Hall of Fame: The A-Team

January 30, 1983. The Washington Redskins bested the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XVII. But the real winning team that Sunday night was comprised of four former members of the United States Army Special Forces, who after being convicted for a crime they did not commit, escaped a military stockade and began working as soldiers of fortune in the Los Angeles underground… that winning team was The A-Team!

Like any great team, each member brought a special skill set to the proceedings… there was the man with the plan, John “Hannibal” Smith, the cigar smoking leader of The A-Team… Then there was Templeton Peck, better known as Face. Face was a conman of the highest caliber. If The A-Team needed something you better believe “The Face Man” could procure it for them… “Howling Mad” Murdock was as his name implies a bit mad, but he was also one of the best pilots on the face of God’s green earth… And last but not least was B.A. Baracus. Not only was he the muscle of the team, he was an expert mechanic and engineer. B.A. could construct weapons of mass destruction out of what you and I would consider junk. While all four men had unique personalities, the one common denominator was they were elite soldiers. You have to be an elite soldier to fire as many bullets as they did over the course of the series without killing a single adversary.

The television audience absolutely fell in love with The A-Team. The show was in the top ten its first three seasons as people could not get enough of watching The A-Team trounce villains with cartoon levels of violence. The show was also filled with tropes… B.A.’s fear of flying and his adversarial relationship with Murdock, Face hitting on the ladies, Hannibal’s disguises and devil may care plans when he got on the jazz. And hearing Hannibal spout his catchphrase, “I love it when a plan comes together!” with a gleam in his eye will always be a highlight for me.

I would be remiss if I did not give an honorable mention to the character of Amy Allen, who was an unofficial member of the team during the first two seasons of the series. Amy was a newspaper reporter in the mold of a Lois Lane. Amy was beautiful but she also had a ton of moxie. Amy was instrumental in helping The A-Team defeat the bad guys and thwart the military police on multiple occasions. I don’t think they should have ever gotten rid of the Amy Allen character and I know I am not the only one who feels that way.

The popularity of The A-Team was so high, it was no surprise when companies wanted to cash in. The A-Team had their own line of action figures in various sizes and toy versions of The A-Team van and Face’s red and white Corvette were also sold. Topps made a set of A-Team trading cards and there was even an A-Team comic book produced by Marvel. The first A-Team video game was made for the Atari 2600 and more followed over the years for various platforms.

The show was responsible for solidifying Mr. T. (who played B.A. Baracus) as an 80’s icon. But if you want to talk iconic we need to talk about The A-Team theme song written by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter. The rousing anthem is in my opinion one of the greatest television theme songs of all-time.

The series was the inspiration for a major motion picture in 2010. I have long argued that The A-Team movie does not get the love it deserves. The movie honored the original series with the level of over the top action the show was known for and then multiplied it by about 100. The movie also boasted a fantastic cast and I challenge anyone to name any actor in Hollywood at the time that would have been a better fit for the Hannibal, Face, B.A. and Murdock characters.

So remember the next time you have a problem… when you are all out of options and there’s no one else who can help… get out your wallet because unlike back in the day when they were hard to find, I can now proudly say that you can find The A-Team in the Bulletproof Action Hall of Fame… just don’t tell Col. Decker!