A Glimpse into Randy Carter’s Life and Work

I settled onto Randy Carter’s inviting sofa, eager to hear about the experiences of this Hollywood veteran. His Glendale home was adorned with photos and posters from his impressive 77-year career, featuring classics like “Apocalypse Now,” “Godfather II,” and “The Conversation.” Yet, today, we were about to explore something different, and Carter seemed perfectly fine with that.

He pulled up a 9-minute Sizzle Reel titled “Boy Wonders,” produced back in 1991, showing footage of school buses traversing dusty farmland. The plot followed white teenage boys in the 1960s who abandoned summer surfing to heed the government’s call to harvest crops in California’s desert—taking the place of Mexican farmworkers.

One farmer lamented, “It’s the stupidest, most ridiculous scheme I’ve heard of,” as he voiced his frustrations to government officials. But looking closer, it turned out the story in “The Wonder of the Boy” was essentially drawn from Carter’s own life.

In 1965, the U.S. Department of Labor initiated a program called A-Team, hoping to recruit 20,000 high school athletes for summer farming jobs due to a severe shortage of labor after the Bracero program ended. Alluring ads featuring sports legends promised that “Farm work built men!” Yet, only about 3,000 responded, including a 17-year-old Carter and around 18 classmates from the University of San Diego who picked melons for six weeks in Blythe.

The experience was filled with challenges—the gossamer hair on the melons tore through their gloves within hours, and the Bologna they had for lunch was sizzling in the shade. They slept in a rickety shed, shared a communal bathroom, and bathed in water “which was a very nice shade of brown,” as Carter humorously recalled.

Carter and his friends stood out among the laborers, who protested their working conditions. The A-Team program was such a flop that it was never attempted again, often deemed too absurd to make it to history books.

But then the political landscape shifted, with certain lawmakers now looking to ease restrictions for teens to take on farming jobs—presumably anticipating problems related to immigration. “I joked that I wrote this story because I never solved any labor issues,” Carter mused. “I could be long gone, and my great-grandson might still do the shopping.” His past experience bubbled back to the surface in recent discussions, especially as political figures suggested that college graduates could replace immigrant laborers.

Carter’s tale has intrigued people for decades, with reporters and educators reaching out to learn about his unusual experience. “They seem to enjoy seeing privileged teens put to work,” he quipped. Yet, he doesn’t dismiss the A-team experience as a mere joke; it was a pivotal moment in his life.

Born in Brooklyn, Carter relocated to San Diego during his sophomore year. Growing up under the influence of his working-class Irish mother, summer work was a given. When the A-Team opportunity came around, “There was no rush to the sign-up table,” he remembered. His school coach even prevented athletes from joining. But Carter and his friends saw it as a chance to forge a “domestic version of the Peace Corps.”

As a teenager, Carter thought their summer would be filled with excitement. “If nothing else, we could go out every night, meet girls,” he reminisced, then quickly added with a mock seriousness, “No.”

They were trained by a Mexican foreman while working six days a week for minimum wage. Initially thrilling, it quickly turned grueling for the group. “After a few days, I thought this is insane,” he said. “By day three, we wanted to leave but it felt like an honor, so we stuck it out.” When the summer was over, most returned to San Diego, though a few attempted to extend their story in Fresno, referring to themselves as legends for enduring the labor.

When asked how significant the A-Team experience was for her husband, Carter’s wife, Janice, rolled her eyes playfully. “He talks about it almost every week; it’s like an infinite loop,” she said, and Randy beamed at her words.

Their high school crew found success as doctors, lawyers, and businesspeople but still gather to reminisce about their tough days at Blythe, which Carter describes as “the intersection of hell and earth.” As the discourse around immigrant labor heats up in American politics, their past experience offers crucial insights.

Carter admitted that before the A-Team experience, he thought crops were chosen without much understanding and that those Mexican farmworkers just “disappeared.” But after grappling with the reality of the job, he developed empathy for those who work tirelessly for their families. “We thought, ‘This was just six weeks for us; these people do this every day,'” he reflected. His early lessons shaped his progressive outlook, and trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border during Operation Intercept in 1969 only deepened his understanding of the situation.

In college, he supported the efforts of United Farm Workers, advocating against the use of a hoe that had been used by generations of laborers until a state bill finally banned it in 1975. Meanwhile, he was climbing the Hollywood ladder, working as a junior assistant for Francis Ford Coppola and eventually securing a role as first assistant director on “Seinfeld.” Still, his heart remained with the script of “Boy Wonders.”

Despite being intrigued by Henry Winkler’s production company and Rhino Records, no one believed in Carter’s straightforward premise. Ideas circulated about turning the narrative into something more sensational—like a student needing to hide from police after an accident—but it all felt like a far cry from what he envisioned.

Carter remarked, “Hollywood’s philosophy is to ‘write what you know,’ but that can feel like a curse when your story’s not understood!”

Today, he continues to share his journey, revealing, “As a committed progressive, I always thought I could create change…but the reality of fairness seems so far out of reach.” A recent incident, where federal immigration agents raided a car wash he frequents, reminded him that these issues remain unchanged. “Nothing changes, so you can reprint them,” he remarked.

On the topic of the recent push to replace immigrant farm workers with American citizens, he shook his head, reflecting on the impracticality: “You can grab someone from the audience, but does that actually work? Why not address fair working conditions instead?”

When considering a revival of the A-Team, he laughed at the thought, “That could work! I was part of it!” Imagining how things might differ today, he quipped, “If Taylor Swift endorses it, sure, people will come! But will they stick around?”

With a chuckle, he concluded, “The absurdity of the 1960s program hasn’t disappeared; we’re still grappling with these issues in 2025. Is it me, or is the world truly bonkers?”