Another TV show is going Hollywood.  What show this time you ask?  Well, it's
none other than the '80s hit show The A-Team.  A script is currently being
written up and the movie is suppose to be out by 1998.  What is pissing me
and others from my A-Team newsletter off the most is the fact that the
original characters, with the except of George Peppard (John "Hannibal"
Smith) since he sadly passed away a few years back, will not be the stars
of the movie!  They're gonna try to replace Dwight Schultz who played the
insane man of Howlin' Mad Murdock and did a super job of it.  I don't think
that anyone can act as crazy as him to fill his shoes.  Also being replaced
will be Dirk Benedict (Tempelton "Faceman" Peck).  This is another problem
too since in the original series pilot movie a different guy played Faceman
and did just a horrible job of it.  And last, but not least, one my favorites
, Mr. T, the man with all the gold around his neck and is always telling 
Murdock to "Shut up foo'!" will be replaced.  Now who the hell can replace
him?!?!  No one can drive the van like him.  But whoever does play him 
had better cut his hair like Mr. T's or I'll pity that foo'! :)  Though
Steve J. Cannell said that all three will make little cameo appearances,
that's just not good enough for us, but I guess that they're just going
to modernize it more.  He said that the movie will take on a more serious
look, which is not what us fans want to see either.  What made the show 
so good was the fact that it combined action with comedy, not the fact
that it was a serious show.  The budget for the movie is suppose to be
pretty big too.  Oh well...I guess that they're just gonna go with the
flow of more modernized versions of TV shows turned movies, like Mission:
Impossible.  We'll just have to wait and see.

14 responses total.

Despite the extreme lack of reality, I did like the show.  I wonder what
they'd do with a movie version, though.

I predict that they'll run with the "extreme lack of reality."
(Never watched the show, so I can't comment on the specifics of
#0.)

#1 - I'm not quite sure, but I think that it's suppose to be like The A-Team
vs. some new threat to the U.S. or something like that.  I got a message
about it but I already deleted it.  Cannell is *NOT* writing up the script,
which is the reason on why it's going to be more serious.  He wanted to 
make it more reality than it's "comic strip" form he said, so that's why
someone else is inking up the script.  Also, it may be possible that the
people in The A-Team movie will not exactly be replacing the original
characters, but in fact be more like a new A-Team, possibly led by one
of the old characters.

the really annoying thing about the TV series was that nobody got hurt!  Sure,
they'd shoot down a bad-guy helicopter, but it would sink low enough to the
ground for the bad guys to jump out and stumble away before the thing
exploded.  *Serious* unreality.

Yeah, but it was to keep the violence down I guess.  Like once every season
someone would get shot.  The only other people who got hurt were those
who tried to beat up Mr. T :)  But yeah, cars would flip over and be 
totalled or once there was a helicopter that crashed into the side of a
mountain and blew up in mid air, but of course when the car or copter
landed, the bad guys would just walk right on outta the wreckage like nothing
happened.  But remember, that was the '80s.  Shows like weren't as violent
back then as they are now.  Oh...the guy who is writing up the script is
the guy who wrote Underseige 2.  Whether this is good or not I don't know
because I've never seen the movie.

I'd be lot more worried about people who watched "A-Team" than people who
watched "Natural Born Killers".  "A-Team" didn't have any consequences for
violent actions, making it worse than those evil "Mighty Morphin Power
Rangers".

        Perhaps they will find a very 90's *popular culture* actor
to do the Mr. T part.  Shaqeille O'Neil??, Coolio??.  There are
many to wonder about.

Shaq..nah..too tall, needs hair like Mr. T..needs to wear all that gold around
his neck too.  God..could he even fit in the van?!

I don't think that Shaq could fit in the van! :)

Well the comparison to Mission: Impossible the TV series and Mission:
Impossible the movie is a good one.  I remember seeing the movie and noting
that it was a very good idea the writer decided to remove any references to
the show.  For one thing, TV and movies are two _totally_ different genres.
The pace is different (TV plots ebb and fade just right for commercials), the
standards and expectations are different, etc.  This A-Team movie will be too
bound down and look like a 'made-for-TV' movie if the story is too close to
the original.

I doubt Dirk Benedict would have accepted the role again.  He went to the
college I went to for a little while-- Whitman in Walla Walla, WA.  He's a
freekin' vegan and he won't let his kids watch TV because of the violence.
I'll bet he's given up on the idea of doing 'The A-Team' now.  I could be
wrong-- I don't know what his current project is-- but..

I'm also unsure if any of the other existing actors would be able to make the
jump to the movies.  Anyone remember Mr. T in "D.C. Cab?"  Was it any good?
I also doubt any of them have any clout beyond the show; even Mr. T is fast
becoming a relic of the 80's.  And Dwayne Schultz never had anything good
beyond the show. 

I dunno.  Maybe it would have been possible to script a movie more like the
show, but then it would be more like TV.  Let's see what happens.

Dirk Benedict had cancer, shortly after the A-Team was cancelled, and
is lucky to have survived. No doubt, that affected his attitudes toward
life and family.

Given that he credits his change of diet for his unexpected remission,
I doubt that calling him a "freekin' vegan" is entirely fair.

No, it's not very fair-- macrobiotic diet did help him.  But he looks so very
thin now.

Hey, did the movie get made?

Yeah-- I'm wondering, too.  Maybe they want to do a good job.
I'm still wondering how they'll make a glorified stunt show that was a TV
series into a workable movie..

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