The Tumultuous History of The A-Team: The Fights, The Firings, The Cancellation 

A-Team, Knight Rider and Airwolf were my holy trinity as a kid in the 80s.

My favorite thing about the A-Team is that they pretty much solved every problem by building a tank.

I visited Universal Studios when they had the A-Team stunt show. 10 year old me thought it was the pinnacle of human achievement. Years later and I'm still not quite sure if 10 year old me was wrong.

This isn't just a historical toy channel, it's a recovered memory, it's a time machine for good feelings, Toy Galaxy, we thank you. ❤️

Mr T's cereal didn't pity the roof of my mouth..... Ffffooll.

Watching the tv show you'd never know that George Peppard and Mr. T didn't get along. They had good chemistry onscreen.

I was aboard a US Navy destroyer that made a port call to Brunei in 1990. The Sultan's son made a visit to see the American ship, he arrived in a copy of the A-Teams van.

Back when i was 18 and in community college, one of the guys who was in the theatre program with me had one of the vans used on the show. It was one of the stunt vans used for jumps. It had most of the insides stripped out and was made to be extra light. This particular one had landed in water when it was sold off, it sat around a few places until the guy i knew bought it and fixed it up. It was still a wip last time he gave me a ride in it, but it was really cool to be in one of the vans that one of the A-team's stunt drivers used.

This show is HYPER POPULAR in Latin America, I know that there are a lot of countries in the region that still have re runs of the show on their tv chanels, this show is best know there as Los Magnificos

The best part was how they’d always get captured. Then the bad guys would invariably say: “ lock them up in the welding and fabricating shop with all the pointy shit.. No way they could break outta there.” 5 minute montage later. Tank.

_The A Team_ was to Gen X '80s kids what the _Fast & Furious_ franchise is to Millennials/Gen Z today. Vin Diesel has yet to have his own cereal. Mr T wasn't simply an actor playing the character "Mr T" , he _was_ Mr T. Heck of a thing that our heroes in the '80s existed in a blurred line between fantasy & reality. What a magical time to be a kid.

“I love it when a plan comes together!” Truly one of my favorites shows. Well presented.

The A-Team theme was so good, it was two awesome theme songs in one. First was the awesome fanfare, then came the RIFF. Either one alone would have been a classic.

One minor note, in 1993 Benedict and Schultz tried to get a reunion movie organized, they'd just about got Mr. T to say yes, and Peppard was debating it and almost said yes when his health declined a few months before his death.

"I love it when a Toy Galaxy video comes together."

Fun fact, Sharlto Copley was such a huge fan of Mr. T as a kid he celebrated the man's birthday in South Africa, and the second movie he acted in after District 9 was in A Team.

I remember being annoyed even as a 5 year old that the toy A-Team truck had the words "The A-Team" in big lettering on the side because it wasn't like that in the show. The 6 inch figures were pretty cool though. The 3 inch figures however sucked and were also instrumental in me finding out there was no Santa Clause as I saw my dad putting them in my stocking while I pretended to be asleep :)

Pepsi released a set of glasses with the A-team in the 80's in Argentina, in the same way they did with Robotech, The Pink Panther, The Smurfs and Thundercats... you had to exchange a certain amount of soda caps and some money to get one.

When I got married, one of the aspects I would not compromise on was that when my wife and I entered the reception, it had to be to the A-Team theme. I lost the pre-wedding joust and being able to wear a suit of armor, but my wife agreed to the entrance music.

The A-Team was not only been an hit TV show that ran for 5 seasons on NBC from 1983 until 1987 with 98 episodes and honored 3 Emmy Award nominations, but this also been an troubled production that caused a lot of problems including several cast members such as George Peppard and Mr. T who didn't get along neither Tim Dunigan, Melinda Culea, William Lucking, Carl Franklin and Marla Heasley as well as numerous artists and technicians. It was cancelled in the spring of 1987 and seen on syndication which became an cult classic.

Man, we ate this up like sugary cereal, and were the perfect age at the time to just think this was the coolest thing ever on TV, next to maybe Airwolf. Oh, and I think Dwight Shultz is an incredible actor, huge fan of his work.

Theme song still makes me want to run around the house pretending my hands are machine guns. Awesome job as always guys.

One of the best things about the theme song was hearing it remixed for "Full Metal Panic!"

I was today years old when I found out the A-Team van was partly grey.

This is why I watch more RU-vid than TV.

Fun Fact. In Latinamerica, the B. A. gag was translated to M. A. Baracus. The M stands for Mario, and it tried to make the same joke, by changing the name to Mario "Mala Actitud" Baracus... So actually... Most of latinamericans grew up with Mario Baracus from Los Magníficos (Super Comando in Ecuador). Please, kill me now... 🤣

I recently re-watched the 2010 remake with Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper & Sharlto Copley and it's one of the few remakes of 80's shows that actually worked. It's a shame the movie bombed financially, I would love a sequel with the same cast.

One of the main reasons we loved the A-Team when it first appeared was that they filmed their own action sequences. By this point, every "action" show on TV seemed to be reusing film footage from cinematic releases that the TV companies owned. The A-Team looked big and expensive and like the people making it cared about the audience.

As a kid Mr. T was one of the coolest people in the world in my eyes!

Flipping Jeeps! Is what that show should have been called. Every episode.

I don't think I've watched the A-team since the 80's but I still quote it almost daily, it was an excellent show, and this was a great episode of toy galaxy!

Too bad they never did a crossover episode with Knight Rider. Thankfully I had the toys to make that happen.

I had the Corvette with FACE driving it and as a graduation present I had the entire collection.

I just want to say that I appreciate this channels dedication to showing why the 80s was the greatest decade.

Just finished watching them showing all five series over the last month. Really took me back to my youth. Strangely enough, still quite watchable. Doesn't seem cheesy like some of the old 80s shows. And that theme...someone was right when they said it needs to be a national anthem!

The A-Team was, in a way, McGyver before McGyver. I remember as a kid always expecting what crazy invention they were gonna build in the third act to beat the bad guys.

It's amazing watching these behind scenes/documentaries of TV show and movies, you learn about the shenanigans that happens off camera. You learn why certain characters leave and why certain characters are brought in. Bravo for this!

MacGyver The A Team Miami Vice Hunter Knight Rider Magnum P.I. T.J. Hooker Airwolf Cagney & Lacey Simon & Simon My Top 10 of 1980's TV action and adventure series

I was today years old when I knew about Peppards behind the scenes problems. Wouldn't have guessed by their on screen chemistry. I loved the gag where Baracus was afraid of flying therefore they had to knock him out to get him to places. I remember that chapter he went catatonic because he got stuck in a plane.

The A-Team Commodore 64 game is also hilarious because the guy who was asked to recreate the theme tune got it confused with Star Wars!

When I met Dirk Benedict at a convention a few years ago he told me that he got to "borrow" Face's 'Vette every weekend he could, even sneaking it out of the Universal lot, and he missed it like a friend when they took the car off the show telling me he "had many happy times driving around in that car." Great guy to talk to, full of stories and he signed the annual I had when I was about 10 years old. He went through the entire annual with me pointing out moments in the stories and chatting about the original (and best) Battlestar Galactica.

The A-Team remake movie is something I completely forgot existed

Honestly surprised the A-Team hadn't been covered sooner?

My wife has an A-Team award from a local TV station, which she got by getting good grades in elementary school.

I was a huge A-Team fan as a kid. Mr. T doesn’t get enough respect for being a positive black figure in popular culture. Strangely, I don’t remember owning much merch. Maybe I was just focused on GI Joe and He-Man at the time, and didn’t even consider wanting A-Team toys.

Mr. T acting as Mr. T. Reminds me of that vine "water melon inside a water melon" Haha. Love this! I ❤️ Mr. T!!!!

I was a member of The A Ream Fan club, but I tuned out of the last series. It felt to me like a whole new show and took away my favorite bits of the show, the fist fights and mad machines they made to stop the bad guys.

Yes!! I was hoping to see A team on here! Thanks Toy Galaxy!

"Hanna-Barbera launched an animated series called 'Mr. T' with Mr. T in the role of 'Mr. T'...." Y'know how when you say or hear a word repeated often enough, it starts losing its meaning in your mind?

Definitely loved the A-Team, and yep remember the final season! I liked the reboot movie and thought it was a shame that a sequel was never done.

Theme song was amazing. And any kid that watched the show wanted to go on adventures with the a-team.

Amy felt like the little sister of the group. I liked her. Man oh man.

I’ve always loved The A-Team, in part because I literally grew up with it since it premiered on my first birthday. Some of my earliest memories are sitting in the living room watching episodes my parents had taped for me (it came on after my bed time) and playing with the Ertl die-cast cars. I had BA’s van (of course), Faceman’s Corvette, a generic military Jeep and a military police patrol car. Occasionally they’d mix it up with my Ertl Dukes of Hazzard set.

The A team. The show that made me less scared of vans as a kid.

I really enjoyed watching the A-Team episodes as a kid and even remember that they came to the Netherlands at least once (or twice?) to answer questions and have some fun/safe stunts. Like the A-Team van (probably a replica on loan in the Netherlands) crashing through empty boxes or B.A. Baracus attempting to drive over two 'illegally parked' cars in a tracked vehicle they had hired for the event (but he didn't know how to use the levers that controlled the vehicle so the operator next to him drove over the cars while Mr.T just punched air. The thing I did notice from when they came to the Netherlands was that George Peppard was always missing. Only the actors portraying B.A., Murdock, and Face came over. I guess George declined because of the long flight or the amount of money offered to appear perhaps? To this date it is still a series I fondly remember and still something I'd like to own on blu ray someday (if the box set wasn't so darn expensive all the time).

The Peppard subtitles were amazing and hilarious (also sad if true)

Mr T is great guy with good morals, everyone says nice things about him. So i doubt it was him being a jerk. And the mere fact that he could've smashed George Peppard's face in with one hand but took the high road, is one example of this.

I only found out this week that the guy who played Barclay in Star Trek TNG was in the A Team. I was too young to watch it when it was on TV, but I remember older boys at school dressing up as the A Team for Halloween. I think that was the year my turnip lantern went on fire. Yes in 80s UK we used turnips as lanterns.

My dad absolutely loves this show. Surprisingly he didn't have any of the action figures, he said they were not as common as Gi joe and Defense force. I loved the new movie and was disappointed that no sequel was made.

In my office there was an abandoned A-Team Board Game that no one knew where it came from. Part of me just wished I took it home before it disappeared when we renovated the place.

I must be a weirdo. For me the best team member was Murdoch...

Frankie is underrated and completely forgotten.. hes not even on the season 5 dvd cover. Lol Always feel sorry for that dude.

The A-Team has it’s own magic and it can’t be replicated, it is one of my favorite shows to this day and I would’ve to seen more in other media/franchises like a G.I. Joe crossover in comics or action figures or something 🤔...I miss that show Great video Mr Larson, Producer Greg MP 👍🏽✌🏽

Loved this show. Murdock was my fave character.

I'm surprised Dan left out Mr.T's match against Roddy Piper at WrestleMania and his recent figure in the Masters of the WWE Universe toyline

Not gonna lie, I watch the Liam Neeson movie like once a year because it hits the center of the "chill" part of my brain on a Saturday afternoon.

I believe it was Melinda Culea who said that Peppard introduced himself with 'hi, I'm George... and I'm not a nice man'

8:55 something about this kid saying “INCREDIBLE motorcycle crashes” is so darkly hilarious, I absolutely love it

Not only do I love the old show, but I even loved the 2010 film. I feel Joe Carnahan captured the spirit of the show while updating it at the same time. I wish that they had made a sequel.

The A-Team were my favorite show,followed closely by Knight Rider.!

I was born after the eighties but was fortunate enough to watch re runs of the A team in my teens.

I love it when starts out with the Alpha team leading the way to soften up the enemy for the -"WTF" teams- Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot teams.

THIS is literally my childhood!!

The corvette was actually a rental car. They would rent it the day of shooting and bring it back in the evening without telling the rental place what they were using it for :p

The reason why I love these videos is most of the time a memory is sparked of something I haven't thought of in decades. For instance, in this video, Switch Force. I remember Switch Force as being super cool when I was a kid.

I watched this all of my childhood and just now realized that B.A. has Jump Wings. There is no freaking way that dude ever got into a plane let alone jumped out of one.

The fifth season is fantastic. A great idea to expand the origin story.

I bought the A-Team soundtrack on CD at Media Play, when I was in high school. Sadly, none of these are still around anymore. Fun soundtrack tho. It made the show.

Something worth noting about the A-Team is its considered the first show to use the Super Bowl as its national lead in. Before this, once the game was over, regularly scheduled programing would resume. Moreover, it's one of the few successful post big game shows, rivaled only by the Wonder Years & Homicide: Life on the Streets.

The Galoob toy commercial had a cool spoken song, but it used the word “Face” twice, once for the character and again generally at the end; but this literally made the whole song about Face!

I mean, once the "A Team" was captured that was the end of the series. Say what you want afterwards but the show ended when they were captured.

fun fact: Dwight Schultz reprised his Murdock role for the Lego Dimensions game as well

The A Team will forever be a part of me watching it while growing up and of course B.A's classic like "you crazy fool" In New Zealand we had a commercial screened many years back for Snickers Bars which featured Mr T doing some of his best one lines ever.

Awesome video! I used to love watching this show, and I still think about it often. Every kid did like Mr. T, I know I sure did. Thank you for the video.

Guys, I really love the solid blast of nostalgia I get from these excellent videos, but it really should've been "Marla Heasley in the role of Tawnia Baker"...

Just a quick note: You mentioned that the 2010 film had a budget of $110m and brought in $170m making it seem like it made a profit. However, it's very unlikely it did not. Most studio films have a marketing budget that is roughly the original budget of the film. So, it's like the actual budget for the film was $200m+. Which would make the movie a likely loss leader for the studio for that year.

I always figured the reason the team was never shown to kill anyone was due to them being fugitives, any killing they committed would be treated as capitol murder if they were captured

I've watched several of these now. The writing is quite good. Irreverent while acknowledging the genuine achievements of these shows. Well done.

"I want trash bags!!" who didn't like H.M. Howling Mad Reginald Barkley-Murdock?

The movie was alot of fun, You can't fly a tank, unless your the A-Team.

Who else in the history of war and time invented a “cabbage cannon”. They friggin’ fought the bad guys with cabbages!

You haven't lived until you've seen the Sesame Street A-Team parody with Ryan Reynolds as the letter A and Telly Monster as B. A. Baracus. Even managed to make a "I ain't getting on no plane" joke. Other than that, I'm disappointed they didn't make the Mr. T cartoon a kiddy version of The A-Team. The closest we'd get to that was G.I. Joe Renegades.

You have to wonder how and why the A team became the A Team with such displays of horrendously in accurate close range small arms fire.

The cartoon was by Ruby-Spears instead of Hanna-Barbera. If it had been HB, it would have included a weird talking animal.

I was just a small child, but I loved the show. As an adult, I still do, and I love the movie reboot even more.

Absolutely loved this show as a kid, thanks for the video and memories!

I never did find and hire the A-Team. They could have really helped iron out some problems at school 🤔

Still hear the gunshots when you finish the opening dialogue! If Peppard wasn't so nasty to T and all the women who never lasted a season maybe we could've had more. Love the A-Team!🤘 Was the Jason Hervey in the Universal commercial?

According to the rumor I just started, the 6th season was going to see Murdok revealed as time-traveling Starfleet officer Reginald Barclay, who thought he was just stuck in a really long holodeck program.

One of my favorite 80s shows - it still holds up today! I remember my dad buying me a Mr T action figure when I was 7 to try to cheer me up (I had chicken pox). All 5 seasons are currently streaming for free on Roku.