A-Team Episode 1×09

“Holiday in the Hills”

• Location: An Airplane, apparently. And also Appalachian Woods, South Carolina
• Tank: No, but they built an Ultralight under montage
• Disguises: ad-hoc Bus Driver
• Scam: A 10 HP motor (not 5, not 7.5, 10. Face is good)
• Flight: Yes. Lots of yes. Right up until the crash anyway
• Fixation: Nope
• Flips: 2
• Fee: NA
• Quote: “Why does he always fall on the horn?” – Face, referring to B.A.’s tendencies when receiving his pre-flight knock-out dose.
• Who is that?? Yeah I got nothin’

You can always tell when the writers are having trouble coming up with stuff or when they have more than they know what to do with. Take Children of Jamestown. That one opened with us diving right into the action, with so little time to spare that Hannibal gave us a narration to catch the audience up on things. Then take this episode, where the first minute and 15 seconds is spent watching an airplane fly over stuff.

Not only that, but we get what I’d say is our first bona fide B-plot with Amy screening the team from a nosey reporter-turned-MP-goon. The plots do eventually come together, but even so, the writing wasn’t all there with this one. The story opens with the team scattering our bad guys who are about to burn someone at the stake. We’re told that he works for the state and has something to do with a highway being built. I’d give more details, but there really weren’t anymore. I was hoping for some resolution, like maybe the bad guys coming around, and the state agreeing to move the highway or compensate them or whatever. But nope, that’s the last we hear about motives from either side.

The remainder of the plot is scrounging materials to build a plane to escape with the guy they rescued while dodging rednecks. Flight of the Phoenix is referenced here, and that’s a movie I’ve seen, though some time ago. Same idea, except more bullets in this version.

Special Feature: Guns of the A-Team!

Speaking of bullets, I’m not sure if or when we’ll next see Hannibal’s “Baby” again, but now’s as good a time as any to take a quick look at the Guns of the A-Team:

• We’ve already seen lots of the M-16, a .22 caliber assault rifle with a 20-round magazine. This was a standard issue weapon during the Vietnam war.
• “Baby” is an M-60 Machine Gun, which fires belt-fed .30 caliber rounds. This is quite a gun, but we don’t see it often.
• We got a good look at Hannibal’s personal sidearm, a Smith & Wesson 9mm (Model 39 I believe) in “1×06 Black Day at Bad Rock.“
• Face often carries a Revolver of a make I can’t identify (I’m not a gun guy, maybe someone else can?). A gentleman’s weapon for a gentleman, naturally.
• And finally, if we haven’t seen them yet, we’ll be seeing lots more of the Ruger Mini-14, a weapon functionally similar to the M-16 but with a bit more personality. After the first season, this was to become the “trademark” weapon of our heroes.

Special thanks to this guy for getting me started on this little tangent. Remember kids, just like 80’s Television, my blog is not just fun, it’s educational–now be cool and stay in school!