Was the A-Team a Right Wing Show

[Savonarola]

In 1972 a crack commando unit was sentenced to prison in a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the police, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, and no one else can help, maybe you can hire THE A-TEAM

The A-Team is a show about a former special forces group who broke out of jail and became freedom fighters as they continue to run from the army.  In the show authority figures are made to look like incompetent buffoons and corporations are almost always wicked.  I think the show is usually regarded by Americans as right wing; because of the massive amount of ammo used and because of the underlying hatred for all sorts of authority implied in the episode.  I was wondering how the show is viewed by other nations or cultures; if that sort of hatred of authority is thought of as right-wing outside the United States.

[Jaron]

and just like right wingers, they looked at their one minority as nothing more as muscle; a grunt. You never saw Hannibal asking BA for his opinion.

And just like Republicans, when they saw shifting demographics in America, they picked up their token hispanic to be their little pet nigger to keep that brown tail of America wagging ignorantly yet happily.

[PRC]

It was a sexist show.  I loved it as a kid.

[Caliga]

My cell phone ringtone is the guitar section of the A-Team theme song, complete with machine gun and explosion sound effects.

[Martinus]

Well, I think it was a special kind of "right wing" I guess, maybe you could call it "libertarian" really. It was anti-authoritarian, but pro-gun and shit. It wasn't the neocon rightwing - more like "shoot down UN black helicopters" kind of right wing.

[derspiess]

Holy crap, Marty said something that made sense!

[Savonarola]

Holy crap, Marty said something that made sense!

The A-Team brings out the best in all of us.   

[Caliga]

Holy crap, Marty said something that made sense!

The A-Team brings out the best in all of us.   

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

[Savonarola]

Well, I think it was a special kind of "right wing" I guess, maybe you could call it "libertarian" really. It was anti-authoritarian, but pro-gun and shit. It wasn't the neocon rightwing - more like "shoot down UN black helicopters" kind of right wing.

The show almost always depicted corporations as evil; I'd have a hard time seeing it as libertarian.  Though maybe it was libertarian-socialist.

[citizen k]

The show almost always depicted corporations as evil; I'd have a hard time seeing it as libertarian.  Though maybe it was libertarian-socialist.

Maybe libertarian-anarchist. Kinda like Chaotic Good. 

[Oexmelin]

It was a Frontier show and thus uniquely American in its outlook. It is «libertarian» if the Frontier can be called that, which doesn't care about socialism / capitalism: it cares about individuals making their way out of their good natured (there were Frontier socialists, like Saint-Simon, just like Frontier hard-core individualists). Corporations are evil because they are faceless and do not care about the little people, just like the big ranchers, or the railroad companies. Government is evil because it deceives and corrupts. In the end, you can only rely on friends, families and your guns to protect what is right: your small property, of course, but also honour and justice. It was a modern Western.

[alfred russel]

It was a Frontier show and thus uniquely American in its outlook. It is «libertarian» if the Frontier can be called that, which doesn't care about socialism / capitalism: it cares about individuals making their way out of their good natured (there were Frontier socialists, like Saint-Simon, just like Frontier hard-core individualists). Corporations are evil because they are faceless and do not care about the little people, just like the big ranchers, or the railroad companies. Government is evil because it deceives and corrupts. In the end, you can only rely on friends, families and your guns to protect what is right: your small property, of course, but also honour and justice. It was a modern Western.

I didn't wake up today expecting to read an insightful analysis of the A-Team. Good post.

[Palisadoes]

I don't think it was right-wing at all, really. It was quite 'anti-authoritarian', and so I wouldn't say it was right-wing, since the right-wing is *usually* associated with being pro-authority.

[Queequeg]

It was a Frontier show and thus uniquely American in its outlook. It is «libertarian» if the Frontier can be called that, which doesn't care about socialism / capitalism: it cares about individuals making their way out of their good natured (there were Frontier socialists, like Saint-Simon, just like Frontier hard-core individualists). Corporations are evil because they are faceless and do not care about the little people, just like the big ranchers, or the railroad companies. Government is evil because it deceives and corrupts. In the end, you can only rely on friends, families and your guns to protect what is right: your small property, of course, but also honour and justice. It was a modern Western.

Why is it that French intellectuals (and...uh...allied peoples) seem to understand Americans way better than anyone in America does?

[Iormlund]

Maybe because Americans are at heart Frog wannabes. It is hard to be as annoying as our neighbors without speaking their damned language and burning our trucks, though.