GEEKEPEDIA: THE A-TEAM

AIRDATES: 23 January 1983 – 14 June 1987, NBC.

Opening narration: “In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you could hire the A-Team”
(nb: Season one's narration begins “Ten years ago...” before continuing).

Show creator Stephen J. Cannell confessed on the BBC's I LOVE THE '80's that “We told the same story every week!”

The show's memorable theme, revamped for the fifth season, was written by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter.

HARDWARE – The van (A grey-over-black GMC G15 van with red stripe/ wheels paint job and sliding side door. Six of the beasts, sharing at least three registration plates, were used for the show's run. It's become as iconic as the Mystery Machine), Face's Corvette (1984 issue. The distinctive red stripe was added to white hired cars as required), guns and ammunition (no-one dare speculate what tonnage of munitions were discharged in the course of the show. Needless to say, the hardware on show would make the mouth of many an African warlord water), cabbages (infamous Team weapon-of-choice), anything that happens to be in a shed, locked room, warehouse, broom cupboard etc. (you know the score. You know the plot).

Season one ranked 10th in the 1982-83 ratings, NBC's only show to break the top ten. By the fifth, and final, year the ratings had collapsed to 61st place.

Marvel Comics published a three-issue mini-series (apparently, according to an otherwise unrelated Marvel Age Magazine article, all completed within one month). These stories were reprinted as two specials by Marvel UK. A separate, UK originated, A-Team strip appeared in the weekly TV Comic until the title was cancelled. The license then transferred to Look-In.

In the UK, five hardback The A-Team annuals appeared between 1985 and 1991. Four were published by World Distributors between 1985 and 1989. The 1991 edition came from Marvel UK (coinciding with a repeat run of the television show) and, like the holiday specials (see above) reprinted strips from the US mini-series.

Several years after the show ended, Mr T got his own US comic book (Mr T and the T-Force, 14 issues 1994-95.) from Now Comics. More recently, Mr. T returned to comics but, despite heavy hype in industry publications, the title (and the publisher) folded after a single issue hit the stands.

The T-ster also attempted to conquer animation and, bizarrely, self-help videos for the under elevens. The Saturday morning (which ran between 1983 and 1986) show saw Mr. T leave behind the A-Team in favour for a group of pre-pubescent gymnasts (insert your own joke here) who travelled the globe solving crimes and learning valuable moral lessons. Mr. T topped-and-tailed each episode with a brief live-action piece-to-camera. Universal also rush-released Be Somebody, Or Be Somebody's Fool, a VHS attempt to educate the youth of America as the big T rapped out his moral message. Sadly, neither have yet resurfaced in the DVD age (at least, not officially).

In 1984, at the height of his fame, Mr.T also recorded the album Mr. T’s Commandments. It is not available on CD or download (that we know of).

An A-Team soundtrack album is available on CD.

The show features in the 1984 segment of BBC TWO's I Love the '80s with clips, interviews with Cannell and Schultz and the contemporary advert for the amazingly poor action figures. Falling some way short of the detailed documentary the show deserves, Channel Four's Bring Back The A-Team is a start. All the surviving members of the team are interviewed and several reunited (T declines the invertation but does consent to a solo interview).

Boy George’s appearance in the episode Cowboy George is included in the light entertainment documentary Secret Life of the Stars (BBC ONE).

George Peppard (who died of pneumonia following treatment for lung cancer in May 1994. He had been married five times and was survived by three children) was first choice for Blake Carrington in DYNASTY and played the part in the original pilot episode. The producers found him demanding and difficult and became concerned how he would behave if the show became a success. They recast and reshot with John Forsyth.

Mr. T was the first member of the team to be cast.

George Peppard was very nervous in his audition and sweated heavily despite trying to appear cool and cocky. Peppard developed a reputation for being hard work on the A-Team set as well: he clashed with Mr. T, forced the writers to under use and ultimately drop the reporters Amy Allan and Tawnia Baker, and refused to work long hours.

The cast turnover amongst the military ranks was even more frequent: William Lucking was Colonial Lynch while genre regular Lance LaGault had the same mission as Colonial Decker during season’s two-four. Also on the Team’s case were Jack Ging as General Fulbright (eventually killed in action) during Season Four. Carl Franklin was Captain Crane during season’s two-four.

Tim Dunigan played Face in the pilot episode, MEXICAN SLAYRIDE. He was replaced by Dirk Benedict for all subsequent episodes but the pilot was not reshot to take account of the change. Dunigan would later headline his own show with Captain Power and the Solders of the Future, a short-lived live-action show designed to sell futuristic interactive toys from Mattel. When the toyline faltered, the show was cancelled after a single season.

Following continued heated disputes with Peppard (apparently still convinced he should have been the star of the show), Mr. T walked off the set during production of the fourth season episode Judgement Day. Opting to play hardball, the studio briefly fired T until he agreed to return to work.

The team’s van is a 1985 model General Motors G-15. It made it to 8th place in SKY ONE's TV's Greatest Cars. Face's corvette is a 1984 model. The car's red stripe was added every time the vehicle was hired.

The show was spoofed, as The B-Team, by Benny Hill.

In 1995, Mr. T was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoma but has continued to work. He has become a born-again Christian in recent years and announced in 2005, following the devastating affects of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans, that he would no longer wear his gold jewellery, believing it is an “insult to god”.

Benedict was a housemate for the duration of the 2006 instalment of Celebrity Big Brother. The star signing at the beginning of the run (he arrived at the house in a replica A-Team van) he was swiftly overshadowed by the international race row that engulfed the show (and Channel Four). Ultimately, he came a respectable third.

Dirk Benedict has penned two autobiographies: And Then we Went Fishing: A Story of Fatherhood, Fate and Forgiveness (Avery publishing Group, July 1994) and Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy: A True Story of Discovery, Acting, Health, Illness, Recovery and Life (Avery Publishing, June 1991). Sales of both apparently leapt on Amazon after his CBB appearance so maybe a third is one the way?

The choosy viewer might be more interested in the impressive rota of 1980s guest stars: Season One: Dean Stockwell (A Small and Deadly War), Tracy Scoggins (The Rabbit Who Ate Las Vegas), Yaphet Kotto (The Out-of-Towners). Season Two: Michael Ironside (The Taxi Cab Wars), Tracy Scoggins (There's Always A Catch), Keye Luke (The Maltese Cow), Dennis Franz (Chopping Spree), Tim O'Connor (Semi-Friendly Persuasion), Sam J. Jones (Semi-Friendly Persuasion). Season Three – Marta Du Bois (Bend in the River), Barry Van Dyke (Bend in the River), Joe Santos (Trouble on Wheels), Richard Lynch (Hot Styles), Daphne Ashbrook (Road Games), Richard Herd (Waste 'Em), Lloyd Boucher (Beverly Hills Assault), Dennis Franz (Beverly Hills Assault), Claudia Christian (Trouble Brewing), Judson Scott (Incident at Crystal Lake). Season Four: June Chadwick (Judgement Day), Isaac Hayes (The Heart of Rock'n'Roll), Hulk Hogan (Body Slam), Robert Pastorelli (There Goes The Neighbourhood), Richard Anderson (The Doctor Is Out), Boy George and Culture Club (Cowboy George), Hulk Hogan (The Trouble With Harry), William “The Refrigerator” Perry (The Trouble With Harry), Tia Carrere (The Sound of Thunder). Season Five – Dustin Nguyen (Point of No Return), Roy Doltrice (The Spy Who Mugged Me).