Family Reunion is the eighth episode of the final season of NBC-TV series The A-Team.
Synopsis[]
In a special episode of which the ending was voted on by viewers, the A-Team must help a former political advisor to reunite with his lost daughter in exchange for a diary with large political ramifications. Unbeknownst to Face, the advisor claims to be his father, a fact Murdock learns of during the course of the episode, causing a dilemma for Murdock on whether or not he should tell his friend.
Episode summary[]
A wanted criminal who's been on the run since the 1960s offers to give himself up, and turn in evidence to the government if the A-team will be the ones to bring him in. The criminal - played by Jeff Corey - wants to meet his daughter one last time before he goes to prison. Meanwhile, various forces who don't want him to turn in the evidence attempt ploy after ploy to stop him. The old man reveals to Murdock that the reason he wanted the A-team specifically was because Face is his long-lost son.
Face grew up in an orphanage. His father ran out of the family when he was very little. There is no word on what became of his mother. He has a half-sister from his father's second family.
Most of this episode ostensibly takes place in Florida, but no one seems to have made any effort to hide the fact it was really filmed in California. There are mountains clearly in view in a half-dozen shots. Also, part of the team is able to go all the way from Jacksonville to Tallahassee and back again in no real time. That's a round trip of about five hours, assuming no traffic whatsoever.
"Face" shares several characteristics with "Starbuck," the character played by Dirk Benedict on Battlestar Galactica in 1978/79. Both are gamblers and con men, both have a high sense of personal honor despite their questionable ethics, both are orphans raised without families, and both come into contact with their real fathers under awkward circumstances towards the end of the run of each show. In both cases, their fathers are wanted men, on the run from dangerous men.