# Mission Impossible vs A-Team
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [February 16, 2000, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498 "2000-02-16T00:55:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Neobican](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neobican)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/1 "2000-02-16T00:55:00Z")
Ok, I cant go into a lengthy argument, 'cause I need some sleep but I wanted to post this before it slipped out of mind. Since I have cable and I now get reruns of my favorite nostalgic TV show A-Team… how do rate them against the Mission Impossible team? Not just one-on-one, but how well they perfromed in the episodes (against the bad guys), which series entertained you more, etc. My vote goes to A-Team if nothing else but comic relief!
Side debate: MacGuyver vs James Bond?
(almost seems unfair since Mac never made it to silver screen but what the hay.)
* * *
_“Wow! Spider-Man! Are you really friends with the X-men?”_
**"Not since Cyclops tried to use my viewmaster."**
(Marvel Team Up #1)
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### Author:  [@Neobican](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neobican)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/2 "2000-02-16T00:57:00Z")
Curse those evil typo gremlins!!
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### Author:  [@Felice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Felice)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/3 "2000-02-16T01:00:00Z")
## A-Team. No question about it. Hands down. The MI guys always had the hottest equipment, cool widgets, and government authorization to do the stuff they did. The A-Team not only had to beat the bad guys and save the good guys, they had to do so with no real budget (except for ammunition for their AR-15s) no equipment except what they could scrounge from the back of garages, and do it all while dodging the MPs and the local police everywhere they went. They were far more creative, and effective. And better looking. Faceman versus Phelps? Puh-leeze.
Felice
“There’s always a bigger fish.”
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### Author:  [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/4 "2000-02-16T01:05:00Z")
A-team! It’s my secret vice. George Peppard (fans herself in the manner of a southern belle)… and the obligatory building a tank every episode… I miss that show!
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### Author:  [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/5 "2000-02-16T01:17:00Z")
Ahh, yes, but the ultimate challenge is Maguyver versus the A-team.
You lock the A-team overnight in a barn filled with all kinds of cool salvage equiptment. On the other side of the field, you lock Maguyver in an equally equipt barn.
In the morning open the doors and let them duke it out with whatever they built.
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### Author:  [@WillGolfForFood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillGolfForFood)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/6 "2000-02-16T03:12:00Z")
Ahh, but the Mission Impossible team would occasionally _hit_ someone with their bullets! (At least wounding a few people, anyway.) The A-Team would routinely fire off a couple of tons’ worth of ammo without hitting anything other than concrete. I mean, they could have _thrown_ the bullets at their enemies and caused more damage!
(Then again, the folks that were shooting at the A-team were just as bad at aiming.)
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### Author:  [@Hunsecker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunsecker)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/7 "2000-02-16T04:00:00Z")
I think its pretty clear that the A-Team is by far the better team. If only because of Mr. T alone can beat [all these guys](http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~kljense3/MrTvs.html)
And I think I’d have to go with James Bond over MacGyver. Sure, Mac may be smarter, but Bond
1. Is suave as all hell
2. Shoots people
3. Has cooler gadgets (how cool can a swiss army knife be?)
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### Author:  [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/8 "2000-02-16T05:17:00Z")
Hah, like Bond’s suaveness, gadgets and guns could save him when Mac constructs a nuclear bomb out of the aforementioned Swiss Army knife, some duct tape, and a piece of baling twine!
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### Author:  [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/9 "2000-02-16T08:51:00Z")
Gaudere, James Bond never wasted a pair of hockey tickets on stopping a nuclear bomb. And He would always stop the timer on 0-0-7, which an amazingly cool thing to be able to do.
Plus James Bond never had a mullet.
* * *
J
> [@](#):
>
> Jesus saves, Allah forgives, and Cthulhu thinks you’d make a good sandwich
>
> -Auntie Pam
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### Author:  [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/10 "2000-02-16T16:16:00Z")
If I were a British spy, I’d prefer to be Agent 060; I’d like the extra minute while defusing a bomb just in case. 🙂
* * *
The word is no. I am therefore going anyway.
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### Author:  [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/11 "2000-02-16T16:18:00Z")
Oh, back to the OP:
I preferred Mission:Impossible. Their subtle style was more thought-provoking. Also, their theme music was cool!
* * *
The word is no. I am therefore going anyway.
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### Author:  [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/12 "2000-02-16T16:21:00Z")
John, Bond would never even _go_ to a hockey game. He probably watches polo and drinks Pimm’s cup with his little pinky upraised. I will concede that he can defuse a bomb without wrinkling his tux, though.
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/13 "2000-02-16T16:25:00Z")
The Mission Impossible team would beat the A-Team hands down. They’d wait for the A-Team to sequester themselves inside the abandoned junkyard, and while B.A. was working the welding torch in the process of trying to turn a '73 Chevy Impala into an M-1 tank, Phelps & co. would sneak up behind him and knock him unconscious. (They couldn’t shoot him, though, because all bullets fired at the A-Team automatically miss – even if they pressed the barrel against B.A.'s head and pulled the trigger, they’d miss. And then their car would hit a hidden ramp and overturn in midair. But I digress.)
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### Author:  [@Occam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Occam)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/14 "2000-02-16T16:42:00Z")
I can’t believe there is even a debate about this. It’s like matching Inspector Gadget vs. Sherlock Holmes. The A-Team doesn’t stand a chance in hell. The MI team will pistol-whip the wannabe’s before breakfast, then get on to a real mission. In other words, “I pity da foo’ who sides wit da A-team!”
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### Author:  [@Hunsecker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunsecker)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2000, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/15 "2000-02-17T06:23:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Ahh, yes, but the ultimate challenge is Maguyver versus the A-team.
It’s been done. The results of [A-Team vs. MacGyver](http://www.lightlink.com/grudge/old/ateam-macgyver.html) are that Mac would win hands down.
Obviously, these people haven’t seen the Mr. T vs. \* pages.
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### Author:  [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/16 "2000-02-16T19:09:00Z")
Mission Impossible without a doubt. They may have lacked Mr. T, but they had far more sophiscation, intelligence and ruthlessness.
MI also had one of the coolest theme songs of history.
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### Author:  [@Felice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Felice)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2000, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/17 "2000-02-16T20:44:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> but they (MI) had far more sophiscation, intelligence and ruthlessness.
## No argument on the sophistication and ruthlessness, but I’ll contest the intelligence. The A-Team were constantly having to use their intel to get out of jams, to accomplish their missions with zero resources and while being outlaws. All MI had to do was their mission. Besides, the A-Team had much more flair and creativity. And much better explosions. True, they never killed anybody, hardly, but I’d chalk that up as a plus in their favor. Do you know how hard it is to fire that many bullets without actually killing anyone? Takes enormous skill, it does.
Felice
“There’s always a bigger fish.”
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### Author:  [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2000, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/18 "2000-02-17T02:10:00Z")
The A-team was clever and _joie de vivre_ish only during the first season. Then some damn Helen Lovejoy complained that it was sending a bad damn message to the damn children and every damn episode after that was the same damn shit repackaged by the same damn computer program over and over and over. A perfectly delightful and enjoyable show - ruined. MI gets my vote for being dark and sinister when they damn well wanted to damn well be so.
Damn it.
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### Author:  [@StrTrkr777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrTrkr777)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/19 "2000-02-17T16:14:00Z")
I do not care to debate the MI vs. A-team, but I will weigh in on the Mac vs. Bond.
Mac would definitely win. Bond had to have Q to make all his cool gadgets and he had all the money of the Brit Secret Service backing him.
Mac could build anything with his swiss army knife and duct tape with a couple of other household items.
And how cool is a swiss army knife? It is the coolest.
Mac did not need a tux, all he needed was his jeans and his leather jacket.
I have never wanted to be like Bond, but I have wanted to be MacGyver.
Mac wins with half his brain cells tied behind his back.
Plus he was not some insufferable Brit.
Jeffery
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### Author:  [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2000, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-vs-a-team/17498/20 "2000-02-17T16:43:00Z")
Gaudere said:
> [@](#):
>
> John, Bond would never even _go_ to a hockey game. He probably watches polo and drinks Pimm’s cup with his little pinky upraised.
I will concede that, but I’d bet he’d still look cool doing it.
Jeffery said:
> [@](#):
>
> Mac would definitely win. Bond had to have Q to make all his cool gadgets and he had all the money of the Brit Secret Service backing him.
>
> Mac could build anything with his swiss army knife and duct tape with a couple of other household items.
Bond never had time to make anything. he was too busy getting laid and killing enemies.
And I’d prefer to know Q rather than that porker that follows Richard Dean Anderson through everything he does.
> [@](#):
>
> And how cool is a swiss army knife? It is the coolest.
I’d take that knife in the shoe in “Dr. No” anytime.
> [@](#):
>
> Mac did not need a tux, all he needed was his jeans and his leather jacket."
That would suit his mullett down to the ground.
> [@](#):
>
> Mac wins with half his brain cells tied behind his back
He may have been smarter, but Bond was _way_ cooler
* * *
J
I’m a maniac, _a maa-ianac_ thats for sure,
ANd Im dancin’ like I never did be-foor"
Groundskeeper Willy
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