About this blog

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire ... The A-Team.

This was the introduction to one of the great TV series of the eighties. The purpose of this blog is to build up the definitive episode guide to the show across its five seasons which ran from 1983 to 1987. So this isn't too much of a burden, I'm intending to watch a couple of episodes a week and given that there were around 100 episodes made during its run, this will turn into a year-long project!

Friday, 2 July 2010

West Coast Turnaround s1ep9



co-starring: Stuart Whitman as Chuck Easterland, Michael Alldredge as Whitaker, Devon Ericson as Ellen Penhall, Robert Sampson as Joe Penhall, Tom McFadden as Sheriff Murphy, Tim Rossovich as Milt, Jim Boeke as Bill Mather
Written by Stephen J Cannell, Patrick Hasburgh (story by Babs Greyhosky)
Directed by Guy Magar

The A-Team help a farmer who is being stopped from taking his melons to market.

Another solid and enjoyable episode, notable for being the first of many in which the team help someone being forced out by the local bad guy who is after their business/land. This is very much an action-driven episode with an articulated lorry rolling on its side early on and a couple of exciting chase sequences towards the end. There are a number of memorable scenes including Hannibal's early disguise as a medical orderly (one of the few where he isn’t immediately recognisable) and Murdock writing his name on the side of a faked cop car (“I gotta paint it, I'm gonna sign it!”).

An aggrieved Amy gets to see her shiny new car turned into an armor-plated chase vehicle but the episode is perhaps best known for the “appearance” of Murdock's invisible dog Billy, a fan favourite and a source of many great gags. There’s a dramatic final set-piece in which watermelons are used as bombs (ridiculous I know but at least they aren’t cabbages!) and there’s an overall feeling of a series which, after “Holiday in the Hills” and this episode, has really found its niche. 9/10
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1 comment:

  1. Quartermaster2229 January 2011 at 20:34

    This is the lowest-rated Season One episode by fans on imdb. I always thought of it as my least favorite Season One entry, but when reviewing it recently, I was amazed at how funny this episode is! When the A-Team was first becoming popular in 1983 and everyone was talking about the wonderful humor on the show, they usually cited examples from this episode.

    As with a few other early episodes, the A-Team's plan is likened to a movie -- in this case, it's the "classic Western." (However, the actual plan involving the two trucks seems lifted straight from "The Road Warrior," which was a pretty recent movie when this episode aired.)

    My favorite line:

    Ellen: "You'll save the farm for us...I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank you."
    Face: "You don't?"

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