Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 79

Reflections on the A-Team

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From the outset "The A-Team" was a high-profile hit series.
Debuting in the showcase Sunday 10pm slot and running for several
years on Tuesday nights at 8pm, the show aired from January 1983 to
June 1987 on NBC. As a mid-season replacement it received a 20.1
share of the potential viewing audience, which made it the 10th
most popular show in the 1982-1983 season. In the following season
"The A-Team" climbed to a 24 share, placing it 4th in the ratings
with forty million regular viewers. In 1984-1985 it dropped to a 21.9
share, making it the 6th most popular show of the season; during the
show's penultim ate fourth season, ratings fell precipitously.
Overall, "The A-Team" has been ranked the 72nd most popular
television series to run in the U.S. market between 1946 and 1988
(Brooks and Marsh, 1988:6).
The genesis of the show appears to have been a memo written by
NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff to independent producer Stephen J.
Cannell. Composed at a boxing match attended by character actor Mr.
T (fresh from his role in Rocky III), the memo read: "Road Warrior.
Magnificent Seven. Dirty Dozen. 'Mission Impossible.' All rolled into
one. And Mr. T drives the car" ((Quoted in Bogle, 1988:254). Cannell,
who appears in an epilogue at the conclusion of each episode, later
insisted that Tartikoff usurped more of the creative credit than he
deserved. (Thompson, 1990:111). Whatever the merits of the dispute,
NBC, Cannell, and co-executive producer Frank Lupo found a winning
formula in the stoiy of four soldiers who are accused of grand larceny
(a ppropriating 100 million yen from the Bank of Hanoi) in the last
days of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and are thereby obliged to
"survive as soldiers of fortune" in the "Los Angeles underground." As
Army brass scour the countryside looking for the band of desperados,
ordinary citizens facing genuine miscreants are able to call on the
services of the A-Team.
The package featured surprisingly taut scripts, top-notch stunt
effects, and a diverse team of performers: veteran actor George
Peppard, as John "Hannibal" Smith; "Battlestar Galactica"'s Dirk
Benedict as Templeton Peck, or "Face"; Dwight Schultz as "Howling
Mad" Murdock; and the mohawked Mr. T as B.A. Baracus.^ Endowed
with a suitably Twainian moniker, Hannibal is the team's cigarchewing commander who "loves it when a plan comes together." Face
acts as the team's public relations specialist, procuring equipment
from storekeejjers and airport personnel by pretending to represent