This Sunday, the British series Merlin, a re-imagining of the Arthurian legend, premieres on NBC, with a cast of actors mostly unknown on this side of the pond. (The notable exception being Anthony Head from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.) But is America ready for a new medieval television series? Sure, Legend of the Seeker just got renewed, and Robin Hood airs on BBC America, but is period fantasy ready for one of the big networks? We took a look back at previous period fantasy shows to see whether they were hits or misses.

Since The A-Team premiered in 1983, the show has become a classic, with its iconic black van and its four distinctive characters. Now, with a feature film in the works for release next summer, director Joe Carnahan (Smokin' Aces) is trying to find people to play those four legendary roles. The roles of B.A. Barachus and Howlin' Mad Murdock are still up in the air, but Bradley Cooper is reportedly under consideration to play Faceman, and Liam Neeson is in talks to play Hannibal Smith! We're already excited by the news, and it led us to remember the real-life celebrities who joined the A-Team at one point or another. Here are the five who stood out, and one who almost joined the team for good.

There was a Land of the Lost marathon running this weekend on Sci Fi, and since I remembered watching this show as a kid and really liking it, I figured I'd watch some more before the new movie came out. This was a massive mistake. While I started singing along when I heard the familiar theme music, I was sort of horrified to see how unconvincing the credits sequence was. In my young mind this was much more impressive than it is in retrospect. I realize that Syd and Marty Krofft fans adore this sort of thing, and while the Sleestak puppets still have their appeal, the rest of the special effects do not hold up well. I was literally laughing out loud watching Will and Holly run scared from a dinosaur, because it was just so goofy. And it isn't just the effects -- the acting and stories (at least the ones I could bare to watch) were pretty ridiculous. Still, at the time I remember being entertained and that this show helped form me into the geeky fantasy fan I am today (mostly because I thought Holly being friends with a dinosaur was cool... still is), so that's something. But I don't think I'll be buying the box set any time soon.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, everybody! Summer is semi-officially here, and we thought we'd celebrate the start of beach season by looking at one of our favorite shows, Howard Stern's Baywatch parody Son of the Beach. Following a team of lifeguards as they make sexual puns and parody famous movies and TV shows, the show lived up to the high on-air standards set by Stern on his radio show. Plus, it starred TV's Tim Stack as pasty David Hasselhoff substitute Notch Johnson -- Stack pretty much wore his Notch outfit in all of his appearances playing himself on My Name is Earl. A moment of silence for Earl, and a moment of pure, unadulterated Stack in the pilot episode of SOB, embedded below.

In late 2006, still suffering from Angel withdrawal, I started seeing commercials on the Sci Fi channel for The Dresden Files, starring Paul Blackthorne (Lipstick Jungle) as freelance wizard Harry Dresden. It looked like it had a real Angel vibe about it -- this is before Moonlight, mind you -- and I started watching it with my wife whenever I could (she was instantly hooked). We caught most of the first 12 episodes... and then the series was canceled. I know, there are a dozen of the original Jim Butcher-penned books out there, some of which inspired episodes of the TV show, but Blackthorne was delightfully roguish, and I can't bring myself to read any book whose cover shows Harry wearing a black duster -- it's a little too high-school role-playing club for me, and I speak from experience. Luckily, I can watch the 12 duster-free episodes over and over on Hulu, or pick them all up (with the original uncut pilot) here. Check out the first one below.