No thread for this show anywhere on TWoP? I've searched. Anyway, does hearing the theme music still get you pumped up? Anybody catch the Army's latest news release?

Well, that's good to hear! Yes, the A-team still a joyous romp after all these years - BA's still re-wiring abandoned machinery to bombard the bad guys with cabbages, Hannibal still loves it when a plan comes together and Dirk Benedict's still named after his breakfast (no, wait - that's reality). And it's fun seeing what the cast have been up to since then - watching Howling Mad Murdoch plating Robert Oppenheimer was one of the weirder experiences of my life ...

They're actually making a movie.

Do we need spoiler bars to discuss the plot, do you think? Anyway, reading that plot, esp what Face does? NO WAY am I seeing this movie. That's not The A-Team, that's what somebody who's watched maybe 3 eps would come up with. Without the team-ness of the show, what's the point? It's going to be Mission:Impossible 1 all over again.

Sigh...anyway, still one of my favorite shows of all time. Still put "Harder Than It Looks" down as my favorite episode.

I love the A-Team entry in the TWOPedia. Although they forgot 1 very important rule of combat. Any time the A-Team is captured by their enemy they must be locked in a machine shop/Construction Yard/Home Depot so that even though they are trapped they can build some crazy device that will allow them to not only get free but to defeat their enemy as well.

And of course, the bazooka that they fire will cause the bad guys' car to flip over half a dozen times. Then the bad guys will crawl out, dust themselves off, and get tied up in a nice, neat package for local law enforcement (who will arrive about a minute after BA floors it out of there). I remember the TV watchdogs at the time thinking that this show was incredibly violent. Was a drop of blood ever shed?

Actually, yes. In the penultimate episode filmed, Face was shot in the stomach and nearly bled to death on the floor of a restaurant.

ETA: The episode was "Without Reservations."

B.A. got shot once and needed a transfusion from Murdoch who was the only one of them with the same blood type. Afterwards he was convinced that he'd catch the crazy from him.

Bwah! Y'all are cracking me up here. I also loved seeing the TWoPedia entry for this wonderful show. I caught it on repeats when I was like 10 and was totally obsessed with it, crushing back and forth between Face and Murdoch. Trying to update/redo it with a movie is sacrilege in my book

I loved this show when I was in my early 20's! The little girl I babysat for loved it too, and we used to sit around making up our own stories using the characters (best bedtime stories ever... I was a Murdock girl and she had an adorable B.A. crush). I think my favorite ep was called something like "Beast in the Belly of a Boeing"... Murdock was disabled and Hannibal had to land the plane they were on.

There's no way I'd bother watching an A-Team movie; it would never be anywhere near as good as the series and I wouldn't want to mess up my fond memories. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine..."

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the fact that no one ever actually got shot and the thugs invariably climbed out of their flipped cars without a scratch was the definition of "action" versus "violence".

I don't recall any bad guys getting shot, but I do remember the above-mentioned eps where Face and B.A. did, and there was also one where Murdock was shot by someone aiming for Hannibal. That was a flashback show with lots of good Murdock scenes, while in "real-time" they were trying to get him medical attention.

Podcast > Stephen J Cannell on The Adam Carolla Show - January 6th, 2009

This is the second of a two-part interview. Among the many shows he's been involved with (Riptide, Stingray, Renegade), Cannell talks about the pitch that started the A-Team and the development of the movie.

Oh I remember that Murdock episode. That was some surprisingly realistic blood for this show, and Dwight Schultz, god bless him, deteriorates in that ep about as well as I've ever seen it done. What an actor, and the love of my eight-year-old life, he was.

I remember one of my very favorites was the Boy George episode. Where they accidentally booked him to play in a redneck bar, the locals were all booing and shaking their fists, but within thirty seconds he had won them all over and they were bopping away. I remember him kicking in a door at one point, and then wearing cowboy boots with his pants tucked in to play Karma Chameleon for the big finale. He was rather likeable, actually.

I probably ought to start renting the DVD's again. All of a sudden I miss the danged show.

Dirk Benedict doesn't like what they did with BSG, and he's doesn't like the proposed A-Team remake, either.

By the way, a lot of people have been comparing Leverage on TNT with The A-Team. In one of the episodes, they actually had one of the characters say, "I love it when a plan comes together!" Heh.

Does anyone remember an episode where some thugs, (I can't remember what country they were in, but the thugs had accents) told the A-Team that they were surrounded and to throw down their weapons; Hannibal's response, "You want our weapons? Well, here's the bullets first," and the A-Team proceeded to shoot at them? I haven't seen this one in a while, but I loved that line.

What are the best episodes? I can't find top ten lists anywhere. What would be a good crash course for someone who's never seen a single frame of this show?

I pity the fool who's never seen a single frame of this show.

Sorry, EndlessOne, I couldn't resist. You'll soon learn that's not an insult to you, it's a B.A.ism :)

I think they are out on DVD. I'd start with the early stuff, s1 for sure, possibly s2; they have a female reporter named Amy Allen in them. The show loses a bit in later seasons.

The most violent show on TV at that time, yet blood was shed but no one ever died on screen.

I won't watch the movie. It's not even close to the original story line. If it was the same line and just updated to the current war I'd give it a chance. But TPTB destroyed it.

Oddly enough there is some really good fic out there too.

I remember one episode part of the plot was BA getting hit in the leg. I can't recall anyone else ever taking a hit from a bullet.

Murdock was shot in Curtain Call. I don't remember if they showed any blood but he was pretty sick. My favorite A-Team episode is Bounty guest starring Dwight Schultz's wife in real life.

There was that episode in one on the later seasons (with Robert Vaughn) where Murdock was working at an Italian restaurant and Face and Frankie showed up for dinner--something to do with the Mafia (it's been years since I saw this show!) and Face got shot in the stomach and almost died.

kimaken, That was Without Reservations from Season 5.