MovieChat Forums > The A-Team (1983) Discussion > Amy Allen

Amy Allen

posted 7 years ago by [deleted]
7 replies | jump to latest

From a TV point of view, I understand why a female character was needed in the cast. However, from a story point of view, I'll never understand why the A-Team wanted her to tag along. She's nowhere near their level and would only slow them down. On top of that, it would be hard to trust her. The only reason I could see her being allowed to join them is if she were involved in a relationship with one of the four guys. And even then, the other three wouldn't trust her.

I think the best way to add a female character to the show would have been for her to be someone working for the Army, trying to track them down. She could also have had a love thing going with Face and a real dilemma about whether or not to put the A-Team away. She could be sympathetic, yet also one of the bad guys.

[–] Darren (1133) 2 years ago

George Peppard evidently thought exactly the same thing, and part of the reason she eventually left the show is that he eventually persuaded the producers that it didn't make sense for her to be tagging along all the time, and the dynamic of the show worked better without a female team member anyway.

While I can see the point... Remember, this is the same show where they are having to bust one of their comrades out of the Napoleon factory, and roofie one of the others to get him on a plane every single episode. And it's a show where they fire off about a thousand rounds of ammunition per episode during every showdown with the bad guys, and somehow no one ever get killed. Realism wasn't exactly the show's strong suit. A think a lady reporter tagging along after the team was the least of the show's body blows against suspension of disbelief.

And if I were Melinda Culea, I'd have been incandescent with rage at Peppard over this. After all, she landed what one in a thousand actresses in Hollywood ever manages to get: a starring role in a prime time TV series. And there was Peppard, always trying to get the producers to remove her from it.

[–] hurricane (1908) 6 months ago

Yeah, Peppard was an ass about it. But apparently, he was an ass about most things. He didn't like Mr. T much either, as BA was more popular on the show, and Mr. T became a star. Wasn't the A-Team seen as Peppard's last chance, because he'd been known to be difficult to work with on other projects, so nobody else was giving him a chance?

As you say though, Amy Allen's presence wasn't the most ridiculous thing about the show, and I think having somebody "on the outside" to help them worked, especially in a journalistic way. I actually quite liked Melinda Culea's performance in this, and found the character to be likeable enough, that it didn't really bother me that she was there.

Having said that, the episodes she wasn't in weren't hindered at all. I didn't miss her when she wasn't around. When Culea left the show, they tried to replace her with Tawnia Baker, and that felt more awkward. Whereas Amy has been in the pilot episode, Tawnia just felt like it was more obvious that she was a token character. Culea left, and the A-Team just happen to find somebody else they think was useful soon after? Bit of a coincidence. And she had less chemistry with the four because of it.

[–] Darren (1133) 6 months ago

I read an article where he admitted to the reporter who wrote it that he thought it was his last chance, and basically his kids were the ones who got him to improve his behavior. Apparently he developed a serious ego in the sixties, after he got a few successful movies under his belt, and that success went to his head. Patricia Neal and Audrey Hepburn, who worked with him in Breakfast at Tiffany's both came to dislike him intensely -- and Neal had known him years earlier and liked him then, but said he'd grown "cold and conceited" in the interval. Peppard was also the original pick to play Blake Carrington on Dynasty, but after three weeks shooting, he had proved himself so difficult to work with they fired him and got John Forsythe instead, reshooting all the scenes that had been done with Peppard up to that point.

[–] JosephQCat (706) 2 years ago

The show wanted a woman for the male viewers to pant after therefore Amy Allen. But the Peppard issue aside Culea never seemed to fit in my mind. I don't know if another actress would have fit in better. I liked Culea but The A Team was the wrong show for her.

[–] millsey72 (9566) a year ago

I would like to see a reboot with an all female A Team

[–] Mustang (5230) a year ago

From a story perspective if a female was essential then it should have been an ex army nurse, someone who perhaps cared for them in Vietnam and was trusted. That would have had to be an older actress though which wasn't much of a thing back then and the show was all light fluff anyway.

The other option would have been a relative of one of the A Team who again could be trusted but then would they really want their female relative in harms way all the time?

[–] PaladinNJ (20310) 9 months ago

They were going to add Tia Carrere to the show as a regular after the Fulbright story, but it didn't work out.