The A-Team was an action-adventure television series that ran on NBC for five seasons between 1983 and 1987 for a total of 98 episodes. The A-Team was conceived by the head of the entertainment division at NBC, Brandon Tartikoff, who pitched the show as a combination of The Dirty Dozen, Mission: Impossible, The Magnificent Seven, Mad Max, and Hill Street Blues. Producer Frank Lupo and writer Stephen J. Canell were tasked with bringing this idea to life. The duo had previously worked together on ABC’s The Greatest American Hero; The A-Team was their first series for NBC. They would go on to co-create other hit shows in the 80s like Hunter, Riptide, and Wiseguy.
The setup for the show was conveyed in a now-infamous voiceover introduction at the beginning of every episode:
In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire The A-Team.
Every episode featured the Team handing out justice in the form of a barrage of bullets, usually fired from some kind of homemade assault vehicle created by welding pieces of metal to a beat up pickup truck or delivery van. Of course, despite multiple explosions, no one ever seemed to actually get hurt, but somehow, the good guys still prevailed.
The A-Team was conceived as a vehicle for the talents and over-the-top personality of Mr. T, who was hot off his breakout role in 1982’s Rocky III. NBC execs wanted to get in on the T scene, so he was the first one cast as the team’s mechanic and muscle, Bosco B.A. Baracus. The B.A., of course, stood for “Bad Attitude”. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
The leader of the team, John “Hannibal” Smith, was played by George Peppard, who had been a well-known Hollywood actor in the 1960s and 70s, most notably for his starring role in 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
The team’s expert pilot, H. M. “Howling Mad” Murdock, was played by Dwight Schultz. Before The A-Team, Schultz had done a handful of TV episodes on shows like Hill Street Blues and CHiPS, as well as a few movies like 1982’s Alone in the Dark, where he starred alongside fellow scenery-chewers Jack Palance, Martin Landau, and Donald Pleasence.
Finally, Dirk Benedict played the smooth-talking, good-looking con man Templeton “Face” Peck. Canell had written the part of Face with Benedict in mind after seeing him as the cocky pilot Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, but NBC wanted someone younger for the show.
So, for the pilot episode, Face was played by Tim Dunigan, who would later go on to star on the cult toyline TV show Captain Power and the Soldiers of Fortune. Dunigan was replaced after that first episode because he seemed out of place with the rest of the team since he looked too young to have been a Vietnam vet.
Despite criticisms of being formulaic, the show was a huge ratings hit for NBC, essentially reviving the network from a five-year ratings slump. During its peak in the second season, the show ranked #4 for the year with an average 24% of the American television audience tuning in every Tuesday night at 8:00pm. However, by its fifth season, it was clear the show had run its course, averaging only a 12.8 rating and dropping to the #61 show of the year.
During its heyday, The A-Team was something of a multimedia marketing force that included two action figure toylines from Galoob – one featuring 3.75” figures and another with 6” figures – as well as puzzles, lunchboxes, t-shirts, story books, activity books, Colorforms, and even a game for the Atari 2600.
Part of this marketing blitz included The A-Team read-along record I have for you today, called simply “Steel”, from Peter Pan Records, produced in 1984. The story is based on a season two episode of the show of the same name and it follows the script pretty closely; some lines are word-for-word. The episode is pretty recognizable, as introductions to the show feature quite a few character moments from this episode, including Hannibal in a Godzilla-inspired rubber monster suit and Face having a close encounter with a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica.
I have to give a special shout-out to the artwork in the record book for Steel. The artist clearly used the show as a reference, because the similarities to the stars are spot-on. And, kind of a funny thing you’ll notice, because it was the 1980s, Hannibal is chomping on his cigar on almost every page. That’s definitely not something you’d see in a kid’s book today.
Although The A-Team was only around for a few years, its cultural influence has remained strong. Not only did it propel Mr. T. to pop culture infamy, but the Team’s 1983 GMC van, with its black and red paint job is arguably as well-known as The Batmobile. And everyone knows the iconic theme song, composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter, who also wrote the themes for The Rockford Files and The Greatest American Hero. And, because everything from the past has to be made into a movie, The A-Team became a big budget film back in 2010. On a $110 million budget, it only made $177 million at the box office, which was not good enough to warrant a sequel, but has gone on to become something of a cult favorite.
If you’d like to check out Steel, I’ve made it available as part of my record book podcast, When You Hear This Sound!
