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Have you noticed the final two episodes of The A-Team are seemingly out of order?
Which episode do you consider the true ending?
The A-Team will always be remembered for the firepower, explosions, resilient theme music and the heroic acts from Hannibal, Howling Mad, Face and B.A.
The show spanned five seasons and nearly 100 total episodes. It took off in popularity the very first time it hit the air, premiering Jan. 23, 1983, "reaching over 25% of the television audience and placing fourth in the Nielsen Top 10," according to NBC.com.
Over those five seasons, The A-Team earned three Emmy nominations along with plenty of spinoff content such as novels, comic books and a 2010 feature film version.
Though the show certainly had its highs, there were some lows as well. Cast changes at times were abrupt and in season four, ratings were on the decline. Ultimately, the drop in viewership caused NBC to cancel the show halfway through the fifth season, after just 13 episodes.
During the original run of the final season, only 12 episodes were played, with the last one being titled "The Grey Team."
"The Grey Team," which premiered on Dec. 30, 1986, seemed to be the abrupt but feasible ending to the series, with several cues that things could wrap up by episode's end.
The Team openly discussed what the next steps were, even if they were to break away from Stockwell's grip and risk losing their pardons.
Murdock tells a couple of elderly gentlemen who want to join the A-Team, "the truth is we might not even be in the bad guy fighting business much longer."
He says this while wearing an open jacket, revealing the word "fini" on his shirt, meaning "finished" in French.
The episodes ends with a wholesome sound and a freeze-frame of the team smiling. A rather clear indication that the series could be over, all while fitting that classic Eighties TV sequence.
That's where things get interesting.
After the show was off the air, one thing stood out as reruns began; the last episode. An episode titled "Without Reservations" was shown as the last episode of the series, following "The Grey Team" episode.
"Without Reservations" hadn't been seen before and was aired for the first time on March 8, 1987, three months after the show had seemingly come to an end.
Strangely, it was also aired after "The Grey Team" but was much more of a traditional A-Team episode, not really drawing to the conclusion of the series as "The Grey Team" seemed to do. It's believed the episode "Without Reservations" was aired out of order.
In the "Without Reservations" episode, "Murdock is seen wearing a shirt saying 'Almost Fini' - meaning 'Almost Finished' - further proof that 'Without Reservations' was supposed to be the second-to-last episode," according to A Classic Rock & Culture article.
In episode lists on both IMDb.com and Wikipedia, the final episode is listed as "Without Reservations," though all the signs suggest that "The Grey Team" was intended to wrap up the series.
So it begs the question, do you think ''Without Reservations'' is the series finale because it was technically the last episode to air new, or is it "The Grey Team" because of how the plots in each episode play out? You be the judge!
The ''Finished'' T-shirt Murdock is wearing in ''The Grey Team'' which aired on Dec. 30, 1986.
The ''Almost Finished'' T-shirt Murdock is wearing in ''Without Reservations'' which aired on March 8, 1987, after ''The Grey Team.'' Seems like this one should've aired first!
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"Finished" in French is "achevé"; the French word FINIS (not "fini") means "end."
Don't write about things you don't know or understand.
FINI is French for Finished
The discussion is continued through one of the fandom sites at the link below. So before a reader settles on a particular opinion, some information helps to explain the confusion. While "production order" seems most logical, it's not always the indicator, as the site explains. Only the network and producers know the true fate of a series, for the reasons of budgeting and scheduling craft and acting talent. And that particular episodes can be shown for the purposes of Nielsen Ratings (in the day).
https://theateamforum.proboards.com/thread/567/production-order-episodes
I knew Murdoch used to wear a lot of crazy shirts but I had never noticed the ones in these last two episodes. But then again I’ve only seen a handful of episodes since they originally aired so if I did noticed I had forgotten it. That’s quite clever that the wardrobe department did that. From what I’ve watched with YouTube convention videos Dirk and Dwight were very much in tune with the gags and enjoyed being a creative with them.
It always amazes me when a series is so clearly popular, developing it's own cult fandom (even in the day) and then ends ONLY because of a relative decline in the ratings. The ratings then were based on 3 major networks, and while networks banked on habitual viewing for their bread & butter, the network "game" was to challenge another network's popular show, with one of their own. So, ultimately, DA's as they were, both lost. Viewers didn't like having to search for their favorite show. Nor did they appreciate having to choose among favorites. A better approach would've been to refresh a lagging show with added talent (as the AT tried in the 5th season) or a twist in the storyline to make watching the episodes even more compelling.
And apparently the Netherlands have really love the A-Team from the start. I’ve seen videos of the guys over there doing promotion for the show in the 80s and convention footage in the 2000s. The last convention footage I’ve seen I think is from 2017. The pandemic has screwed all conventions up lately. But Dwight has said it was more popular there than it ever was in the US. The guys seem to genuinely really appreciate the fans whether it’s for the A-Team, Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica.
As an A-Team trivia fan, here's a link to a brief discussion about another fun point! I can tell you the answer, but it's always fun to speculate!!
https://filmboards.com/board/t/Weird-gloves-on-The-A-Team-1990786/
They did the same thing with Mama's Family. On episode 11, "Alien Marriage," Vinton is not yet married to Naomi, and Naomi is even in the episode still as Mama's neighbor and not as Vint's wife(which happened in episodes 2, 3&4 - they get engaged in #2, and married in the two-part episodes 3 & 4).
Alien Marriage "should have" been episode #2.
Not in reference to yourself, but I'm not sure why the order of episodes makes much difference. But I used to argue to the final bell with a particular contributor who swore the production order of ST:TOS was more important than how they were played. There is no such reality in the continuity of sitcoms and most dramas, unless they are intentionally laid out in advance for that purpose. Even Dallas invented episodes to fill in their story arc lapses (illness, death, retirements).
if they didn't have GF&A. So in the end it was good they had both. GF&A was a better conclusion.
That's a good point, which I now remember was part of some story written, where the actors talked about it. I do believe that ardent M-fans would've been very disappointed without a definite finale. Which IMO the producers did a definite job about emphasizing the point (thus the phrase).
It should be noted lest too much sentimentality be assumed, that it was the 11th season for churning out a very complicated show. And somewhere along the line those behind the scenes said it was one of the worst shows they'd worked on. Due to incessant demands and creative clashes. While it's tough to say goodbye to any dependable paycheck, I would also read into some portion of their presence honest-to-heavens, relief.
''Without Reservations'', should have been the second to last episode with ''The Grey Team'' as the final episode. It wasn't as if their costuming department on up to the director of the series would miss something that obvious. According to the Wikipedia page Season 5 of the A-Team:
"Despite being aired last, 'Without Reservations' is, in fact, the penultimate episode, but was aired out of order three months after this episode, the reasons for which are unclear."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A-Team_(season_5)