Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 82

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Po£ular^Culture^^^^

Central American fascists, reformed ex-cons stalked by bounty
hunters. Not only are the causes almost invariably progressive, there
is not the faintest whiff of the anti-immigrant, anti-AfricanAmerican, or anti-Semitic chauvinism that is the hallmark of
rightist populism. If the A-Team is a unit of self-described "soldiers
of fortune," they are also potential recruits for the Rainbow
Coalition. One begins to wonder just who the team met in the "Los
Angeles underground": Abbie Hoffman, perhaps?
Far from espousing anti-Americanism, however, "The A-Team" is
concerned with the rights and wrongs of citizenship. The true
p>atriots, it turns out, are those who take a stand against oppression,
participate in community affairs, reject the mores of racism and
ethnic chauvinism , and pull no punches—literally—when
disreputable figures come into town. The Western subtext is hardly
accidental. In functional terms, the A-Team is the 1980s equivalent of
"Bonanza"'s Cartwright family—strong, resolute, and independent.
The Team’s ideal society is similarly inclusive, welcoming, and
informed by the frontier's unfancy morality. But, in contrast to life on
the Ponderosa, authority figures in the world of "The A-Team" are
viewed as pathetic and conniving, not capable and trustworthy. And
instead of conveying a sense of hopefulness, the show ruefully suggests
that American society is in a state of decay or entropy. The very fact
that the A-Team is on the lam says something quite dranuttic about
America's loss of innocence, which may be dated sometime between
the late 1960s and the early 1980s.

In order to pursue these points further it might be useful to
examine a particular episode in depth. Of course, no single episode
can be considered entirely representative, since different directors and
writers bring different fixations and flourishes to their work. That
said, the episode I would like to discuss, "Mind Games," features
many elements common to the series as a whole.^ Aired in the third
season, scripted by Stephen J. Cannell, and directed by Michael
O'Herlihy, "Mind Games" concerns what hap|>ens when Face comes
out of hiding after (apparently) being pardoned by the U.S.
government. As usual, the story provides a convenient backdrop for
gunplay, car chases, and cacophonous explosions; more