Pride!
My favorite television show when I was in first grade was “The A-Team.” The show is now available on Netflix on Demand and I’ve been rewatching it. My girlfriend is very insistent that the show is a gay allegory and she can’t believe I didn’t see that then. Firstly, I was seven years old and secondly, “The A-Team” is NOT a gay allegory. Based on the few episodes I’ve rewatched, here are some examples of why it’s not:
1. The head of the A-Team is played by George Peppard. Peppard famously played Paul Varjack, Holly Golightly’s heterosexual love interest in “Breakfast at Tiffanys.”
2. Prior to playing ladies-man Templeton “Faceman” Peck on “The A-Team” actor Dirk Benedict played ladies-man Starbuck on the original “Battlestar Galactica.” That’s right, he’s so straight, he played two ladies-men. Unrelated, the part of Starbuck in the “Battlestar Galactica” remake was played by actress Katee Sackhoff.
3. In the episode where the A-Team goes to Ecuador and dressed like nuns, well, they went there to save Faceman’s college girlfriend, who is now a celibate nun and that could happen to anyone.
4. B.A. Baracus played by Mr. T where’s a lot of jewelry. Many men where a lot of jewelry.
5. “Howling Mad” Murdoch was kicked out of military because he is crazy. That is one of several reasons people get kicked out of the military, but he only got kicked out for being crazy.
6. In the episode where Boy George joins the A-Team, he performs the song, “God Thank You Woman” which is a song about how much Boy George is grateful towards women.
7. The A-Team sometime where scarves around their necks, but that was just the style.
8. The reason Hannibal spends at least one scene an episode putting on makeup is just because he is also an actor and many straight men are actors.
9. The character Amy Allen was a girl in the A-Team for an entire season and a half of the seven seasons the show aired. They brought her on their missions and they even talked to her sometime.
10. In Season 2, episode 22 entitles “Semi-Friendly Persuasion” deals with a group of men living in a secret community who are always hassled because bad guys don’t agree with the lifestyle they lead in their all-male community. Well somewhere in that episode, I think Faceman kisses a girl or something.
