Guest
On 23rd January 1983 on NBC, my favourite television series, 'The A-Team' began (It would reach the UK on 22nd July 1983). For the past few months I've steadily been working on a season-by-season 'behind the scenes' retrospective web series; potentially later a book. Here is a *very ropey* trailer I knocked up for it's new YouTube channel (which encompasses all retro television of the era) over the weekend. (Channel is still a work in progress and currently empty; be sure to subscribe for updates). ---Facts about the Pilot The two-hour Pilot of 'The A-Team' was broadcast on Sunday 23rd January 1983 on NBC. It had initially been planned to be shown on Tuesday 25th January, but NBC had high hopes for the series and decided to heighten it's exposure by upping it their prominent “Sunday Night at the Movies“ slot, just as they had with the Pilot for 'Knight Rider' five months previously. The budget for the Pilot was $, which equates to roughly £ in 2023. Of the two week shot, the first five days were filmed in Los Angeles, before the crew relocated to Mexico to film the rest. The two week filming wrapped up on Friday 26th November 1982. “Fun“ fact: The date that Face changes B.A.'s watch to when they arrive in Mexico, Fri 26, tallies with the date the shot was filmed by the second unit. NBC put heavy promotion into the new series, with promos featuring Mr. T being filmed on 2-3 January 1983, with some of the familiar, earliest cast publicity shots having been taken over the previous few days in late December. By this time, Dirk Benedict had been recast as Face following Tim Dunigan being deemed “too young, and too tall“ following the Pilot. The role had been written with Benedict in mind; the audition piece for Face was the scene in which he scams the Lear Jet at the airport (fact: the jet previously had belonged to Elvis Presley), during auditions he was reunited with Melody Anderson, who was playing sales lady Avon in the Pilot, after the pair had appeared together previously in an episode of 'Battlestar: Galactica'. Anderson was surprised come shooting to find it wasn't Benedict in the role. The series had entered quick production as a mid-season replacement, with the commission for more episodes following the Pilot coming unusually fast. Initially, six further episodes had been ordered; this would later become a full-half season. It is, or was, standard practice to have at least three episodes ready to air for such a show at that time, and as such, the first three shot - 'Pros and Cons', 'The Rabbit Who Ate Las Vegas' and 'Children of Jamestown' - had to be written and shot in an unusually tight turnaround. (However, 'Rabbit', the second of these, would end up being tucked further into the season, NBC feeling it was not one of the stronger episodes, although it's exact planned airing position shifted several times before being settled, and which is reflected in some older episode guides which give a slightly different position for it). Series creator Stephen J. Cannell - renowned for his ability to produce quality, funny scrips on a tight deadline - write two of these episodes, 'Pros and Cons' and 'Children of Jamestown', whilst Frank Lupo - who possessed similar talents - wrote 'The Rabbit Who Ate Las Vegas' and 'Children of Jamestown'. Cannell Productions had a small writing staff of just four contracted writers at this time - regular 'Rockford Files' writer and Cannell co-hort Juanita Bartlett have exited prior to the series. Remaining Cannell Productions writers Patrick Hasburgh and Babs Greyhosky took the two remaining episodes, 'Black Day at Bad Rock' and 'Holiday in the Hills' respectively. When the promos were shot in early January, filming of 'Pros and Cons' had been completed and 'The Rabbit...' was mid-production. Although completed in early 1983, it carried an on-screen 1982 copyright as do the Pilot and 'Pros and Cons'. The filming of these promos has an “interesting“ story concerning George Peppard... which I'll save for a later chapter. First chapter of the web series is currently in the works (I had originally planned to do a 20 minute overview video for a YouTube “11 Best Episodes“ channel (hence the channel name... and I'll still do those eventually), eleven due to the fact I can never just pick ten. But the project rather grew, as I dug up more facts and contacted various people involved with production for any insights they could off me. Stay tuned for the first full chapter...
