When I first started watching The A-Team, I only knew that it was a show about four guys and that Mr. T was one of them. Imagine my surprise when I started my first episode and a woman’s name appeared in the titles. I asked other people about this who were not big A-Team watchers and they all told me that they didn’t know there was ever a woman on the show. It turns out the show went through two women and one man to try for a fifth member in a four man band.
The A-Team was about a band of brothers. Four guys who had been through Vietnam together and spent years on the run from the military together. Their bond comes from what they have seen and what they have done. They know each other inside and out. Whether they like it or not, they’re family and they’re stuck together. Face said it best, “apart we’re just a bunch of social misfits, but when we’re together, that’s something very special.” Who can understand that bond? Who can know other than the four of them? No one can. But, a few tried.
The first fifth member of the team was reporter Amy Allen. Maybe it’s the Doctor Who/Torchwood fan in me, but this show could have went in a completely different direction, centering on her character. And, I would have watched it. I would have watched a show about this ordinary woman adapting to life in this crazy environment with these amazing men. In today’s television world, we would have seen deep into her psyche and she would have had a romance with Face, or possibly Murdock, or worse, a love triangle with both of them. But, this show was not about Amy Allen and this was not a deep or dramatic show. The A-Team was a live action cartoon. She was merely our POV character who introduced us to the team. She was not invited to join the team. She blackmailed her way onto the team. From the moment she joined, her importance got smaller and smaller, until she literally vanished from the show with barely a mention as to what happened to her.
In the first season, which she appeared in as a regular, she did all right for herself. She had a moment of realizing how dangerous working with the team could be (Children of Jamestown), she bonded with Murdock (One More Time), she handled cons pretty well (The Rabbit Who Ate Las Vegas), and she saved the team’s lives (The Beast From The Belly Of A Boeing). She was pretty fully integrated. Holiday in the Hills was the first time we got to see the guys completely without Amy and what do you know? Their interaction was more than enough entertainment to carry the show.
What Amy really lacked was a distinct personality. She was a bit dull and flat. The guys were larger than life. Hannibal was always on the jazz, was incredibly smug and despite being a fugitive, really loved his life. Face was a gorgeous charmer and he never missed an opportunity to complain about something. He was a quick thinker and a capable leader in Hannibal’s absence. BA more than lived up to his name. He had an attitude and he was gruff. But, he loved kids, he loved his van, he loved milk and he loved his mother. Plus, what would the show have been without his fear of flying and banter with Murdock? Finally, Murdock was crazy, or really good at acting crazy. A new persona/obsession every week. A fearless pilot and fiercely loyal. Next to all that, Amy just sort of faded.
Season 2 is when she really faded to the background. She still had her moments in season 2, but they were few and far between. She was basically a tag-along. The actress, Melinda Culea, was fired midseason and Amy simply disappeared. I consider the first season of The A-Team to be one of the best single seasons of a television series ever. For what it tried to be, a funny, goofy, but interesting show, season one completely succeeds. I would be lying if I said that Amy didn’t contribute to that. The relationship between the guys is the heart of the show, but in some ways, I regret the way the show could have been had Amy been given adequate development and screen time.
After a couple of episodes, we were introduced to the next fifth member of the team. Another reporter named Tawnia Baker. Essentially, and Amy replacement. Unlike Amy, Tawnia did not blackmail her way onto the team. She tried a much more dignified approach. She whined and begged until they let her come along. Tawnia is a pretty hated character who barely lasted into season three. Personally, I liked her just fine. She was whiny and a bit of an airhead, but at least that was a bit more of an in your face personality than Amy’s. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for subtlety, but The A-Team is not the place for it. If she had been more intelligent, she could have been a female Face. I thought she held her own just fine. Honestly, I’m a bit perplexed as to why she gets so much hate. Are there that many Amy loyalists who didn’t want her replaced?
Despite being a reporter, Tawnia Baker is no Amy Allen. While Amy lacked real personality, she had the potential to being leading lady material. She was sympathetic to clients. She was smart. She could have good time with the guys. She had a quiet determination about her. Tawnia’s personality would fit in more with an ensemble, if they had tweaked it a little bit. She also had a determined nature but was more aggressive about it than Amy was.
The real problem with Tawnia is that she didn’t bond with the guys the way that Amy did and this is most obvious in Curtain Call. Murdock is severely injured and the rest of them have to pull together to save him while trying to avoid MPs. The drive to save Murdock is palpable in Hannibal, Face, and BA. Tawnia, on the other hand, almost doesn’t seem to realize that Murdock could die. She has no sense of urgency in the episode.
Tawnia was out the door soon after that. She was not in the third season premiere and in the second episode two parter, she was married off and that was that. She had a lot less time than Amy did, but she did get a proper send off episode (The Bend in the River).
That is where we leave the women behind. No more reporters tagging along. The team stays at four through the rest of season three and all of season four. It works. They all have such a wonderful and familial way of interacting that even though the women had some great moments, I can’t help but wonder why the writers ever thought they were necessary. The writers clearly had no intention of going anywhere with either of them.
The third and final time the team had a fifth member, they tried a different approach. He was a special effects expert who also became a wanted man by helping Hannibal, BA, and Face escape the firing squad. His name was Frankie Santana. Frankie, like Tawnia, seems to get a lot of hate for being in season five. Season five had numerous problems, but in my opinion, Frankie wasn’t one of them, at least not a main one. He had more personality than Amy and Tawnia combined. The problem was, his personality seemed to be pieced together from the others. He was something of a ladies’ man, like Face. He was goofy like Murdock. He was great at explosives like BA.
Despite that, he could still be an entertaining guy. He didn’t want to be on the team. He was forced to stick with them. However, he was still loyal to them and clearly cared about them. See Point of No Return and Without Reservations for proof of that. He could hang out with any of them and seem at ease, particularly Face and Murdock. He did get in some great lines as well.
Frankie integrated well with the team. Perhaps too well. Leaving backstage drama out of this, Frankie got a lot of screen time in season 5. BA, on the other hand, was getting less. Frankie had a preexisting relationship with Hannibal, “Johnny” to him, and he had enough in common with Face and Murdock to hang out with them a lot. BA was frequently sidelined. His banter with Murdock was all but gone.
Though, I just said I would leave backstage drama out of this, I really think that deserves more blame than anything Frankie did. Perhaps, in earlier seasons Frankie would not have worked. But, for the fifth season that was so drastically different than the rest, he stood out as the brightest spot in all the changes.
Looking at the series as a whole, the fifth member was something of a revolving door and no attention really need be payed to them. But, Amy, Tawnia, and Frankie were not just copies of each other. Amy blackmailed for a spot on the team, Tawnia begged, and Frankie was forced. They all had their moments of triumph and they all had their moments when I wanted them gone. It can’t have been easy for the actors and my hat goes off to them for giving it a shot. There are a lot of what ifs regarding all three characters. Even at their most irrelevant, I’m glad they were there for the short time that they were.
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