Newspaper reporter, Amy Allen seeks out The A-Team — a commando unit from the Vietnam War convicted of a crime they did not commit in 1972 and now working on the side of the law as mercenaries — to rescue one of her fellow reporters who has been kidnapped by Mexican outlaws. The A-Team, consisting of Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, Lt. Templeton "The Faceman" Peck, and Sgt. Bosco "B.A." Baracus are being chased by Colonel Lynch, who has Amy followed as she works her way towards hiring the team. Despite Lynch's interference and several chases, Face manages to release the fourth member of the A-Team, Capt. H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock, from the psychiatric hospital and scam a Gulfstream jet. Rendering BA unconscious, they travel with Amy to Mexico in a plane piloted by their fearless but clinically insane pilot, Murdock. During the start of the flight, the original broadcast version features a soundalike version of The Rolling Stones hit "Jumping Jack Flash". On the DVD version, this is changed to a generic track for copyright reasons. In Mexico the team discovers that Amy's reporter friend has been kidnapped by a marijuana cultivator and gang leader named Malavita Valdez. Face and Murdock acquire a crop duster and ammonia, which they use to spray the marijuana fields and destroy the crops. The A-Team build an armored bus and drive the gang leader and his gang out of the village. While chasing the gang, the A-Team are ambushed by Mexican guerrillas who are friendly towards the gang leader. With the A-Team captured by the Mexican gang leader, they escape when Hannibal knocks out one of the guards, and they attempt to flee by truck but are chased down by the guerrillas. Luckily for the A-Team, local villagers come to help them, led by Murdock and Face, who had evaded capture previously. They come out and ambush the guerrillas, and this allows the A-Team to get on an airplane and get back home. After the escape, Amy Allen expresses her desire to join the A-Team. She effectively blackmails her way onto the team promising to put a positive light on their exploits in her articles.
Cast
Regular characters
"Mexican Slayride" introduces the following regular The A-Team characters:
To be aired on television in syndication, the pilot had to be cut up in two separate episodes of approximately 40 to 45 minutes. As such, they are referred to as two distinct episodes, namely; "Mexican Slayride: Part 1" and "Mexican Slayride: Part 2". As the pilot episode itself is the combination of these two parts and was originally aired such, the pilot is kept intact on the DVD boxset of season 1.
The role of "Face"
The part of Face, best known as being played by Dirk Benedict throughout the series, is played in the pilot by actor Tim Dunigan. The episode originally had no introductory theme and credits like later episodes of The A-Team, but in syndication, the season 1 introduction is tagged on, with a segment depicting Tim Dunigan as Face replacing the part of Dirk Benedict. The DVD boxset of season 1 features the pilot in its original version, without introduction.
The character of Murdock
When NBC executives first reviewed the pilot episode of The A-Team they were not enthused with the character of Murdock, whom they found too over-the-top. His character was either to be scaled down or removed altogether. When the pilot was shown to a test audience they favored Murdock out of all the other characters. Per Dwight Schultz's account in "Bring Back... The A-Team" - a show meant to reunite the surviving cast members of the show in 2006 - whenever Murdock appeared the audience showed their approval by dialing their test dials all the way to their maximum, to the surprise of the executives. Schultz recounted the story again on the Dutch talk showJensen! in 2007.
Relevance to ''The A-Team'' series
As the pilot episode this episode introduces a number of concepts into the A-Team series:
The crime they "didn't commit" and "Col. Morrison":
The use of Hannibal in disguise to learn about prospective clients, most notably as "Mr. Lee":
Hannibal's acting career, most notably as "The Aquamaniac":
