The music, the fashion, the space hoppers, betamax tapes, yuppies. There’s a lot about the 80’s we’d all prefer to forget. But there are some things from that era that are embedded deep with in our subconscious. So deep, that not even the most skilled of psychiatrists can help rid you of the memories. I am referring, of coarse, to 80’s TV. They don’t make television programmes like they used to. There’s probably a reason for that. It was strange, the mindless rubbish we used to watch. If you think of the A-Team or Knight Rider logically, they made no sense. But, we loved them then and I don’t know about you, but I still watch the repeats whenever they’re on. They are my childhood! And so, I come to the point of my writing this. It’s time these shows were remembered. And not just in some drunken conversation in the pub late one night. A crusade must be started. A crusade to return Saturday afternoons to their former glory! We’ll petition the government. We’ll march on the TV stations. Leave little post-its on our workmates desks. WE WILL FIGHT AND WE WILL WIN!!! Or I could just write some articles about each show for this website. Whatever, I’m easy.

“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 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.”

And so it began. Upon its release in 1983, it was called the most violent show on television, yet in it’s entire 5 seasons incorporating 98 episodes, only one person was ever shot. It was instantly a cult phenomenon. It’s part of everybody’s childhood. If you mention the A-Team to anyone, their minds fill with memories of BA screaming “I ain’t getting’ on no plane!”, the team being locked inside a fully equipped tool shed and building a tank somehow, and of the unrelenting attempts by the military to arrest our heroes.

The team comprised of Lt. Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith, a cigar smoking wannabe actor who leads the motley crew played by George Peppard, Templeton “Faceman” Peck, the womanising con-man played by Dirk Benedict, HM “Howling Mad” Murdock, the mentally unbalanced pilot played by Dwight Schultz, and Bosco "Bad Attitude" Baracas, played by Mr. T, the only man in history who can wear as much jewellery as he likes and not be called “girly”, (because he’ll kill you!).

The show had everything that was needed for a Saturday afternoon. Action, adventure, comedy, drama and even the odd love interest. Special guests made appearances from time to time (although it’s probably best to forget the Boy George fiasco!), and it was always entertaining to see the same actor playing bad guys in different episodes. And best of all, the show never took itself too seriously. They new it was just for fun. Its target audience was always young, and as a result it was harmless fun. No one ever died, and if they got hurt, they made a miraculous recovery by the end of the episode. The good guys always won and the bad guys always lost.

The show ran for four glorious years. It’s popularity only ever faltered at the end of the fourth series. The producers were desperate to rebuild the show to its former glory, and in the fifth series, changed the format. The team were now doing missions for a CIA agent who promised to clear there names and had a new character called Frankie Santana, a character that most people hoped would die a painful, painful death. But he didn’t. He just kept coming back in each episode. Needless to say the show was cancelled. The team went their separate ways and left nothing but endless repeats on Saturday afternoons.

It’s a wonder how it was ever popular. The plots, (and I use that term loosely), were remarkably similar, by which I mean they merely changed place and character names. The locations were all the same as well, whether they were thwarting bandits in South America, or thwarting diamond thieves in Africa, or thwarting the mafia in Las Vegas, it all looked like it was shot in the outskirts of some dirt water town in Middle America. When you get down to the nitty gritty, it was rubbish. So, why is it my favourite show, then? I’ve never known. I just love it. There’s no surprise ending or plot twists, no deviation from the standard plot format at all. In fact, I’ve seen them all so many times, I know most of them of by heart. I suppose I was just too young to know better, and as a result, sat in front of the TV, loving it.

And so, I leave you with the immortal words of Hannibal… “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti,” er, I mean “ I love it when a plan comes together!”