The A-Team - Season One (1983)

Guilty pleasures don't come more guilty than The A-Team, television's only tongue-in-cheek drama about the exploits of renegade Vietnam vets. The primetime series' 1983 debut season, gathered here on The A-Team: Season One, was intentionally ludicrous, encouraging viewers to enjoy sundry talents of a colorful cast and laugh off storylines perhaps sillier than those on Charlie's Angels. Co-created by Stephen J. Cannell (Wiseguy) and Frank Lupo (Hunter), The A-Team introduced Lt. Col. John "Hannibal" Smith (George Peppard), the cocksure leader of a band of fugitive American soldiers framed for a crime in Vietnam and now thriving in Los Angeles. Hiring themselves out as soldiers of fortune, Hannibal's crew--including Lt. Templeton "Face" Peck (baby-faced Tim Dunigan in the pilot, Dirk Benedict thereafter), Sgt. Bosco Albert "B.A. (for 'Bad Attitude')" Baracus (Mr. T, outfitted with his trademark gold), and, most comically, Capt. H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock (Dwight Schultz)--assist (mostly) ordinary people having a problem with bad guys. The A-Team ostensibly charges large fees, but much of the time the guys seem to be doing pro bono work for the helpless.

Season One highlights include "Children of Jamestown," starring John Saxon as a Jim Jones-like religious cult leader who captures Hannibal, Face, B.A., and first-season sidekick Amy "Triple A" Allen (Melinda Culea). While the resourceful group invents a super-weapon out of farm equipment, crazy Murdock commandeers a helicopter and dynamite. Also good is "A Small and Deadly War," featuring Dean Stockwell as one of several uncontrolled L.A. cops committing murder-for-hire. "The Out-of-Towners" takes a page from the Death Wish movie series with a story about New York City shop owners harassed by a protection racketeer (Yaphet Kotto). Hannibal and company retaliate with machine guns (no one is ever seen killed in this series) and, more effectively, public humiliation of the villain. The best thing about The A-Team is the relationship between the four offbeat heroes, who may not always like each other (B.A. usually looks as if he'd like to leave Murdock in a shallow grave) but get the job done expertly. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

You Know You Love It.

I loved it as a kid and I love it probably even more today. The friggin' A-Team, man!!! Anyone who grew up in the 80s knows the adventures of fugitive Vietnam vets, Hannibal, Face, B.A. and Murdock. It's a great memory and also a sad reminder of how lousy television shows are today. There is absolutely nothing like this on T.V. anymore. The A-Team do-gooders for hire, but it seems like they're always working Pro Bono. It makes you wonder how they make any money at all. The show is sorta like a mix of McGyver, Mission: Impossible and any given Cannon action film from the 80s.
Season One introduces us to the crew and sets them off on a series of adventures. They're pursued by Colonel Lynch, who just can't seem to get his hands on them(even when he does, he can't hold on to them!). A female reporter named Amy also joins the team. Tim Dunigan plays Face in the pilot episode, and he's not quite as bad as everyone says, but Dirk is Dirk, and he'll always be Face.
The first season doesn't have as much Macgyver-ish stuff as we'd see later on. The most entertaining aspect of the show is the personalities of the characters and how they interact with one another. They're all goofballs, and even B.A., who is supposed to be the straight and serious guy, is funny in his attempt to be so serious amongst a group of loonies. Basically the show can almost be seen more as a comedy than an action show.
There are some notable appearances to those who dig cult and B films, like John Saxon, William Smith and Dean Stockwell to name a few. Also of note to cult horror fans(Karen Shaub especially!), the show was produced by Filipino horror(and Frankie Avalon beach movie)star John Ashley, who also does the narration on the show's intro.
Season One isn't regarded as the best season. The characters are well established, but the show still had some evolving to do. It's still highly entertaining and has some of my personal favorite episodes. And it's a helluva lot more fun than reality T.V. July 23, 2008

Liked The Show Growing Up But Sadly The Magics Faded

When you're a kid you remember some shows fondly and some with distaste and when you grow up it changes this show is one of them. Let me say that while the actors aren't bad but when I started watching some of these episodes and seeing all the explosions and bullets flying I'm surprised that neither any of the A-team members or the people their fighting got seriously injured or hurt I mean they would just shake themselves off and just walk away. PLEASE! I know this show wasn't meant to be taking as a very dramatic show but as I see these episodes now that I'm an adult I just can't feel but wonder what I found so appealing about this show as a kid. Again this is just a personal review so to all fans of the show don't get to hostile if you like the show and want people to know why make a review and explain your reasons for it. June 21, 2008

Best Season Of Them All

This was truly the best season of them all throughout THE A-TEAM's whole 4-year run on NBC and the season that made Mr. T a superstar and the season that made The A-TEAM an instant smash in the 1980's along with the fact that it was interesting seeing Dirk Benedict going from being Starbuck on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA to being Face on THE A-TEAM.

In addition; this was the season when The A-Team was hotter, they were slicker, they were sharper looking, plus this was the only full season with Amy Allen, which made things even more interesting, despite the fact that The A-Team's 1st Season wasn't quite a full season, since The A-Team didn't even come out till January of 1983, plus it's just too bad that they only showed Col. Lynch (Bill Lucking) in 2 episodes, which were the pilot episode("Mexican Slayride")and "One More Time", even though they used to mention Lynch's name a lot in the First Season.

In addition to that, this season brings back a lot of memories when I was little and lived for watching this show back then, especially since the show became less interesting when Amy departed from the show in the 2nd half of the 1983-84 Season, since the show didn't have Amy's smile or beauty, or good looks, or cheery personality along with the fact that it was actually nice for The A-Team to have a female co-star on the show when they did.

Therefore, the First Season also seemed to be more genuine and more sophisticated than all the other seasons, so this has and always will be my favorite season of this show.

So I think anybody who religiously watched The A-Team on NBC every Tuesday night back in the mid 1980's would definetely agree with me on all this. January 25, 2008

awesome

i watched the a-team when i was around 5,when it reruned here in norway in the 90's, the quality of video is good to be a 80's show, audio is good to, dont expect HD quality, but it do look good on a 40" 1080p HDTV, the menu is a nice tuch, to bad it has little real bonuses, like comentary etc, the package the dvds are in, i do not like, they have put all of dvds in it and you have to take of a plastic cover, and roll it out both ways, but other than that the DVD build quality was better than Season Two's because they used DVD9 not DVD18, also Dual Layer (8GB) but not dual sided (2x8GB both sides) July 20, 2007

Where It All Begins

Brings back great childhood memories. Fun seeing it through the lens of experience. Definitely need to suspend all critical faculties. If you do, Murdock is still as hilarious as ever--he wants to get out of asylum to "see E.T. just like everybody else." Hannibal is still "on the jazz," B.A. pities the fool, and Face's cheesy wise-guy comments seem clever.

Season one shows where it all begins, and why the A-Team is on the run. There's a different Face in the pilot--Dirk Benedict doesn't start until the second episode. The pilot features the introductory scenes used at the beginning of each episode.

It was funny reading some background on the actors on the Net. Apparently George Peppard (Hannibal) was jealous that Mr. T was most popular among viewers. Dwight Schultz (Murdock) has a blog on the Net--reading it, you wonder if the guy really is nuts. April 5, 2007

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