The A-Team's George Peppard Once Made A Passive Aggressive Speech Behind The Scenes
During its first three seasons on NBC, Stephen J. Cannell's "The A-Team" was one of the most popular shows on television. Critics dismissed it as mindless trash, but its 1983 premiere perfectly captured the gung-ho Reagan-era zeitgeist. The idea of a crack commando unit on the run from a government that did them dirty in the Vietnam War played to the country's bitterness over the mistreatment of veterans. Many Americans wanted to see the American military kick butt again, and what better way to scratch that itch than to build a series around a group of wrongly disgraced heroes?
The challenge for Cannell was satisfying his audience's bloodlust while observing the network's mandate that, due to its family-friendly 8 PM timeslot, the good guys couldn't kill anybody. Could they fire off loads of cool-looking firearms or turn a bamboo into a bazooka? Absolutely! They just had to make sure their bullets and exploding projectiles missed their targets, yet somehow got close enough to scare the villains into surrendering.
Cannell pulled this off thanks in part to having one of the best television stunt departments — an A-team you might say — at his disposal. They could sell a non-fatal helicopter crash as expertly as a top-notch pro wrestler sells a bump. It was silly as hell, but, for a time, enthralling fun.
And then there was the cast. George Peppard, Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz and Mr. T were perfect opposites. They couldn't look or act more different from each other, but viewers loved them together. It was a true ensemble effort.
Apparently, no one ever apprised Peppard of this fact.
Wooing Audrey Hepburn one day and barking at Mr. T the next
George Peppard was a Method-trained actor who, at the outset of his career, viewed stardom with tremendous skepticism. He knew he was good (Lee Strasberg didn't personally train chumps), but he was savvy enough to realize the only thing he could control was his performance.
Peppard's philosophy changed when he became a full-blown star as Audrey Hepburn's blue-eyed suitor Paul Varjak in "Breakfast at Tiffany's." The film was a hit, and Peppard, with his looks and genuine acting talent, appeared destined for stardom. It was at this time that Peppard's sense of control began to extend to the productions themselves. He clashed with studio bosses and demanded creative input. He did so because he cared about the quality of the films, but his taste was questionable. "The Carpetbaggers" was a huge success in 1964, but critics shredded it. His subsequent movies didn't fare much better.
When moviegoers who'd fallen hard for him as Paul Varjak stopped showing up, the films got worse and Peppard crawled into a bottle. He battled alcoholism, but managed to stay on the industry's radar by becoming a television star. He got sober in the late 1970s, but he couldn't kick his habit of fighting with producers. He blew the opportunity of a massive comeback when his combativeness cost him the plum role of Blake Carrington on ABC's long-running nighttime soap "Dynasty."
By 1982, a debt-ridden, thrice-divorced Peppard was ready to say yes to just about anything. "The A-Team" was a role at the right time. He seized it, and went straight back to pissing off his colleagues.
The flickering star of his own tragic show
"The A-Team" might've been a dude-driven operation, but they needed the assistance of plucky newspaper reporter Amy Allen (Melinda Culea) to elude the authorities. Depending on who's telling the story, Culea either ticked off the producers by asking for a more prominent role in the A-Team's adventures, or Peppard didn't want a female character distracting the audience from the guys' exploits. In any event, Culea was fired during the second season and replaced by Marla Heasley, whose reporter character Tawnia Baker served an identical purpose in the show's narrative.
Heasley was fired early in the third season, but before she departed she got a front-row seat to Peppard's ego-driven insecurities. In an interview with vlogger Jim Conlan, Heasley remembered a wrap party incident where Peppard, whom she says supplied the cast and crew with beer to celebrate, stepped atop a crate and delivered a toast. According to Heasley:
"[Peppard] made the toast not with a beer. He wasn't drinking. He was not allowed to drink. I think it was in his contract that he was not allowed to drink while he was on the show. He made a toast to thank everyone for the season, but it started out with, 'Being the star of this show ...' it was kind of ... no one said anything, but inside I was laughing."
Peppard was the lead of the ensemble (and the highest-paid actor on the show), but if you asked a fan of "The A-Team" why they watched the show, they were just as likely to say Mr. T as Peppard. But the young man who trained with Lee Strasberg likely never envisioned himself toasting the cast and crew of a critically-derided television show. And I wouldn't be surprised if this broke his heart.