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Amazon.com DVD Review - 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

Amazon.com DVD Review - If ridiculous banter, goofball plots, and many, many, many explosions sounds like the recipe for a perfect TV show to you--you must already be a fan of The A-Team. Each of these Vietnam vets on the lam had his specialty: Hannibal (cigar-chomping George Peppard, a long way from Breakfast at Tiffany's) is the cocksure master planner; Faceman (Dirk Benedict of the original Battlestar Galactica) is the smooth-talking con artist; the pilot with a screw loose is Murdock (Dwight Schultz, later to appear on Star Trek: Voyager); and B.A. Baracus (the charismatic and gold-encrusted Mr. T, Rocky III) is both mechanic and muscle. During the series' five year run, each of these eccentrics cultivated their own rabid fan-base as they threw punches, fired thousand of bullets, tossed hand grenades to and fro, and flipped speeding cars--all without killing or even really hurting anyone, which only adds to the show's willful silliness. (A warning for fans of reporter/sidekick Amy Allen, played by Melinda Culea: After being given nothing to do for a dozen or so testosterone-heavy episodes of the second season, Culea either quit or was fired.)
Only during the 1980s could this peculiar blend of lefty politics and military fetishism have thrived. Though supposedly mercenaries-for-hire, the A-Team usually finds itself defending the downtrodden and helpless out of sheer cussedness. In the second season they helped abused migrant workers form a union--which, naturally, required transmogrifying farm equipment into a cabbage-shooting cannon. Other underdogs included the disenfranchised heir to an African diamond mine; an independent cab company being squeezed by big business; and a pacifist commune harassed by bigots. The last of these prompted Hannibal to muse ponderously on the unappreciated role of the soldier, who fights so others don't have to--after which Murdock and B.A. began punching each other over a bag of pecans. Self-aware and self-mocking, The A-Team pushed the TV action/adventure genre to laughable extremes. --Bret Fetzer

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you find them, maybe you can hire The A-Team!  Get ready for more explosive action, adrenaline-pumping thrills and unbelievable A-Team excitement as all 25 episodes of Season Three arrive on three double-sided DVDs for the first time! In the most popular season ever, Hannibal, Face, Murdock and B.A. face off against new criminals with the most outrageous schemes yet - from toxic-waste dumping to wild-game poaching to restaurant sabotage. Roaring to the scene in their famous black van, TV's favorite heroes for hire are back and ready for business!

Jump back into the black van and rejoin The A-Team in all 22 explosive Season Four episodes --their most action-packed adventures yet! Team up again with B.A., Hannibal, Murdock and Face as they take on hardhearted kidnappers, corrupt millionaires, ruthless drug dealers, and even a Mob kingpin. Joining Mr. T and the rest of the gang are some of television’s greatest guest stars, including Rick James, Hulk Hogan, Pat Sajak, Vanna White, and eighties’ icon Boy George. Available on DVD for the first time, The A-Team Season Four includes a bonus preview episode from season five and a special featurette that takes a fun look back at television’s most memorable decade, the ‘80s. For unforgettable excitement and fun, hire The A-Team!