant. He was incredibly innovative in terms of fashioning weapons when the team was denied the use of their regular hardware. He had a fear of only one thing, flying and that was used for many a gag.
Of course a fear of flying was understandable if the pilot was one H.M. Murdock. There was a Marine general from World War II named Holland M. "Howling Mad" Smith, but he had nothing on Murdock. Dwight Schultz could drive anyone bonkers except the unflappable Peppard. Mr. T. as B.A. Baracus had a running fight with crazy Murdock the entire run of the series.
The fourth member of the group was Templeton Peck, product of an orphanage who as Face learned to live by his wits early on in life. He was the conman, the procurer of whatever was needed by the team at a given situation. He was played by Dirk Benedict with a certain amount of smarmy charm though he was always in a good cause. The team would not be involved in anything less.
The team were outlaws, tried and convicted for crimes in Vietnam we are assured they did not commit and escaped from military prison. They also had to avoid the Military Police and the various people like William Lucking, Jack Ging, and Lance LeGault sent by the army to capture who pretty much always failed.
The first season the team had an outside contact in Brenda Starr like reporter, Melinda Culea. She left the show and I can't really blame her as her role gradually got dumbed down to camp follower. This was one testosterone driven show.
I have to say though that of the group Dwight Schultz is an actor who still fascinates me whenever I see him. No one really knew who he was before The A-Team. Since he left he's played an astounding variety of roles that still leave me in awe of the man's talent. And most of them far from the comic vein of Howling Mad Murdock.
So with some god awful stories, but a cast that really clicked, The A-Team ran for three seasons with same formula. Why then did producer Stephen Cannell decide to alter things by having The A-Team captured by the Military Police, but given a stay of execution so that General Robert Vaughn could use them for rogue intelligence assignments. You don't want to let guys with these kind of skills go to waste, but it destroyed the show. They even added another member of the team, Eddie Velez, presumably to bring in a Latino demographic. Velez was all right in his role, but it was like he was an interloper in an established show. The A-Team got canceled, presumably they're still doing intelligence work while collecting their military pensions, if indeed they were entitled to them with a court martial conviction.
I used to say loud and long at how dumb this show was, but I did watch it and I suspect many were like me. I guess we were all on the jazz.
In thinking back on all the episodes you could probably count on the fingers of one hand and have a digit or two to spare of the number of people who actually met their demise. Talking about shoot to wound, it was more like shoot to wreck. Nobody ever got killed with all the weaponry the outlaw A-Team could bring to bear. They'd shoot up vehicles however at a prodigious rate and the bad guys would be too banged up in the wreck to continue the fight. Or they'd shoot a tree branch down on the head of a villain. Stuff like that, but they never killed anyone with all those automatic weapons. Of course if people actually died, it would sort of remove the playfulness that characterized the show.
The best thing The A-Team had going for it was its members, all very individual personalities even if they did function as a team. George Peppard was the leader, planner, organizer who came up with such intricate schemes to help their clients that he fell in love with his own plans. As Mr. T would say, 'he was on the jazz'.
Although Peppard was billed first it was Mr. T that people remember best from the show. Interesting in that he was the only black and an enlisted man, a sergeant. He was incredibly innovative in terms of fashioning weapons when the team was denied the use of their regular hardware. He had a fear of only one thing, flying and that was used for many a gag.
Of course a fear of flying was understandable if the pilot was one H.M. Murdock. There was a Marine general from World War II named Holland M. "Howling Mad" Smith, but he had nothing on Murdock. Dwight Schultz could drive anyone bonkers except the unflappable Peppard. Mr. T. as B.A. Baracus had a running fight with crazy Murdock the entire run of the series.
The fourth member of the group was Templeton Peck, product of an orphanage who as Face learned to live by his wits early on in life. He was the conman, the procurer of whatever was needed by the team at a given situation. He was played by Dirk Benedict with a certain amount of smarmy charm though he was always in a good cause. The team would not be involved in anything less.
The team were outlaws, tried and convicted for crimes in Vietnam we are assured they did not commit and escaped from military prison. They also had to avoid the Military Police and the various people like William Lucking, Jack Ging, and Lance LeGault sent by the army to capture who pretty much always failed.
The first season the team had an outside contact in Brenda Starr like reporter, Melinda Culea. She left the show and I can't really blame her as her role gradually got dumbed down to camp follower. This was one testosterone driven show.
I have to say though that of the group Dwight Schultz is an actor who still fascinates me whenever I see him. No one really knew who he was before The A-Team. Since he left he's played an astounding variety of roles that still leave me in awe of the man's talent. And most of them far from the comic vein of Howling Mad Murdock.
So with some god awful stories, but a cast that really clicked, The A-Team ran for three seasons with same formula. Why then did producer Stephen Cannell decide to alter things by having The A-Team captured by the Military Police, but given a stay of execution so that General Robert Vaughn could use them for rogue intelligence assignments. You don't want to let guys with these kind of skills go to waste, but it destroyed the show. They even added another member of the team, Eddie Velez, presumably to bring in a Latino demographic. Velez was all right in his role, but it was like he was an interloper in an established show. The A-Team got canceled, presumably they're still doing intelligence work while collecting their military pensions, if indeed they were entitled to them with a court martial conviction.
I used to say loud and long at how dumb this show was, but I did watch it and I suspect many were like me. I guess we were all on the jazz.