Mr. T: Boyhood Hero; Real Life Role Model


“I was so infatuated with Mr. T, known as B.A. Baracus on The A-Team, that my brother and I named our pet cow after him.”

Looking back on my youth, there weren’t many things cooler in life than a tough guy TV star who wore half a ton of gold jewelry, a mohawk, and fought for good over evil. Throw in an army theme with lots of action, guns, explosions, and a catchy theme song and you have a ten-year old boys dream show. The A-Team’s first episode ran on January 30, 1983 right after the Super Bowl, and regularly on Tuesday nights following. The show stayed in the top ten of the Nielsen ratings for three years before finally losing popularity in its fourth and fifth (and final) seasons, but it was always #1 in my world. I was so infatuated with Mr. T, known as B.A. Baracus on The A-Team, that my brother and I named our pet cow after him. Yes, B.A., which stands for “Bad Attitude” was certainly an appropriate name for our lone, spotted Holstein, who always looked mad and constantly broke out of his pen. I’ll never forget my mom chasing that cow around the yard, bucking and kicking like a bronco in a rodeo. My brother and I were scared to death of that cow. I’m pretty sure Mom just flat-out hated it.

I didn’t know much about Mr. T, the real-life person, at the time, but if I knew then what I know now, I probably would have admired him even more. Recently, Mr.T was interviewed about the new A-Team movie, which opened June 11th, 2010. Mr. T declined a role in the movie because he disagreed with the nature of the material in it. Here’s his response:

“[The new ‘A-Team’] was too graphic for me,” Mr. T, who played teammate B.A. Baracus, told the Express. “I’ve no doubt it will do big business at the box office, but it’s nothing like the show we turned out every week.”

He elaborates, saying, “People die in the film and there’s plenty of sex, but when we did it no one got hurt and it was all played for fun and family entertainment. These seem to be elements nobody is interested in any more.”

“We ran on TV for five years without having to sex-up the show. You can’t get away with that these days. It saddens me that our light-hearted approach has been replaced by gritty realism.”

Unfortunately, that “gritty realism” is what dominates American pop-culture anymore. It seems like you can’t turn on the television without being doused by a mix of sex, drugs, and violence. I give Mr. T two thumbs-up for his critical stance of the new movie. It’s rare to find Hollywood actors and actresses who hold good, conservative, Christian values. It’s just too bad that the flick will associate him with “a crime he didn’t commit.”

Did you know?
--Mr. T’s real name is Laurence Tureaud
--He is the youngest of 12 kids
--His dad was a minister
--He is a born-again Christian
--He worked as a bodyguard before acting. His business card read, “Next to God, there is no greater protector than I.”

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