Favorite Scene Friday! The A-Team: "They're trying to fly that tank."

This week's scene is by CT from Nerd Lunch!

I love The A-Team. Perhaps more than any man should. I was the right age when the TV series launched. It was on from 1982-1987 which put me at about 6 to 10. Everything about it was over the top and schlocky fun.

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A show like that though, you expect to watch it through adult eyes and not have the same fondness. Surprisingly, the opposite happened. I received the TV series on DVD for Christmas a few years ago and watched through them all again. I loved it more. And Hannibal Smith cemented himself as one of my favorite characters in pop culture. The first two seasons of the show are solid, 80s action fun. Hannibal is a wise-cracking Vietnam vet who has assembled a group of guys who are misfits when apart, but a force of nature when together.

Peppard is know for some unfortunate issues on the set. Reportedly he drove off the two female leads and was known to have a feud (seemingly one-sided) with Mr. T. That aside, Peppard played the role of Hannibal perfectly. And the characters were rich in backstory and personality that was infused into the scripts by creators Lupo and Cannell.

With such love and passion for this show, I both wanted a reboot and didn't want one at the same time. There were reports of a reboot movie for years before one actually came out in 2010. Early rumors indicated script treatments not very faithful to the original story including Faceman being the villain of the story. Although this same early script apparently had a scene that completely seemed like what a big budget A-Team movie should have—The A-Team flying a tank.

Years passed by and directors changed. Then a cast was lined up. Then a promo photo was released. And it looked like it was finally going to happen. Nervous, I still went and watched it. And I loved it.

I have some minor quibbles in regards to the portrayal of Hannibal, but I can easily look past those noting this movie takes place earlier in their career than the series does and the aspects of Hannibal that I would like to have seen would have developed in sequels. What they got right about Hannibal was his planning. Hannibal has an almost supernatural gift of seeing the world in such a way that he can plan multiple steps in advance and pull off anything he wants.

Anything. That includes what if you found yourself in a tank in the middle of the air that was now plummeting to the ground? Well, Hannibal finds a way to land it. So unrealistic, but so fun.



There are many great scenes in this film and if you haven't watched it, you can rent it for cheap and almost always find it for sale for the same price. It deserves a sequel that we'll never get. The plan for this film finally came together and I love that it did.