an NBC Sunday Night Movie. The show became an instant success both in britian where a massive 14.6 million households tunned in to watch, back home the show was as equaly as popular with a television audience 26.4%, placing it fourth in the top 10 rated shows, according to the Nielsen Ratings and raising the NBC Network out of its third place slump, becoming one of the stations biggest successes ever, winning the 1984 People's Choice Award (15th March 1984) for "Favourite New Show", "Favourite New Male Star" for Mr. T, and a nomination for "Favourite New Drama.
The A-Team 'A' meaning Alpha told the story of four Vietnam veterans, Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith played by George Peppard, Lieutenant Templeton "Faceman" Peck played by Dirk Benedict, Captain H.M "Howling Mad" Murdock played by Dwight Shultz and Sergeant Bosco "B.A." (Bad Attitude) Baracas played Mr. T. After acting upon orders from a Colonel Morrison the A-Team stole a hundred million yen from the Bank of Hanoi four days after the Vietnam war ended. Morrison, who took a round in one of the last shellings and with his headquarters burnt to the ground meant that no records of the mission found.
The team get court marshalled by the Army and sent to "Fort Bragg" a maximum security prison run by Colonel Lynch (William Lucking), but before the case goes to trial they escape over the wall 'to the Los Angeles underground' continuously persuade by Lynch, who now has a personal grudge against them 'they survive as soldiers of fortune'. There ill luck clients where usally only ever charge a nominal fee to cover expenses or in some cases their services would be free of charge.
Considered by many critics to be the most violent TV-show on the air with its trademark mass of gunfire, explosions and fights there where rarely any serious injuries. The show was intended to be a parody of the action/adventure genre at the start building upto the fifth season where plots developed into much more serious storylines. Its belived that the show was cancelled due to a lack of ratings and a unsupported rumor that sponsorship by GMC ceased due to the production studios deliberate attempts to disguise/remove the GMC badges. The show came to an end on the 8th March 1987 with the final episode "Without Reservations".
Twenty years on and The A-Team still remains as popular as it did in 1983, after years of speculation that The A-Team would hit the big screen, in late 2004 the rumours where officialy backed up with the anocment that Fox have been in negotiations with Stephen J. Cannell (A-Team Creater) and bought the rights for a feature lenght film that would go into post-production early 2006.
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