The A-Team (TV Series) The Battle of Bel Air (1984) User Reviews

The Battle of Bel Air

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 27 January 2021]

Intermode Security is a private security contractor who has a sideline in terrorism. They plan to kill a middle eastern sheikh.

Investigative journalist Tawnia Baker discovers the plan and goes to find The A Team. She also warns them that Colonel Decker plans to intercept The A Team.

Goons from Intermode Security are hot on her heels and they give Face an early bath.

This episode comes across as a soft relaunch for the show. Even the theme music sounds modified.

Tawnia is just a direct replacement for Amy. There is not much depth to the character apart from being pretty and a spunky journalist. You can see why Melinda Culea departed the show.

There is a nice scene when Face is thrown off a the 10th floor of a hotel. He lands in the swimming pool. It is scene lifted from a James Bond movie.

Kurtwood Smith gives the episode a bit of class as the villain.

Save The Sheik !

[laurentgomez · 8/10 · 8 April 2022]

S2E15 "The Battle Of Bel Air" plays like a little movie, and it is an original departure from the "formula".

The different plot, the pacing, the introduction of a new female character, the locations filming (the high rise buildings downtown Los Angeles/the shot inside the office of the villain with the cruise ship anchored in the harbor in the background give much more credibility and dimension than cheap studio interiors) and the grandiose cinema scale of the Helicopter chase sequence filmed for real without budget miniatures are a credit to the demanding professionals who filmed that episode, still perfectly watchable today.

Aired on NBC January 10, 1984.

In which Kurtwood Smith is a welcome presence

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 13 December 2017]

THE BATLTE OF BEL AIR is a fun and high-spirited A-TEAM episode that feels like a fresh start for the show. It makes the debut appearance of Marla Heasley as the token female joining the team, replacing the previous token female. She's an investigative reporter who joins a nefarious security firm and decides to help our guys evade the relentless Colonel Decker. The plot involves political corruption and has a great bad guy turn from the reliably nasty Kurtwood Smith, just a few years away from his iconic role as Clarence Boddiker in ROBOCOP.

Intriguing

[bevo-13678 · 10/10 · 30 March 2020]

Espionage, high finance and other dirty tricks. Will the good guys win?

Introducing Tawnia Baker

[safenoe · 8/10 · 14 April 2024]

After the controversial departure of Melinda Culea as Amy Allen, we meet her replacement Tawnia Baker, played by Marla Heasley, and it's a shame the character of Marla wasn't allowed to grow, because it appeared George Peppard, who played Hannibal, wasn't at all happy (or chuffed as the English say) about the presence of such a character. I think the forced departure of Culea was a bad move, and I think it kind of was the start of the end of The A-Team, as prescient as that sounded. Anyway, I became an instant fan of The A-Team when it debuted in 1982 and over 40 years on, I'm still a fan init.