Case Study: The Team of Experts

I love anything that features a team of experts. As soon as I'm seeing someone large and in charge in some kind of war-room with several dossiers spread out on a table, I'm hooked. If there's a lone-wolf who has a problem and needs to build a team specialists to solve his problem, I'm hooked. Why is this formula so successful? Where did it come from? Can anyone think of the FIRST team of experts movie/show? The earliest I can remember is The Dirty Dozen, but there may be a few others that I'm forgetting. Who invented the team of experts genre?

Some notable examples of the genre:
The A-Team, of course
Disney's Atlantis
The Dirty Dozen
Force Ten from Navarone
The Goonies
Mission: Impossible
Armageddon (An unpopular choice, but I stand my ground)
Munich
Ocean's Eleven

In other news, I was planning on kicking it for a little while and taking some time off before looking for a new job. I just discovered the the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is hiring an Internet Marketing Manager -- which makes me re-evaluate that plan, big time. I think we're also having a hurricane today, my house just blew away.