redirected from Main.A-Team
alt title(s): The A-Team; A-Team
One of the most famous of the 1980s action series, running from 1983 to 1987.
The plot can be summed up by the opening
voiceover:
In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit * A bank robbery in Hanoi, Vietnam, which they were in fact ordered to do, but the man who gave them the order was killed
. 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 can hire the A-Team.
The four members of the A-Team were:
- Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith - leader of the team.
- Captain H.M. "Howlin' Mad" Murdock - the resident helicopter pilot, who may or may not have been insane.
- Lieutenant Templeton "Face" Peck - the "charmer" of the team.
- Sergeant Bosco "B.A." Baracus - played by Mr T., he was the team's strongman with a famous fear of flying.
TYPICAL FORMAT:
Each episode would start with a bunch of innocent people being menaced by a bunch of people with guns, who want their land, water, taxi company etc.
They would go talk to a man who they thought would get them in contact with the A-Team. Most of the time, it would turn out to be a member of the A-Team - Hannibal in disguise.
They would go along to the location of the activity in their
Cool Car, which in their case was actually a distinctive-looking custom van — an odd choice for a group who are supposed to be in hiding. There they would do a lot of
A Team Firing, beat up the baddies and often
MacGyver up an armoured vehicle.
Features the
A Team Montage.
A movie is currently in production starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley and Quinton Jackson as the team.
Tropes used:
- A Team Firing: The Trope Namer. Nobody is 'ever' shot in one of the shootouts
- A Team Montage: Trope Namer, at about the 48-minute mark in every episode.
- Badass Crew: A prototype example. Maybe the first in primetime TV.
- Balloonacy: Murdock once escaped a psychiatric hospital by filling plastic bags with helium and flying off.
- The Team also once escaped from prison in hot air balloons made from garbage bags, hair dryers and hairdresser's chairs.
- Bar Brawl
- Big Damn Heroes: Look in a dictionary and if Mal Reynolds' picture isn't next to the definition, chances are a picture of these guys is
- Catch Phrase: "I love it when a plan comes together."
- Chaotic Good: Oh yes.
- Chase Scene
- Chinese Launderer: One of Hannibal's most-referenced comic disguises.
- Clear My Name
- Cloudcuckoolander: Murdock
- Cliche Storm: Which is part of the fun
- Cold War
- Colonel Badass: John "Hannibal" Smith.
- Completely Missing The Point: Many fans of the show during its initial run failed to realize the show was a spoof of the Everybody Lives trope commonly seen in action movies and series.
- Con Man: Face, who also operated as the team's Fixer
- Cool Car
- Could Have Been Messy: Every episode has a scene where the A-Team and their opponents exchange billions of rounds of gunfire. Nobody is ever shot. EVER.
- Every Car Is A Pinto (but we always see the goons crawling away, safe and sound)
- Five Man Band: At least for the first season
- Fruit Cart
- Hired Guns
- Homage: In the fifth season episode "The Say U.N.C.L.E. Affair" the series paired Robert "Napoleon Solo" Vaughn (playing regular character General Hunt Stockwell) with former co-star David "Illya Kuryakin" McCallum
- Also, in the opening credits a guy in a original Galactica Cylon suit walks past "Face". In the episode in question it's actually Hannibal in the costume. Fan rumor suggests you can see Dirk Benedict start to reach for his blaster from the other show before remembering which show he's on.
- Actually, that was in an episode :D Gotta love those cons
- And the episode The Spy who Mugged Me, with Murdock posing as a James Bond like spy in a Monte Carlo casino.
- Improbable Weapon User: The A-Team has welded together and used weapons ranging from soda cannons to cabbage guns. These are always more efficient than the machine guns their opponents typically use against them (or vice-versa, for that matter).
- Inspector Javert: Colonel Decker
- Knight Errant: A team of Knights Errant, in fact.
- Locking MacGyver In The Store Cupboard: The A-Team tends to get locked in barns or garages full of machinery and explosive things
- MacGyvering
- Memetic Mutation: One of the earliest Internet memes was the "Mr. T versus" comic, which mostly involved editing stills from The A-Team and borrowed heavily from B.A.'s character to describe Mr. T (like claiming Mr. T also had a fear of flying).
- Never Say Die: Since it was classified as a children's show, you have the ridiculous premise in which the A Team amasses a massive arsenal of machine guns and weaponry, faces off against a similarly armed force, exchange thousands of bullets — and everyone lives.
- No One Could Survive That: In one episode, helicopter crashes against a cliff, explodes, falls down, explodes again and then bad guys crawl out from it.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Murdock played this to the hilt whenever possible, Hannibal and Face weren't averse to it either.
- Scary Black Man (B.A.)
- Special Guest: Later in the show's run, when ratings started to slip. Some appearances included Rick James, Boy George, and Hulk Hogan (in two episodes, nonetheless)
- Stunt Casting: Reuniting Robert Vaughn and David McCallum in the fifth season's "The Say U.N.C.L.E. Affair"
- Stay In The Kitchen: George Peppard pulled strings to remove the female characters from the series as he wanted it to be an "all-male" show.
- Incorrect. Peppard may have been an A-grade prick, but he never campaigned to have someone fired. He very much worked to try and STOP women being hired, because he was well aware that it was a show so popular purely for the "all-male" elements, but once hired, he put up with it.
- The Smurfette Principle: Amy in season one and half of season two, Tawnia for the rest of season two and the beginning of season three.
- Too Dumb To Live: Far too many little, unarmed Mooks pick a fight with B.A..
- Trickster Archetype: Murdock
- They Changed It Now It Sucks: The final season saw The A-Team manipulated by Robert Vaugh's General Stockwell, leading to thier capture and court martial. They are found guilty and sentenced to death, but are bailed out by Stockwell, who now owns them lock, stock, and barrel to send on goverment-approved missions until they earn a pardon on his terms. Fans were livid the team were no longer the rebellious, urban heroes that got one better on thier pursuers. With the exception of Face breifly cracking in one episode and trying to escape, it took a cold war thriller set around an eldery home (I am not making this up) to convince the team to bail on Stockwell whenever they receive a pardon or not. The final season, however, does have it's fans.
- The Scrappy: Effects Specialist Frankie Santana
- Walking The Earth: Because they're wanted by the military, though they typically stick to the Los Angeles area.
- We Help The Helpless
- Why Did It Have To Be Snakes: B.A.'s fear of flying. "I ain't gettin' on no plane, foo'!"
- Xanatos Gambit: Stockwell sets up the team.
