I Want A Trash Bag!

If you are an "A Team" lover, season one is for you. It sets the tone for what's to come. Dwight Schultz is an absolute delight. The "Pros and Cons" (Trash Bag) episode from season one is still our family's favorite episode. George Peppard has always been good. Dirk Benedict and Mr T fill out the foursome in fine form.

This A Team is one of the greatest "tonge in cheek" TV series ever produced. Totally spoofy and still enjoyable. "I love it, when a plan comes together!"

A-Team

I loved season one of the A-Team and I can't wait to get the whole sereies

Nostalgic Fun

This is a series to watch for the characters; for Hannibal and his gleeful approach to planning, tough guy B.A. with a heart of gold, the suave but put-upon Face and the crazy antics of Murdock. This season also has news reporter Amy Allen, a character with the guts to handle the guys. Of all the seasons, the 1st was definitely my favourite.

In some ways this series has dated a bit over the years but it hasn't in one important way - it's still fun. The politics can be simplistic and right-wing at times but the bad guys get caught and lots of things blow up. What more could you want?

Not just a guilty pleasure

***CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!****



I watched The A-Team when I was a kid, enthralled with the Tom and Jerry atmosphere, the bickering closeness of B.A. and Murdock, the smooth way Face conned his way in and out of the most improbable scenarios, the zany confidence of Hannibal that no matter what, the plan was going to come together.

I'm older now, but there's still something about the show that reels me in. In fact, I would say there are aspects of it now I appreciate more. The genuine bond between the team members is something I enjoy seeing, perhaps because I'm more aware now how rare such bonds are. The absolute trust they had in each other, like when B.A. went undercover in a prison, was chained to another prisoner for a fight to the death, and he knew with absolute certainty that his friends were coming to get him. He never doubted the team would save him, and they did. Their unconditional loyalty to each other, like when Hannibal offered to trade a chemical warfare weapon for Murdock's life. And the warmth of the relationships, like the way Face and Hannibal humored Murdock, who tormented B.A. and yet could always get him to smile-whether or not Murdock saw the smile. These are things that have not only stood the test of time, but have improved and make the show a genuine classic.

It's true there was a real cartoon aspect to much of the show, yet it's also true there were some genuinely dramatic episodes. Bounty was a wonderful entry, featuring Dwight Schultz' real wife, Wendy Fulton, as Murdock's love interest. It has some of the warmest moments in the series, as Murdock's feelings develop, and a rather bittersweet ending when the lady comes to visit the pilot in the V.A. hospital and asks him what he's doing there. All he can say is, "It's a long story."

A Sound of Thunder was a haunting episode which saw the team returning to Vietnam. Their painful memories resurface, and it's chilling to see them moving in the jungle on full alert, years after the war is over. At the end Murdock asks Hannibal if he thought about it before they went back, and Hannibal replies that he remembered, but he didn't think about it. It's all too plain that while they may not think about Vietnam, they will never forget.

A particularly compelling episode was Family Reunion, where Murdock learns that the former political adviser the team is protecting is actually Face's father, and the man's daughter is Face's half-sister. He agonizes over whether to tell Face the truth, and when he finally does, it's one of the most intense scenes of the entire series, with Face furiously angry that Murdock didn't tell him sooner.

It's constantly being brought up that nobody ever got hurt on The A-Team. Not true. B.A. got shot twice. So did Murdock-once seriously enough for the entire episode to focus on the team's efforts to get him medical attention before he died of his injuries. Murdock was also blinded when a gun went off close to his face. Hannibal and B.A. were poisoned by thugs trying to capture the team. And in the harrowing episode aired as the series finale, Face was shot and spent most of the episode on the floor of a restaurant's kitchen. Dirk Benedict really pulled out all the stops for this one, and it's disturbing to see Face suffering so much pain, frightened and confused and bleeding slowly to death. It's almost as disturbing to see Murdock, who was working as a waiter in the restaurant, grimly sane as he tries to cooperate with the bad guys and tend to Face at the same time. Near the end of the episode, when Murdock gets the drop on the man who shot Face, he beats him senseless and has to be hauled away by Frankie. It's an episode that could hold its own with any drama, and a starkly realistic contrast to most of the series.

Was the show sexist? I'm sure that to some people, especially nowadays, it seems that way. My personal opinion is that it was not sexist at all. This was not Mission:Impossible, where a femme fatale was a necessary component of the team. This was a story of a band of brothers whose connection was forged in combat. As Hannibal says to General Fullbright's daughter Tia, in A Sound of Thunder, "It was a strange time. Nothing you could ever understand." For what it's worth, I never thought there should be a team member who hadn't been with them during that time. Not the girls, Amy and Tawnia, and not even Frankie, although the producers did try to put him in the same boat as the team by making him a fugitive as well. These characters were bright, talented, charming, had skills that were useful to the team, and were very easy on the eyes, but to me they just didn't seem to fit in because of the context under which the team was formed to begin with.

All in all, I'm very grateful The A-Team is still around. It was a cherished part of my childhood, and it's a nice place to visit now that I'm older. I would recommend it to anyone.

Fun and Entertaining

A very entertaining program with a good mix of action, humor and good will. At times the writing is corny. This is a show I enjoyed as a kid and now I'm able to share it with my kids who enjoyed it as much as I did. This is good entertaining family programming if you are not overly sensitive to violence. This is an action hero show, so it is packed with gun play, fist fights, car chases and crashes. However, no one is ever killed or seriously injured (all involved in the end run from the scene coughing). Target audience in my opinion boys over the age of eight.