The A-Team - Season One DVD
A-Team DVDs
Buy The A-Team - Season One
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Universal
EAN: 0025195056724
Format: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled,
NTSC
Label: Universal Studios
Languages: English Original Language English Subtitled French
Subtitled Spanish Subtitled
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
MPN: MCAD61106636D
Number Of Items: 4
Publisher: Universal Studios
Region Code: 1
Release Date: December 16, 2008
Running Time: 677 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios
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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
