The A-Team - Season One
by Arnold Laven, Bernard McEveety, Bruce Kessler, Christian I. Nyby II, Chuck Bowman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz, George Peppard, Melinda Culea, Mr. TDirector: Arnold Laven, Bernard McEveety, Bruce Kessler, Christian I. Nyby II, Chuck Bowman
Brand: NBC Universal
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 677 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of The A-Team - Season One
Movie Review: Best Season Of Them All
Summary: 5 Stars
This abbreviated season 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 when it made its debut on NBC in the Winter of 1983 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 also the season when THE A-TEAM was an over-the-top show in its honeymoon phase & when the A-Team was hotter, they were slicker, they were sharper looking, plus this was the only full season with sexy newspaper reporter Amy Allen(Melinda Culea)as their sidekick who always tagged along on their missions, which made the show and their missions even more interesting along with the fact that this was the only full season of The A-Team with Amy even though the 1st Season wasn't quite a whole full season since the First Season only had 13 episodes since The A-Team didn't even come out till January of 1983 on NBC for the very first time, 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, yet Lynch was usually no where to be found even when other MP's were obviously chasing and tracking them, which I found kind of odd since Lynch had so-called been chasing Hannibal, Face, and B.A. for over 10 years since the ending of the Vietnam war when they escaped and became fugitives on the lam who were convicted and imprisoned for a crime they could never prove they didn't commit in the first place.
In addition to that, this season also explains to us how THE A-TEAM was a show about how Hannibal, B.A., Face, and Murdock were all creative Robin Hood style mercaneries for hire who were soldiers of fortune Vietnam vets who specialized in impossible situations where even the police couldn't help, but the A-Team still managed to aid the people in need of serious help who couldn't even be helped out by the police, FBI, etc., even though they were wanted harboring criminals on the run from the law; plus this was the season that shows us how Amy became a member of the team after discovering the A-Team and what they were all about after doing a story on Hannibal, Face, and B.A. when she does a story on them while hiring the A-Team to find her kidnapped reporter friend(William Windom), but Amy becomes the 5th team member at the end of the pilot episode while Lynch continues to unsuccessfully pursue Hannibal, BA, and Face.
Additionally, this season also brings back a lot of memories when I was little and lived for watching this show back then, especially since the show became stale and alot 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 anymore 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 and was probably the very best season of them all along with the fact that this season is what made THE A-TEAM such a smash when it made its debut on NBC in early 1983, but this show seemed to have gotten stale when THE A-TEAM hit its 3rd Season on NBC in the Fall of 1984 since this shows 1984-85 Season had us mourning the loss of Amy & Tawnia.
In fact Universal should've put Amy on the front cover of this DVD box set of THE A-TEAMs 1st Season along with Hannibal, B.A., Face, & Murdock since this was the only full season with Amy in it.
The one thing I don't understand about this season was why didn't they have Dirk Benedict playing Tempelton Peck "Face" in the pilot episode instead of Tim Dunigan, which only played Face in the "Mexican Slayride" episode, but according to my information Tim Dunigan only played Face in the pilot episode, because he was fired since the producers thought Dunigan was too tall and too young looking to be a convincing Vietnam vet and a con-man along with the fact that Dunigan was the tallest and practically the toughest looking co-star on the team, which the producers didn't want.
Therefore, the producers of the A-Team decided to replace Tim Dunigan with Dirk Benedict as Tempelton Peck a.k.a. Face since Dirk Benedict was a much better match, since Dirk Benedict was so tall and was a lot more convincing as a Vietnam vet and a smooth talking con-artist since Dirk Benedict was close to being in his 40's when this show made its debut on NBC in 1983 along with the fact that the producers wanted Dirk Benedict to portray the role of Face from the very beginning and I personally thought Dirk Benedict made an awesome Tempelton Peck, unlike Tim Dunigan, which made an aweful Tempelton Peck and looked more like an inexperienced wannabe Face.
I also wondered why Amy Allen had departed the show in the 2nd half of the following season all of the sudden after the first 10 episodes of the 2nd Season too leaving Amy no where to be found, but unfortunately it turns out that Melinda Culea(Amy) was fired from the show between November and December of 1983 due to wanting more challenging actions for her character that the writers & producers kept refusing to give her leaving us to mourn the loss of Amy throughout most of the 2nd Season on later.
In addition to why Amy was ousted from the show; George Peppard(Hannibal)unfortunately didn't get along well with Melinda Culea(Amy)either, but Culea was eventually briefly replaced by foxy newspaper reporter Tawnia Baker(Marla Heasley) in the remaining half of THE A-TEAM's Second Season when Tawnia made her first appearance and joined the cast & crew of the show in "The Battle Of Bel-Air" episode in January of 1984, but I still preferred Amy to Tawnia, even though Tawnia was hotter looking, because Amy was actually more of a co-star and more of a member of the team than Tawnia ever was, but it just so happens that Tawnia departed the show in the 3rd Season after only lasting 8 episodes, due to sexism on the set, which prompted Marla Heasley to quit the show in the Fall of 1984, which was nearly a year after Melinda Culea's departure from the show.
In other words, Amy and Tawnia were technically kicked off the team, but it was initially due to the fact that George Peppard didn't want any lady co-stars on the show or the team since Peppard felt the lady co-stars, especially Amy & Tawnia were kind of a distraction from the real heavy-duty action on the show along with the fact that the 4 main male co-stars of the show were the ones to always do the heavy-duty work, but Amy & Tawnia always had the easy job and the easy part on the team, but this show started going downhill in its Third Season since they no longer had Amy or Tawnia anymore which also contributed to a decline in the ratings in this shows last 3 seasons before it was finally cancelled in the Spring of 1987.
It was also interesting seeing
-Dirk Benedict making a new show as Tempelton Peck "Faceman" after his co-starring days as Starbuck on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
-Jack Ging in the "Small & Deadly War" episode before he became a part-time co-star on this show as the A-Team's overzealous nemesis(Gen. Fullbright)in the 4th Season, whom replaced the teams tough as nails nemesis Col.Decker(Lance LeGault)in November of 1985.
-Joanna Kerns in the "A Nice Place To Visit" episode before her co-starring days on GROWING PAINS
-Andy Robinson in "The Belly Of The Beast Of Boeing" episode after his co-starring days on RYANS HOPE and before his co-starring days on STAR TREK:DEEP SPACE NINE
-Dean Stockwell in the "A Small & Deadly War" episode before his co-starring days on QUANTUM LEAP
-Don Stroud in the "A Nice Place To Visit" episode before his co-starring days as Capt. Lussen on THE NEW DRAGNET
-Rhonda Shear in the "A Small & Deadly War" episode before her co-starring days on USA's Up All Night
-Noble Willingham in the "Till Death Do Us Part" episode before his co-starring days on WALKER TEXAS RANGER
-Michael Swan in "The Belly Of The Beast Of A Boeing" episode before his co-starring days on AS THE WORLD TURNS and SANTA BARBARA
-Ismael Carlo in the "A Small & Deady War" episode before his co-starring days on DAYS OF OUR LIVES and SANTA BARBARA
Something else I noticed about this season was they had used a clip scene from the movie AIRPLANE in the "Belly Of The Beast Of Boeing" episode and used a clip scene from the movie DEATH WISH in "The Out-Of-Towners" episode just like they used a clip scene from the movie SPRING BREAK in The A-Teams "Bullets & Bikinis" episode in the Fall of 1984.
This season also takes me all the way back to memory lane when NBC's motto was "Just Watch Us Now" and to when I used to watch THE A-TEAM sometimes even twice every Tuesday between 6PM-7PM on KYEL, which was the NBC affiliate for Yuma, AZ and El Centro, CA at the time and then again at 8PM on KNBC, which is the NBC affiliate for Los Angeles, which I did frequently since I was living in the Imperial Valley at the time, which is a small secluded desert community with very little to do for fun or entertainment.
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.
Summary of The A-Team - Season One
Heroic, daring and more than just a little colorful, The A-Team is a brave band of brothers who will stop at nothing to get the bad guys. This unforgettable series features Mr. T, one of television's most unique and popular superstars, in his most memorable role. Sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit, these four commandos escaped from a maximum-security stockade and now survive in the Los Angeles underground as soldiers of fortune. So, if you have a problem and there's no one else who can help, and if you think you can find them, maybe you can hire The A-Team. Popular with fans and critics alike, now you can enjoy the entire explosive first season of the series that The New York Times hailed "A sensational hit." Starring: George Peppard, Dirk Benedict, Mr. T, Dwight SchultzSimilar DVD Movies
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