I know what you're thinking. "The final season of THE A-TEAM??? What's the matter, Dan?? Did you run out of obscure Pre-Code movies to write about??" No...I could never run out of those. The reason for this post requires some explanation.
It basically comes from MeTV's decision to start showing THE A-TEAM every weekday at 6 PM. THE A-TEAM was one of my favorite shows of the 1980s, almost as soon as it debuted in 1983. The program became an immediate smash, and it landed in the top ten of the Nielsen ratings for its first three seasons.
The ratings went down a bit for season four, as the popularity of the show started to cool. It's not surprising the show leveled off a bit--the average A-TEAM episode was basically like all the others. If you were a regular viewer you could easily guess what was going to happen in each story from week to week.
By season four, for whatever reason, I wasn't watching the show on a week-to-week basis. By the fifth season (which started in the fall of 1986), it was my senior year of high school, and I had gotten a job, so my TV viewing was curtailed.
But what really tamped down on my A-TEAM fandom was the fact that the show had been rebooted. This was a common occurrence among American network TV programs of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. A TV show that had been on too long, or had declining ratings, or had gotten stale, would be reworked in some way. New characters would be introduced, or the recurring characters would change locations, jobs, romantic partners, etc.
The thing is, these TV reboots never worked. A reboot only seemed to hasten the demise of the show that was being changed. When I found out that THE A-TEAM was being reworked for the 86-87 season, I said to myself, "There goes that show."
Needless to say, the reboot didn't work. The somewhat different A-TEAM didn't even last the entire season before it was canceled by NBC. The truncated fifth season of THE A-TEAM lasted only 13 episodes.
Due to the fact that MeTV has been running THE A-TEAM every weekday, I finally caught up with its fifth season. I have a few thoughts about the final chapters of THE A-TEAM, and what better place to share them than here?
Before I discuss the fifth season, I might as well give a quick background on the show for those who are not familiar with it (although I doubt there are many who fit that description). THE A-TEAM concerns four unique and offbeat soldiers of fortune, who have been on the run from the United States government since they were falsely accused of a crime while serving in Vietnam in 1972. The four men now use their combat skills usually in the service of ordinary folks who are being victimized in some way.
What made the show popular is that it was pure over-the-top escapist action-adventure. On the average episode of THE A-TEAM the crew would fire off more bullets and artillery than that stockpiled by most third world nations, and they would also destroy a fleet of various vehicles. Despite all this mayhem, no one ever got killed--most of the time, no one even got their hair mussed. The bad guys were really, really bad, and the ordinary folks the team helped were really, really good. The show was absolutely ridiculous--but it was also absolutely entertaining, and funny as well.
The start of season Five of THE A-TEAM shook things up a bit, with the boys finally getting caught (for real this time), and being put on trial by the U.S. military. (There was also a new main title sequence, and the title theme was changed slightly.) Of course, the trial is a setup.....but the team comes under the scrutiny of a mysterious intelligence operative named General Stockwell (Robert Vaughn). Stockwell makes an agreement with the A-Team: if they perform a number of special missions for him, he will grant each member of the team a full pardon.
This results in Stockwell becoming a recurring character on the show, and the team gets a new member as well--Frankie Santana (Eddie Velez), a special-effects expert who has worked with A-Team leader Hannibal Smith (George Peppard) on various low-budget movies.
Now that they are working for Stockwell, the A-Team is now somewhat legitimate. But this also means that instead of being Robin Hood-like figures who stand up for the regular guy and have issues with the government, the team now works for the government....and they're not very happy about it. Throughout season five, all the members of the team complain about their agreement with Stockwell. If the characters on a TV show are not excited about what they are doing....the audience won't be either.
The addition of two extra characters left less screen time for the original team....and the new guys didn't do much for the overall show. With his slicked back hair and cocky demeanor, Frankie Santana resembled the type of guy that the A-Team would usually run out of town. Frankie came off more like a junior-league version of team member Templeton Peck, played by Dirk Benedict. With the shifty Stockwell giving the orders, Hannibal's role was reduced. One of the season five episodes even focused on Stockwell, and it even featured Robert Vaughn's co-star from THE MAN FROM UNCLE, David McCallum, as a guest villain. (The episode was even titled "The Just Say Uncle Affair", apparently to make sure the viewers got the connection.)
The character that seemed to suffer the most in season five was that of B.A. Baracus, as played by Mr. T. Due to ROCKY III and THE A-TEAM, Mr. T became a pop culture icon in the mid-1980s--he even had a Saturday morning kids TV cartoon based around him. Like most overnight sensations, Mr. T faded quickly, and I wonder if that might have been one reason why in the season five episodes, he has almost nothing to do. Another reason may be is that the season five stories revolved more around espionage and international intrigue instead of beating up numerous thugs. As a matter of fact the entire A-Team seemed out of place and overshadowed in the show's new format. (At times during the season the characters appeared to be at loose ends over not being constantly on the run.)
There was one season five episode that got my attention: "The Spy Who Mugged Me". This one was kind of a James Bond spoof, with the unlikely concept of team member "Howling Mad" Murdock (Dwight Schultz) posing as a suave spy. Schultz actually pulls off an impressive Sean Connery imitation, and I must point out that the actor was one of the main reasons for THE A-TEAM's overall success. Schultz was a talented performer who could do just about anything, and his crazy antics were consistently talked about at schools all over America the day after any A-TEAM episode aired.
I have no idea who, or what group of TV executives decided to revamp THE A-TEAM, but it didn't work. The idea of the team being caught and put on trial would have been perfect for a series-ending story, but THE A-TEAM didn't get one of those. Even the idea of the team working for the government might have had possibilities, if it was handled creatively. But it seemed that NBC had given up on the show already, and the changes were just a way to give the network an excuse to pull the plug.
Even if THE A-TEAM had not been revamped, I doubt it would have lasted much longer than it did. The show was a product of its time, and it was about as politically incorrect as you could be on American TV during that period. THE A-TEAM wasn't the type of show that could have lasted a decade or more....how many times can you have the guys try and figure out how to break Murdock out of the VA hospital, or how to get B.A. on a plane??
THE A-TEAM will always be one of my favorite TV shows of all time--but I must admit, watching an episode Monday through Friday for weeks on end probably isn't the best way to enjoy it. THE A-TEAM deserved a much better climax than the mediocre final season it was saddled with.
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