SYNOPSIS
It opened with machine-gun-like
music, followed by the title-stamped across the screen in stenciled, military-style
letters, which were then punctured by bullet holes containing pictures of the
stars. From opening title to closing credits, The A-Team was a veritable weekly
demolition derby - and it was a smash hit!
The premise, like the
plots, was standard-issue TV. A crack
team of soldiers in Vietnam was caught while on a super-secret mission
behind enemy lines. Seems that four days after the was had ended, they had
knocked over the Bank of Hanoi for one hundred million yen, but could not
prove who had given them their orders, and so they were imprisoned by their
own government. They had escaped, but now were outcasts, pursued as criminals
by relentless Col. Lynch (and later by Col. Decker), who was determined
to put them behind bars again. They not only managed to evade the Colonel's
clutches, however, but became freelance soldiers of fortune, righting wrongs across
the country and in exotic foreign locales.
It
was a colorful team, to say the least! Col. Hannibal Smith, the cigar-chomping, remarkably
fit leader, was a master of disguises. B.A. (officially "Bad Attitude",
but you can use your imagination!)
was big and menacing and also an expert mechanic. "Howling Mad" Murdock was their
pilot, whose sanity was seriously in question (they had to spring him from
a mental hospital for their missions), but who could apparently fly anything from
a crop duster to a 747. Faceman was the pretty boy, a smooth talker who
could hustle practically anything they needed for their missions. Joining them
in the first episode, was Amy Allen, a pretty reporter who was understandably
taken with this odd bunch and their far-flung adventures.
The
destruction they wrought may have seemed appalling to some, but it was carried
off with such panache, such a twinkle in the eye, that viewers knew it was not
for real. Despite jeeps spinning through the air and buildings leveled in fiery
explosions, hardly anyone - even the bad guys - ever got hurt. One furious chase
scene ended with the pursuing villains' car in a spectacular high-speed crash.
The camera lingered for a moment on the overturned wreck; one voice from inside
grunted, "You okay, Al?" and another answered, "Yeah, I'm all
right."
Nor were
the team members ever at a loss for firepower, even when separated from their
innocuous-looking but well-armed van. B.A. could build machine guns out of old
washing machines, rocket launchers out of used water heaters and an armored tank
out of a broken-down school bus. Mr. T (as B.A.) was the cult hero of the show,
with his macho chains (35 lbs. of gold!) draped around his neck and his favorite
scowling line, "You better watch out, sucker!" For all his threatening
appearance, however, he did have one abiding fear - flying in a plane piloted by
Howling Mad. So the team regularly drugged, hypnotized, or tricked him to get
him to the scene of the action.
In
the fall of 1986, the teams' status changed dramatically. Tricked into capture by
the mysterious Gen. Stockwell, they were tried and sentenced to die - but Stockwell arranged for them to "pay
their debt" by becoming undercover government agents instead, under his heavy-handed
control. Joining the team was a sneaky little special-effects expert known as
"Dishpan" Frankie.
