Where Are They Now?
[20/1/2000]

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For a "mindless" TV show, it was awfully clever. For an "excessively violent" show, it was bloodless. And for a show that critics often despised, it was exceptionally popular.

Those were some ironies of The A-Team (1983–87), the tongue-in-cheek action series about a squad of oddball mercenaries. Looking back, co-star Dwight Schultz lovingly describes it as "a living cartoon."

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"TV critics didn’t like it because it wasn’t ‘quality programming,’" Schultz says. "And it was hated by certain organizations that considered it too violent--although it was harmless violence where no one ever really got hurt. But viewers loved it--and it’s because they got it."

Adds Dirk Benedict: "The reason the show worked wasn’t car crashes or explosions. It was the relationship between Hannibal [George Peppard] and Murdock [Schultz] and B.A. [Mr. T] and Faceman [Benedict]. These [were] four really weird characters with this chemistry that was eccentric and wild and combustible."

That’s why it’s debatable whether a feature film remake, discussed for years, would actually work. The original succeeded because it was just that--brashly original.

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Peppard died in May ’94. But the other original cast members, including Melinda Culea (who played Amy, a newspaper reporter), are well and working.

Schultz, 53, still loves to perform onstage. But he’s better known as Lt. Barclay, a 10-year recurring TV role in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. Married since ’83, has one daughter..

Benedict, 55, became a published author in ’91, chronicling his bout with prostate cancer. When not working, he leads a secluded life with his two sons in Montana. Is making his directing debut with Cahoots, based on his own screenplay. Divorced in ’95.

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Mr. T, 48, is also a cancer survivor (diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma in ’95). Last year, he was seeking a publisher for Cancer Saved My Life. Single, father of three.

Culea, 45, played a TV mom in Brotherly Love (1995–97), her most recent series. Married since ’96.