"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale" of a time when television shows began with awesome TV Theme Songs. "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name" and sometimes you want to go back to when TV Theme songs were special. "Here's a story... of a lovely" time when TV Theme Songs served to identify, distinguish and set the stage for the television program that followed. "You take the good, take the bad, take them both and there you have" what unfortunately has become a lost artform. "Believe it or not", sadly it seems no effort or pride is taken in the TV Theme Song ever since Seinfeld proved a short synth-bass riff could be used instead. “Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!” This regular feature may not "make all our dreams come true", but it will remember some of the best TV Theme Songs from years past (with a focus on the '80s decade). "Come aboard, we're expecting you."
This time we will cover the theme song for The A-Team.
"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 from 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."
The A-Team debuted in January of 1983 and ran for five seasons and 98 episodes on NBC. I remember this as must-watch television on Tuesday nights (where it ran for its first four seasons). The series was created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo. Cannell's other creations include The Rockford Files, The Greatest American Hero, Hardcastle and McCormick, Hunter, Riptide and 21 Jump Street among several others many of which he collaborated with Lupo. The show starred George Peppard, Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz and Mr. T, but it was Mr. T as "B.A. Baracus" that really gained the most attention. The van they drove ranks highly on my list of Top Cars/Trucks from '80s Movies and Television.
The original main theme composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter. It is one of the most recognizable instrumental theme songs of the '80s and also one of my favorites. It is one of those songs that gives me goosebumps and takes me back to that time in an instant each time I hear it. Mike Post is credited with many great television theme songs including co-writing one of my very favorites, The Greatest American Hero, with Stephen Geyer. He also created The Rockford Files, The White Shadow, Magnum, P.I., Hill Street Blues, Hunter, L.A. Law, Doogie Howser, M.D. and Quantum Leap among many others. Carpenter started working earlier with composer Earle Hagen writing music for television on shows like Bewitched, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and The Andy Griffith Show in the '60s before partnering with Post on many of the songs listed above. The narration at the beginning of the theme song really helps set it apart from other instrumental theme songs. The spoken part is performed by former actor John Ashley who had been hired as a producer by Cannell for the show. Here are the opening credits for The A-Team featuring the theme song performed by Mike Post...
Doesn't that get you hyped up watching that? As I mentioned, The A-Team was one of my favorite shows for at least the first few seasons and this theme song definitely brings back nostalgia each time I hear it. The show sure had the right combination of characters, action and fun for a kid my age at the time. As Hannibal would say every episode, "I love it when a plan comes together."
Hope you enjoyed tuning in for another "episode" of TV Theme Songs!