The Checklist: The A-Team (S4 Ep11) “The Doctor Is Out”
If there was such a thing as the Bulletproof Action Network on television, it would probably look a lot like Robert Rodriguez’s El Rey Network.
There are times I will turn on El Rey and wonder if I programmed the channel myself… Kickboxer is on like every other day. El Rey devotes a portion of their schedule each week to chopsocky classics from Hong Kong. They have the most unique hour of professional wrestling on the planet, Lucha Underground. And the weekdays are filled with classic television shows like…The A-Team.
Recently I sat down and watched an episode from the fourth season of The A-Team entitled “The Doctor Is Out” on the El Rey Network and I got my trusty Checklist out to see just how A-Team the eleventh episode from season four was…
- SYNOPSIS: One of Murdoch’s psychotherapy sessions with Dr. Richter at the VA hospital is interrupted by a group of mercenaries who aren’t there for Murdoch, but instead Dr. Richter! Murdoch is drugged and forced to watch helplessly as the mercenaries take his shrink away. Murdoch then turns to his A-Team friends to track down the good doctor and take down the bad mercenaries.
1. Did Face use his charm on the ladies?
When we first see Templeton Peck aka Face aka Face Man, he has an aspiring young actress named Wendy reading lines with him for the movie, Rock-n-Roll Vampire. Face is saying all the right things to Wendy, Wendy is pretty much just repeating the line of dialogue in the script (which happened to be “Bite me”) but before Face could get some casting couch action, an ambulance carrying Murdoch shows up and rains on Face’s parade. 1/1
2. Were there any notable guest stars?
Remember those mercenaries that invaded Dr. Richter’s office and abducted the psychiatrist? Well, Colonel Mack Stoddard is the man they work for. Stoddard is a war loving, career soldier who may be discharged from the Army thanks in part to his psych evaluations. So Stoddard sends his mercs to destroy Dr. Richter’s files on him and bring Richter to him so he can find out what he has divulged to the Army brass. Stoddard was played by the one and only Geoffrey Lewis, who action fans will remember from films like Double Impact, Only the Strong and Lewis’ collaborations with Clint Eastwood.
The man who played Dr. Richter is another familiar face, especially to fans of TV action and adventure… Richter was played by Richard Anderson most famous for playing Oscar Goldman on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. 2/2
3. Were any catchphrases used?
Let me get this bit of unpleasantness out of the way… believe it or not, none of the classic A-Team catchphrases were used in this episode. Maybe it was because we are four seasons in and B.A. was just sick and tired of saying things like “jibber jabber”… but how can Hannibal get out of saying “I love it when a plan comes together.”?!!
I blame Jeannetta Arnette’s character Betty… or was it Sarah? …or was it one of the other aliases she used? She was throwing everyone off their game on both sides of the fence with her multiple backstories… first she claimed to be the daughter of Dr. Richter, then a journalist covering Mack Stoddard and she even claimed to be an agent with the CIA.
How in the hell can you plan around a person who was the human equivalent of a monkey wrench?!?! And if you never have a plan, then the plan can never come together and that means we don’t get the most famous A-Team catchphrase of them all. 2/3
4. Did they have to knock out B.A. to get him to fly?
Colonel Mack Stoddard had Dr. Richter held captive in the fictitious South American country of Caraguay, where Stoddard had been running amok for some time. I am assuming Caraguay is located near the similarly named Paraguay but I really can’t back that claim up. Driving from Los Angeles to South America was not an option, so once again B.A. Baracus is distracted and drugged by his friends and loaded up on a plane… they may have went a little heavy on the dosage though as B.A. was out of it even after the A-Team landed and started their rescue mission. 3/4
5. Was there a montage?
Things don’t start off too well for The A-Team on their rescue mission as they end up finding themselves caged up right next to Dr. Richter on Stoddard’s compound… but as you may have guessed our heroes do manage to escape and when they start looking around for some weapons they come across a crate full of rockets… but how are they going to launch them?
Easy… they make rocket launchers out of bamboo and a car battery during the course of a classic A-Team montage! 4/5
- Final Score = 4/5 (80%) This episode of The A-Team was not quite perfect and you can chalk it up to poor planning… actually they had no plan at all but let’s not get into that again… but there is no denying “The Doctor Is Out” had some quality guest stars.
