I defy you to name a better cast of characters than those from The A-Team television series back in the 1980s. If you’ve never seen The A-Team, then I suggest you stop reading, secure season one on DVD, and get ready to be amazed. I don’t think that’s what the A in A-Team stands for, but it could.In case you don’t have seventy-three hours to devote to this jewel of creative television accomplishment, let me give you a quick summary.In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.Okay, so I just stole that entire last paragraph from the opening credits of the show. I’m not proud of it, but it had to be done so you understand the greatness. And as awesome as that paragraph is, things get even awesomer when you know the characters.Hanibal is the leader. Master of disguise. Creates the plan for completing each show’s mission.Face is the good-looking conman. He uses his physical attributes to get whatever items the team needs to fulfill the mission.Murdock is the team’s pilot. He can fly anything. He’s also crazy and lives in a veteran’s hospital.And B.A. Baracus is one badass dude who’s the team’s muscle and mechanic, and says fantastic things like “then I’ll take my fist and put my initials on your brain,” and “she ain’t that smart, she married a guy who wears ties,” and “I wouldn’t let him open my wallet if I had a gun trained on him.” Want an e-mail every time I write something new? Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. I'm not going to send you a bunch of junk, and you can ditch me any time you want.Hey, did you like reading this? If so, you should Share it on Facebook so you can bring joy to others. You can also find tons of other posts by me here. And you can like my Facebook page, Brett Baker Writes. Please.
I really liked The A-Team when I was a kid, in case you couldn’t tell.So when I was about seven years old and found out that the A-Team van would make an appearance at the auto show in Springfield, Illinois, where I lived at the time, I couldn’t wait to see it. I think I had some latent hope that some of B.A.’s spectacular coolness might remain in the van and rub off on me.Since my parents are cool, we got tickets to the auto show. And that's the day my life changed.I saw the Batmobile, which I didn’t really care about. I saw KITT, the talking car from Knight Rider. I loved Knight Rider, and as I sat in KITT I briefly considered trying to drive off in it. Then I remembered three problems: One, I didn’t know how to drive. Two, if I stole KITT people would see me driving in him and call the cops, so I’d have to leave him in my garage. And three, KITT can control himself, so he probably wouldn’t let me steal him.That’s why you never read a news story in 1985 about a kid stealing the talking car. I did get my picture taken in KITT though, and we both ooze coolness.But the important moment came when I finally saw the van from The A-Team. I waited in line, watching the van from afar, secretly hoping that B.A. might come out to pummel some fool, or Murdock might emerge screaming some nonsense. That didn’t happen.When I got to the front of the line I read the informational sign next to the van. It said something like, “General Motors supplies a number of GMC Vandura vans for use in The A-Team.”Wait, what? A number of vans? By “a number” of vans, they mean one, right?Oh, no, no, no, no. They mean more than one.More than one A-Team van? How can that be?I continued reading. Different vans were used for different scenes. If the van needed to jump a ramp, they’d use a van with the engine in the middle to distribute the weight. If it needed to drive on two wheels they had a special van for that. If B.A. had to flip it with his bare hands they had another for that. If it was involved in a simple chase they used yet another van.This violated every sense of right in my little seven-year-old brain. There’s only one A-Team van. It’s the coolest car on earth because of all it can do. B.A. is so strong he can flip the van. It gets beat up every single week, but it doesn’t fall apart and is ready for action.What do you mean there are different vans for different scenes? That means there isn’t an A-Team van at all. It’s a charade. Some of the vans they use don’t even have engines.So what did I learn from The A-Team? Trust nothing.Because if you can’t believe a television show about some ex-military dudes who narrowly escape death week-after-week, what can you trust?This post was written as part of ChicagoNow's weekly This Blogger Life series. The prompt for last week was "...and that's the day my life changed."PREVIOUS POST: Your Perfume StinksIF YOU LIKED THIS POST I BET YOU'LL ALSO LIKE: What Happened to Television Theme Songs?+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++