A-Team

The A-Team was an action/adventure television show about a fictional group of ex-US Army commandos who are on the run from the military while working as soldiers of fortune. Despite this, the A-Team almost always acted on the side of the "good guys," helping the oppressed. more...

The show ran for five seasons on the NBC television network, from January 23, 1983, to March 8, 1987, with a total of 98 episodes. It has achieved cult status and enjoyed a brief revival in the 1990s when re-runs were shown in the United Kingdom. As of 2006 the show is in syndication on Sleuth & TV Land; in addition, episodes from the first season can be purchased from the iTunes music store. Also currently each series is shown in progression in a reccuring cycle on the UK channel UK gold, with an episode shown daily.

Story

The A-Team was one of a wide variety of successful creations from prolific television producer Stephen J. Cannell. Cannell is known for having a particular skill at capitalizing on momentary cultural trends, such as the machine guns, cartoonish violence, and joyful militarism of this series, which are now recognizable as trademarks of popular entertainment in the Reagan Era of the 1980s. The A-Team became emblematic of this kind of "fit-for-TV warfare" due to its depiction of high-octane combat scenes, with lethal weapons, wherein the participants are never killed or even seriously injured.

A typical episode starts with the A-Team's being hired by a down-trodden or terrorized client. The 'official' way of doing this was for the client to contact one of Hannibal's many comic aliases that were used to ensure that their clients were not working for the military. Just as frequently the A-Team would be on the road and stumble across someone who needed their help. Often the A-Team would return the fee to their most needy clients or find some other way to pay their expenses.

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