SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 49 Min.
Televised on NBC on January 17, 1984, this Dennis Donnelly-directed episode has Col. Decker coordinate a scheme with the A-Team’s new client, Corporal Charlotte Brown, to capture them. In exchange, he will gladly nab her brother’s illicit gun-running killer: U.S. Army Sgt. Mason Harnett. With Decker in close pursuit, the A-Team must elude capture long enough to bring both Harnett and his new mercenary clients to justice.
Col. John “Hannibal” Smith: George Peppard
Sgt. B.A. Baracus: Mr. T
Captain H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock: Dwight Schultz
Lt. Templeton “Face” Peck: Dirk Benedict
Tawnia Baker: Marla Heasley
Capt. Crane: Carl Franklin
Col. Decker: Lance LeGault
Sgt. Mason Harnett: Monte Markham
Shaw: Sam Melville
Noche: Miguel Fernandes
Leplehr: Patrick Brady
Paul Brown: Fred McGrath
Opening Credits Voice-Over: John Ashley (uncredited)
REVIEW:
As implausibly easy as the A-Team makes it look escaping an U.S. Army base’s miles-wide compound, “Say It With Bullets” retains a watchable charm. Its best moment (adapting a gag from 1980’s Walter Matthau spy comedy Hopscotch) is a hilarious diversionary tactic deployed to humiliate Lance LeGault’s ‘Decker’ for the umpteenth time.
While dismantling a clichéd villain’s gun-running racket isn’t much of a plot, the regular cast compensates with their familiar buddy chemistry. A glitch, however, is Marla Heasley’s shaky contribution. Despite her TV-friendly charisma, her ‘Tawnia Baker’ doesn’t gel with the team nearly as well as Melinda Culea’s ‘Amy Allen’ did.
Still, Dwight Schultz’s ‘Murdock’ and his amusing Golden Age of Television gimmick for this mission makes a good distraction from Heasley’s limited acting. The same applies to TV veteran Monte Markham, whose menacing ‘Harnett’ furthers helps disguise the same problem in his own scenes with Heasley.
If anything, this episode’s flippant humor does wonders side-stepping this undemanding storyline’s shortcomings. The mildly annoyed team’s collective shrug in the villain’s office upon being surrounded outside by Army forces, for instance, is vintage A-Team humor. Accordingly, this fun TV adventure is more entertaining than it really deserves to be.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 7 Stars
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