Cultural effects of The A-Team
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[edit] Cultural effect
- On the British sitcom series The IT Crowd, Denholm has a photo of the A-Team on his desk. Strangely, he remembers the names of the three team members, excluding B.A., whom he calls "The Jewellery Man". This pokes fun at the attention received by Mr. T's character, which arguably overshadows the rest of the cast.
- On the May 11, 2006 episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert called on President Josiah Bartlet to finally give a pardon to the A-Team, in advance of The West Wing's series finale.
- As well as having huge ratings and being especially popular amongst children, there was countless merchandise available, including action figures of the characters, as well as their famous van and car. A cola flavored popsicle in the shape of Mr. T was also on the market at the show's height. Marvel Comics even produced a three issue A-Team comic book series.
- British comedian Benny Hill did a parody, "The B Team", in his TV show, playing both Hannibal Smith and B.A. Baracus. Face was played by Carl Wayne. In typical Benny Hill style, the skit finished with Hill, as B.A., being chased by a load of scantily clad women. The rest of the team fell over the edge of a cliff.
- In 2002, promos for The NFL on FOX featured commentators Joe Buck as Hannibal, Cris Collinsworth as Face, and Troy Aikman as B.A. Baracus. FOX was trying to drive home the point that Buck, Collinsworth, and Aikman were the new #1 announcing team (or "A-team") for their NFL telecasts.
- In an early episode of the animated series Sealab 2021, Captain Murphy hosts a pirate radio show using the name "Howlin' Mad" Murphy.
- The Family Guy episode "Brian Goes Back to College" uses the A-Team as a subplot to the show. Peter, Cleveland, Quagmire, and Joe enter a costume contest as the A-Team. With Peter as Hannibal, Cleveland as B. A. Baracus, Quagmire as Face, and Joe as Murdock, the group wins the contest and decide to become the "new" A-Team. The episode contains many other A-Team references such as the credits and the team van, as well as a re-working of the show's theme song.
- John Cena performs a music video based on the show of his hit single, "Bad, Bad Man." He plays the role of Hannibal, with Tha Trademarc as Murdock, and Bumpy Knuckles as B.A. Baracus.
- Cult webcomic Sluggy Freelance features a quartet of pirate aliens, "The Gray Team", named after the A-Team members, as major secondary characters in one of its longest-running arcs, Oceans Unmoving. It is still unknown if they chose those names or they were given to them. It is also notable that one alien, named B.A.(for Bachelor of Arts), parodies the real B.A.'s catch phrase after a gunfight, saying "I pitted the fools!"
- The popular 2004 feature film Napoleon Dynamite features the show's theme song during a montage sequence showing Napoleon and Pedro hanging flyers for the school election.
- The Robot Chicken episode "Nightmare Generator" contains a parody of The A-Team.
- The second episode of the British comedy series Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere features a homage of the A-Team customizing their vehicle, complete with the proper music from the show, and even BA's distinctive walk, parodied by Peter Kay. Throughout the series, a nodding Mr. T doll is seen on the dash of their vehicle.
- An advertisement for 118 118 has an A-Team homage, including an A-Team-style van (although white), a young boy with a mohawk haircut saying "Crazy fool" like B.A. Baracus, the two leads running into a garage and racing out on a makeshift motorcyle, and the leads disguised as trees.
- The show's famous theme music was used in a United Kingdom commercial for the video game Sonic Heroes.
- "JCB Song" by Nizlopi contains a reference to The A-Team, with lyrics in the second verse. The video by Monkeehub to accompany the song also contains a cartoon drawing of the A-Team's van following the JCB.
- The A-Team are mentioned often in the movie Ali G Indahouse. It is clear that Ali believes them to be real people and during a break-in, he assigns each of his "crew" names, with himself being B.A. Baracus.
- Numerous references to The A-Team are made in the British TV sitcom Spaced during the first and second series of the show.
- The British comedy Little Britain had a sketch featuring Matt Lucas dressed up as B.A. Baracus while working out in a gym. When someone tells him he looks like B.A. from the A-Team, he seemingly has no idea who he resembles. He is later seen driving away in a copy of the A-Team van.
- In the South Park episode "Ike's Wee Wee", South Park elementary councilor Mr. Mackey loses his job, travels to India, and ends up being captured by the A-Team and taken to rehab.
- In Scrubs, the janitor owns a van designed after the one of the A-Team, after Perry Cox crashed his old one as result of winning a bet.
- In the video game Blast Corps, the A-Team van is featured as a hidden vehicle.
- Hannibal's catchphrase "I love it when a plan comes together!" has been used numerous times in various TV shows (ranging from The Daily Show, to MythBusters, to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode "Ninja Quest]]") and movies.
- The anime shows Full Metal Panic and FMP:Fumoffu both utilize the A-Team theme in their soundtracks, particularly the previews for the next episode. The name of the track is "Tokkou Yarou?" (Suicide Man?), after the Japanese title of the TV series' airing in Japan, Tokkou Yarou A-Team.
- Mr. T guest stars in an episode of the The Chipmunks. He helps to train Alvin, Simon and Theodore and they become The C-Team.
- One episode of The A-Team is a crossover with Wheel of Fortune on which Murdock appeared and at the end, wins the game, a trip to Hawaii, and a new car, as well as various prizes for his teammates (a bed for Face, a cigar humidor for Hannibal, and a year's supply of Turtle Wax for B.A.).
- CWF superstar Sgt. Cable Briggs used the spoken-word intro to the opening theme for his entrance music, but the song cut off before the actual song began, leaving silence as Briggs entered the ring.
- Mr. T was featured in a 1983 episode of the long-running U.S. comedy Diff'rent Strokes called "The Idol", when The A-Team crew supposedly came to the penthouse to film an episode. (References to the other A-Team actors were made, although only Mr. T was actually seen.) In a later episode, Arnold boasts that he is going to get Mr. T for a school event, commenting "I bet you didn't know that the 'A' in 'A-Team' stands for 'Arnold'".
- An episode of surreal British spoof quiz Shooting Stars featured a sketch spoofing The A-Team, with Vic Reeves in the role of Hannibal, Mark Lamarr as Face, Bob Mortimer as Murdock, and Matt Lucas as Mister T (rather than B.A.), a character he would recreate some years later in a Little Britain sketch.
- British spoof horror series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace clearly has The A-Team as one of its many influences. It also closes with a shot of 'writer' Garth Marenghi sitting at his typewriter and pulling a script out, as Stephen J. Cannell was seen to do at the end of his productions, including The A-Team.
- In Australia, radio hosts Hamish and Andy use the opening intro of the A-Team for the introduction to their show.
- In the second episode of British comedy Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere, Max (Peter Kay) and Paddy (Patrick McGuinness) discussed The A-Team, with Max naming Murdock as his favorite, and the pair re-enacting the standard drugging of B.A. to get him onto an airplane scene. At the end of the story, to retrieve their camper van from a crooked mechanic, they engaged in an A-Team-type plan, breaking in, and modifying the camper van to burst out of the garage, accompanied by The A-Team theme tune.
- The name "The A-Team" inspired the name of the Australian comedy team The B Team
- An E-petition titled "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Bring back the A-Team" was rejected from the website for 10 Downing Street with the reason given as "It was outside the remit or powers of the Prime Minister and Government." [1]
[edit] Bring Back...A-Team reunion
On 18 May 2006, Channel 4 in the UK attempted to reunite the surviving cast members of The A-Team for the show Bring Back... in an episode titled "Bring Back...The A Team".[2] Justin Lee Collins presented the challenge, securing interviews and appearances from Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz, Marla Heasley, Jack Ging, series co-creator Stephen Cannell, and Mr. T. (after much searching). Collins often used very unorthodox methods, such as ambushing the actors in their homes, hotel rooms, or even while out shopping, without any prior warning and, for Mr. T, attempting to gatecrash his way into the Latin Grammy Awards.
Collins eventually managed to bring together Benedict, Schultz, Heasley, Ging and Cannell, along with William Lucking, Lance LeGault, and George Peppard's son, Christian. Mr. T was unable to make the meeting, which took place in the Friar's Club in Beverly Hills, but he did manage to appear on the show for a brief talk with Collins.
During every interview, Collins would inquire about the rumoured tension between Peppard and Mr T. Although Peppard was an established star of Hollywood movies, Mr. T was relatively new to on-screen acting yet, in a short time, he was generally regarded as the main star of the show. It was suggested that tension did indeed exist between the two and was most probably due to Peppard's bitterness of Mr. T's status in the show. During the interview with Mr. T, the trademark gold chains worn by his character were discussed. Mr. T stated that they were symbolic of the iron chains of his African slave-ancestors but made from gold because he thinks of himself as being a 'slave' except with a higher price now. As a lighthearted joke for the show, a medium attempted to contact the deceased George Peppard via seance.
Interestingly enough, the programme never touched upon the fifth season of the series in any way, with no mention of Eddie Velez' and Robert Vaughn's characters, and neither actor appearing at the reunion itself. Additionally, the episode in which Jack Ging's character General Fullbright is shot and killed is specifically described as the series' final episode (it was in fact, the final episode of season four).
