Sorry-- super long. A lot of thread to go through.
A lot seemed odd about this episode, but, okay, it was the first one. (You can tell they didn't have some of the characters quite settled in yet-- Face wishes he had a wife-and-2.5-kids type of family which is laughable for everything about Face from here on out, Hannibal believes Murdock is insane, and Murdock is the kind of guy who would leave the cockpit to wander through the plane {whereas I've always sort of thought he may pretend to be nuts, but he is serious about flying, even if I assume his skills and willingness to take risks may smack of being insane hence "Howling Mad"}...)
What was the deal with Al Massey? Why was Amy so convinced that this time he was in trouble, when he had a track record of being flaky and unreliable? So convinced, in fact, that she told them she'd give them everything she owned to check it out? It would've been nice if they'd given us some idea.
Why did Amy end up sleeping in her car outside the laundry?
Can I admit I did kind of like Tim Dunigan as Face? I like DB a lot, but I feel like Dunigan was more convincing as a charmer. DB always makes the "con man" angle feel a bit contrived. And I'm not sure if that's an acting (and/or perhaps writing) issue, or if he's trying too hard to show that it's an act Face puts on. A bit too much of seeing "the man behind the curtain."
I also admit that once I actually watched this episode (having only watched clips on Youtube of the show previously), I was disappointed to find out that "the jazz" was a high from do-gooding. I mean, that's cute, but I always assumed that "on the jazz" meant, like, getting into the thing you're doing, being in the throes of a good idea, being on. Like, "Man, that performance of {whatever} was *awesome*!" "Yeah, they were on the jazz, man."
I love Murdocks smirk at the end of his scene with Lynch - that smirk was the beginning of the love affair for me
But my favorite scene was the one Morgan mentions with BA and Hannibal outside the airport. I absolutely love Hannibals facial expression after he says " this road is no where near the airport " and then the plane flies overhead.
I like Amy in the episode - I like that she was introduced as this feisty newspaper journalist. I wish they would have continued to show her more at her job - fighting for stories and standing up to the boss. But I don't like that she blackmailed her way onto the team
I don't, either. Surely they could've come up with some other way for her to end up on the team. Even if they had to take a couple episodes for them to warm up to her.
And yes, I like the "reporter" angle as well (maybe just because I'm a journalism geek and considered going into it myself). I mean, I know they mention it as an excuse for her to get to go along with the guys (not sure how realistic it is that a reporter for what I assume is a small-ish paper is doing all sorts of feature stories all over the country, and it's interesting that somehow she always gets to choose the topics and her boss is cool with that, but okay; nothing on this show is realistic so that's fine).
I think he is lying as not to blow Murdocks cover - this episiode all but spells out that Murdock is not really insane and just faking to stay at the VA
Not saying he doesn't have issues but nothing that requires full time care - since this was the first episode which set the stage for the series I believe the intent of the show was always to be that Murdock was faking
But when Hannibal called Murdock earlier in the episode, after he hung up, he said something to the effect, "I think he's getting worse," which implies that perhaps even Hannibal thinks Murdock is insane.
I thought that was sarcasm...
The birthdates on the files are also really off.
Oh, I missed those somehow. I always just sort of rolled with "the characters are the same age as the actors." Anyone know-- what were the birthdates?
The 'writers' were Lupo and Cannell. I wouldn't just dismiss their original vision for the show.
Nah, but a lot of shows take some time to work out details like characterization, backstories, continuity, etc. There are a lot of shows where you see that in season 1, so-and-so is said to be an only child and then in season 3, they have a sister... and in season 2, this other character's wife is Suzie but in season 4 she's called Joanne... and in season 2, such-and-such actor guest stars, then in season 5 they come back as a regular character... etc.
they were sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit.
...except they totally did. I mean, not in the way they were said to, but they definitely did it. (Never really liked that part.)
You wanna know what I want to talk about?
Hannibal getting the coded message to the guys through the radio call in show.
What did you guys think? Was it stupid? Should they have continued it?
I didn't like it.
I mean, it made sense that he'd need to send messages to them somehow. But it wasn't feasible. It was too work intensive.
Maybe why they dropped it. Seems to me a bit too contrived to think that he couldn't just call them up and say "Hey guys, we've got a job." Doing it this way almost seems like they barely knew each other or something (and, of course, we know that all of that subterfuge implied a cautiousness that the rest of the series belied). Probably another of those things that possibly seemed like a good idea for the pilot and then just wasn't kept. (I mean, it does sound cool, though, so maybe that's why they used it-- maybe they never intended to keep it up. Would've gotten old as a device, anyway.)
Other thing that stuck out to me was Murdocks initial reactions to Face :
When getting sprung in the beginning Murdock says " I can't believe the Surgeon General let me out " and FakeFace says " he didn't - I did".
Then when FakeFace is scamming the Gulf Stream- Murdock ,to me ,looks confused as to what is going on
It's been 10 years - surely this couldn't have been the first time Face busted him out or pulled a scam in front of him. I just thought Murdocks reactions were strange
Unless like discussed in another thread, the show was trying to show Murdock did have memory loss - could he just not be remembering the other times ( I, myself , don't believe he has memory loss)
Or maybe he was just confused because Face looked so different - Tim ( FakeFace) looks nothing like Dirk ( RealFace) - haha
I thought the first line was a joke...
I just chalk all of this up to yet more new-show awkwardnesses.
I don't know if Murdock really feared BA. And even Face, although he may have whined about BA sometimes. I think that deep down they knew that BA loved them. So not sure they really feared him. But of all of them, I would agree that Hannibal for sure didn't fear BA.
I don't think there's really anything Hannibal fears. (Besides the fact that he's B.A.'s CO.) Hannibal is glib and flip about pretty much every threat and danger. I have definite theories about Hannibal's psyche; I think he himself is a bit insane. I chalk it up to perhaps some deep death wish, so he's not afraid of dying. In my fanfic, at one point my OC says to Hannibal, "It's like you're not even worried about getting killed!" And he looks at her very seriously, and he says, "I've seen enough death that it doesn't impress me anymore." IOW, he's seen enough sh...tuff through the war that he's not even afraid of dying now; he literally doesn't care if he does.
But yeah, BA properly slugging officers and having short temper - that's not cool, and I'm not advocating that. But I guess in times of stress or whatever, I think men can get more aggressive. So maybe that's why he has that rep.
It's also been 10+ years... it could be B.A. has calmed down since. Or, B.A. may slug officers, but maybe not his friends.
I'm just not sure how someone can have a long history of doing that and not get thrown out, with a dishonorable discharge... seems like it'd be a pretty big no-no.
But you know, I wish I had been old enough to watch the A-Team when it first came out, to share in all the jazz, being able to talk about it with people, watch episodes together.... I'm 33 and no one I know has watched the A-Team. (So I'm mighty jazzed to be able to chat about it with you all!)
I didn't watch it as a kid (was too young when it first came out as the show and I are the same age, and just not the kind of show we watched in my family for reruns {although if my mom was still around I'm sure she'd roll her eyes and know that I wanna be Amy, lol, and would be exactly like MC in wanting to see more action, and would maybe start calling me "B.A."}). Had a friend in high school who was into it, but I wasn't. I only started watching it a few months ago and got hooked. I don't really know other people to geek out about it with, either, so I'm glad to be here, lol.
As for mudsucker, I always thought it meant it looked like his face was sucking mud and that's why he was grumpy. My wife always assumed a racial slur. I can't seem to find a definitive answer on it.
Isn't it a type of fish? But yeah, as I mentioned in another thread-- always seemed to have a racial overtone to me. Maybe not. Maybe back then or in some place, it had a meaning I'm just not aware of.
I always figured that Mudsucker wasn't an actual racial slur because I very much doubt they could have gotten away with it with Mr T. However, today I am not so sure. I googled it because I was curious and two things came up 1) a fish and the second was something on Urban Dictionary, which can hardly be taken seriously anyway. So I am going to go with your explanation, HD, about sucking mud
They got away with blackface (inc. Hannibal pretending-- badly-- to be Chinese) and other racially-questionable things, so it wouldn't surprise me that they did it, if it was one of those things that was only subtly racist.
Children of Jamestown will be my next watch, so I can check out whether Murdock is called "Howlin' Mad" again there.
Let me know on CHILDREN OF JAMESTOWN. I know there is at least one more episode, maybe BLACK DAY AT BAD ROCK, but I can't think of it.
What's the one where he's painting something, and Face catches him signing "Howlin' Mad" on it? Is it maybe when they're repainting the cab in "Taxicab Wars"?
They could have kept it going for longer & not introduced the Frankie character. Everybody loves it just being the 4 guys. If the higher up people had thought more of the show & put more effort into it it could've gone on for years later. Dwight always says they wanted it to go on for 7 years & it could have.
They absolutely could've. No way were they out of ideas-- I'm sure I'm not the only fanfic writer who's come up with plenty. I don't know, maybe in the 80s they were out of ideas, though. (These days they'd have it easy-- they could just crowdsource and poll fans for ideas.)
I'm watching this one again....decided to maybe try to watch at least an episode a month, although we'll see how that goes. Anyway, perhaps this has been commented on, but when Amy is looking at Face's file, we see his birth certificate. It says his first name is "Templeton" and his middle name is "Arthur." Was "Arthur" AJ Bancroft's first name? If so, it does lend some credence to AJ actually being Face's dad. If there was this birth certificate with Face's name as "Templeton Arther" (and presumably "Peck" as the last name, although I didn't notice that), then
can't we assume this was Face's name given at birth, despite EG in MIND GAMES saying that Face had changed his name numerous times before settling on Templeton Peck? Or do we assume that Face managed to get a fake birth certificate into his military file?
I assume it was, yes. His high school football trophy has that name. The people at the orphanage know him by that name. I think that one episode was just a fluke and I ignore it.
I don't know why they had to use photos of the team in their military files that are stills from the episode. Couldn't they at least have taken photos of each one in a military uniform and made it look like real military ID photos?
Back then I think shows and movies were less concerned with authenticity and accuracy...
Why do you suppose they threw in that little scene where Amy asks Hannibal where he comes from and he gives her the story about being a rancher?
I always forget that part. I've written him as being from Dearborn (just like GP). Really for lack of a better idea (having forgotten this part).
Amy was underdeveloped, but I like the idea of her character. I don't like how she basically blackmailed Hannibal into staying with them - it made no sense and surely it would just have turned Hannibal against her? It would have been better if Hannibal had acknowledged that she had helped them and could be a useful person to know, or something like that.
Yeah, they all sort of get over that little bit pretty quickly and everybody is chummy. Seems to me they also would've been a bit more apprehensive about taking on an outsider (and a woman, let's be honest). As mentioned earlier, I guess they were feeling they had to rush it since it was the end of the episode. (Why is the "Triple A" nickname never mentioned again? I think it would've been cute {slightly dorky, but cute}. Everybody else has their nicknames. I mean, even B.A.'s mom calls him B.A., lol {when she's not calling him "Scooter"}.)