Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 80

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figures of authority. Murdoch and B.A. provide the team with
working-class muscle: the former can fly anything from a cropduster
to a 747; the latter is a "mechanical genius” who, as Tartikoff
promised, does indeed get to drive a ubiquitous black-with-red-stripe
van. In several episodes the group is accompanied by one of two
female journalists who prove themselves as adept at handling
difficult scrap>es as the A-Team.
As is appropriate for a series that tweaks the action genre, these
characters suffer from an overabundance of quirks and defects.
Hannibal works off and on as a B-movie swamp monster, spending
considerable time arguing with directors about his monsters’
motivations. Face is a suitably named con-artist who seems literally
incapable of distinguishing between truth and fiction, a la Ted Baxter
on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Murdoch is judged by the medical
profession to be clinically insane—in the pilot episode, we see him
shaving his own head in preparation for electro-shock therapy—and
he talks like a refugee from the Fireside Theater, spouting gibberish
and commenting self-referentially on the story. In a sense, B.A. is the
only team member who comes close to being "normal," but he has a
pathological fear of flying, enjoys a special emotional connection
with indigent children, and is (strangely enough) a notary public.^
Although this fact has been overlooked by the critics, the group's
proletarians, Murdoch and B.A., exude a counter-cultural aura; the
former enjoys a loving relationship with nature, and the latter wears
feathered earrings and pounds of gold jewelry. Hannibal clearly
tolerates all manner of eccentricity in those around him—his only real
hang-up is authoritarianism ("if you don't stand up against tyranny,
it will beat you every time"), which, significantly, the team runs into
in one guise or another with alarming frequency. As the group's social
climber. Face comes off as utterly fatuous, and the others do not quite
trust him. The fact that Face was raised as an orphan helps explain
his inability to form durable bonds with others, but it does not justify
his narcissistic tendencies. If the male adolescents targeted by the
producers of "The A-Team" identify with any of the characters, it
would most probably be with Murdoch or B.A.—certainly not with
"Face-Man," as Templeton is ironically labeled. Face is a populist
foil whose innate insincerity turns yuppie-bashing into a real
pleasure.®