I see from the IMDB entry for 'The A-Team" that show ran from 1983-1987, but Mr. T was only on from 1983-1984. How did they write the character out of the show?
IMDB is wrong. He was there for the whole series.
That’s wrong. The A-Team ran for five seasons, and Mr. T was still part of the cast at the beginning of that last season (1986-87) when the whole crew stood trial. I don’t recall that he was ever written out of the show, unless it happened in the last few episodes of that abbreviated final season.
If you read the Trivia section, IMDB is contradicting themselves. While the cast list says that Mr T was only on the show for 1983-1984, the trivia section mentions him being convinced not to quit in the 1985-1986 season.
My memory jives more with the Trivia section. I can’t remember if he appeared in any of the same episodes as the latino guy they added at the end, but I remember him being in more than 1 season.
Mr. T was getting involved wit hprofessional wrestling, which may be why he reportedly considered leaving. His tag-team partner Hulk Hogan was a guest star on several episodes in season four.
As I said before, I know that Mr. T was on the show for at least the first few epsiodes of the final season, where the A-Team faced a court martial.
The story line was that they were pardoned, and thus they stopped running from the government and started working for them. This ludicrous plot twist (plus the addition of Robert Vaughn) effectively killed thw show. The Epguides listing shows that only 13 episodes aired that season, and the air dates suggest the show was cancelled in December 86 (although two more episodes would air over the next 4 months). There was no formal series finale.
So maybe Mr. T missed one (or all) of the final 10 epsiodes, but he definitely didn’t leave during the first 88.
Mr. T was on the A-Team all the way to the last episode. I do recall, however, that George Peppard is minimally present (never written out entirely, but it seems as if effort was made to give him a light schedule) in a few episodes of the last season; perhaps his health was failing even then.
After The A-Team, Mr. T grew a beard and a pair of breasts and joined the circus.
Anyhoo…
First one to post a link to a photo of Mr. T with the promised breasts wins a donkey!
Yeah, I kinda thought he was, but since I didn’t watch the show much I figured I was wrong. Thanks!
This is the only picture I could find of Mr. T as “The Bearded Lady” in the movie Freaked (1993). And while the photo identifies one Karen Sercelj [sic] as “Sockhead” (the IMDb lists Karyn Malchus), that character was voiced by the infamous Bobcat Goldthwait. And the film was co-written/directed by Keanu Reeves’ better half from the “Bill & Ted” films - Alex Winter.
Anyhoo…
Can’t see the breasts too well with the baggy clothes, but here he is with beard and makeup promoting the movie.
And dressed in drag for a Mother’s Day 1-800-COLLECT commercial.
anson2995, I couldn’t get your link to work. If you really want the donkey, you’ll have to fight for it.
Beauty Personified, you get major donkey points for posting a link to Mr. T as the bearded lady, but you lose points if you already knew of the existence of an Alex Winter fansite (but get double points if you found it through diligent research!).
do I get any points for owning Freaked on Laserdisc?
Two points for the courage to admit it in a public forum, but minus one if you’ve watched it more than once. 
Don’t know…don’t care. But Mr. T was signing autographs at Randhurst Mall in Mt. Prospect, IL and I took my son there to meet him. He hugged and kissed my boy and I got a picture of them. It was actually very sweet.
Then he cut down all the trees at his mansion and ended up on everyone’s shit list.
But I saw him be a big ol’ softy.
"Just like the time I could have met Mr. T at the mall. The entire day, I kept saying, ‘I’ll go a little later, I’ll go a little later.’
And when I got there, they told me he just left. And when I asked the mall guy if he’ll ever come back again, he said he didn’t know. sob Well, I’m never going to let something like that happen again!"
I pity the fool who waits til the last minute to see Mr. T. I pity the fool…
Jeepers! Well, you’ve got to admit the bit with the plane arriving is pretty damn funny!
…We see the plane landing and then crashing, bursting into flames, all is very uncool, but then the camera pulls back and we see our two protagonists standing there. The guy from Blossom says something like, ‘gee, I’m glad that wasn’t our plane. Hey man, are you ready yet?’
Besides, it’s got Mr T in it! Dammit, how could you NOT buy that if you saw it?
…what does the ‘T’ stand for anyways?
I recall read it years back in the interview he did with The Onion but I don’t recall.
Isn’t that interview included in Tenacity of the Cockroach?