The A-Team

The A-Team was a 1980s television show about a group of fictional ex-US Army commandos on the run from the military. To support themselves, they operate as mercenaries who are hired almost invariably by the oppressed to battle their oppressors. The show has cult status among some viewers.

The A-Team was one of a wide variety of successful creations from prolific television producer Stephen J. Cannell. Cannell is known for having a particular skill at capitalizing on momentary cultural trends, such as the machine guns, cartoonish violence, and joyful militarism of this series, which are now recognizable as trademarks of popular entertainment in the mid-1980s. The A-Team became somewhat emblematic of this kind of "fit-for-TV warfare" due to its depiction of highly sophisticated combat scenes, with extremely lethal weapons, but wherin no person was ever killed or seriously injured.

The show began with this introduction:

"In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. They promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem. If no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... THE A-TEAM"

Cast

• Dirk Benedict as Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck
• George Peppard as Col. John Hannibal Smith The leader of the A-Team distinguished by his cigar smoking, and his catch-phrase "I love it when a plan comes together"
• Mr. T as Sgt. Bosco "Bad Attitude" Baracus aka B. A. Baracus
• Dwight Schultz as Capt. "Howling Mad" Murdock

Statistics

Seasons : 5

Episodes : 98

First Original Air Date : January 23, 1983

Final Original Air Date : March 8, 1987