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Traditionally, television heroes not only have right on their side, but they also brandish the fanciest gadgets. Bad guys drive the crummy cars. Faith in technology was the implicit theme of such shows as Mission: Impossible and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. On sophisticated medical series, from Trapper John, M.D. to St. Elsewhere, the wise doctors bolster their charming bedside manners with CAT scans. One exception to this pattern is NBC'S current gaudy hit The A-Team, which crudely parodies the medium's infatuation with machinery. The team typically has to borrow (and often demolish) the newfangled hardware of its enemies because its own makeshift equipment is rusty and outmoded.
The team mascot, Mr. T, with his clanking jewelry, rocket-shaped hairdo and stiff acting, is actually the most fearsome machine on that show. On virtually all the rest of these series, the machines appear more animate than the actors. It is the human characters who seem mass-produced, interchangeable and equipped with only artificial intelligence. But therein may be the consolation. The more mechanically inhuman the shows become, the more they may take on another machine-like trait that in their case would be a blessing: built-in obsolescence.
—By Richard Stengel