Essential Episodes: The A-Team

The A-Team are helping me put the “A” in Actionversary! It’s been a decade that this site has delivered discussions, reviews, podcasts, and all sorts of coverage of action-oriented cinema and television, and I’m happy to say that I’ve been a part of it for 8 of those 10 years (and counting!). And since it’s Actionversary, there’s no better time to debut a new column, one that I’m sure that my cohorts here on the site will also have their turn with as time rolls on. Welcome to the first edition of Essential Episodes here at Bulletproof Action, and allow me to tell you all about the Essential Episodes of The A-Team!

Now, some of you might be like “OK Toyman, we know what The A-Team is, it was a huge hit show, everybody’s seen it!”, and you wouldn’t be wrong. The A-Team was a huge hit when it first aired on NBC just over 40 years ago. It helped make a household name out of Mr. T. It morphed into a pop culture juggernaut that spawned action figures, Marvel Comics, trading cards, t-shirts, and an awesome big budget blockbuster reboot that totally deserved a sequel (but more on that another time, in another column). Fortunately for fans of the show like myself, The A-Team has remained readily available for consumption, whether it be the DVD and Blu-Ray releases of the complete series, or the fact that it currently airs daily on the free streaming channel Universal Action, which can be found on apps like Pluto TV, Amazon Prime, and FreeVee. Because I still spend many a night enjoying the adventures of Hannibal, Face, BA Baracus, and “Howling Mad” Murdock (along with Amy Allen in the early years), I decided to put together a little list of the episodes you should keep an eye out for as they air (or even better, the ones that you can jump to on your DVD/Blu-Ray copy).

This is not to say that there are episodes of The A-Team that should be skipped; in my eyes, the vast majority of the episodes provide exactly what I want out of a show about four wrongfully accused military veterans using their skills to help those in need. There are fistfights, explosions, espionage, and repurposing almost anything that’s laying around into a weapon of mass destruction, years before MacGyver got creative. It’s also a show that’s easy to pick up on if you merely stumble across it due to its episodic nature and simple, formulaic plot. We’re not talking about Breaking Bad or Lost here folks. If you come across The A-Team and it’s smack dab in the middle of Season 3, I promise you you’ll be able to enjoy yourself and follow along (and if you do have any questions, feel free to tweet me and/or @bulletproofpod and we can walk you through it)!

So with that, let’s jump right into the Essential Episodes that you came here for! What follows is a shortlist of The A-Team that I personally think everybody should see. These choices were based on a variety of factors, from the plot of that particular episode, to the action provided within it, to any and all notable guest stars that appeared. I think that these are solid choices for anyone who is a hardcore fan like myself, to the Average Joe who might be channel surfing and decides to take a trip down memory lane.

The A-Team’s Essential Episodes

• “A Nice Place To Visit”: This early entry into A-Team history was the final episode of the first season, and one that has the team involved in a more personal fight. Our heroes take some time out from being guns for hire to travel to the funeral of their old friend Ray Brenner, who served with them in Vietnam. After arriving in town, they learn that the townspeople, including Ray’s widow Trish, are being intimidated and oppressed by a group of redneck brothers. Naturally, The A-Team aren’t going to leave without a fight, especially when it’s one that’s preventing them from paying the proper respects to their fallen brother.
• “Water, Water Everywhere”: The team rallies to the side of a group of disabled veterans who have just opened a hotel in a town that needs regular water deliveries to thrive due to its desert locale. A ruthless businessman attempts to run the veterans out of town by blocking their deliveries and attempting to trash the hotel (all in an effort to gain rights to the water that runs under their property), but The A-Team uses their fists, wits, and even tap into some of that fresh water to wash away the stench of the shady characters coming at them.

• “The Taxicab Wars”: Michael Ironside as the main baddie? Ernie Hudson as the owner of a cab company merely a year before he’d become a Ghostbuster? Those two notable names play characters on opposing sides, and when Ironside’s Crane starts putting the boots to the Lone Star Cab Company, it’s up to The A-Team to set things straight. This one features plenty of car chases and brawls, including a battle between BA and one of Crane’s henchmen, played by Bloodsport and Revenge of the Nerds star Don Gibb.

• “The White Ballot”: When the corruption in his hometown becomes too much to bear, a journalist contacts Amy and the team for their help. This leads to Face campaigning to be the new sheriff under the assumed identity of a former resident turned war hero. This puts a damper on the sherrif’s illegal dealings, but also brings double trouble upon The A-Team, because Face being in the public eye has alerted the military, including recurring antagonist Col. Decker, of their whereabouts.

• “Showdown”: This third season episode is my favorite episode of The A-Team for a lot of reasons, with the main one being that the bad guys in this episode are an evil imposter A-Team! Hired by a scummy music promoter to torment the owners of a Wild West Show, the phony Face, Hannibal, and BA are giving our real heroes a bad name, though Murdock’s good standing remains due to the fact that he’s the one member of the team that the military hasn’t identified yet! Plenty of action in this one, including a final showdown at the Wild West Show with rigged traps galore, and our heroes showing the second-rate wannabes who’s boss!

• “Body Slam”: Hulk Hogan and Mr. T became friendly on the set of Rocky III, and their bond would lead to Mr. T stepping into the wrestling ring as Hulk’s tag team partner in the main event of the first Wrestlemania. In this episode that aired later in 1985, art imitated life when Hogan guest-starred as himself, playing BA’s pal. Unlike real-life, we don’t see BA stepping into the wrestling ring, but we do get to see Hogan and a group of the WWF’s most popular babyfaces (The British Bulldogs, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, and several others) band together with the team to fight against the mob when they try to shut down a youth center. As a wrestling obsessed, A-Team loving kid in the 80’s, this episode was a dream come true, and it’s still fun to watch some of my favorite wrestlers kick the crap out of the gang of goons to a knockoff version of “Eye of the Tiger”.

• “There Goes The Neighborhood”: This episode was slated to feature pop star Cyndi Lauper as the person that The A-Team would help out, but things didn’t pan out. Instead, we get the team helping out a singer named Stevie by keeping her out of the public eye. When Stevie and our heroes hide out in a suburban neighborhood, they end up uncovering a drug ring and running afoul of Stevie’s unscrupulous manager. I’ve always had a fondness for this episode, maybe because it was one of the few that I managed to keep on VHS for years and years until DVD releases of TV shows became a thing. 
• “The Court Martial”: Not many people are fond of the final season of The A-Team because it was a complete overhaul of everything we know and love about the show, but the show’s abridged last season is still worth a watch. “The Court Martial” is actually the first three episodes, which set the stage for the remainder of the series. After being captured by the government and put on trial for the crime they were originally framed for that led to them being on the run, the team manages to escape and ends up indebted to Gen. Hunt Stockwell, who proposes that the team repay him by performing black ops missions for him. The catch? Do enough of them, and he’ll see to it they get full pardons. This led to the Season 5 episodes featuring a shift in the action, which became more spy-thriller like as opposed to the fugitives on the run, fish out of water conflicts they normally found themselves in. It is, to me, the weakest of all The A-Team seasons, but the thing that I dislike the most about Season 5 is that the classic intro was changed, and it featured a monologue-less, synthesized version of the theme! That’s got to be on a list somewhere of the most unforgiveable sins in pop culture history!

So there you have it; the episodes that you should seek out whenever you’re looking for an A-Team fix. Does this mean I think you should pass over other episodes if you come across them? Hell no! These are just some standouts plucked from my entertainment filled brain that I’ve always enjoyed for one reason or another, and I think that most others will to! There are certainly a host of other notable episodes that could be discussed, but if I sat here typing my thoughts about every episode of The A-Team that I like, this column would be longer than your last CVS receipt! Use this as a guide for what episodes to look out for if you decide to check out the Universal Action channel, or if they’ve made you realize how much you love The A-Team, pull the trigger on the series set (which is currently selling for around $35 on DVD and under $50 on Blu-ray). 

I hope you’ve enjoyed the first of what I hope to be many entries of Essential Episodes, and I look forward to celebrating our 10 Year Actionversary with you all for the rest of the month!