L'agence tous risques

Nothing defined the eighties so much as the television we watched. Dallas. The Young and the Restless. The Dukes of Hazzard. He-Man. The Greatest American Hero. Airwolf. Knight Rider.

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they did not commit. They promptly escaped a maximum security stockade into the Los Angeles Underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they exist as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...

The A-Team.

With a script any eight year old would love, the four members of the A-Team went off every week to somewhere in America to help someone who couldn't find help anywhere else. They battled impossible odds (with impossible storylines) and managed to stay one step ahead of the law. They were always predictable, heroic, and fun. God bless the eighties, and long live TV Land.

The A-Team was one of three shows - the others being The Cosby Show and Miami Vice - that rescued NBC in the 1980s, and this mixture of action and comedy still holds up as an entertaining concoction.

The show succeeds primarily on the personalities of the cast. George Peppard's career was drying up and looked half past dead when he was cast as flamboyant Colonel John H. "Hannibal" Smith; his performances gave his career the boost it otherwise would not have gotten as in the manner of Leslie Nielsen he found his niche in comedic flamboyance after nearly two decades as a straight lead or in a character role.

Dirk Benedict brings Starbuck to Earth (best shown in the show's most overt and best in-joke, the shot of a Cylon centurion guide at Universal Studios walking past Templeton Peck with the intimidating hum of its eye scanner added to the soundtrack) and scores again as the slightly decedent but ultimately sympathetic rogue who is the team's primary scam expert. Peck is something of the dry-witted observor of the crazy happenings to the team during its adventures.

Mr. T had become a household name in Rocky III but it was The A-Team that cemented his persona with his trademark "Shut up, fool!" and general attitude with a heart of gold. Bosco Arnold Baracus was always feuding with the team's pilot, Hector M. Murdoch, committed to a VA psycho ward due to insanity concocted in the Vietnam war - insanity that is just a ruse for Murdoch to better help the team.

It may seem odd to think of Dwight Schultz as a qualified Broadway performer, but his career has been in that vein, and his role of Murdoch made him a true TV star; Schultz gave Murdoch his personality but he also tempered him with believeable torment, best shown in the show's warmest episode "Bounty," co-starring Schultz' reallife wife Wendy Fulton. Murdoch can be funny, but as Wendy helps bring out in this episode, Schultz is also a qualified dramatic performer.

Ultimately fleshing out the show was the Gerard-esque pursuer of the team, Colonel Roderick Decker. Lance LeGault portrayed Decker and made one of TV's best recurring villians. Decker gained sympathy from his determination and it showed in one of the show's weaker episodes, "Incident At Crystal Lake" where he and his executive officer Captain Crane are attacked by four criminals and brutally beaten; no pleasure is derived from seeing Decker and Crane brutalized; if anything the viewer despises this scene precisely because the two Army officers are so humiliated. This sympathy angle is best shown in the show's flashback episode "Curtain Call" where Decker has the team cornered and they offer no resistance to arrest and also in a later episode where Hannibal needs to protect the family of his client from mobsters, and the only way he can is to draw Decker into the fray.

As Crane, future director Carl Franklin displays superb chemistry with LeGault throughout the run of the show, and it was a mystery when, after two episodes of the show's 1985-6 season, Crane was curiously dropped.

This is a show where everything revolves around personality. The plots and production values are deliberately on a budget; it is the personality of the characters that drives the show and makes it work. Hannibal always loves it when a plan comes together, B.A. is always cantankerous and terrified of flying (except, curiously, in one 1986 episode where Peck is rescued and they fly out in a helicopter), Templeton Peck always has a scam running, and Murdoch is always engagingly nuts.

And it all works, each episode, of a pivotal action comedy series of the 1980s.

This is one of those shows where I can truly say that I have seen every single episode. Thanks to the reruns, off course, which made me watch it over and over again when I was just a young, little boy. Not seeing (or perhaps not wanting to see) how bad the action, how boring and slow the story was. And how every episode was almost the same as the previous one. The fact that people only shot at other peoples legs (not in the head or chest) didn't bother me either in those days. Now it does bother me and I'm always wondering why I was such a fan in my youth. Luckily I found out after some thinking.

When I was a fan of Hannibal, Murdoch, Face and B.A. (and Amy) I saw a group of friends, very good friends helping out good people who were oppressed by the bad people. They always won, every episode ended as a feel-good-one, there were a lot of laughs, justice was served and my friends Hannibal, Murdoch, Face and B.A. (and Amy) took me home where I was waiting for them to pick me up for another adventure. And I thank them for that joy and adventure they gave me.

After the Vietnam war a ream of commandos are framed for a crime they didn't commit. While on the run from the military police they act as hired hands to help put right wrongs where the police etc have proved powerless.

Many TV shows from the 80's are looked fondly upon by those of us who were in our childhood at the time, even if they were really pretty poor – e.g. Manimal, Street Hawk etc. However many deserve their place in our hearts and I think the A Team is one such show. The basic plot is always the same – the group get involved in a mission and it always ends in some sort of gunfight and the group construct a machine out of odds and sods they find in a shed!

It contains the same elements every week, whether it be Hannibal's disguises, Murdock's bickering or the usual trickery to get BA to get on a plane. However it's all delivered with a certain amount of tongue in cheek. Why – even the title music is tongue in cheek, witness `Face" (Benedict) pause when a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica walks past him! How many other shows put the in-jokes so far to the front (Benedict having starred in that show!). This gave it a bit more freedom to be silly as it wasn't even taking itself too seriously.

Add to this a bunch of great catchphrases, running themes and of course a great title theme and you've got a hit my friends. It's hard to imagine anyone else playing their roles. Peppard will always be Hannibal to me ,no matter how many times I see earlier films. Likewise with Benedict and Schultz. Mr T is famous in his own right but I'll always mistakenly call him BA – to me that's who he is! The basic 4 always had good interaction and worked very well together. The support cast throws up the odd name – LQ Jones, Tia Carrera, Divoff, Hulk hogan, David McCallum, Boy George – but really the supporting cast didn't matter when the leads were on form.

Overall this may have been silly but it was great fun. All these years later and I'm approaching my thirties and I still enjoy it when I find it on a rerun somewhere. Somethings are just fun no matter what!

I think "The A-Team" is still a great show from the 80's, it has a lot of humor and great acting. Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo have a great imagination when they thought up this idea.

The series is about former soldiers, who were Vietnam veterans,are on the run from the law. They are sought after by the U.S. Army for crimes they didn't commit. The A-Team are wanted for robbing the bank of Hanoi.

The A-Team is led by Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, played so awesome by the late George Peppard (Breakfast At Tiffany's, Battle Beyond The Stars, and Treasure Of The Yankee Zepher). Hannibal is a master of disguise, does stunts for movies on his free time. Hannibal is so fond of quoting whenever his plans go great, Hannibal quotes "I love it when a plan comes together."

Sgt. Bosco "B.A." Baracus, played superbly by Mr. T (Rocky III and D.C. Cab). B.A.'s initials are known by the other members of the team as "Bad Attitude". B.A. has a fear of flying, that is why when the team need to fly somewhere, Hannibal always has to drug him to get him on the plane cause B.A. refuses to fly, no matter what situation they are in. B.A. may seem mean, but he really is a nice person, he gets along with kids really well.

Capt H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock is a member of the team who is not all there.Murdock resided at the V.A. Hospital for the first 4 seasons. Murdock is crazy, likes to talk about his invisible dog named "Billy", a dog that does not exist, he may be nuts but he is a great pilot. Murdock tends to get on B.A. Baracus's nerves from time to time. Murdock is played so well by actor Dwight Schultz (Star Trek:The Next Generation and The Temp).

Lt. Templeton Peck a.k.a. "Face"or "Faceman", played awesome by Dirk Benedict (Battlestar Galactica, Ruckus, and Alaska) is a great con man for the team, he gets the team things they need for anything, he even gets Murdock out of the V.A. Hospital when the team needs him. Face drives a real nice Corvette.

Amy Allen, played by the beautiful Melinda Culea, is a reporter who works with The A-Team from time to time, gets them information. The A-Team met her when Amy hired them to help find her friend being held in Mexico by Guerillas.

Tawnia Baker, played by Marla Heasley, is Amy Allen's replacement on the show for 1 year.

Frankie "Dishpan" Santana, played by Eddie Velez (Repo Man, Rooftops, and Traffic), joined the team in the final season of the show.

The A-Team help people in need, they don't always do it for money, they help people even if the people don't have to money to pay them. The A-Team is always being chased after by the U.S. Army., the Colonels that have tried to catch them are Col. Lynch, played by William Lucking (The River Wild, The Trigger Effect, and Erin Brockovich), Col. Roderick Decker, played by Lance LeGault (Iron Eagle, Mortal Combat:Annihilation), Col. Briggs, played by Charles Napier (Rambo:First Blood Part II, The Grifters, and Austin Powers:The Spy Who Shagged me),Gen. Fullbright, played by Jack Ging(Riptide). The A-Team always outwits them.

The A-Team have gotten away from them but later got captured and tried and sentenced to execution, but is saved by a government agency.Gen. Hunt Stockwell, played by Robert Vaughn (The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Superman III, and Black Moon Rising)is in charge of the agency.

I think "The A-Team" is a well done show, it may seem violent, but the focus is what it is all about, soldiers who help people out, they only shoot when they have to. No one has ever got killed except Gen. Fullbright by Vietnamese soldiers in one episode,and a Mob boss who gets killed, but not by the A-Team in the episode in the first season.

Special guest appearances on the A-Team are Hulk Hogan of WWF fame, Boy George of the 1980's pop group "Culture Club". The late Rick James,who is a R&B singer, well known for is hit single "Superfreak". I give this TV series 2 thumbs up and 10/10 stars.