Is it true the women in THE A TEAM were fired because the lead actor wanted an All Male cast?

Submitted by Lili_Danube t3_zy2wmm in television

The A Team is known for being focused on a group of four men but many forget that in the first season, and especially the pilot, they had a female member, Amy Allen played by Melinda Culea, and she was a prominent character on the show, until she got fired, and was replaced by Tawnia Baker played by Maria Heasley. She didn't even last a season.

Both actresses, especially Culea, alleged that George Peppard didn't want a woman to be on the team and that's why they got the boot.

Obviously the all male dynamic is what made the show but I have to say that Amy was a positive member and I liked her. She didn't need to leave, she could have been a recurring character who was like the April to the Teenage Turtles.

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knightni73 t1_j23nlth wrote

The premise of the show was members of a platoon who served in Viet Nam together, were accused of committing criminal activities. So, they could add characters to the show, but because they were together in Viet Nam in the same platoon, they would have to be men.

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monsieurxander t1_j25esci wrote

They actually added a new guy, who didn't serve with them, in the fifth season.

Originally this was going to be a new girl, played by Tia Carrere, but she signed onto another show instead.

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illmatic708 t1_j25rwut wrote

If Tia Carrere were a president, she would be Baberham Lincoln

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daveescaped t1_j27kwfr wrote

In French she would be called la renard, and hunted with only her cunning to protect her.

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bluebirdgm t1_j25kttg wrote

The mechanic guy? I remember him joining the final season, where they had been captured and were conditionally going to be exonerated in exchange for doing some missions for the government.

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Mr_Style t1_j27z4jg wrote

You thinking of the special effects guy?

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TraehNoil t1_j27eawd wrote

Don’t coke at these people with logic and accurate facts of history! GET WOKE!

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ThePreciseClimber t1_j25adjh wrote

>Viet Nam

Why are you spelling the count ry's name like that?

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sjjenkins t1_j25b4u5 wrote

You mean, like the country itself officially spells it? A quick visit to Wikipedia would have answered this question that “Viet Nam” is a correct spelling.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam

Please, everyone reading this go donate now.

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fmal t1_j25k0rk wrote

Legit had no idea this was the case lol. Thanks for posting.

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datarulesme t1_j24escj wrote

"During the Vietnam War, more than 265,000 American women served the military and 11,000 women served in Vietnam, with 90% working as volunteer nurses."

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Mr_MacGrubber t1_j254a0r wrote

They weren’t serving in combat roles. Unless the “crimes” the A Team committed were falsifying supply or medical records, it doesn’t fit that a woman would’ve served with them in Vietnam.

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MAXIMILIAN-MV t1_j257lfh wrote

Man that would put a spin on the show. White collar military criminals on the run helping people that have logistic and supply chain problems.

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SillyFlyGuy t1_j25hioa wrote

"The A Team" but the A stand for Accountants.

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Mr_MacGrubber t1_j266zk8 wrote

Admin. Hannibal loved when a plan came together because logistics are his passion.

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nmirandag_hn t1_j24girk wrote

Woke alert here.

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Yourbubblestink t1_j256rq9 wrote

I mean I care about you, so I want to give you this feedback lol when you use the term woke you identify yourself as an teump/maga/densantis drone.

That leaves the rest of us watching somebody who appears to be stupid, referring to somebody else as woke. The whole thing is laughable.

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pairustwo t1_j24igef wrote

What? Is that not true?

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[deleted] t1_j24jbqg wrote

[removed]

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sweetpeapickle t1_j24zmks wrote

You do understand they are human beings as well? It's not being "woke" just because these are characters. They're showing up more, because they were not used like they should have been in the past. Being regulated to the slave, the maid, non-existent sexual preference, etc means being underused because they were deemed lower by some people.

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AgentElman t1_j24l56t wrote

If you think that's bad - release a movie without men in the main cast and see the uproar that results. Ghostbusters, Ocean's 8, etc.

Suddenly not having representation matters when it is men not being included.

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metametapraxis t1_j25w6ff wrote

I think most of the backlash against those movies (particularly Ghostbusters) was that they were absolutely terrible movies.

GB, for instance, didn't fail because of sexism -- it failed because of absolutely horrible writing and performances.

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datarulesme t1_j24lclz wrote

All i was saying was that it would be possible for women to be in the show, because of this fact. Your original statement accounted for getting rid of the women in the show because women weren't in the Vietnam war; they were so that's not a logical reason anymore... they could've connected her to the platoon via some historically accurate role played by women in the war ? Just a conversation pls don't go off

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enormuschwanzstucker t1_j25rdfj wrote

When someone uses the word “woke” like that I automatically lose respect for them. Hey buddy! Turn off the right wing radio and go get some sunshine on your face. It’ll do you good.

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cthulu0 t1_j25kcsr wrote

As an A-team connoisseur, she really wasn't exactly part of the team. She was more like an outside consultant, acquaintance, bringer-of-business to them, person-to-be rescued etc.

As far as I can tell, Tawnia was hired for the sex appeal, while Culea would later play and androgynous flat-chested alien and Rikers' love interest in that one fucking weird Star Trek:TNG episode.

That being said, I agree that I sort of missed her on the show.

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Lili_Danube OP t1_j25sxlr wrote

The thing is, Culea's Amy was a good character. She wasn't too big to overshadow the boys but was a nice counterpoint to them. It does seem like she wanted to do more and that became an issue butI do feel the show missed out by letting her go. She reminded me of Stephanie Zimbalist from Remington Steele.

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Roook36 t1_j24ck96 wrote

I had to look back in my podcast and YouTube history because I know I'd heard this discussed. Secret Galaxy talks about it at around the 9:14 mark. Supposedly a lot of it came from Peppard who didn't want a woman on the show

https://youtu.be/l-CsopsdkXs

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tesaril t1_j25u8a9 wrote

They were forming an A Team... Men only. Alpha!

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Tradman86 t1_j24od8b wrote

Somewhat.

Peppard didn't want Amy around, but Benedict said he was fine with her. She probably could have been able to stick around, but when the actress pushed to be more involved in the gunfights, none of the other cast supported her (b/c women shouldn't be fighting or something, idk). So she wasn't so much fired as just got fed up and left. I don't blame her, but just want to be clear, she wasn't fired, she quit.

On the other hand, Culea was definitely fired b/c of Peppard, but they at least gave her fair warning and wrote her out smoothly.

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Delicious-Tachyons t1_j25dad3 wrote

> b/c women shouldn't be fighting or something, idk

Well the actors were all born from the 20s through the 40s so it's not surprising they'd have dated attitudes of the era.

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the_great_ashby t1_j25ncjk wrote

Were there women in combat roles in Vietnam and prior US wars?

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StephenHunterUK t1_j25r7a5 wrote

Not counting OSS operatives (a role which could involve combat and certainly a high risk of death), generally not for the US. They tended to do stuff like secretarial work, communications, nursing and other stuff that would not put them into direct contact with the enemy. Unless the enemy showed up at the base. There were eight servicewomen killed in action.

A lot more for both Vietnams, but the records aren't great: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Vietnam_War

Things didn't really start changing until the 1990s, with female fighter pilots in particular.

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Delicious-Tachyons t1_j25no80 wrote

that's not my argument. I was responding to "none of the other cast supported her (b/c women shouldn't be fighting or something, idk)" as the show was filmed in 1981.

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mikevago t1_j273xh4 wrote

I mean, it's not like 80s network television was exactly a bastion of feminism in the first place.

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lesters_sock_puppet t1_j29w7q3 wrote

>Culea

I had a friend a few years ago that actually knew Culea. She told me her friend wasn't happy with A-team and deliberately did things to piss the producers off. She apparently got what she wanted.

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anasui1 t1_j242a9b wrote

didn’t know about that, but it wouldn't surprise me if true

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TrophyDad_72 t1_j24t9mz wrote

My thoughts are the same for the criticism of a non diverse Friends cast - it was a product of its time and it worked. Both were hits. So there. Not everything needs to make a statement sometimes just being entertained is enough.

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North_South_Side t1_j258nux wrote

Friends wasn't heavily criticized for having a core cast of white people. It's that they lived in NYC and almost everyone who ever appeared on the show was white—with a few exceptions.

NYC is not all that white.

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Delicious-Tachyons t1_j25dk5g wrote

Blame the casting director. Maybe they thought showing other types of people would make it less marketable. TV executives are the stupidest people to ever make millions of dollars that aren't pro-athletes.

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OneGoodRib t1_j25m4zc wrote

Why the downvotes? Is it NOT the fault of the casting director and the tv executives when a show has a lot of white people? Whose fault is it when a show only casts white people, then? Is it Jennifer Aniston's fault?

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Delicious-Tachyons t1_j25mus4 wrote

possible because i called pro-athletes stupid

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nyuckajay t1_j262rrh wrote

Well…. I mean not all of them are stupid, but if I had to pick a group of people most likely to be stupid, and rich, it’d be athletes or lottery winners…

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kazh t1_j25y983 wrote

Friends worked because it had to work. That formula was all there was to watch when the tv was on unless you wanted to hang around for obscure hours to catch Living Single or other stuff.

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FireflyArc t1_j27voi8 wrote

I always liked triple A

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Silver-Hat175 t1_j2cdghv wrote

Thank you for reminding me that Ms Culea was my first childhood tv crush!

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Kjh007 t1_j26t7am wrote

Are we canceling A team now because of gender inequality?

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mg_ridgeview t1_j24ksc1 wrote

I think this was pure and simple 1980s sexism, sadly. There was no reason the A-Team couldn't have had some females in their group to keep it from being a sausage fest. I think it was incredibly unfair to hire those actresses and then drop them like a sack of potatoes because of one (or more) chauvinistic people on the show.

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