Demystifying The A Team Formula
Demystifying The A-Team Formula"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."
Most everyone who has been watching television since the 1980's can recognize this
introduction as the beginning of every A-Team episode. A good handful of these people
probably can even sing the theme song, which sounds as if it could be piped from the
halls of West Point. The popularity of the show when it first aired "almost single-handedly
brought NBC out of its third place slump in the ratings and was one of the network's
biggest successes ever."1
Yet, what secret formula did Stephen J. Cannell (Executive Producer and the man who
started the show going) tap into to get the audience to bite? Why was everyone so turned
on to, and tuned in to The A-Team in its first few seasons? Were the Am erican audience
that thrilled hearing B.A. Baracus (Mr. T) say "Shut up fool!"; were they that interested
in seeing if Hannibal's (George Peppard) plan always comes together, or was it truly
the violence that sold the show?
Compared to NBC's new experimental shows like Hill Street Blues, and St. Elsewhere, whose
innovative use of realism sparked the Third Golden Age of Television and quality TV as
we know it; The A-Team (TAT) is just another parody of the action/adventure genre.
Or is it? The truth is The A-Team 's popularity was so brilliant because it provided
something for everyone. TAT created a new genre by mixing old ones. I intend to demystify
the formula that was exclusive t o TAT created by exploring the character personalities
and old genres that the show employed.
At the time of the premiere of The A-Team , television was going through a major
transformation. Networks were battling for ratings in a constantly decreasing market.
Innovative programs such as CBS's Cagney & Lacey were targeting the wo rk-force woman
audience by creating a woman cop show. This show broke the stereotypical barriers of
women on the force set by Aaron Spelling's Charlies Angels.
In a time where the invention of niche marketing for network television was becoming
common practice and mass audience appeal programs were becoming a rarity, The A-Team
was born. However, as stereotypes go, The A-Team is immersed in them. The show's four
main characters provide a personal profile of almost every class of man in America.
To understand each character on the The A-Team, one must understand...
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