The bizarre moment Boy George collaborated with ‘The A-Team’
As the revolving door of cameos on Miami Vice showed, in the mid-1980s at least, a quick celebrity cameo was the quickest way to boost TV ratings and make said A-listers some serious cash. So when Blitz-Kid Boy George was offered six figures to make a very incongruous appearance on The A-Team, how could he refuse?
The A-Team, famously, was a 1980s action-adventure series following former members of a fictitious United States Army Special Forces unit. The team of Hannibal, Face, B. A. Baracu., and Murdoch were tough war veterans on the run from the law, gracing American television each week to take out bad guys, which didn’t make it the most natural fit for New Romantic Boy George.
Of course, that’s part of the reason his one-episode appearance in 1986 became almost legendary, being discussed in interviews as recently as 2020. George told Chris Moyles that his bandmates were desperate to be on Miami Vice, but it never materialised. “I think it was because of me,” he admitted. “We were a little too camp for Miami Vice.”
Still, detailing further, he told Conan O’Brien that the production company “offered him a lot of money” to make a cameo on The A-Team, saying the figure was close to $100,000. Although the money was great, the material itself left a lot to be desired for the ‘Karma Chameleon’ singer, who said it was “a total valley-girl script” and confessed he had to stay stoned throughout filming just to get through it.
The filming itself was a good time, with George describing his co-star Mr T as “fabulous” in his autobiography, before admitting he would have to hide from him on set before he barged in to “talk about how wonderful he was” every morning.
The episode that the singer appeared in was called ‘Cowboy George’ and involved the team investigating a missing sheriff. Somehow, the plot involves Face having to book an act for a local bar, fluffing it up by getting Boy George instead of Cowboy George, a fictitious country singer.
It’s playful, with some trademark camp comments from George, who quips: “Excuse me, I can’t play this place because it’s a certified toilet.” But naturally, he does wind up performing and is joined by his Culture Club bandmates on ‘Move Away’ and ‘Karma Chameleon’.
In between these performances, George gets involved with another subplot involving the A-Team, which sees him help them open a locked door, trying at first with a hairpin but then kicking it down himself. It’s become quite the iconic moment, but George admitted he looked and felt “like a total prat”.
It was a fun performance, even if he seemed a bizarre choice of guest when the show had previously hosted more fitting stars like Hulk Hogan and Sam J. Jones. But George was a good sport, even if he admitted that on the day of the infamous kick scene, everyone was calling him Rambo.
