"The A-Team" Cowboy George (1986)

Director:

Tony Mordente

Writers:

Stephen J. Cannell (creator)
Stephen J. Cannell (writer)

TV Series:

"The A-Team" (1983)

Original Air Date:

11 February 1986 (Season 4, Episode 16)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime

Plot:

Face is quite proud to have negotiated as 'Peach Pear Artist management' a profitable deal, filling...

Plot Keywords:

Reference To Boris Karloff | Character Name In Title | Vietnam | Army | Soldiers Of Fortune

Cast

George Peppard	...	John 'Hannibal' Smith
Dirk Benedict	...	Templeton 'Faceman' Peck
Dwight Schultz	...	'Howling Mad' Murdock
Mr. T	...	B.A. Baracus
Boy George	...	Himself
L.Q. Jones	...	Chuck Danford
Taylor Lacher	...	Miller
Ben Slack	...	Herm
Jim Boeke
Johnny Lee
London Donfield	...	D.J.
Jon Moss	...	Culture Club
Mikey Craig	...	Culture Club (as Michael Craig)
Roy Hay	...	Culture Club

Quotes:

[Murdock, with help from Boy George, has disguised himself as a pregnant woman in order to gain entry to the jail-house]
Murdock: Herbert, open up, darling, its Cynthia!
Hannibal: Cynthia, go away!
Murdock: Herbert, oh Herbert, we have to talk, for the baby!
B.A. Baracus: Baby? what's that fool talking about?
Face: Let's open up and find out!

Movie Connections:

References "The Twilight Zone" (1959)

Soundtrack:

Do You Really Want to Hurt Me

This is the funniest episode of the A Team ever...

The A Team is all about cheese, but when a bar full of homophobic rednecks starts rocking out to Boy George, the show reaches a level of surreal ridiculousness attained by very few programs.

It's a perfect illustration of the strange and delicate balance that characterized the 80's between rigid adherence to gender roles and ultra macho men on one side, and the androgynous queer-chic MTV culture on the other.

I probably watched every A-Team episode two or three times as a kid, but this is the one that always sticks in my mind because it totally obliterated the fragile suspension of disbelief I had painstakingly held on to.

And yet, when Mr. T and Boy George, two males on the opposite sides of the masculine spectrum "bond" (figuratively) at the end, it's actually kind of a sweet moment. That Boy George is a sass machine when he kicks down that door. No one's gonna make him cry. You go George.